Episode Seven: “Top Hat”
In its seventh episode, “The Penguin” (2024) shifts focus to Oz’s (Colin Farrell) bond with his mother, Francis Cobb (Deirdre O’Connell), a prominent relationship that hasn’t been given a lot of detail until now.
Viewers are treated with an extended flashback sequence showing Oz and Francis when they were much younger. The viewers are also introduced to Oz’s two brothers, Jack and Benny. By the end of the flashback, viewers know how and why Oz is the way he is.
In the present, Oz figures out that Sofia Gigante (Cristin Milioti) has kidnapped his mother. Before he can confront her face-to-face, he is ambushed and attacked by Salvatore Maroni (Clancy Brown) and his henchmen. Oz manages to break free of Salvatore and escapes.
Meanwhile, Sofia visits her niece Gia (Kenzie Grey) after discovering Gia may cooperate with the police concerning the death of the entire Falcone family. Sofia realizes the pain she has caused Gia and she has become what she hates the most: her father, the late Carmine Falcone.
The episode welcomes a new insight into Oz’s origin and includes several great moments of well-executed tension, particularly in the episode’s end where Oz’s Bliss production headquarters is destroyed.
The acting from all performers, no matter their big or small screen times, is still memorable. Viewers see Oz in a state of distress not knowing what to do. This is the first time his enemies have got something he’s cared the most for.
It is the first time since episode four (“Cent’Anni”) that viewers have seen Sofia in a state of distress as well. After realizing that she is essentially her father, she loathes herself for putting Gia in the same situation Carmine did to her years back.
Out of the big three main characters, Brown’s Salvatore is the one given the least amount of time to shine. However, he still is a great enough actor to make his presence known. He has a pretty good fight scene with Oz where he unleashes all of his hatred toward him for making his life miserable by murdering his wife and son.
By the end, Sofia wants to make Oz suffer just like he made her suffer. Instead of exchanging Francis for Oz’s Bliss supply, she sends him a special present that ultimately results in Oz getting captured by one of Sofia’s men.
Episode Eight: “A Great or Little Thing”
The finale of “The Penguin” is what most season endings strive for but most don’t accomplish. Oz is taken to Sofia where she is also holding Francis hostage. Sofia tortures Francis to make Oz confess, but he doesn’t utter a word about what he did.
Francis comes to her senses and reveals to Oz she always knew what he did to Jack and Benny. Francis also tells Oz she planned to let him get killed by a notable gangster, Rex Calabrese (Louis Cancelmi), whom Oz admired. However, he couldn’t go through with it.
Oz breaks free of his constraints, takes his mother and flees the scene. At the scene of Oz’s destroyed headquarters, Victor (Rhenzy Feliz) berates the other crime families for not engaging in war against Sofia and instead running away.
Sofia orders the existing crime families to hunt down and capture Oz as she prepares to leave Gotham City for good. Victor does manage to get the crime bosses’ deputies to be killed instead, and Oz is freed while Sofia is abducted.
In her final moment with Oz, she is sent back to Arkham Asylum — an even worse fate than being killed. She does receive a letter from a woman named Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz) and smiles while reading it. By the end of the season, Oz got what he always wanted: to be the most well-respected and feared crime boss in all of Gotham City.
In a penthouse, he dances with Eve Karlo (Carmen Ejogo) while she dresses in a similar dress Francis once wore when she and Oz were young. They slowly dance together while the camera zooms out from them to outside the penthouse where the Bat-signal is ignited in the far distance.
“The Penguin” proved to be stellar in its acting, writing and music. Where it excels the most is how it separated itself from being its own thing and didn’t include any footage or cameo appearances from Robert Pattinson’s Batman.
It provided a nice, original story with characters a lot of DC Comics fans have not seen fleshed out on the silver screen. It also further cemented Colin Farrell as being one of the best current actors to play a comic book character. If you have a subscription to Max, then do yourself a favor and watch this series.
Rating: 4/5
