Summary
The Penguin reminds us in Episode 5 that this is truly a show about villains, however charismatic they might be.
If you’d forgotten that The Penguin was a show about villains, Episode 5, “Homecoming”, will dispel any illusions. And I’ll grant you that it’s an easy mistake to make. Oz is very charming when he wants to be. Sofia was clearly wronged by her family, as we found out in her standout episode. But the fact their victims aren’t entirely sympathetic doesn’t make Oz and Sofia heroes. “Homecoming” sets fire to that idea – and a couple of people for good measure.
And this makes me think. Colin Farrell has said multiple times that anybody who likes Oz now probably won’t by the end of the season. We see a real glimmer of his underlying psychopathy here; not just how far he’s willing to go, but how much pleasure he gets from the extremes. It makes me worry about everyone else around, including Eve, and obviously Victor.
A Burning Chariot
“Homecoming” picks up where “Cent’Anni” left off, with the entire Falcone family dead except for Johnny Viti, and Oz at the top of Sofia’s hit list after abandoning her to deal with the Maronis. He and Vic burn his plum Maserati, and Oz tells Vic that his loyalty, the fact he came back for him, means more than a hundred of the cars ever could.
But does he mean that? I’m not so sure. Vic is a means to an end for Oz, just like his remaining loyal men are. He manipulates them by playing on the fact they were never “made” by the Falcones. He manipulates Vic by exploiting his anger with Gotham, the loss of his family, and his lack of other opportunities. He buys his loyalty with understanding.
The Prodigal Son
Michael Kelly as Johnny Viti in The Penguin | Image via HBO
The next step in Oz’s takeover scheme is to kidnap Taj Maroni, Salvatore and Nadia’s son. He and his goons, including Vic, pluck him from a tattoo parlor which he stupidly broadcast the location of on TikTok, and Oz guarantees his safe return if the Maronis hand over the shipment of Bliss that they stole.
The fact that Oz insists on Nadia only bringing one bodyguard, and bribes one of Blackgate’s officers as he’s leaving, makes it pretty clear he has no intention of upholding this deal. They even keep Taj at Eve’s apartment, dragging her into the matter despite her concerns. Oz is all reassurances and false promises, to her, to his men, and to Vic, whom he sends to look after his mother, Francis, in case any reprisals imperil her.
And there will be reprisals since Oz can’t help himself. The hit he planned on Sal goes wrong. When he hands Taj back to Nadia, he’s soaked in gasoline, and at the first sign of trouble, Oz tosses a lighter at them and barbecues them both alive. One gets the sense he would have done so anyway, despite the Maroni ambush, and you can see the obvious pleasure Oz takes in their painful, screaming deaths.
This is the first time we’ve seen Oz’s crazier side get in the way of his more cunning nature. The blaze sets off the fire alarms, which douse the Bliss shipment in chemicals. By the time Oz gets away, there are only two salvageable buckets, and Sal is on the warpath.
Sofia Gigante
The Penguin Episode 5 doesn’t belong to Sofia like “Cent’Anni” did, but she has her fair share of moments. An early one sees her verbally sparring with GCPD Chief Mackenzie Bock (Con O’Neill), whom you’ll recognize from The Batman. After that, she tortures a captive Johnny Viti, threatening him with a hypothermic death if he doesn’t reveal where Carmine kept his dirty money.
But the big moment is another speech. She once again dresses for the occasion, strutting into the midst of the surviving Falcones wearing her mother’s fur coat, with “Isabella Gigante” embroidered on the inside. This is kind of Sofia’s point. She happily admits to having killed all of the Falcones. She’s remolding the organization as the Gigante Family, which she will sit at the head of. Everyone who works for her will be fairly compensated, and to prove her point she shoots Viti in the head and tips Carmine’s money on the table. All his ill-gotten gains were profits from the labor of men he didn’t even know existed. Sofia is giving it back.
Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone in The Penguin | Image via HBO
Julian Rush is present for this, having visited Sofia earlier and pledged his loyalty to her, clearly for low-key sexual reasons, which I suppose is understandable at this point. For now, it’s a little unclear quite what direction his character is going to go in, but it’ll probably be fun finding out.
Later, Sofia finds Sal drinking and grieving alone and proposes an alliance between the Maronis and the Gigantes, with Oz as their first target. He seems to like the idea.
Motherly Love
While all this is going on, Vic is tasked with looking after Francis. After convincing her that it was Oz who took out the Falcones, he’s able to persuade her to accompany him to Crown Point, a forgotten Gotham neighborhood ravaged by the flood in The Batman that has since been abandoned and picked clean by looters.
Oz meets them there later, without Eve, who refuses to come with him. Despite her claiming to still be loyal to him, it’s clear that Oz’s rash actions are beginning to cost him. Even Francis rejects his words of reassurance, reminding him that, at least right now, he can’t even look after his own mother.
Inspired by an old token for Gotham’s trolley station that he finds in the box of old keepsakes Francis brought with her, Oz has an idea and takes Vic underground. The network of tunnels beneath Gotham, which used to be served by the now-dormant trolleys, is another relic of the city’s greedy politics and corrupt underbelly. Oz has a lot of memories bundled up in these tunnels with his now-dead brothers. “The city took them,” he says to Vic by way of explanation, “just like it took your family.”
But the tunnels aren’t just nostalgic. They’re also a good place to grow mushrooms. Oz has a new base of operations.
