Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for The Penguin episode 1.
HBO's live-action portrayals of Penguin, but his Gotham embraces like an old friend, built on ideas written into DC lore for decades.
The opening episode of The Penguin just after The Batman's ending, with Gotham in disarray. The Riddler's gang has destroyed most of the poorer neighborhoods - particularly Crown Point - while the rich continue on with their lives mostly undisturbed. Under the surface, the world of organized crime is shifting, and Farrell's Penguin recognizes an opportunity. It's a great opening episode, and one that explores deeper messages and gives you all you need to fall entirely under Oz's spell.
The Penguin Episode 1 Spoilers & Key Story Takeaways
- 1 week after The Riddler's attack on Gotham, the poor areas are destroyed, while rich neighborhoods prosper
- Alberto Falcone has replaced his father Carmine as head of the Falcone crime family
- The Penguin kills Alberto when he mocks him for delusions of running Gotham
- Oz ropes in a Gotham kid, Victor Aguillar, when he catches him trying to steal his rims
- Sofia Falcone, newly released from Arkham, investigates Alberto's death, suspecting Oz
- Oz betrays the Falcones, allying with Sal Maroni inside Blackgate prison to steal a new drug shipment
- Oz pins the blame for Alberto's death on the Maroni family
Why The Penguin Ends On Dolly Parton's "9 To 5"
The Country Music Classic Hints At The Penguin's True Subtext
Given the opening of The Penguin episode 1 is soundtracked by Michael Giacchino's moody theme from The Batman, the closing credits playing Dolly Parton's "9 To 5" is a significant tonal swing. But the song is a precision choice, that speaks to more than just Oz being a fan of excellent music. Creator Lauren LeFranc told Empire that Oz's musical taste reflected who he is: “Oz is such a different guy, he’s really a wild man, he’s hard to pin down," but it's way deeper than that.
"9 To 5" is symbolic here beyond Oz's unexpected weirdness: the song, which was written for the movie of the same name, is an anthem for equality. The 1990 movie, which also starred Parton, is about female office workers who get revenge on their egotistical, sexist boss, replace him, and instantly improve the company's fortunes with a major boost in productivity.
It's essentially the ultimate fantasy for anyone who ever thought they could do a better job than their boss, but it's also a song about pouring yourself "a cup of ambition" and destroying corrupt systems of power. Oz Cobb may be a criminal, but he believes he's figting for his class, against the elites, taking back what is rightfully his, and by extension theirs. He has, essentially, adopted "9 To 5" as his own anthem for change.
Why Oz Kills Alberto Falcone - Oz's Double Cross Plan Explained
An Impulsive Mistake By The Penguin Or A Fatal Character Flaw?
Oz's impulsive murder of Alberto Falcone in the first half of The Penguin episode 1 sets the tone for the show, and establishes Oz's major weakness: disrespect. He kills Carmine Falcone's heir despite knowing he needs him to climb Gotham's underworld ladder, because Alberto reminds him of the reality that he doesn't belong. He shoots him not just because of the insult, but because of its truth, which is what drives him and underpins his entire arc. Oz will do whatever it takes to gain power, or to maintain his self-image, even when it's as idiotic as killing a mob boss.
The Penguin Show Cast & DC Character Guide
Set to release in 2024, The Penguin will continue to flesh out Matt Reeves' Gotham with Colin Farrell set to reprise his role as Oz Cobb.
Oz is a volatile figure, but he's able to spin intricate ploys to protect himself because his real superpower is adaptability and perseverance. His emotional reaction to Alberto mocking him is an important thing to keep an eye on, because he shows elsewhere in episode 1 that he doesn't quite think all plans through, largely because of hubris. He sets up Sal Maroni to take the fall for Alberto's death, but assumes that he'll get away with it because of the Maronis' desire to keep up appearances. That is illogical, but it's based on how Penguin sees the elite world he's muscling in on.
That said, Oz's plan to turn the Falcones' attention to the Maronis is genius. Sal Maroni is in Blackgate Prison because of Carmine Falcone's betrayal of mob rules. He was a rat, but it was Sal who ended up in the cage. Oz effectively lends the Maronis' power back to them to his own benefit, not only removing Sofia's suspicions of his murder of Alberto, but also destabilizing Gotham's criminal hierarchy. How he takes further advantage of that will become clear.
The Penguin's Secret Meaning Is Already Clear
Gotham's Elite Is A Performance, And Oz Knows How To Play It
The idea of performance is a major part of The Penguin, even from episode 1. Oz is an outsider, making his way in the mob world despite his low start in life: he wears what he thinks are classy clothes, drives what he thinks is a flash car, all in an effort to project the right image. Sofia Falcone immediately wrestles with the same conflict, telling Oz that the restaurant her father took her to as a child is too rich for her taste, and relating a story about him paying her to keep her elbows off the table.
For both Oz and Sofia, conformity is an important part of Gotham's hierarchy of power: Oz aspires to be part of it, despite claiming he wants to take it down. He grew up iring mobster Rex Calabrese, who he re as a benevolent, widely respected community leader, but who is based on Selina Kyle's DC Comics father. For Oz, that's the role he wants to adopt, shedding his past, partly because of the pressure put on him by his mother's fantasy that he deserves everything.
