The Penguin – Season 1 Episode 8 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

A Great or Little Thing

Episode 8 of The Penguin begins with Francis in the past. Under the guidance of Dr Julian, she ends up reliving the grief-stricken moments of finding out about the boys’ death. She’s bitter and angry, but also resentful of Oz too, knowing he’s responsible for their murders. She spills all of this to Rex, pointing out she has the “devil in the house” and isn’t sure what to do.

What does Rex propose Francis do with Oz?

Well, Rex believes he can serve a purpose within the criminal world but he also needs to be controlled. Rex broaches the idea of ignoring what he’s done to his sibling and instead, mould him into becoming something great… or just, y’know “let him go”.

This ties into the time of bringing Oz along to the club, the scenes we saw briefly in episode 7. Rex is there but at this point, the vision is fractured when she ends up seeing Sofia there. It’s a brief intermission, but a reminder that we’re seeing things through her eyes.

Her facade is cracked a bit when Oz spills his guts out about how he’s going to prove himself to her and become great. “Just don’t give up on me,” He says.

What happens with Victor and Oz?

Back in the present, Victor sees the explosion from the underground and realizes Oz is caught in the midst of this. The triad notice this and decide that they’re done, and walk away. Victor is passionate and stands up for himself, but he also gets a swift punch to the gut as a reminder that he needs to be careful not to step out of line. After all, they’re here for the product, not Penguin.

Victor shows up at the scene though, desperate to find Oz. He is still alive, but barely. He’s tied to a chair and brought to Sofia. Francis is also there tied up and gagged too. At least temporarily anyway. We soon get an impromptu intervention here, as Sofia brings up some hard truths.

Sofia tortures Francis while Oz feigns ignorance. That is, until Francis brings up that she always knew what he did. The thing is, Oz was willing to let his mother’s finger be cut off to keep this facade going and his villainy instincts are shown for all to see.

How does Francis react to the truth?

Francis cuts Oz far deeper though, bringing up how he’s a disappointment and the devil… before stabbing him right in the gut. Just after, she collapses on the ground but it’s enough for Oz to free himself from his binds, grab a handgun from the nearest guard and fight back. He takes off with Francis and rushes away to the hospital.

While Francis goes into surgery, Victor is reunited with Oz. The latter has lost a lot of his initial faith but Victor rallies him back to the cause. After all, despite all the bad things he’s done, he’s also got the power back on in Crown Point and stood up for the everyday man.

The Triad and the other gang leaders, sensing the winds of change, decides to head over and see Sofia. The thing is, Sofia is not sticking around. There’s nothing left for her in Gotham and she intends to high-tail it out. However, that leaves behind all of her territories and businesses, available to whoever brings her Oz.

What is Penguin’s plan?

With a manhunt about to get underway, Oz realizes he needs to go at this a different way. Into the “Lion’s Den” as he calls it. Link rings in the midst of this though and warns about the bounty on Penguin’s head. Funnily enough, Victor’s words actually get through to him, and a coup is well underway.

As for Oz, he’s a slippery customer and decides to convince the Councilman to play ball. After all, this work at Crown Point lends itself nicely to the idea of Sofia being an unhinged lunatic that never should have been released from Arkham.

In exchange for handing the councilman all of this on a silver platter and skyrocketing his career, Oz wants a key into the bigtime to meet some of the influential players in Gotham – including Bella Real. However, Oz will need to clean up his act to do so, but it’s a good route back all the same. 

How is Sofia duped?

When Oz leaves, Link shows to confront him. Feng rings Sofia to let her know, and they agree to meet at Hangar 5. Oh, but not before Sofia sets light to a whole bunch of clothes which, subsequently, burns the whole mansion. Sofia sticks a massive middle finger at her family’s legacy by doing this, letting everything go up in flames.

When Sofia  shows up to see Oz, it turns out all of this was one big ruse. Feng Zhao is killed, along with all of Sofia’s goons. Sofia herself is kept alive though, realizing she’s been played and walks right into his trap.

