Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) Chapter 10

Once teenage dreamers, the three leads of "Rich Man, Poor Man" are about as adult as possible when Chapter 10 starts.  Peter Strauss is running for public office, supported in words, but not spirit, by his wife Susan Blakely, who has just miscarried, and Nick Nolte wants to leave the merchant marines to start a yacht charter business on the French Riviera.  For once, it's Nick who seems the happiest of the lead characters, though that can always change quickly as the plot starts to come to its climax.

It's 1962, Marseilles.  Nick and his buddy Herbert Jefferson are still technically tied to the merchant marines and thus the merciless and very childish hazing of muscular moron William Smith.  After enjoying two days away, they come back to two day's worth of dirty dishes, cleaned up just in time for William Smith to dirty the whole kitchen again.  He's s different kind of villain than any other in the movie.  The first was Ed Asner, an immigrant with crushed dreams that proved too heavy to bear, but not a bad man at heart.  Then there was Robert Reed, who deflowered the leading lady and has been playing puppeteer with the lives of the leads for decades, though not without their knowledge of agreement, a manipulative man who likes to enjoy power, but also does good with it.  William Smith is just a cartoon bully.  He looks like a cartoon villain and is written like one, so ridiculously evil that he's not even worth enjoying as a character because you know he'll get his miniseries comeuppance in a big way (though, not to ruin anything, it only partially happens here--we have to wait for "Rich Man, Poor Man Book II" to get the true end of his inane plotting).  He's the prototype for a lot of miniseries villains to come, the main one being Adolph Hitler.  Even in the miniseries that are told from Hitler's point of view, or try to imbibe the story with some semblance of German sympathy, Hitler is always the raving lunatic who will meet the bad end, so let him overact the hell out of his scenes because our leads will always end up just fine (well, except in "The Bunker," where he is the lead).

In a truly grotesque piece of business that is handled with "Rich Man, Poor Man's" usual flair for knowing exactly what to show and what not to show, William Smith follows his favorite target, Herbert Jefferson, into his cabin where he more than suggests they are going to have sex.  Herbert Jefferson tries to fight him off, but William Smith puts him in a choke hold and the camera pans down to his foot closing the door.  William Smith emerges smiling and sated when Nick Nolte sees him.  Nick goes to his friend, but we only HEAR him say, "it's alright, I'm okay" and then Nick is in the dining room where we know he's going to exact some sort of revenge.

He throws his drink in William Smith's face and they agree to a rumble.  Nick was warned not to fight, lest someone recognize him from his past life as a boxer and remember the crime from which he's running.  The two tussle with the rest of the crew watching and Nick actually knocks him out.  "I've seen that guy fight as Sunnyside Gardens," one of the crew members says, right before William pulls a knife and jams it into Nick's leg in a surprise attack.  Nick beats him to a bloody pulp.  No use being upset as they take William Smith off in a stretcher, looking like he's lost an eye.  The character deserved it he was merely a plot device to bring Nick back to reality.  The captain doesn't turn him into the French authorities, but he does tell him to leave ship in NYC, where the man who recognized him knows he can cash in on what he knows.

Back in New York, Peter has become a popular politician fighting against the corruption of the old guard, running for a state senate seat, but losing steam.  Wife Susan Blakely is a shellacked politician's wife with a hairdo and wardrobe that bore even her.  His campaign manager, Van Johnson, has brought his wife along, played by the 1950s most questionable Oscar winner, Dorothy Malone.  She's an old hand at surviving politics.  She has a dose of realism and a big drink for Susan (which has already started to become a problem for the latter).  Dorothy and Susan watch as Peter, Van and the others start to play politics every bit as hard as what he's supposedly fighting.

While Dorothy and Susan are enjoying their drinks, a call comes in that Peter's mother, Dorothy McGuire, is very ill.  "Damn it," he curses, having to leave politics for his mother, who used to be the darling of his life but has turned into a petty annoyance (in truth, the character has been turned from a wonderfully-developed and understanding woman into a rather idiotic shrew, so it's hard to work up a whole lot of sympathy).

As Nick's boat steams into the New York harbor, one cannot help but notice a IMMENSE error.  The camera pans around the buildings and comes to rest on the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center.  Watching such a noticeable camera move is obviously a shock to anyone watching "Rich Man, Poor Man" after 2001 will obviously be startled by the gleaming towers, but that's not the problem.  The problem is that it's 1962, more than a decade before they were completed and years before they were even started!  That's simply bad editing.  No one noticed that?

