by Sean T. Collins for Decider
He’s got an underground lair, a network of tunnels, a sci-fi designer drug, and an alliance of all of Gotham’s gangs behind him. I think it’s official: The Penguin is a proper supervillain. This week’s episode of the bad guy’s eponymous show depicts Oz Cobb at the height of his powers to date — but its final scene indicates his time at the top of the world will be short-lived.
The action picks up some time after the events of the previous episode. By now, Oz’s subterranean headquarters is a virtual factory and nerve center for a city-wide Bliss distribution network. The Penguin and his troops, drawn from the impoverished people of Crown Point, are able to evade the combined forces of Sofia Gigante and Sal Maroni by using Gotham’s network of abandoned underground trolley tunnels to move around the city undetected.
Mostly undetected, anyway. Victor’s subplot this episode centers on Squid (Jared Abrahamson), the local tough guy who once bossed Vic around and now wants a piece of Oz’s action. When he won’t listen to reason, Vic shoots him — his first kill. Oz is proud of him for handling his business on behalf of the people he’s close to, which is nice. As for killing? “It gets easier,” he adds, which is…less nice.
Sofia and Sal are on the hunt for the Penguin too, and the hunt is very personal. After all, he burned Sal’s wife and son alive, helped frame Sofia for murder, and killed her brother, the only person who cared about her while she was wrongfully incarcerated. Of course it’s personal. The problem is that as far as they know, Oz has no family to speak of, and isn’t close to anyone.
Read the rest of the recap, HERE.