Amidst betrayals, murders, shifting alliances, and broken family ties, Gotham’s underworld goes through a major change in the fifth episode of Max’s The Penguin, titled Homecoming, as the rivalry between Sofia and Oz leaves a trail of havoc and destruction. While the fourth episode chronicled Sofia’s sordid past, dysfunctional family relationships, and her reaction to heal her trauma by gassing her entire family to death, the fifth episode brings the focus back on Oz, who is clearly punching above his weight at this point by making some daring calls and taking decisions fueled by his ego and bloated ambitions. As the series approaches its last lap, the pacing is noticeably fast, character interactions become much more personal in nature, and the chaotic, unhinged energy that characterizes Gotham City as a whole creeps inside the narrative.
Spoilers Ahead
Oz Puts the Maronis In Vice Grip
The beginning of the episode links up directly with Oz and Vic’s escape from Nadia Maroni in the climactic scene of the third episode, as after reaching safety, Oz sets his luxury car ablaze to avoid detection. Once again he alludes to his childhood gangster idol Rex Calabrese’s riches while speaking with Vic, to share how upset he is after losing his prized wheels, but really to drive the message home about how much he craves the power and influence that people like Falcone and Maronis possess. However, to get to that position, he needs to retrieve the mushrooms to synthesize the Bliss, which is at Nadia Maroni’s disposal as of now. Oz knows how to force the Maronis to return the mushrooms, and he proceeds to abduct Sal and Nadia’s son, Taj Maroni, from their residence with the help of his Drops crew. Vic has really stepped up big time ever since making the decision to stay by Oz’s side, as he has no qualms about knocking Taj Maroni out by punching him in the face. Going to Blackgate, Oz forces Carmine and Nadia to negotiate a deal of returning the mushrooms in exchange for Taj’s life and secretly pays off a prison guard while leaving, instructing him to take down Sal.
The series of rash decisions Oz is making has put Eve and her girls in danger, as Oz has dragged them into the mess as well, and Eve promptly shares her frustration with him when Oz brings his crew, along with a captive Taj, into her apartment. While Oz prepares to make the exchange with Nadia, he instructs Vic to go to his mother, Francis Cobb, to ensure her safety. Oz trusts Vic enough to assign him a duty so important, shrugging off Vic’s eagerness to assist him during the exchange.
Sofia Gigante Is In Charge
Following the death of the entire Falcone family, except for Sofia, that is, and Johnny Viti, who remains missing, GCPD Chief MacKenzie Bock pays a visit to the Falcone mansion and begins to question Sofia about the incident. Sofia and her niece Gia remained unscathed as they were at the family greenhouse, and the coincidence doesn’t sit right with Chief Bock. We have previously seen Bock trying to even intimidate the Caped Crusader himself in The Batman, and at present, he proves to be sharp enough to not buy into Sofia’s effort of spinning the tragedy as having to do with Johnny Viti’s affair with Luca’s wife. He is clearly suspicious of Sofia, even though she manages to temporarily throw him off her trail by mocking the GCPD’s past reputation of being Falcone’s foot soldiers.
Secretly, Sofia has held Johnny captive inside the family mausoleum and tortured him to get access to Carmine’s stack of cash. Initially, Johnny refuses to assist her, knowing how disposable he will become to her right after that, but at the end, realizing that Sofia will torture him to death otherwise anyway, Johnny decides to appeal to her sentimental side. Johnny reveals how sorry he is, or at least pretends to be, to have introduced his sister, Isabella, to Carmine in the first place and how she was unable to leave Carmine for the sake of her children and ended up paying the ultimate price. Clearly, Johnny assumes that the memory of Sofia’s mother will make her feel sympathetic and allow his survival in the long run, as he offers his assistance to Sofia to help her take the reins of family business.
Sofia arrives at Isabella’s room and dons her coat as she is prepared to start a new phase of her life by wiping the slate clean. Julian Rush meets with Sofia to assure her that he will stay by her side, and as Sofia meets up with the Falcone crew, Rush and Johnny are seen present among them as well. Sofia admits to killing her family in front of the crew and announces that she will change their crime family name from Falcone to her mother’s maiden surname, Gigante. Johnny decides to object and ends up getting a bullet in his brains, courtesy of Sofia Gigante. The only reason Sofia had kept him alive was to gain the cold hard cash stashed away by Carmine, which she distributes among her crew—and takes control over them through fear and greed, the two biggest motivators for the ones below Sofia’s social strata. Sofia embraces her mother’s identity, but ironically enough, killing her entire family, she has proven that she is Carmine’s daughter after all.
