The Penguin (Recap) | Inside Man (S1 E2)

by Sean T. Collins for Decider

“If this is a mafia show, why is the Penguin in it? If this is a Penguin show, why isn’t Batman in it?” Unless and until The Penguin provides a satisfactory answer to these questions — and no, Colin Farrell vanishing into prosthetics and Brooklynese is not sufficient — it’s going to remain a puzzling, even frustrating, show. But then, this is a franchise with a tendency to be embarrassed about what it is, as if changing the surnames of the Riddler and the Penguin from Nygma and Cobbleplot to Nashton and Cobb will make the idea of a billionaire who dresses up like a horror movie monster to beat up criminals any less whimsical at heart. Just be what you are!

But this is not to say some enjoyment can’t be had even on a show that feels the need to preemptively apologize for itself in that way. This week’s episode serves up a strong action sequence, a tense bit of murderous skullduggery, and a closer look at what kind of villain this version of the Penguin really is: A enjoyably awful one, as it turns out. 

This episode largely concerns Oz Cobb’s attempt to further the gang war between the Falcones, the family to whom he belongs, and the Maronis, the family for which he serves as a double agent. He’s already pinned his impetuous murder of Alberto Falcone on incarcerated boss Sal Maroni to force his family’s hand. He then facilitates a lucrative, and viscerally exciting, truck hijacking to take out one of the Falcones’ drug shipments, nearly getting killed himself in the process. 

But he doesn’t seem to count on Alberto’s insane sister Sofia. In this episode we learn she was a serial killer dubbed the Hangman, who murdered seven young women that they know about before her incarceration and rehabilitation (lol) at Arkham Asylum. The fact that she’s plagued by nightmares that have her self-mutilating in her sleep doesn’t make her any less canny a gangster, however. Of all the members of the family’s braintrust — including its newly minted boss, her uncle Luca (Scott Cohen) — she’s only one who recognizes the work of an inside man.

Read the rest of the recap, HERE.