The penultimate episode of HBO’s The Penguin sets up a highly intriguing finale as Oz fights to save his mother. Here’s our The Penguin episode 7 review.
The end is nigh for The Penguin, both the TV series and Colin Farrell’s titular villain. In fact, episode 7 of the series marks the first time that anyone has referred to Oz Cobb as The Penguin, but that’s probably the least exciting thing about the episode, which is jam-packed with action.
Last week’s episode ended on a cliffhanger as Oz managed to get the power back to the apartment where he was hiding his mother. As Oz was busy uniting all of Gotham’s gangs against Sofia and Sal, Sofia sneaked into the apartment, ready to strike against Vic and Oz’s mother Francis.
If you’re wondering what happened to them, you’ll have to wait. The penultimate episode of The Penguin opens with a young Oz as he’s hanging out with his mother. Oz is a bit of a mummy’s boy, as we quickly find out, but he’s also desperate to be taken just as seriously as his brothers. Oz’s brothers Jack and Benny have been referenced throughout The Penguin, but episode 7 finally explores exactly what happened in Oz’s childhood that left Francis so traumatised.
Once we return to the present day, we mostly follow Oz’s attempts to save his mother. Meawhile, Sofia learns that the little girl, Gia, whom she spared from the gas leak that she used to kill the rest of her family, is about to reveal to the police what she saw that night. Naturally, Sofia goes over and has a little chat with her. It’s in this scene that we really see what a transformation Sofia has gone through.
Just like Vic last week, there is barely a shadow of the old Sofia on screen now. Not only does she have a fierce new haircut and a killer wardrobe, she’s become cold and emotionless, blaming Oz for the turn her life has taken. It’s only when she speaks to Gia that we see that mask come off momentarily, sending Sofia on a spiral of emotions.
We don’t want to reveal too much of the episode’s twists and turns here, but we will say that this is perhaps the most tense episode of The Penguin yet. Those first 10 minutes give us crucial insight into Oz, who has remained a difficult character to crack. We’ve previously argued that it’s exhausting to always have to empathise with villains, but week after week, The Penguin only doubles down on Oz’s villainous ways. Even as we gain insight into how and why he became the man we see in the present day, showrunner Lauren LeFranc never asks us to be on his side or to lend him any real empathy.
Part of the purpose of a penultimate episode is to set up an exciting finale. The Penguin has been incredibly strong from the beginning, but it has slightly struggled to find its balance between Oz and Sofia’s stories. All of the individual episodes are excellent but if you stop to consider the series as a whole, there’s an awful lot going on.
We’ll have to wait until next week to see if LeFranc and her team are able to pull everything together. Oz, Sofia and Vic all have had engrossing storylines, but the endgame is a little unclear. At the moment, there are no confirmed plans for more seasons of The Penguin, but Farrell is already confirmed to appear in The Batman Part II. We’re hopeful that next week’s finale will also serve Sofia and Vic well and it won’t be the last we see of them.
