Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for The Penguin Episode 6.
Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) is back to hustling in this week’s episode of The Penguin, “Gold Summit.” While Sofia Gigante (Cristin Milioti) obsesses over finding him and getting revenge for being double-crossed, Oz expands his business and even brings light back to Crown Point. In the end, Sofia does find where he is hiding, and, thus, the stage is set for the end of the season. The episode goes way deeper than that, however, and highlights the key difference between Oz and Sofia in terms of what they want most.
Oz and Sofia Want Very Different Things From Their Fight
Both Oz and Sofia have interesting meetings with potential allies in “Gold Summit.” Oz meets with the other crime bosses and tells them that people like Sofia and Salvatore Maroni (Clancy Brown) don’t care about what happens to their partners. According to Oz, he does what it takes to get to power because he always has something to prove because he comes from poverty, and so do the other mobsters, while Falcones, Gigantes, Maronis, and even town officials get all the money and credit without putting in the work themselves.
A little earlier, Sofia meets with Eve Karlo (Carmen Ejogo), Oz’s affair, hoping to learn his whereabouts. Their conversation begins with Sofia holding Eve at gunpoint, but, as Sofia learns about Eve and her loyalty to her girls, she decides not to kill Eve. This creates a message of sorority between them; Sofia doesn’t kill Eve because she is able to empathize with her. They both have the same experiences as women working in a male-dominated environment.
Oz and Sofia are both demagogues, of course. Oz and the Gold Summit are not hanging out after a day’s work, and Sofia is still holding a gun at Eve. They would kill those same allies if they needed, but the key is why they would do so. Deep down, Oz isn’t doing this to help people, but to be loved for doing so, like Rex Calabrese. Sofia, on the other hand, is on it to prove she doesn’t need a family name to be powerful, even though she is using the Falcone structure and firepower after killing all her relatives. Both of them are hypocritical and are fighting for different things. But Oz has more to fight for, too.
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The Falcones and Maronis are not as alike as they may seem.
Oz Has a Lot More To Fight for Than Sofia
The last scene in the episode is heartbreaking — not because Sofia has finally found Oz’s hideout and is staring at his mother, Francis (Deidre O’Connell), and Vic (Rhenzy Feliz), but because the two of them are happily dancing and celebrating Oz having brought light back to Crown Point. And that’s the true difference between Oz and Sofia. Oz has a lot to fight for between family and business, while Sofia never truly had anything.
Sofia’s meeting with Eve is interesting not only because of what she gets out of it, but also because she understands that Oz has been hiding a whole life from her. When they are raiding Oz’s apartment, Sofia mentions to Sal how Oz’s family died when he was young, including his mother, but we know that’s not true. Oz, knowing who he was working for, never let anyone know about his family to protect them. Meanwhile, Sofia always had a big family that was empty inside, and would kill to have had a parent celebrating her like Francis celebrates Oz in the last scene.
This gives their upcoming clash in Episode 7 great depth and makes it all the more exciting. Although they are both terrible people who shouldn’t be trusted by anyone, Oz indeed has a lot more to fight for and prove than Sofia. That doesn’t diminish her fight, though, and she still has very compelling reasons for everything she has done and will do, even if she leans more on the revenge argument from the start. Whoever wins will certainly deserve it, and will pose a formidable opponent for Batman (Robert Pattinson) — wherever he is — and Gotham’s finest in the future.
The Penguin is available to stream on Max in the U.S. New episodes air weekly on Sundays.
It follows the transformation of Oswald Cobblepot from a disfigured nobody to a noted Gotham gangster.
- Release Date
- September 19, 2024
- Cast
- Colin Farrell , Cristin Milioti , Rhenzy Feliz , Michael Kelly , Shohreh Aghdashloo , Deirdre O’Connell , Clancy Brown , James Madio , Scott Cohen , Michael Zegen , Carmen Ejogo , Theo Rossi
- Seasons
- 1
- Prequel
- The Batman (2022)
- Story By
- Bill Finger, Bob Kane
- Writers
- Lauren LeFranc
- Franchise(s)
- Batman , DC Elseworlds
- Showrunner
- Lauren LeFranc
- Avg Episode Length
- 60 Mins
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