Sofia is on the other side of the dynamic, a woman in the mob machine, who LeFranc has been very clear was motivated by a desire to comment on and challenge how female characters tend to be shown in gangster media. She doesn't fit, as her story about her father paying her to conform affirms.
Why Oz Really Doesn't Kill Victor
The Penguin's New Character Plays An Important Role For You And Gotham
On the surface, Oz changes his mind about killing Victor because he recognizes a similar vulnerability in the young Gothamite. When Vic stutters, pleading not to be killed when they first met, Oz is visibly taken aback and his rage subsides. He sees in Victor another broken kid, drawing a parallel between his speech impediment and Penguin's own club foot, which he has worked hard not to acknowledge as a weakness. But as with all things, it's beyond the surface that it gets more interesting.
Victor isn't just an individual character: he's a stand-in for the audience, and an opportunity for Oz to lay out his philosophy in a way that doesn't just come off as exposition. He grooms Victor as he grooms the audience, and Vic is also the nominated representative for all of Gotham's underclasses. When Oz promises him power and wealth taken from the elites, he's promising the same to Gotham: he's forging himself as Rex Calabrese's charismatic replacement, and you can already see the position he imagines for himself when he comes back into play in The Batman Part II.
Sofia Falcone's Hangman Crimes Explained
DC Comics Infamous Serial Killer & What It Means For The Penguin
In the wake of seminal DC Comics arc The Long Halloween, Batman: Dark Victory introduced a new serial killer to Gotham City, who murdered cops with an affiliation with Harvey Dent to implicate Dent as the killer. Sofia Falcone is revealed to be the killer, hanging the bodies of her victims by a noose and pinning hangman clues to them. Her reign of terror is revenge against Two-Face, who murdered her father in the wake of the Holiday Killer being revealed as her brother Alberto.
The Penguin episode 1 establishes that Sofia has just been released from Arkham, and she refers to herself as "the Hangman", suggesting that a version of Dark Victory's story will play out. Obviously, without The Long Halloween set up or Two-Face's involvement, it will have to be a very different adaptation, but the important part: that Sofia was blamed for multiple murders is important background.
What Movie Oz & Victor Watch & Why It's Incredibly Important
The Penguin's Reference To A 1940s Film Noir Is Deeper Than You Realize
As well as the symbolism of Dolly Parton's "9 To 5", The Penguin episode 1 also uses a near 80-year-old movie to suggest deeper meaning. When Oz and Victor visit Francis Cobb, they watch Gilda, Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford's film noir classic famously known as the movie the prisoners watch in The Shawshank Redemption. Oz watches wide-eyed as Hayworth's title character sings "Put The Blame On Maim", a song, he states, about creating a scapegoat, which inspires his plan to absolve himself of blame for Alberto's murder.
Narratively, that's obviously important, because it becomes Oz's epiphany moment, but there's more to Gilda that highlights the brilliance of its choice for the scene. Stylistically, The Penguin draws a lot from film noir: the HBO show's lighting aesthetic might as well be from the 1940s, and while it's in color, Gotham's oppressive character is set in its tones and shadow. We might as well be watching a black and white movie.
Gilda's story specifics are also a strong parallel to The Penguin. It's essentially a love triangle noir, in which Gilda, Ford's character, Farrell, and George Macready's casino manager Mundson become entwined. Gilda and Farrell share a fiery history, and when the former marries Mundson - Farrell's boss with links to organized crime - their dynamic erupts. But Gilda is far more than a straight-batted take on film noir, with barely veiled subtexts that defied Hollywood's strict code at the time of its release.
Key to that is the revelation that Farrell and Mundson's relationship was intended to be more than professional, and that Hayworth's Gilda is more than the femme fatale or a plot device. Key to The Penguin are two things: the presentation of Gilda as a strong female character with her own agency and how her involvement with both Mundson and Farrell brings them all together in a conflict in which none of them are blameless, and everything gets messy.
In effect, Gilda is a prototype for both Sofia - the strong female character - and Oz - the center of a charged conflict both manipulating and being manipulated. Relationships for both, are to be weaponized to our own advantage. Farrell and Mundson are the Falcones and the Maronis, and despite Gilda's tacked-on Hollywood ending (the Code at play again), it's already clear there's not how The Penguin is going to play out.
New episodes of The Penguin release every Sunday night on HBO.
The Penguin
- Release Date
- 2024 - 2024-00-00
- Showrunner
- Lauren LeFranc
- Directors
- Craig Zobel
Cast
Oz Cobb
Sofia Falcone
WHERE TO WATCH
Created by Lauren LeFranc, The Penguin is a crime-drama spin-off television series of 2022's film The Batman. Set shortly after the events of The Batman, Oz Cobb, A.K.A. the Penguin, begins his rise in the underworld of Gotham City as he contends with the daughter of his late boss, Carmine Falcone, for control of the crime family's empire.
- Seasons
- 1
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