William Jefferson and Nick Nolte have to part, at least for now, their dreams of chartering yachts in France put on hold.  Nick returns to the fleabag where he had hidden out before shipping off to find out that Peter had stopped by looking for him.  "Want me to get him?" his friend asks.  "What I want, in this order, is a bottle, a blonde, something to eat and a newspaper," Nick decides.  Nick realizes he's been recognized on the boat and he's told the mob guys are still after him, so Nick needs a gun.

Just as Nick is given the gun, Peter comes into the room, starting at the barrel of it.  It's a hokey go-to-commercial moment that we will see over and over again in the ensuing years, and one that even daytime soap operas had down pat by 1976.  It would take nighttime soap operas to make a moment like that carry interest for an entire summer, rather than through a few minutes of advertising for cat chow and bleach alternatives.

The brothers have not seen each other in many years, and it may seem strange that a VIP like Peter Strauss, risking being caught in a seedy motel with his on-the-lam brother, a gun and a hooker (the blonde is still there), has to deliver the news about their mother in person, but that's drama for you.  Peter simply drops the news about their mother's condition amid all the squalor and the two drive upstate.  Nick is the chattier one, seemingly proud of his brother.  Peter is most happy to announce he's "finally" married Susan.  They seem as different as, well, a rich man and a poor man, but even Peter takes a swig out of the bottle as they dash to face mom in the hospital.

Dorothy McGuire has made it through all of "Rich Man, Poor Man," including the weird character transformation, and she certainly deserves the hospital deathbed scene you knew was coming the moment we heard she was sick.  It even starts with a priest, a monsignor, no less, having just administered last rights.  "She's been holding on until you could get here," he tells Peter.  The doctor isn't even sure she can hear, but no actress is going to give up this chance!  She seems catatonic, clutching rosary beads, but then her hand twitches.  She speaks, incomprehensibly, asking for Peter, not realizing it's her other son there with her.  "Is that you?" she asks him, slowly.  He pulls out a present he long ago promised her, a scarf with a Mediterranean map, lying a little and saying he already has his operation going and his son back with him.  She has a slow apology for short-changing him.  "I gave so much to [Peter], there wasn't enough left over for you," she says, no doubt sparking water works in millions of viewers.  "Try not to hate me," she asks and then asks Nick to hold her as she finally dies.  It's interesting to note that Peter has not been in the room the whole time.  It's her wayward son, the one she discarded, who is with her as she breathes her last.  Nick acts the moment beautifully, quietly realizing the impact of the moment.

Susan is out in the hallway, not having seen Susan since her night with Robert Reed, but he can only handle so much emotion.  "Am I the only one who needs a drink around here?" he asks.  Robert Reed, sporting gray hair and a weird accent, weirder than before, is at the funeral.  He also hasn't seen Susan or Nick since the night as his house.  "I hope we can get together, discuss old times," he says like the cunning fox he is, but Susan is mature now.  "I'm really not one for discussing old times," she retorts, pulling her hand away from his.  Peter is the only person there who doesn't know the secrets that could still split them all.

However, Susan, in yet another turban, can't help but remember the past and as Nick drinks heavily, he's a little fuzzy on things.  Peter brings up the fact that Nick set the fire that fateful night at Robert's place, asking him why he set the fire.  Luckily, the conversation steers clear of the exchanged glance Nick and Susan shared that night, but when a guest calls Peter away, Susan plays martyr and snaps at Nick, "now would be as good a time as any to tell him."  "There's nothing to tell.  Really.  Truth is, my eyes were so burned from that fire, everything is a blur," he gallantly replies.  Susan has a panic attack and Nick comforts her, but one of Peter's political cronies storms in with good news, though Peter seems oblivious to the fact that it's a bad time; Nick and Susan clearly see the absurdity.

It's a moment like the above that begs the question, once again, of just who is the rich man and who is the poor man?  On the surface, life has sucked for Nick, yet he's always content, always able to deal with what life throws him, while Peter has boxed himself into a shrink-wrapped life that is rather unpleasant and entirely too clinical.  Unfortunately, the acting isn't always consistent enough to completely power this question, but at least the writing realizes it.  A lot of bigger and grander miniseries will be coming that ask bigger and grander questions in far more stilted or laughable ways.  "Rich Man, Poor Man" yet again glosses over the truth with a light touch, just enough to make one aware that it has not spiraled into epic boredom, grasping to get to the end because it has to (take that "Scarlett").

