However, while discussing it over dinner before the show, I came up with an alternate ending that would have been much more satisfying.
Nucky lives, but continues to be hounded by the IRS. Eventually they throw him in jail. He gets out in '45 and goes to live with Eli.
We jump forward a couple of years to a well appointed living room where a middle aged Bugsy Siegel sits on a couch, regaling Allen Smiley with the story of his kidnapping. His narrative continues as the scene changes to Eli, smoking a cigarette behind the wheel of a running car in front of a Beverly Hills mansion. The camera zooms past the car to a shadowy figure in the garden and we realize it is an aging Nucky. Bugsy starts singing "My girl's pussy" and we see Nucky raise an M1 carbine to his shoulder.
Fade to credits with Bugsy's song in the background.
