Within the premiere episode of The Penguin, Oswald Cobb meets Victor Aguilar below uncommon circumstances: Ouncescatches Victor and his associates making an attempt to steal the edges off of his automobile. Victor is the one one who doesn’t handle to flee. Ounceshas Victor give him his driver’s license, after which he orders the failed thief to assist carry Alberto Falcone’s physique out of the Iceberg Lounge and into the trunk of Ouncess automobile, making Victor complicit within the homicide that begins a conflict with Sofia Falcone. “You and me, we’re on this collectively now,” Ouncestells Victor. “Which suggests I personal you.”

By the tip of the opener, Victor saves Ouncesfrom being killed by Sofia. Over the following six episodes, he goes on to handle Ouncess mom, Francis; save Ouncesfrom being executed by the Maronis; and even kill somebody he’d grown up with with a purpose to shield Ouncesand Francis. Within the season finale, Victor saves Ouncess life but once more whereas serving to Ouncescomplete his yearslong quest to grow to be the kingpin of crime in Gotham’s underworld. And Ouncesrepays Victor by choking him to demise.

On Sunday, The Penguin wrapped up a terrific season of tv with a devastating conclusion that sees Ounceswin, whereas nearly everybody else round him loses. Francis Cobb’s worst nightmare has grow to be her actuality, Sofia Gigante is again in Arkham State Hospital, and Vic—Ouncess most loyal soldier—is useless.

Whereas most superhero tales and comedian guide variations that middle on villains often finish with the dangerous guys demonstrating that even they’ve some good in them and are able to turning into heroes themselves, The Penguin takes a unique route in its exploration of its titular baddie. The season finale, “A Nice or Little Factor,” depicts Oswald Cobb as a real villain, by means of and thru.

The episode begins by returning to the previous and retracing the occasions surrounding the deaths of Jack and Benny Cobb. Final week’s installment confirmed what occurred to Ouncess brothers and the way Ounceslied to his mom about their whereabouts so there was no likelihood for them to be saved from drowning within the underground overflow tunnel. It additionally confirmed younger Oswald and Francis having fun with a magical night quickly after on the jazz membership Monroe’s, the place Ouncespromised his mom that he would offer her with a greater life in the future. However the finale reveals the aftermath of Ouncess fratricide from Francis’s perspective, slightly than Ouncess warped standpoint, shedding mild on simply how a lot she knew about her depraved son and what he did to his family.

As Sofia and Julian Rush uncover by means of Julian’s distinctive therapeutic strategies that assist topics relive their recollections, it didn’t take lengthy for Francis to determine Ouncess position in his brothers’ drownings. Quickly after Jack’s and Benny’s deaths, Francis discovered a flashlight in Ouncess coat, and he or she heard from the police that the boys had someway been locked within the tunnel. She knew then that Oz, who had claimed that Jack and Benny had merely gone to the films that night time, was solely accountable. When Rex Calabrese confirmed up at their condominium to examine on Francis, she defined all of this to him and expressed her sense of helplessness: “I acquired the satan in my home, Rex. What the hell am I presupposed to do?”

And so Rex and Francis devised a plan to kill Ounceson the identical night time that Francis would take her son to Monroe’s. Whereas Francis in the end couldn’t undergo with it, this growth—together with the revelation about the way in which she seen Oswald from the very starting—fully shifts our understanding of Francis as a personality. All through the season, Francis displayed her toughness regardless of affected by a horrible illness, Lewy physique dementia, that will trigger her to continuously lose monitor of when and the place she was and what she was seeing. She was Ouncess fiercest supporter, pushing him towards greatness even when he would falter. However in actuality, she all the time hated Ouncesand by no means forgave him for what he did to her different sons.

When Sofia reunites Francis and Ouncesat Monroe’s within the current, the so-called Hangman forces her captives to face some onerous truths which were left unstated for many years. Sofia cleverly pits the 2 Cobbs towards one another by prompting Ouncesto confess what he did to his brothers as a baby, realizing that Francis already found out the reality way back and that Ounceswould nonetheless attempt to do no matter he may to lie his method out of the scenario, as he all the time does. At the same time as Sofia threatens to chop off Francis’s pinky, Ouncesclaims innocence, and so Francis lastly admits that she’s all the time recognized what her son did.

“I had sufficient to offer, Oswald,” Francis says. “I had sufficient to offer all three of you. You didn’t have to depart ’em down there. You didn’t must take ’em from me. They have been my infants. My world. Your brothers.”

Deirdre O’Connell, who performs Francis, delivers a outstanding efficiency within the finale as her character turns into a extra difficult, tragic determine. Having already misplaced two of her youngsters, she needed to make an unimaginable resolution about what to do with the younger Oz. And Sofia helps Francis acknowledge how complicit she was in fostering the monster that the fratricidal Oswald had grow to be, and maybe all the time was.

“You’re a disappointment,” Francis tells Oz. “You’re a waste of house. I get up each goddamn day sick that I’m your mom. She’s proper. She’s fuckin’ proper. I shoulda let Rex kill ya after I had the possibility.”