The brothers meet in the kitchen in the middle of the night and it's the first time they use the title words to describe each other.  It turns out Nick is richer by almost $50K, a complete surprise to him.  You see, the last time they met, when Nick gave Peter the $3K he felt he owed Peter for Ed bailing him out of jail, Peter took the money and invested it.  It's grown into piles of money, money Nick can use to finance the dream he had with Herbert Jefferson in France.

As Nick and Herbert depart, and after Nick says "I'm running out of people to hate," finally aware that his brother has never been his enemy," Peter promises to find Nick's son for him.

On election night, the race is close, but it seems Peter is winning when of course more drama gets in the way.  Susan is at home, drunk as hell smashing her beloved photographic history with a hammer.  "I want to take you to bed," Peter says, meaning put her to bed, but Susan has a different take on it.  "You won't be the first, and if I play my cards right, you won't be the last either!" she spits.  Miniseries mantra: when things seem good, they are about to go downhill quickly.  Susan is a crying mess when the press arrives at Peter's house to announce he's won the election.  It's his most exalted moment and her biggest nightmare.  There is no happiness for someone without unhappiness for someone else.

If Chapter 10 taught any lesson, it's that those who seem to be at the bottom have nothing to lose and all to gain.  Nick is a man running for his life who walks into a huge amount of money and can finally set his life on course.  Meanwhile, Peter is a man at the top, which is a tough place to be because one cannot go any higher, one can only fall, and with the mess Susan has turned into, she's threatening to drag him down with her.

Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) Chapter 6

The brothers stepped into manhood in Part 5 of "Rich Man, Poor Man."  Nick Nolte, now a boxer, has become a father and Peter Strauss, caring for his invalid mother, is rising up the ranks at a department store, having graduated college at last.  Not doing quite as well is Susan Blakely, married to drunken Bill Bixby, with a child, though even her future had a hint of brightness peeking through.

Time is moving fast, as Part 6 finds us in 1954.  It's no wonder Peter Strauss is doing so well at the small-town department store.  When a shipment of "French scarves" does not arrive on time, he tells a panicked saleswoman, "I'll tell you what you do, tell them we're sold out and we're already re-ordering."  Wise, so wise.  Waiting for Peter in the TV section watching the news (voiced by George Gaynes, if anyone wants to know, though it's uncredited) about the Rosenberg electrocution is his former economics professor and friend Lawrence Pressman.  Peter blows off his invitation to picket Sing Sing because of a proposal he's turned into boss Ray Milland that he's anxious to hear about.  One might wonder if this is the moment where Peter's character finally tarnishes a bit, but let's be fair, he's never taken a stance on anything before because he's never had to.  He let others make most of his decisions (even the ones he thought were his), so to castigate him suddenly as an arch-capitalist does him an injustice.  It's simply the first time he's made a decision and it just so happens that he picked his own fortune over his friend's cause.

The proposal being discussed is for Ray Milland to build another store further in the suburbs, because Peter has amassed "demographic information" that says people will be moving out there.  Ray doesn't want to lay out the capital, even though Peter reminds him of the 25 times he's been right with an idea Ray didn't like.  And what if Ray says no?  Peter threatens to take the idea to someone else.  That's some of his father's spine, I think!

Things are not going so well for Nick Nolte, unhappily married to Talia Shire.  He complains she's "getting a big can...and I gotta look at it!"  Talia is particularly pissed when Nick gives their baby a snake for a present.

Doing very well is Susan Blakely, now a successful journalist.  Arriving home from Asia, she passes when her boss Craig Stevens asks her to cover the big new department store going up in her former hometown.  She wants something, "closer to home.  I've got to get reacquainted with my son, not to mention my husband."  Susan's welcome home present from hubby Bill Bixby is finding him with another woman (if not a young and uncredited Mary Crosby, then a lookalike).

So, Susan takes the job upstate to see Peter, who is being huffed at big time by Ray because of delays and zoning and whatnot, calling the whole thing "a $3 million mistake in judgment."  He surprises her by showing her that the complex has a gigantic theater he's obviously built with her old treading-the-board days, even if he doesn't realize it.  After snapping his photo, she begs him for help.  With what?  Wait and see.

Peter decides to solve his political zoning problems through good old Robert Reed, wearing an outfit that even Alice wouldn't bother to clean and iron: short-sleeve button-down shirt, shorts with a belt somewhere near his neck and high socks so large they have to be folder over to stay under his knees.  Fairy Godmother Robert agrees to help, informing Peter it will take $10K to bribe a state senator into approving the zoning.