Francis and Vic’s Homecoming
Meanwhile, Vic finds Francis in a miserable state, and her dementia-afflicted mind initially mistakes Vic as one of her sons. However, upon recognizing him, Francis is quick to share her disapproval of Oz for not even being able to take care of his mother himself. Francis’ house might be a mess; her memories might be failing her at this point of life to such an extent that she has to note down her basic chores, but she is strangely alert when Vic speaks to her about the Falcone family deaths, and she seems aware of the Maroni-Falcone rivalry. Oz inherited Francis’ ambitions of gaining wealth and power; Vic is aware of the fact, which is why he lies to Francis about Oz bringing an end to the Falcone crime family. Unlike Vic’s father, whose morality and ethics were conventionally upright, Francis and Oz share a different kind of belief about righteousness, and Vic knows that all too well. In Francis’ apartment, the 80s crime thriller Gloria is seen to be playing on TV. Given the movie’s plotline revolves around a middle-aged woman’s struggle to protect a young kid from mobsters, it seems like it might be a hint at Oz and his mother’s past, which will surely be unraveled in the upcoming episodes.
On the other hand, Oz’s negotiation with Nadia goes terribly wrong, as both parties end up double crossing each other. Nadia has brought her enforcers to kill Oz at the spot, who are taken care of by Oz and his accomplice Bruno within a few seconds, and Oz is revealed to have drenched Taj in gasoline as he burns down both mother and son after they are reunited. Oz remains too busy to marvel at his craftsmanship to notice the fire suppression system has turned on, which already ruins the majority of the mushrooms before Oz and Bruno can escape with the stash. To make things even more interesting, Sal survives the assassination attempt and even manages to escape from Blackgate off screen, and now he is breathing down Oz’s neck as well. In practical terms, Oz has burned his bridges with Maronis and Falcones and now has only two buckets of mushrooms, which aren’t enough to support the weight of his ambition of starting a crime empire. Vic informs an exasperated Oz about Francis’ wellbeing, but in his desperate state Oz cannot advise him what a safe place might be. Vic makes a judgment call and brings Francis to his neighborhood, Crown Point. Being the most impoverished area of the city, this is the least likely spot for any powerful hotshot to snoop into. Vic takes Francis inside one of his friend’s apartments, and it is revealed that back in the day, Francis used to live in the destitute eastside of Gotham as well. Unbeknownst to Vic, Squid—the drug dealer Vic was trying to avoid—sees him entering the apartment with Francis. Will this guy end up causing major problems for Oz and Francis’ safety? Upcoming episodes will answer that.
Why Did Sofia Join Hands With Salvatore?
At his hideout, Salvatore Maroni mourns the death of his family—unlike Carmine, Sal seems to prioritize his family over his business. Sofia meets Sal by locating the hideout and using her crew to kill Sal’s guards, and proposes to form an alliance against Oz. As both of them have been wronged by the cunning schemester, the enemy of your enemy policy proves to be effective in influencing Sal join hands with Sofia, not that he had other options anyway with both his family and influence gone. Interestingly, in the Long Halloween comics, Sofia Gigante was in a relationship with Sal, and even though there is no romantic connection between them in the TV series, the rival crime families finally unite with both of them in the lead.
Oz decides to take Eve with him to the Crown Point safehouse where Vic has taken Francis, but Eve refuses to accompany him any longer, resulting in Oz having a meltdown. In the middle of the night, Oz arrives at the apartment and meets Francis, who seems to be holding a grudge against her son for not being attentive towards her and bringing her to a place where her painful memories of old days have started creeping up. Letting Francis rest, Oz meets with Vic and reminisces about life back in the day with his brothers, but remains strangely vague when Vic asks what happened to them. Sidetracking Vic’s questions, Oz takes him to Gotham’s abandoned subterranean trolley station and uses a generator to power up the area. Oz plans to use the trolley station as his base of operation, as the humidity will allow the mushrooms to grow, kick-starting the Bliss production anew. There is an unmistakable visual similarity Oz’s new lair shares with Bruce’s underground metro station-turned Batcave in The Batman, adhering to the series’ tendency to parallel opposing elements. The episode comes to a close as the generator abruptly stops, leaving Oz and Vic in the dark—possibly hinting their fate in the near future with a comedic undertone.