Francis proceeds to interrupt an empty glass bottle, however slightly than assault their captors, she stabs Ounceswithin the abdomen with the bottle’s jagged remnants. She begins to hallucinate, seeing visions of a younger Ouncespleading for assist—together with Jack and Benny standing in entrance of her—earlier than affected by a serious stroke that gives Ouncestogether with his alternative to flee together with her amid all of the chaos.

Whereas Sofia someway fails to determine any contingency plans within the occasion of one other vanishing act from the escape artist, her twisted scheme to torture Ouncesotherwise works to perfection. In “A Nice or Little Factor,” Sofia nearly achieves her two most essential objectives—to be free and to make Ouncespay for all of his transgressions towards her—however she falls simply wanting them. She burns down her household dwelling in iconic style, chain-smoking her method by means of the home’s spacious rooms as she takes appreciable care in burning her father’s possessions specifically. (For as a lot as they hate one another, Sofia and Ouncescertainly share some severe circumstances of parental points.) Sofia delivers Ouncesprobably the most devastating blow of his life in turning his mom towards him, and he or she practically catches a flight out of Gotham, abandoning all of her territories—and her father’s legacy—for good. However on the airport, her dream slips away.

Sofia had made a cope with Triad boss Feng Zhao that will have given him the (now-charred) Falcone residence and her remaining territories in change for Ouncess seize. However Victor and Zhao’s deputy, Hyperlink Tsai, secretly deliberate a coup, as Hyperlink seizes the chance to kill Zhao and change him because the chief of the Triads whereas serving to Vic and Ouncestake down Sofia within the course of. After Ouncestakes Sofia for one final drive, he lets her imagine that he’s going to execute her, just for her to get picked up by the police and be given a visit again to Arkham State Hospital.

Returning to Arkham is a becoming conclusion for Sofia Gigante, who wished nothing greater than her freedom after lastly rising from a 10-year stint on the notorious psychiatric hospital. As a lot as Sofia is positioned to be the antagonist of The Penguin, she’s a a lot totally different breed of villain than Oz. Positive, she could also be responsible of many violent crimes over the season’s eight episodes, however by the requirements of sadistic mob bosses, Sofia at the least has a code. When she tracked down Eve Karlo in Episode 6, Sofia let her reside after discovering that she was simply one other sufferer of Ouncess schemes and manipulations. She additionally spared her niece Gia the identical destiny as her family, whom Sofia killed in Episode 4, and was devastated by her go to to Gia on the youngsters’s dwelling as she noticed how she’d doomed one other younger lady to a lonely, tough life, simply as her personal father had finished to her.

Sofia in the end loses to Ouncesbecause she, of all individuals, underestimates him and the deputies of Gotham’s strongest mobs. Whereas the dearth of combat on her half in the end feels just a little inconsistent together with her character, The Penguin at the least ensures that this received’t be the tip of Sofia’s story. Close to the tip of the episode, the collection teases a possible future for Sofia that will discover her crossing paths together with her half sister, Selina Kyle, who was performed by Zoë Kravitz in The Batman. Julian Rush, who’s returned to his outdated job at Arkham to control his former topic, delivers a letter to Sofia from Selina that causes a smile to slowly unfold throughout Sofia’s face. Cristin Milioti was extraordinary as an advanced antagonist who was each bit as terrifying as she was tragic and sympathetic, and The Penguin wouldn’t have labored with out her serving as Ouncess foil. Right here’s hoping Sofia Gigante can have the chance to redeem herself quickly sufficient, whether or not it’s in The Batman Half II or a narrative of her personal.

Though Sofia appears primed to have a spot in Matt Reeves’s rising Batverse, the identical can’t be stated for Victor Aguilar. Colin Farrell’s Ouncesand Milioti’s Sofia would be the stars of the present, however the evolution of Rhenzy Feliz’s character is essential to the emotional payoff on the finish of the season. Not like nearly everybody else within the collection, Victor was truly a superb particular person, who turned to a lifetime of crime solely after his household was killed within the nice Gotham flood and he was left with no different choices. His sluggish corruption by Ouncesis as a lot a mirrored image of the Penguin as it’s of the present state of Gotham, but Victor nonetheless manages to keep up his good nature whilst he goes so far as killing somebody.

Victor’s demise felt like an inevitability for a lot of the season, particularly with Ouncesthreatening his life a number of occasions within the first few episodes alone. His eventual demise is all of the extra heartbreaking as a result of it comes on the very finish of Ouncess rise to energy, after their enemies had all been defeated and there was nothing left to do however rejoice. In one of many final scenes of the finale, Ouncesand Victor sit by a river and share a drink as they discuss concerning the lack of their family members and specific their gratitude for one another. As narcissistic and self-absorbed as Ouncesis, he nonetheless acknowledges how a lot of a distinction Victor made for him.

“You’ve been there, by my facet each fucking step,” Ouncessays wistfully. “However pay attention, child. … I can’t carry you with me this time.”

“What do you imply?” Victor asks.