Susan throws a very swanky party with all sorts of cliche New York types (not to mention her vamp friend from the previous episode) and Peter is invited because he happens to be in the city.  They pay a visit to her son's room and then to her studio (this has to be the world's largest small apartment, even though it's in her bedroom) to show him the proofs from the photo shoot she did with him.  Peter is worried about Susan, and I think it's because she uses way too many multi-syllabic words.  However, Susan says it's her marriage to Bill Bixby that isn't working.  "Are you talking about a divorce?" incredibly naive Peter asks her, as if he's encountering a foreign concept.  Both Susan and Bill want the divorce, but both also want custody of their son.  Peter agrees to hire detectives to track Bill and make a suitable case against him...before taking her in his arms and kissing her with the intention to do just what Bill is doing to some other woman.  "Wait," she says.  "Oh God, I've waited," he replies and they go back to it until hearing that Nick will be in town for a fight!

When Susan and Peter arrive at the fight, Nick seems to be very much on the losing end, but he eventually prevails.  "You going backstage?" Susan asks, using an odd word that makes it sound like they are going to see the Lunts or something.  He's going, she declines (remember, she has not seen him since the brief look they exchanged when he found her at Robert Reed's house a loooooong time ago).  The brothers are reunited for the first time since Nick was chased out of town.



"Long time, no see," Nick says boisterously when he sees Susan, which only they understand.  Later that evening, Susan tells Peter she will be at his hotel room the next afternoon, not bothering to check in at the desk!  Peter gives her the there's-no-other-girl-for-me speech and they kiss.

Susan comes home to find her son being taken on a stretcher to the hospital.  That's a miniseries special, heaven followed by hell, not that the miniseries invented soap opera twists, but they did take them to new heights.

Talia is FURIOUS that Nick plans to give Peter the $3K that was intended for his schooling back when Ed had to use it to bail him out of jail.  He had tried to return it in the last episode, but the family had moved and he didn't try to track them.  Once again, Talia gives a performance so annoying you can't wait for the moment Nick is somehow free of her.

Bill and Susan keep an all-night vigil at the hospital, waiting for news of their child.  When allowed into his room, it's Bill he wants, not even noticing Susan.  Bill and Susan have plenty of time to be honest with each other, and it's not discussion full of recrimination, interrupted only by the doctor telling them there's "no change" (as Susan puffs on a cigarette in the waiting room).

Nervous Nick shows up at Peter's hotel room to give him the money.  Peter had not actually heard the story of the $3K, so Nick fills him in (and any viewers late to the miniseries).  "I've had that thing on my back for six years and now I'm rid of it and rid of all you with it," he says gleefully.  That has to sting!  "You know what I think?  It's a stupid gesture," Peter informs him, trying to play peacemaker, offering Nick a partnership in...well...he doesn't quite say, but whatever comes their way.  "If you come in with me...there is nothing that can stop us," Peter offers, but Nick is furious and the discussion ends in an argument fueled by pride.  "Say hello to the old lady for me, will ya?" Nick says as he bounces out of Peter's life again.

When Nick returns home, with flowers no less, he finds Talia and the baby gone.  A note echoes what she said the night before, that "I cannot go on living with a crazy man who gives money to millionaires."  He borrows $500 from Normal Fell to chase his son to Chicago.

Because their son has made it through the worst, Bill has asked Susan for another try at their marriage, disappointing to Peter, who will have to continue pining for Susan.  "You are asking me to roll over and play dead," angry Peter says, trying to get her to see it his way.  As usual, the universe exists only in his worldview, which goes no further than two feet from his mind.

We're just about halfway there now and still the miniseries is gripping.  Yes, it plays as corny after nearly 40 years, but only because it was so endlessly imitated and because Shaw's plot twists are overly obvious.  But that's only a problem when the writing sags, which it rarely does.  Now that the three main characters are adults, it's engaging to see them with entire new sets of problems and choices.

Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) Chapter 3

At the end of Chapter 2, Peter Strauss was joyous as the news that his hard-bitten father was giving him money for college as his wastrel brother Nick Nolte was shipped off to family in California to avoid the rap for a fire he started after seeing his brother's girlfriend, Susan Blakely, in town robber baron Robert Reed's bed.