Oz and Sofia go for a drive, just like old times. Oz explains that Link was tired of being overlooked and much like the others in the gangs playing second fiddle to the leaders, Victor and Oz managed to get through to the subordinates and convince them to rise up. Oz wants to believe he’s a man of the people, although it’s definitely not fooling Sofia.

With a gun pointed to her, Oz decides to send her to Hell. This is, of course, the cruelest of fates for Sofia, as she’s handcuffed by the officers that show up and sent back to Arkham. Oz slips away as Sofia is shocked. It’s a proper villanious thing to do, and Oz is in a celebratory mood after all of this.

What happens to Francis?

Oz is proud of himself but Francis is a shell of the woman she was before. She’s suffered from a serious stroke and as a result, been left in a vegetative state. All of this is a cruel twist of fate for Oz too, who has always been desperate for Francis’ attention and affection. Now that she’s in this state, she’ll never tell him that she’s proud of him.

As the realization hits Oswald, he breaks down crying. Victor is there to offer some support but similarly, he too has been looking for recognition. He certainly gets it, as Oz praises him for seeing the connection with Link and bringing him in. Victor even calls him family too.

Unfortunately, this is the worst thing he could have said. Oz’s demeanour changes. He knows family is a weakness and so he chokes him out and kills the kid.

As for Sofia, she’s in a rough way. That is, until Dr Julian shows up with a letter from Selina Kyle. Apparently, she’s Sofia’s half-sister and as Sofia reads the words in the letter, she immediately perks up.

How does The Penguin end?

The episode concludes with Penguin on top of the world. He’s a big-time player in Gotham and has a penthouse suite for his mum, just as he promised. Albeit, not quite in the way he envisioned as she’s confined to her chair and unable to really interact with anybody.

It’s a horrific fate but Oz isn’t too torn up about it. In fact, he’s got Eve with him, dressed up to look like his mum and fed lines to give the illusion of her being proud of him.

As the camera pans across the penthouse, we see the bat symbol flicker on in the sky. Could Penguin’s empire be about to come crashing down around him?

The Episode Review

The finale for The Penguin is really the tour de force of this entire series. An ending is always the hardest part of any story to nail but The Penguin does it effortlessly, encapsulating all the drama, trauma and tension we’ve felt across the entire 8 episodes into one swansong of epic proportions.

The crux of the issue here has always been Oswald’s incessant need for his mother’s approval. Not being able to get that at any point in this series, while also getting a physical and mental hit to the gut when his mum tells him he’s the devil and deserves to die, is a fate worse than death for him.

Oz is clearly remorseless and was even willing to let his mum’s finger be cut off to keep the truth from slipping out. It really shows what sort of person he is, and even right at the end, as some form of humanity comes back, we see Oz’s true face rear its ugly head.

Oswald has always been an opportunist and he clearly sensed that Victor may have slowed him down, or at least put a serious chink in his armour going forward. After all, he’s been with Oz from the start of his bumpy ride to crime boss, and knows the man’s weaknesses.

From Oz’s perspective, this makes sense. However, it’s still a despicable act, and maybe in some way, he could also be doing this because he doesn’t want to get too close to Victor and see him used as a pawn like his mum was.

What’s particularly great about this show is how multifaceted it has made its characters. We’re never under the illusion that we’re following a good character, or have the writers try to explain away a villain’s actions through no fault of their own. Oz is a weasel and a son of a bitch through and through; the way he dispatched Sofia is cruel, callous and absolutely brutal. Penguin knows that Arkham is her version of Hell, and sending her back there is a horrific fate that she’s had to endure.

All in all, The Penguin has been prestige TV at its best. This has been an incredible miniseries and another reminder that this isn’t “superhero fatigue” but very much “bad show” fatigue. Now if DC could get their act together and produce more content like this, that would be great!