Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for The Penguin Episode 3.
Much like a penguin will dodge leopard seals left and right, Colin Farrell‘s Oz Cobb kept on marching past death in last week’s episode of The Penguin, and now in Episode 3, titled “Bliss,” the stage has been set for an unholy alliance between him and the Hangman herself, Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti). In case you need a refresher from last week’s episode, Oz roped in his teenage protégé, Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz), to assist him in framing Johnny Viti (Michael Kelly), the underboss of the Falcone crime family, for the murder of Alberto Falcone (Michael Zegen). However, those plans went wayward after Sofia hired Detective Marcus Wise (Craig Walker), to track down a mole within the family. Instead, Oz was forced to improvise, and Sofia’s own personal bodyguard, Castillo (Berto Colon), ended up taking the fall for the murder.
‘The Penguin’ Episode 3 Reveals What Happened to Victor’s Family
The episode begins with a flashback set on the fateful election night during the third act of The Batman. Victor agrees to meet up with his crush, Graciela (Anire Kim Amoda), promising he’ll join her on the rooftops after he drops off some things at his family’s apartment. While there, Victor tries to convince his father (Jose Guns Alves) to take more opportunities at his job to get paid more, but to no avail. Later on, Victor meets up with his friends, including Graciela, on the rooftop of a taller building down the street. Right as Victor and Graciela share a tender moment, Riddler’s bombs detonate across Gotham, causing a massive flood that destroys Victor’s family’s apartment and presumably killing everyone still inside.
Flashing back to the root of Victor’s grief is one hell of a way to start the episode, perfectly setting the stage for the character’s biggest storyline yet. Until this point, Victor has been one of the sole forces of good in The Penguin. It didn’t make much sense why Victor would stick around a ne’er-do-well like Oz Cobb. It was safe to assume that his family was out of the picture at this point, but we never got a full sense of his upbringing. Before the flood, Victor’s family life seemed relatively normal, with loving and supportive parents. However, much like Robert Pattinson‘s Caped Crusader, tragedy leads these characters to go to some unexpected and inescapable places.
Back in the present at Oz’s apartment, Oz updates Victor on his “temporary” alliance with Sofia, expecting Luca Falcone (Scott Cohen) to “take care of her” the moment he discovers that she is playing them. Oz has since moved on from Victor failing to plant the jewels in Viti’s car, promising him that it’s just “ancient history” and he’ll continue to look out for him. Sofia shows up at the apartment, right as Oz takes a call from Salvatore Maroni (Clancy Brown), where he informs them that Viti has placed the entire Falcone family into lockdown. A nervous Victor welcomes Sofia into the apartment, and she begins to question him about his partnership with Oz. Sofia tells Victor that Oz used to be her driver, something that he wasn’t aware of beforehand. Oz walks into the living room area, where she humiliates Oz by telling him to drive “just like old times” forcing Victor to stay behind.
Sofia and Oz arrive at one of the Falcone family’s shipment plants, and Oz is notably confused when he sees that the product has been shipped over from Arkham. Oz confronts Sofia, claiming that he thought this was all Al’s plan, and Sofia responds with a vaguely sinister answer: “I know you did.” Upon entering the lab, Oz is even more baffled by the drugs being produced, including mushrooms. He is told that the mushrooms are only serving as a means to collect their spores, which are being used to create a whole new kind of stimulant. Sofia orders Oz to find a distributor that will allow the new drug, named “Bliss,” to spread throughout the streets of Gotham.
Back at Oz’s apartment, Victor calls Graciela for the first time since election night, inviting her over. Upon her arrival, we learn that she is unaware of Victor becoming immersed in the criminal underworld, only believing that he’s become a driver for a club owner. Graciela tells Victor that she’s leaving Gotham to move to California and asks him to come with her, but he declines, stating that he’s not sure if Oz will let him. He then tells Graciela the truth about Oz and admits that he fears for his safety if he tries to leave. After Graciela pleads with Victor to come with her, he gives her some of the cash that Oz recently paid him with, asking her to buy him a bus ticket and promising he’ll leave Gotham with her. The tension has only escalated this week, as not only is the newfound trust between Oz and Sofia threatening to crumble as quickly as it began, but the ever-anxious Victor has also now become the audience’s eyes and ears. We want to see him escape this situation with Graciela, but his allegiance with Oz has given him the most purpose he’s ever felt since the death of his family.
Oz and Sofia Make a Deal With the Triad in ‘The Penguin’ Episode 3
The next day at the Falcone estate, Sofia crosses paths with Viti, who hands her a plane ticket to Italy and threatens her by admitting that he solely views her as a mentally unstable spoiled brat. Later, she meets up with Oz in Chinatown, who proposes an alliance with the Triad crime syndicate by bribing their deputy, Link Tsai (Robert Lee Leng). Upon entering the Triad’s club, Sofia’s gun is immediately confiscated, but Oz talks Link into getting his men to lower their own weapons before giving him an introduction to Bliss.