The story skips to California, 1947.  Nick is living with his father's brother, sister-in-law and children, all of them thoroughly bland and ridiculously bourgeois, which means they have a maid they don't need, quiet Irish lass Fionnula Flanagan.  Luckily for Nick, the family is going on vacation, leaving him in charge of the house and the gas station they run.  It's during down time at the station that Nick learns to box.

A bunch of rich teenagers come to get gas one day and Nick meets flirty Talia Shire.  The rest of the kids are obnoxious, so Nick lets the air out of a tire just to spite them.  Not only has he made a date with Talia, but Fionnula is hot after him, showing it first by making him a world-class meal, then showing up naked to share a bath with him.  One hell of a leap, no?  When the appointed hour to meet Talia arrives, Nick is hooked in Fionnula's arms, she being the one who talks about St. Sebastian, sending Nick to the encyclopedia to figure out that reference.

The ever-egalitarian Nick doesn't understand why Fionnula would want to be a maid, and "wait on my fat uncle," but she likes her life.  Things get more than a bit gooey with these two, who go riding on horseback to shoot bunnies and pick flowers, not to mention rehash the stories of their lives (well, mostly his).  She stops him from the former, saying, "you're bigger than he is and he can't fight back."  Another miniseries rule can be seen a mile away: when things are too good to be true, watch out!

Back in upstate New York, things are pretty much the same.  Peter is still playing delivery boy for his father while being worshipped by his mother.  Dorothy is full of complaints about her life and Ed growls with the same arguments.

Peter goes fishing on Robert Reed's land and is invited to lunch.  As always, Robert likes playing savior, getting Peter a job to help pay for college, and mentioning his new boss has some "nubile young daughters."  That brings the conversation around to Susan, though Robert doesn't reveal too much

Speaking of Susan, she's moved to New York City to become an actress.  Waiting in agent Steve Allen's office, she is introduced to colossal blowhard Bill Bixby.  But, before she can get to know him, she's called into Steve's office to read for a one-line part.  She is told to return later "with a bathing suit."  Bill is waiting to take her out to lunch, where he delights her with pompous stories.  A day of binge drinking by both is interrupted by Susan's line reading in the suit, which apparently gets her the part.  Champagne loosens her lips about her past, and Bill, claiming to be falling in love with her but acting as gay as all get out, delights in the details.  "I think I'm falling in love with you," he keeps saying.

Nick and Fionnula have continued their affair even with the return of Nick's family, though they are very quiet and careful about it.  However, his uncle is suspicious, grilling Nick with the threatening calm of an SS Agent, finally revealing that he heard the sounds coming from Fionnula's room.  "I want you to say you are sorry for the filthy thing that has taken place under my roof," his uncle rages.  The uncle threatens to have her deported, so "she will promise me anything I want," he says triumphantly.  The next morning, not only does Fionnula tell Nick "we are over," but also that she's going to finally give in and let her boss have his way with her.  Nick runs from the house in horror.

Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) Chapter 2

When we last left "Rich Man, Poor Man," Susan Blakely was getting on a bus for a ride that could ruin her relationship with Peter Strauss, such a good boy that he can't even fathom having sex with her.  His brother Nick Nolte easily could, and watching all of them is town buzzard Robert Reed, whose motives have yet to become apparent.  

Mama Dorothy McGuire has told Peter that he can have a suit for his birthday, but didn't run it by her husband, Ed Asner.  "People are very generous with my money," he scowls and hurls a book at her (it's only a paperback, but still!).  Dorothy chides him that she works just as hard as he does, behind the counter of their bakery, "eight hours a day, six days a week, 52 weeks a year."  But, her complaints are stopped dead in their tracks by his oafish brutality, which alternates between pure anger and nasty sarcasm.  By the end of an exceedingly well-acted scene, we find out at least one reason for Ed's ire.  Not that he admits it, but he's scared of what will happen when the plans for a large town supermarket come to fruition and puts all of the locals out of business.  

Susan has taken the bus to meet a man from the hospital, but he's not there when she arrives on the bus.  She's unsure of what to do, so when unctuous Robert Reed, the town big shot, drives up an offers to take her to a place where "they serve daiquiris," she accepts.  Cue the alcoholism?  This is the second time we've seen her loving the sauce, but no, not yet.  She gets hammered on them as Robert, decimating his Mike Brady image, asks her age.  She's eighteen and he feigns disappointment, saying, "I had always hoped to contribute to the delinquency of a minor before I go."  He may not know it, but Robert Reed is setting miniseries villains on their path.  Cut out the slave overseers and Hitler, I mean the smooth guys who charm everyone and then reveal themselves to be rats.  They will become far more over-the-top and obvious, but remember, "Rich Man, Poor Man" is only the beginning.  Think of Philip Casnoff in "North and South."  He is handsome, rich, endearing...at least on the surface and then turns into one hell of a reprobate.  

