Marriage and Hunting

In October 2013, HBO confirmed that the ninth episode of the season would be titled "Marriage and Hunting", and that it would be written by David Matthews, Jennifer Ames, and Steve Turner, and directed by Ed Bianchi. This was Matthews' third writing credit, Ames' first writing credit, Turner's first writing credit, and Bianchi's fifth directing credit.[1]

In its original American broadcast, "Marriage and Hunting" was seen by an estimated 1.90 million household viewers with a 0.8 in the 18-49 demographics. This means that 0.8 percent of all households with televisions watched the episode.[2] This was a slight decrease in viewership from the previous episode, which was watched by 1.91 million household viewers with a 0.8 in the 18-49 demographics.[3]

"Marriage and Hunting" received extremely positive reviews from critics. Matt Fowler of IGN gave the episode a "great" 8.8 out of 10 and wrote, "Although 'Marriage and Hunting' acted as sort of a bridge episode with regards to Chalky and Dr. Narcisse's deadly feud, the connective tissue present here was great, and the demented duality of Van Alden was flat-out mesmerizing."[4]

Genevieve Valentine of The A.V. Club gave the episode an "A–" grade and wrote, "'Marriage and Hunting' operates in much the same way as an hour of television; this is an episode that doesn't quite explode, but we're close enough to season's end that there's a coil of energy through it that’s heating up."[5]

Alan Sepinwall of HitFix wrote, "It's a tough hour full of angry men doing self-destructive things, and you can understand why, by the end of it, Nucky might be so damn tired of it all that he just wants to run away and hang out with Sally in the wilds of Tampa."[6] Seth Colter Walls of Vulture gave the episode a 3 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "It's a B-story-packed episode of Boardwalk Empire, in which we connect with old friends like Nelson Van Alden, the Capones, and Gillian. But there's a thematic conceit that helps connect a lot of the subplot track-jumping. In a couple different time zones, characters seem tired of their secrets. And it's cool to see that some of these less regularly attended to narrative arcs are capable of proving resonant with respect to the show's deep history, especially compared with last week's long-telegraphed Chalky-Dunn finale."[7]

Rodrigo Perez of IndieWire wrote, "In the blink of an eye, fortunes change. One week you’re up, the next week you're down. It's strange to see a seemingly unassailable man like Arnold Rothstein down on his luck, but that's exactly where we find the Manhattan gangster in this episode. It's perhaps a shock just to hear through dialogue that Rothstein’s empire is crumbling, but the writing has been on the wall for a few months now, especially as revealed in 'All In,' the episode where the gambler lost his shirt in one of Nucky Thompson's Atlantic City clubs."[8] Chris O'Hara of TV Fanatic gave the episode a perfect 5 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "Even if Nucky takes a hiatus in Florida, Knox's ultimatum to Eli still remains. Though there is little he can do to protect himself from his brother's potential betrayal while it remains a secret to him, I hope for his sake he takes Richard with him to Florida to watch his back down there."[9]

Michael Noble of Den of Geek wrote, "It is taking these events and creating a powerful thematic argument. It is, if you'll forgive the dry theoretical language, a kind of 'gestalt narrative', in which the parts are unremarkable until they are viewed as part of the whole. This is not easy to pull off. Very few shows can do it, fewer still do it well but it’s for this reason, above all else that Boardwalk Empire deserves to be ranked in the uppermost tier of modern American television."[10] Paste gave the episode a 8.5 out of 10 rating and wrote, "'Marriage and Hunting' was a less focused episode than last week's, to its detriment, but the sprawl for once felt purposeful."[11]