After the last episode saw Sofia Falcone girlboss her way to the top of the food chain after annihilating the remnants of her family with a well placed gas attack, it seems that the battle to rule Gotham is all but over before it even began. However, with a supremely pissed Maroni family still waiting in the wings and crime boss wannabe, Oswald Cobb, doing everything he can to try and cling onto power, the race to rule isn’t quite over yet.
With a flashback episode that ended with a plot twist that gave the show a shot of adrenaline at exactly the right moment, The Penguin seems to be cooking right now and the brutal accention of Sofia is exactly the sort of gargantuan road block our “hero” needs – but can this show that’s expanding the Batman universe exponentially every week manage to keep up the momentum and deliver Sopranos style thrills in the world of DC? You bet your ass it can.
In the wake of the extinction of the Falcone family at the hands of a vengful Sofia, the new head of organised crime in Gotham City uses the only survivor of the gas attack, Viti, to unite the remaining troops under her command and her mother’s maiden name – Gigante. However, not to be outdone, Oz decides to settle his score with the Maroni family and get his shipment of mushroom based drug, Bliss, back by kidnapping, Taj, the son of the mob boss and holding him to ransom while simultaneously marshaling his remaining forces together to form a gang. At the same time, he has a guard bribed to have Maroni stabbed in prison, hoping to take our the family in a two pronged attack; however, while Oz manages to take out Taj and his mother, Nadia, with a creative use of gasoline, the Bliss shipment is ruined and Maroni survives his attack and promptly escapes prison.
This, understandably, puts Oz in a bit of a panic and he orders Vic to take his dementia ravaged mother somewhere safe, but while she resents being taken to a condemned apartment located in the most flood damaged part of the city, Cobb loses the support of his lover, Eve, who argues that Oz’s recent plans have put her and her fellow whores at risk.
Meanwhile, as Oz’s plans slowly come apart, Sofia’s seems to be growing stronger with every new moment. But while rebranding her family the Gigantes under the promise that those under her care will never be abused and taken advantage of like they were during her father’s time, it takes the assassination of a reluctant Viti to finally seal the deal and from there she manages to track down a hiding and wounded Maroni in order to make him an offer they can’t refuse – merge the their two families and hunt and kill the man who have both done them so wrong: Oswald Cobb.
However, never one to rest on his laurels, Oz manages to find a new foothold when he discovers the perfect place to regrow Bliss.
To say that episode 4 lit a fire under The Penguin’s ass might be construed as being a little bit insensitive considering what happens to Nadia and Taj Maroni during this take no prisoners installment of DCs ever more kick-ass crime epic, but it still doesn’t make it any less true. With Oz’s plans all primed and ready to go and Sofia’s truly harrowing backstory fully fleshed out, it’s time for the chess games to really begin in earnest and while Cobb has his attention turned fully on the Maronis and his shipment of mushrooms that forms the backbone of his next supply of Bliss, his chief opponent has finally made her opening moves.
And what a fucking move it was – wiping out virtually the entire Falcone family in one swift move leaving only Viti alive to vouch for her after a spot of good natured torture. I know this is going to make me look a bit like an idiot, but if you told me that that the woman who was the mother in How I Met Your Mother was in with a chance to score villain of the year, I would have been respectfully unconvinced, but watching her flourish into a blazing eyed crime boss with her impressive new wardrobe showing off her old scars proudly has been one of the most rewarding experiences on television in 2024. In fact, she’s so good, it’s actively making me genuinely uncertain who I should be rooting for.
You see, we’ve all assumed that because this is a story about how Oz Cobb takes power for himself in the wake of The Batman, we should naturally be siding with him despite (or because) of his cold blooded nature. It seemed natural after all because he was the underdog, he’s a bold reimagining of a classic DC villain and the show is named… well… The Penguin – but while we’re poised to admire his scrappy, vicious climb to the top of Gotham, the horrifically elegant rise of Sofia now makes him look like the petty thug he possibly always was. Sure, the gassing of the Falcone’s was vicious – as is the later execution of Viti during a meeting to make a point – but when you figure the sheer amount of what was taken from her by literally everybody she was supposed to trust, she’s practically the good guy.
Or, at least that’s how it plays compares to the underhanded, backstabbing shit that Oz pulls off during this episode. Kidnapping the son of the Maroni family in order to get his drugs back is one thing, but delivering him to his mother soaked in gasoline in order to take them both out easily if things go sour is a whole other matter entirely. Add to this the orchestrating of the attack on Maroni himself in prison and Oz’s dirty fighting is making him seem ever more desperate and less sympathetic by the minute despite the fact that between them, Oz and Sofia has practically wiped out two whole crime families overnight. Not only is this a cool way to muddy the waters in order to make the ending less like a forgone conclusions, but it’s pretty damn riveting to boot.
However, before I make this episode sound like nothing more than a procession of callous mob executions, there’s still enough character stuff to keep things balanced. There’s more moments with Oz’s ailing mother as Victor smuggles her to a safe location, more moments where a still practically invisible Colin Farrell gets to slow things down when reminiscing about his dead brothers and there’s even a cameo from The Batman in the shape of Con O’Neill’s Chief Mackenzie Bock whose appearance adds further credence to Matt Reeves’ Gotham universe becoming something of an admired crime epic in its own right despite its comic roots.
But wait. Even those comic roots are given a nod when the end of the episode sees Oz finally find a place that can be used to grow Bliss, shelter his operations and be a base to strike out from in the shape of an old, disused, underground railway that gives this new take on a Batman foe a classic, old school lair right out of an Adam West episode.
I genuinely thought that The Penguin would be hard pressed to top last week’s episode, but with a relentless pace and huge plot twists, the race for Gotham truly starts here as the stakes are higher, the lines are drawn and the final prize is Gotham herself.
Whoever ultimately makes it to The Batman II is anyone’s guess, but what I do know is that the Dark Knight will have his hands full with either one of the vicious bastards…
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