Warning! This article contains spoilers for The Penguin Episode 6.
Summary
The Batman’sfirst spin-off TV seriesThe Penguinhas progressively raised the stakes throughout its first six episodes, but the most recent episode spells trouble for two main characters.
The Penguinfollows Oswald Cobblepot’s journey to become the notorious villain he’s known as in the DC universe. The character starts out as a lackey for Gotham’s crime boss Carmine Falcone, butThe Penguinchronicles Oz’s journey to become the king of the crime underworld. It hasn’t been a journey without allies and enemies. Rhenzy Feliz’s Victor Aguilar has become a close accomplice of Oz’s and has helped the Penguin care for his sick elderly mother, Francis. However, Oz has invoked the wrath ofrecently released Arkham prisoner, Sofia Falcone, who is out to get Oz for the murder of her brother. How the bloody feud will end will be determined in the remaining episodes ofThe Penguin, but Episode 6 raised the stakes significantly for some key characters.
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Where to watch
HBO, Max
The Penguin’ssixth episode titled “Gold Sumit” saw a shift in the balance of power in Gotham’s criminal underworld. After peddling Sofia’s stolen product successfully, Oz begins making a name for himself and succeeds in setting upa meeting with Gotham’s major gangs, including the Triads, the Sullivans, and the Odessa mob. Oz promises that they can gain even more control over Gotham by uniting the smaller gangs against the Maronis and Gigantes. Eventually, he wins them over, with all the mob bosses signaling their allegiance to Oz’s plan by accepting the beers he had brought them.
Sofia’s Plan to Take Down Oz is Revealed
While this is all going down, Sofia has been working on her own plan to gain leverage over Oz. After raiding his house, Sofia finds a picture of Oz’s lover and friend, Eve, in a drawer. Sofia tracks Eve down to her apartment and confronts her. Sofia wants Oz’s location, but she also has no love for Eve, considering she was Oz’s alibi on the night her brother, Alberto, was killed. Expecting to be shot, Eve asks for protection for the girls who work for her, but Sofia decides not to kill her, lest she fall further into thefalse claims that she is the Hangman. Eve ends up selling Oz out, telling Sofia he is holed up at Crown Point.
Since starting their operation, Oz has been living with his mother and Victor at Crown Point, an overlooked area of Gotham suffering power outages thanks to the council’s diversion of energy to wealthy parts of the city. After seeing his mother suffer in the freezing temperatures, Oz captures Hady, a member of the Gotham council, and threatens to cut off his nose if he doesn’t redirect power to Crown Point. When Hady comes through, this results in a heartwarming scene at the episode’s conclusion, where Victor and Francis are seen dancing in the newly-lit apartment to music from the now-working record player. The mood is broken, however, by the reveal that Sofia is standing in the corner of the apartment with a weapon, watching them.
As Sofia explained to Sal Maroni at the beginning of the episode, the Penguin’s strength is that he has no close relationships to use as leverage against him. However, that’s all changed now that Sofia has discovered Francis is alive, andthat Oz has formed a bond with a protégé.
Will The Penguin Kill Off 2 Major Characters In Episode 7?
Sofia certainly looks like she means business when she shows up in Oz’s apartment at the end of Episode 6 ofThe Penguin. She was probably hoping to find Oz at his home but got far more than she intended as the information that he’s harboring two loved ones will be far more valuable to her plan.While Victor and Francis are definitely not safefrom being killed off inThe Penguin, it’s more likely that Sofia will keep them alive, at least at first, to gain bargaining power over Oz. Sofia may even lean into torturing them to make Oz suffer and gain the vengeance she’s been seeking against him for betraying her.
HBO’s previewforThe PenguinEpisode 7 stops short of revealing Francis or Victor in its footage, presumably to keep audiences on their toes about their fate until it can be revealed in the episode. It is teased that Oz returns to his apartment only to becaptured and tortured by Sal Maroni. Sofia will also seemingly call on the help of her ex-doctor, now-lover, Julian Rush, to help Oz feel “real pain.” This may hint at Sofia using electroconvulsive therapy, which is what she was forced to suffer through in her decade at Arkham Asylum. Whether she tortures Oz with it or instead chooses to use it to make Francis or Victor suffer is the main question going into Episode 7 ofThe Penguin.
The PenguinEpisodes 1-6 are now streaming on Max.
The Penguin
Created by Lauren LeFranc and starring Colin Farrell, The Penguin builds on 2022’s The Batman. The Max series chronicles the eponymous villain’s attempt to reach Gotham’s criminal peak, rising through the underworld in the middle of a power struggle.