“I imply that’s the factor about household,” Ouncescontinues, as he begins to choke Victor in his arms. “It’s your energy, it drives you. However fuck if it don’t make you weak too. And I can’t have that no extra.”

After Ounceskills Victor, he grabs Victor’s pockets off of his physique, pilfers his money, and takes one final have a look at Victor’s driver’s license earlier than tossing it away and leaving Victor’s physique behind, unburied. Ouncesonce informed Victor that their names would reside perpetually, however the final sight of Victor Aguilar’s title is on his ID because it sinks to the underside of the river, drowning simply as his household did.

Over the course of the season, Ouncesbecame a father determine to Victor, and their relationship was one of many few issues that humanized such a deplorable determine. However Victor’s homicide serves as the ultimate step in Ouncess transformation into Gotham’s new felony kingpin. Even after every little thing Victor did for Oz, and the way outstanding part of Ouncess household the youthful man grew to become, Cobb kills him dispassionately, pushed by solely his egocentric want to stop any enemies from doubtlessly utilizing Victor towards him sooner or later.

Within the closing scene of the season, Ouncesreturns to his new high-rise condominium carrying a tuxedo and holding a prime hat in his hand, as his outfit lastly matches the Batman villain’s conventional look within the comics, TV exhibits, and past. (His new house is in a considerably decrepit lodge, fittingly known as La Couronne, which interprets to “the crown” in French.) He checks in on his mom, who now has the penthouse view of the town {that a} younger Ouncesonce promised her. However after her stroke, Francis resides in a vegetative state, which is precisely the end result that she made Ouncespromise he would by no means let occur—even when it meant killing her. Regardless of every little thing she stated to him at Monroe’s (and the truth that she stabbed him) earlier within the episode, Ouncescan now preserve her alive and faux nothing occurred between them. And all Francis can do is watch.

When Ouncesgoes downstairs, he sees Eve, now trapped in a slightly disturbing type of roleplay as his mom. Eve just isn’t solely carrying the identical costume that Francis wore to Monroe’s on that fateful night time when Rex nearly killed Ouncesbut Ouncescalls her “ma” and has her inform him she’s happy with him as they dance collectively. Ouncesis a masterful manipulator, to the purpose that he’s able to residing inside his personal lies. Sofia managed to tear down his phantasm, if just for just a few moments, but right here he’s nonetheless clinging to the identical fantasy that he’s had since he was a baby: that every little thing he does is for his beloved mom.

The finale ends with Eve telling Oz, “Nothing’s standing in your method now,” as Ouncesagrees and the Bat-Sign seems far within the distance. Between the Sofia–Selina Kyle setup and the primary Batman reference for the reason that opening minutes of the collection, the conclusion of the season is probably the most The Penguin ever appears like an precise superhero collection, for higher or worse. Contemplating every little thing that transpired over the previous eight episodes, it positively looks like an odd time for Commissioner Gordon or whoever else activated the sign to lastly name on the companies of Batman, who has rather a lot of explaining to do the following time he seems.

The Penguin was probably higher off and not using a sudden superhero cameo intruding on the occasions of a grounded, character-driven collection, however now that Batman’s absence has been dropped at our consideration by the present itself, what may he probably have been doing that was extra urgent than an all-out conflict between Gotham’s most infamous crime households and the bombing of a complete neighborhood?! Both he was too busy placing out different fires in a metropolis nonetheless reeling from the Riddler’s terrorist assaults or he was taking a trip in Bludhaven with Selina, however possibly there’s a motive why this model of Gotham is in such a nasty place.

Whatever the thriller about Batman’s whereabouts throughout the chaotic occasions that occurred in The Penguin, the HBO collection pulled off among the best live-action Gotham tales ever made, all with out the Caped Crusader making an look. It’s a testomony to showrunner Lauren LeFranc and her writing crew that the collection may take a historically cartoonish villain just like the Penguin—who is probably finest recognized for Danny DeVito’s efficiency in Batman Returns, together with his quirky umbrella weapons and jetpack penguins—and re-create him within the picture of Tony Soprano. Farrell’s rendition has invigorated the character by reimagining him for a contemporary, darker imaginative and prescient of Gotham Metropolis in a method that feels each recent and like an homage to basic crime dramas.

“A Nice or Little Factor,” which at 68 minutes is the collection’ longest episode, neatly ties up nearly each character arc and plotline launched throughout the season in a method that makes the tip of this story really feel closing. Whereas The Penguin wasn’t a standard origin story, the collection efficiently reworked Oswald Cobb from The Batman’s glorified Falcone henchman right into a full-fledged mob boss who’s now working his method into Gotham’s political panorama. The Penguin used its final moments to tease Batman’s subsequent look, with The Batman Half II set to reach in 2026, however the present has already eclipsed the movie that it initially spun off from, constructing on its foundations to create a good higher stand-alone narrative. With a second season nonetheless unsure, as Farrell makes it very clear he wants a break from the arduous course of of remodeling into Cobb, the true query is: When—or will—The Penguin return?