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‘Boardwalk Empire’ ends season with shot of Riverhead

MACALL B POLAY/HBO COURTESY PHOTO | Actor Steve Buscemi was in Baiting Hollow this summer filming a scene for HBO's 'Boardwalk Empire.' So, too, was the hat and blue Rolls Royce in the background of this photo.

As the shocking season finale of HBO’s ‘Boardwalk Empire’ drew to a close Sunday night, the camera panned to a wide shot of what was supposed to be Prohibition-era Atlantic City.

But what viewers were really seeing was modern day Riverhead Town.

The episode, which featured a major plot twist sure to have water coolers buzzing Monday morning, had about a minute of its final sequence filmed at a Baiting Hollow farm off Sound Avenue

Steve Buscemi, who stars as Enoch “Nucky” Thompson; Anthony Laciura, better known as Nucky’s trusted butler, Eddie; Victor Verhaeghe, who plays Ward Boss Fleming; and Kevin O’Rourke, who plays Mayor Edward Bader all appear in the scene.

Minor Spoiler Alert: Don’t worry, we won’t unveil much.

The characters in the scene are discussing the future possibility of a paved highway leading to Atlantic City.

“To the future, gentleman,” Nucky says  just before the camera pans to show the vast open space of Baiting Hollow, ending “epi

ode 24 “To the Lost.”  The brief scene was filmed in one day this past summer.

The episode was directed by HBO veteran director Tim Van Patten and written by series creator Terence Winter.

During the one-day shoot, signs directing cast and crew members to the set could be seen posted at a farm on the south side of Sound Avenue just west of the beginning of Baiting Hollow hamlet. There, in the morning, vans and trucks were directed down a long dirt road to a location obstructed from view. A Riverhead Town police officer was stationed near the road’s entrance at the time.

Riverhead Town was reportedly paid $156 per hour for use of police personnel as security on the set and $10 per hour for use of a police vehicle, for a sum total of $2,823, according to the town’s agreement with Bootleg Productions.

“Boardwalk Empire,” nominated for 18 Emmy Awards including best drama series, is about government corruption at the beginning of Prohibition in Atlantic City in the 1920s.

If you missed it, don’t worry. It will replay on HBO Dec. 12 at 10 p.m., Dec. 13 at 11 p.m., Dec. 14 at 9 p.m. and Dec. 17 at 9:45 p.m. It will also replay at various times on HBO2.

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