The Pony (Boardwalk Empire)

In its original American broadcast, "The Pony" was seen by an estimated 2.09 million household viewers with a 0.7 in the 18-49 demographics. This means that 0.7 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode.^[2] This was a slight increase in viewership from the previous episode, which was watched by 1.97 million household viewers with a 0.7 in the 18-49 demographics.^[3]

"The Pony" received extremely positive reviews from critics. Matt Fowler of IGN gave the episode a "great" 8.2 out of 10 and wrote, "'The Pony,' named after both young Emily's present and Billie's middling career as an almost-star, got dragged down a bit by its Margaret/Owen scenes and Nucky's extremely stuffy dealings with James Cromwell's Andrew Mellon. Although, it does come as a bit of a relief to watch Cromwell give a fine and mannered performance after watching him play Dr. Nutcase the past few weeks over on American Horror Story. Those drawbacks aside, this episode helped launch Nucky forward into his inevitable, haunting 'I have everything, and yet nothing' loneliness."^[4]

Noel Murray of The A.V. Club gave the episode an "A–" grade and wrote, "'The Pony' is a step down from last week's excellent Boardwalk Empire episode — but just a small step. This is often the case with episodes where things happen — they can feel a little rushed and forced, as opposed to the episodes where the characters get to sit around and talk, just being good company. But then all that talk would be meaningless unless every now and then someone got exploded."^[5]

Alan Sepinwall of HitFix wrote, "Short of Martin Scorsese calling Winter up to say he'd like to pop over to do another episode, this is the Boardwalk Empire equivalent of breaking out the big guns, and the creative talent is appropriately applied to an episode all about men being surprised to realize the kind of great power they are contending with."^[6] Seth Colter Walls of Vulture gave the episode a perfect 5 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "That's all a wind-up for saying that, had you been on the fence about whether to continue on with Boardwalk Empire and its many, many (many) dangling narrative threads, I suspect this episode won your affections for at least the balance of this season. Payoff was everywhere: from the major characters who have seemed stranded so far this season, all the way down to minor, more recent guest stars."^[7]

Edward Davis of IndieWire wrote, "A bomb goes off in front of his eyes, the violent blast knocking him unconscious, obliterating the club and wiping his darling Billie Kent from existence."^[8] Chris O'Hara of TV Fanatic gave the episode a perfect 5 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "When it comes to influence on Boardwalk Empire, few characters command more than Nucky Thompson. On 'The Pony,' though, Nucky was made to feel like a donkey when he deceived his way into an audience with Andrew Mellon. Nucky does not buck easy, as we know, and he held his ground in the face of the pompous politician, striking an important deal."^[9]

Michael Noble of Den of Geek wrote, "The past few episodes have seen Boardwalk Empire firing on all cylinders, and this latest one, 'The Pony', was no exception. In fact, it achieved more than its immediate predecessors, finding room for all but one of the key characters (the still AWOL Chalky), and skilfully blending the private and the public, as well as reducing the gap between plot and character."^[10] Michelle Rafferty of Paste gave the episode a 9 out of 10 and wrote, "In contrast to last week's more measured 'Sunday Best,' last night marked one of those rare Boardwalk episodes that squeezed in nearly every character (sans Chalky, sigh) to deliver a number of game changers, one after the other. Payoff is happening, which is as satisfying as it is bittersweet because it means we're nearing the end of this excellent season."^[11]

• "The Pony" at HBO
• "The Pony" at IMDb