Since Susan is completely wasted, Robert takes her to his palatial home.  He may seem gayer than Liberace in a store full of sequins, but he's plays all man when he slips off a robe and gets into bed with Susan.  This is only 1976, so that's all we see, but I don't believe that to be entirely the fault of censors, because it leaves open the question of whether or not she wanted it too.  The cad then deposits cash in her purse while she slumbers.  That's a villainous trick if ever there was one.  Only after she gets home and basks in the glow of sex that she sees the cash, but doesn't object.  

When Nick leaves the bakery with a dirty cup, morose Dorothy tells Peter, "I don't know how two boys can be so different...when I found out I was pregnant with [Nick] I cried.  I just sat down and cried."  In her own way, she's as responsible for his inability to lead a good life as his oafish father.  

A friend of Nick's spots Susan getting in Robert's car, and he can't wait to tell Nick the news.  They hop the fence at the manse and sneak through the greenhouse to get to the main building, where they eventually see Robert naked making drinks.  "I wish that stupid brother of mine could..." Nick says, stopping that cruel sentence when an even uglier notion comes to mind.  He lights fires in the greenhouse because Peter is on "civil defense" that night and would have to respond to a fire alert.  The fire blazes out of control very quickly, interrupting an inane conversation between Robert and Susan.  Nick's friend catches fire and is badly burned.  Because Nick helps him, he's around long enough for Susan to see him from the window.  Robert wants to get Susan out quickly, via the back road.  "If you're worried about my reputation, it's already shot."  "Mine isn't," he retorts.  Yes, what will the boys at the bar think of him seducing a teenage female?  Nick drops his friend off callously, with big threats not to tell anyone they were there.  

As for Susan, she decides to brush off Robert, freaked by knowing Nick has seen her.  At home, Gloria has found her stash of cash and the note that went with it.  She knows Susan has to leave their small town.  

We know the miniseries maxim on bad luck: when things are at their worst, put on a smile, because they are about to get worse.  Peter is rejected by the local college (where Robert has a lot of pull, FYI).  Peter finally tracks down Susan, whom he hasn't seen since the night they didn't have sex for the first time, but she's emotionless because her mind is already in NYC.  She's put their shared dreams aside since taking up with a rich man for money.  "Maybe I just grew up," she says, though Peter only confesses his eternal love.  

Peter gets a teeny birthday party from his immediate family, though Ed is already drunk.  There wasn't enough money for the suit Dorothy wanted to buy him, so they settled for a shirt.  This too starts an argument, with Ed berating her for wishing they had more money.  "Can't we even pretend for one day that we're a family?  Why do we have to keep tearing at each other?" she asks through tears.  "Just one big happy family," Nick quips as Peter comforts his mother.  

Peter makes the arrangements for Nick to leave town and when he tells Ed, his father says something curious about his wife.  "Promise me you'll always take care of her, no matter what happens to me."  Peter is confused, so drunken Ed tells him the story of how he came to America: he killed an Englishman for his money.  Undaunted, Peter actually feels sorry for Ed and volunteers to take over bakery duty for him, but Ed calls it his "penance" for the two men he's killed, for dashing the hopes of his wife, all of Nicks problems and everything else, "the sins of the father" as he calls them.  "I'm sorry, I tried to do my best," he tells Peter to end the conversation.  

Remember, innocent Peter knows nothing of the true circumstances swirling around Nick's hasty escape from town.  Nick doesn't reveal anything either, muttering that he hit his father for all the time he got hit, non-specific and not believable either.  "Is it because of me?  The fight?  Is that why you're leaving?" he asks.  Now here comes one of those great moments of truth where a character has the power of the future in his hands, to make it or kill it.  Nick admits to setting the fire, but when Peter asks him why, he pauses.  Should he tell him about Susan?  He pauses, the tarnished side of him wanting to tell the truth, but the true good side of him saying merely, "beats me."  He's preserved Peter's future with that one little lie.  "Happy birthday, buddy boy," he chirps as his bus pulls away.  Dorothy shows up a moment too late to bid her son goodbye, but she's not really there for him.  She's there to tell Peter that Ed has decided to give him all of his savings for college.  

On the bus, tears fill Nick's eyes.