While Victor waits outside with the vials of Bliss in the front seat of Oz’s car, a cop pulls up and orders him to get out of the vehicle, but some quick thinking on Victor’s part — as well as offering a bribe with the remaining cash he still has in his pocket — convinces the police officer to walk away. Back inside the club, Oz and Sofia tell Link about their plot to take over the Falcone crime family, and, when questioned further, lie and say that Viti is backing them up on it. Link isn’t buying it, and tells them that Feng Zhao (François Chau), the head of the Triad, will need to receive a phone call for confirmation from Viti as proof.
Later that day, Oz and Victor dine at an upscale restaurant, where the latter tries to find a way to tell the former about his plans to leave Gotham with Graciela. Victor tells Oz about his father’s career as a mechanic and how he never fulfilled his dreams of becoming a chef. After their conversation, Oz eyes Viti’s mistress, AKA Luca Falcone’s wife, Tina (Tess Soltau), dining at a nearby table, and approaches her, asking her for a favor. Shortly after, Oz and Sofia walk into Viti’s hotel room in order to catch him in the act with Luca’s wife. The two blackmail Viti into calling Zhao, but not before Viti ridicules the two, causing Oz to retaliate by shoving his phone deep into his mouth and demanding he make the call.
At the Triad’s club, Oz, Sofia, and Eve Karlo (Carmen Ejogo) instruct Eve’s employees, as well as Victor, to distribute the Bliss. Once they depart, Sofia pulls Oz aside, signaling that she’ll take the lead — since Zhao is meeting with them because of her, not him. While Zhao respects Sofia’s operations, he believes that the risk is too high because of the Triad’s tense history with the Falcones. Sofia continues to try to win him over by talking about their shared hatred of her late father, but Zhao brings up Sofia’s time in Arkham, where she tells him that Bliss was given to her and the other inmates. Zhao still doesn’t trust Sofia, so in response, she reveals that she did her research on Zhao’s father, who was a psychologist, in an attempt to make him reconsider. She ends her offer by saying that if he doesn’t agree, she and Oz will simply present this opportunity to another crime family.
Every single interaction between Farrell and Milioti’s Oz and Sofia in this clubroom sequence has been nothing short of pure bliss, pun intended. The two actors work perfectly in sync with one another. Not only are they fully committed to their characters, but they find ways to match each other’s sinister and sketchy energy in magnetic ways. For much of the series so far, Oz and Sofia have felt far more confident when they work together rather than acting on their own. Despite their alliance feeling like it’s on the verge of erupting, their characters spring to life even more when the actors bounce off one another. Saying that, it’s hard to ignore the repetitive nature of Sofia and Oz’s will-they-won’t-they relationship. While their ever-changing stances may be intentional, it feels inevitable that the series will end with a showdown between the two.
Arthur Speaks His Truth to Oz in ‘The Penguin’ Episode 3
While on the dance floor distributing Bliss, Victor receives several text messages from Graciela, who expects him to meet up with her at the bus station. It’s at that moment, however, that he’s hit with a panic attack thanks to the loud noises and bright lights in the club, causing him to flash back to the day the Riddler’s bombs went off. He rushes to the bathroom trying to calm himself down, as he receives another text from Graciela informing him that the bus is leaving soon. Just as he is about to respond, Oz barges in, informing them that the Triads have agreed to the deal, but then notices Victor’s phone, along with the texts from Graciela.
Angered, Oz berates Victor, causing the younger man to break down and admit that he doesn’t believe he belongs in the operation. Oz retaliates by questioning whether Victor thinks he is too good for the life of crime, and accuses him of feeling like he’s being held hostage, even going as far as to take out his gun and press it to Victor’s head. The two continue to argue, with Oz telling Victor that, without his current gig, he and his family will never be remembered by the world. Ultimately, Oz allows Victor to leave, and even though Victor drives to the train station in Oz’s car, he watches in tears as Graciela boards the bus without him.
Outside the club, Oz informs Sofia that a deal has been made with the Triad, but she remains apathetic. It’s then that we learn a bit more about the history between these two, as Sofia believes that Oz is merely just using her to become a capo, stating that he will never even be a made man. Oz opens up, tearfully admitting that he doesn’t regret ratting her out to Carmine, as it gave him more power within the family, but he does sympathize with what happened to her, not knowing then that Carmine had been planning to send Sofia to Arkham. As the two share a cigarette, Sofia tells Oz that she no longer knows how she can ever trust him, but Oz promises he’ll keep showing her otherwise.
Right as the tension between the two begins to smooth out, Nadia Maroni (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and her men arrive to hold them at gunpoint, and she reveals that she knows that Oz was playing them and was never planning to pay them back. It’s at that moment that Victor returns to the club, sees the encounter, and drives his car into the scene, saving Oz and Sofia and creating a distraction. The episode ends as Oz jumps into the passenger seat, but orders Victor to drive off, leaving Sofia behind.
The first two episodes of The Penguin allowed us to dive deep into the psyche of Oz, but this week shifts the focus toward Victor, fleshing out the character even more and allowing the audience to have a deeper understanding of him. While Victor brings out a softer side of Oz, Oz brings out a darker side of Victor, and watching the evolution (and devolution) of these two is the biggest highlight of the episode. There might be a lot going on within the overall plot of The Penguin, but in Episode 3, the numerous backstories are all starting to thread together in unexpected ways.
The Penguin is available to stream on Max in the U.S.
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