by Sean T. Collins for Decider
A top hat and tails, with an umbrella nearby. Ladies, gentlemen, and friends beyond the binary, I give you the new King of Gotham City, as you know and love him: The Penguin!
So to all of my concerns last week that the show was providing him with a perfect origin story for his trademark finery but not the actual finery, allow me to give a hearty “ha ha ha.” (Or in the Penguin’s case, is it “waugh waugh waugh”?) Writer-creator Lauren LeFranc delivered and gave us the supervillain we remember.
And for a moment, she gives us the superhero we want. Well, his signal, anyway.
There’s even a reference to Catwoman, aka Selina Kyle, who writes to her half-sister (via their late, unlamented father Carmine Falcone) in Arkham. (The letter is delivered by her professional simp Dr. Julian Rush, who apparently never quit his day job.)
Moreover, there are plenty of very Batman-comic plot points and visuals. When Sofia and Julian stage a reunion between their captives Oz and Frances Cobb, they do so in the ruins of the jazz club where, it turns out, France had planned to have Oz killed by local gangster Rex Calabrese (Louis Cancelmi) before changing her mind. It was Rex who advised her that a born killer and liar like Oz, whose guilt in the deaths of his brothers she’s secretly well aware of, can be used to get to the top. Forcing your nemesis to confront a pivotal, traumatic childhood memory is classic Bat-stuff, baby. They even dress Sofia up like Sally Bowles from Cabaret during the scene just as a bonus.
So is the ultimate fate of Frances. When Oz refuses to admit guilt even when Sofia threatens to chop off Frances’s finger, she finally really lets her son have it — including a stab to the gut with a broken bottle. But she has a stroke, and Oz breaks free, grabs her, and escapes. Too late: The stroke is severe enough to leave her in a permanent vegetative state. She gets her penthouse view alright, but from a hospital bed Oz has installed in his apartment. “I know,” he says as she sheds a tear that indicates she’s aware of more than it seems. “It’s everything you always wanted.” Not sure that’s why she’s crying, Oz. Anyway, superhero comics love a villain with a loved one they could never save, though in Gotham that’s generally more Mr. Freeze’s territory than the Penguin’s.
Read the rest of the recap, HERE.