After an excellent opening episode, The Penguin episode 2 settles into its groove. It’s a slower burn, consciously removed from the usual pulp of DC comic book adaptations, but which continues to hit its premium TV marks. It still feels like Colin Farrell’s Oz Cobb is positioning chess pieces around the board, but The Penguin episode 2’s ending sets up an explosive new direction for the show.
Picking up immediately after the grim reveal of Alberto Falcone’s body at the end of The Penguin episode 1, the newest episode of The Batman‘s first spin-off takes a slight step back to get more under the skin of the characters. We immediately get more of a sense of why The Penguin is drawing so many parallels to The Sopranos, rather than retelling familiar stories set in Gotham City.
The Penguin Episode 2 Delves Deeper Into Oz Cobb
Colin Farrell Continues To Be Excellent As The Penguin
The changes to Oz Cobb’s backstory are more evident here: not only in the suggestion of the death of his brothers, but also in the confirmation of how he came to work for the Falcones. Oz being an accidental opportunist is a fairly radical change from his recognized DC Comics origin, but it fits how Colin Farrell plays the character. It also reinforces the idea that Oz is a man of the people, and in his own mind, their appointed representative.
Crashing into that idea hard is the image of who Oz Cobb really is. We see more of his backstory, and the vulnerability of his mother’s condition, but at the same time, the episode’s third act shows exactly what he’s capable of. These reminders are important, because humanizing Oz would be The Penguin’s failure when he has to pull villain duties against Robert Pattinson’s Batman again in the future. He cannot be too likable, no matter how confusingly well the show makes him sympathetic.
Once more, Farrell is excellent in episode 2. He may have started as a grand strategist, but it’s now becoming obvious that his actual superpower is resilience. He’s adaptable in the most perilous of situations and his choices backfire so impressively that he’s forced to pull that power out at almost every turn. Crucially, Oz is not an infallible genius: he’s not so much playing 3D chess with the other power-brokers of Gotham, but rather reacting to the series of unfortunate events he’s unleashed. Farrell sells that idea strongly.
It’s Clear The Penguin Is Going To Take Its Time
Don’t Expect Major Revelations & Twists At Every Turn
Be wary of those who claim The Penguin is boring: yes, it’s slow, but only if you associate the value of comic book adaptations with how much you can clip out for social media point-scoring. This is measured, rewarding storytelling that burns slowly, but no less brilliantly. There is, by design, a lot of scenes of characters talking – which used to be the real mark of premium TV shows – and there is already important work being done to make the most important figures feel substantial.
The urgency of the second half of the episode is successful in its claustrophobic agenda, as Oz tries to stop his betrayal of the Falcones under wraps. That said, the one pacing issue I couldn’t ignore was the decision to cut the Drops heist down to a few minutes: it was the kind of action set-piece that could have gone a lot further, and the end result is of comparative dissatisfaction.
The Penguin episode 2 also introduces a secret weapon to Gotham: knowledge. In this dark world of corruption and back-stabbing, knowledge is power, and while he doesn’t necessarily have intellect or physical strength, Oz is a master manipulator of knowledge. His emerging backstory explains how he existed on the sidelines, absorbing information, and he’s now looking to exploit what he knows. Just as The Batman was all about secrets, The Penguin is too about weaponizing those secrets.
Cristin Milioti’s Sofia Falcone Continues To Shine
Sofia Has Plans, And We’re IN!
Cristin Milioti’s performance as Sofia Falcone continues to grow impressively, and it’s hard not to see her as the most interesting element at the minute. She balances vulnerability and rage, hinting – often quite blatantly – at The Penguin’s subversive message of upstarts taking up space. Despite the opening of the episode spending very little time in Arkham, through Sofia, we have a very real and very ominous sense of the place.
Most intriguing is the way the episode plays with the biggest question hanging over Sofia: is she actually the unhinged villain her reputation suggests? Did she really kill 7 women? It’s not something we’re going to find out yet, but Milioti’s performance cunningly teases both sides. There’s more than enough to suggest she is capable of terrible things, but she balances it with fierce intelligence, and a deep melancholy I could watch endlessly.
The episode also introduces the Joker/Harley Quinn-like dynamic of Sofia and Theo Rossi’s Dr Julian Rush. He’s an interesting case, a seemingly gentle soul despite his Arkham employment, thanks to Rossi’s subtle performance. His besotted affection for Sofia is also immediately obvious. As is Sofia’s apparent conflict over him: this is like a newly interesting take on Joker and Harley where the abuse element is institutional rather than personal.
Notes On The Penguin Episode 2’s Supporting Characters
Not Everyone In The Penguin Is As Great As Farrell & Milioti
The Penguin episode 2 also introduces Luca Falcone, Carmine Falcone’s brother who takes over the family in his wake. He’s played by Scott Cohen and does passably well. The problem for the character is he has to appear weak and unlikable while simultaneously selling the power of his position. As a result, he’s not really that interesting, and feels like a narrative device over a performance.
Michael Kelly’s underboss Johnny Viti is far more interesting, perhaps because he’s the target of Oz’s plan and organically shows more extreme emotion. You want to see more of him and he’s interesting enough to know there’s more story to be revealed around him. Luca is there, but he feels more like story will move around him.
Into the mix again comes Sal Maroni (Clancy Brown), who is sidelined by design in Blackwater, but who is thoroughly believable as a power broker. Part of that comes down to Brown’s casting: he’s a hugely imposing presence, even sat at a prison table, and The Penguin artfully avoids painting him as a victim of Oz’s machinations. I want more of these grander characters, and The Penguin is a little poorer for its lack of more outrageous Rogues Gallery figures.
We also get more of Victor’s backstory and the confirmation that he is the stand-in for all of Gotham’s residents, pulled, like Oz, from the sidelines into the strange world of the criminal elite. Naturally, this is Gotham, so a tragic origin is mandatory, and Rhenzy Feliz is disarmingly charismatic in his wide-eyed, occasionally terrified demeanor. He is a great mirror for Oz, and seeing how The Penguin corrupts him is already very rewarding.
New episodes of The Penguin release every Sunday on HBO and Max at 9pm ET.