Winter has come to Gotham, with all its snowy beauty and cold cruelty—and fans will surely recognize what a unique connection Batman lore shares with the brutal season. As the sixth episode of Max’s ongoing DC Comics crime thriller, The Penguin, opens after a significant time gap, changing power dynamics bring personal demons out of hiding—and set the stage for terrible things to come still. Previously, after eliminating all of her family members, Sofia rechristened the Falcone crime family by the maiden name of her mother, Gigante. Oz strikes hard at the Maronis by killing Sal’s wife and son while taking back the mushrooms to produce Bliss. Sofia joined hands with Sal, while Oz decided to move to Crown Point with his mother, Francis, and Vic and set up his base of operation in the underground trolley station. The latest episode, titled “Gold Summit,” shows Oz gathering strength to counter the combined might of Sofia and Sal Maroni while remaining oblivious to the fact that Sofia is dangerously close to getting her revenge on him.
Spoilers Ahead
Bliss on the Street
The sixth episode opens with a significant time gap, long enough for Oz’s operation to bloom and Bliss to take over the streets of Gotham. The opening scene, as Vic rides his bike to the underground entrance of the trolley station, is a visual parallel to the scene when Bruce Wayne rides his bike to enter the Batcave in “The Batman,” despite the stark difference in motivations of each of the characters remaining noticeable. The business is booming as smaller gangs on Gotham’s East Side —Burnley Town Massive, Odessa Mob, Sullivans, and Loboyz—have successfully spread Bliss across the city. However, the East Side continues to be neglected by the administrators who work on whims of the socialite class, and the majority of Oz’s operations at Crown Point are dependent solely on generators as electric supply hasn’t been restored after the flood.
Vic has stepped up real fast as he is dealing with the Bliss supply chain and dodging the prying gaze of Gigante-Maroni enforcers in the process. Oz is making sure to keep fanning the flames of Vic’s ambition by presenting themselves as the saviors of Crown Point—it is Oz’s wish to be remembered by the people like his gangster idol Rex Calabrese was, and his Bliss business just might be his shot to the kind of fame he desires.
Sofia’s relationship with Julian is highlighted once again, but more than intimacy or feelings, the focus is once again in the dynamics of power and control. Sal has made himself comfortable at the Falcone mansion, cooking up traditional Italian recipes passed on by his late wife, Nadia, and fuming in anger at the fact that the person responsible for her murder is roaming scot-free. Sofia decides to crack down upon the gangs who are doing business with Oz, and as a number of enforcers from the Sullivans are killed, Sofia makes sure to convey her involvement to Oz by hanging their corpses and chopping off their fingers. In response, Oz decides to double down on the supply by ensuring free flow of Bliss across the city. His plan is to take his business to a global level with the help of the Triad, and a little flexing by the Gigante-Maronis is not going to scare him off.
Francis’ Request to Oz
At the Crown Point apartment where Oz, Vic, and Francis are living together, situations have taken a bad turn with the beginning of harsh winter, and Francis can’t help but convey her disappointment with her son as she is having a hard time in the freezing cold. By now Vic has learned all her beats, or at least he thinks he has done so, as when Francis, guided by her faulty memory, decides to move to Oz’s late brother, Rex’s, Vic simply feeds her imagination by mentioning her other son, Jack, is on his way to take care of the situation. Oz is surprised and irritated at this gesture, mentioning that lying to his mother just to ease her mental agony will only worsen her condition. An interesting dynamic is highlighted between Francis and Vic in this episode, as she seems to already consider Vic as her own son, possibly because he says things that Francis wants to hear.
Later on, Oz finds Francis in a terrible situation as she cries for help after getting stuck in the bathtub; her physical and mental faculties are constantly deteriorating—and even though Oz promises to move her to a better place, at the moment the poor woman has found herself in a bad spot with her mortality becoming her primary concern. A proud, strong woman, Francis is not willing to meet her end in pain of losing her memory, turning into a husk of the person she used to be—and she makes her son promise her that, if the situation calls for it, he will help put her out of her misery. While this is a painful reality Oz has to accept, this mother-son conversation also seems to be hinting at a troubling future Oz has to face soon enough. But for now, Oz tries to bring a bit of joy back to Francis’ life by dressing her up, comparing her with Gilda from Rita Hayworth’s movie of the same name, while ‘Put the Blame on Mame,’ a song from the same movie, highlights the reference further.
Vic’s Descent to Darkness
Meanwhile, Vic has moved up in life, something which Squid, the local ‘Drop’ pusher at Crown Point, has noticed as well, and he is already connecting the dots about Vic and his boss Oz being in the chain of command of something monetarily lucrative. Squid threatens Vic with Francis’ life, unless he gets him into whatever business Oz is dealing with. Now, even though Vic tries to mention this to Oz, he remains busy worrying about Francis and other things and trusts Vic to take care of this situation. And Vic does that as well, by shooting Squid to death the next time the duo meet. Taking a life for the first time (a car crash doesn’t count), Vic is overwhelmed by fear, but more than remorse, a sense of disdain and denial creeps in his mind as he utters the same old line repeated by perpetrators: ‘Why did the victim make them do it?’ It’s a question which Oz can answer well enough, as he whispers in Vic’s ear while consoling him—that it gets easier after the first kill. There is no saving this kid from Oz.
In the meantime, Oz goes uptown to pay a visit to councilman Hady to remind him that Crown Point exists in Gotham as well, remaining as a derelict dump since the floods, and while torturing him with a pair of pliers, threatens Hady to fix the issue with electrical supply to the neighborhood before his patience runs out. Oz makes sure Hady remembers his name, not as ‘Carmine’s guy’ this time around, as Hady scurries away fast.
Eve Betrays Oz
On the other hand, Sofia and Sal are hell-bent on making Oz suffer the way they have by losing their close ones at the hands of the schemester, as the duo try desperately to find a personal connection to Oz. At Oz’s former apartment, Sofia finds a picture of Eve, and she quickly finds a link to her through Roxy. However, Sofia is taken aback after reaching Eve’s apartment, as she seems to be expecting her arrival anyway, and Eve reveals that Roxy followed her command to share her address with Sofia. Eve lies to Sofia about not knowing Oz’s whereabouts, and they go back and forth with each other as Sofia questions the nature of the relationship Eve had with Oz, while Eve hits back with Sofia’s reputation as the born with a silver spoon in her mouth Hangman killer. Eve personally knew the victims of the infamous serial killer, who worked at 44 Below, and has a certain amount of disdain for Sofia—who she thinks to be the Hangman Killer. At this point, Sofia is able to expose Oz’s deceit by revealing that it was her father, Carmine, who did all the killings and pinned the blame on her, and despite knowing everything, Oz allowed Sofia to be thrown under the bus by her father—in order to rise up the ranks. Eve thought she knew Oz pretty well, until this shocking revelation shook her to the core, and as Sofia decided to spare her life, Eve voluntarily shared Oz’s present address at Crown Point with her. A betrayal like this was long overdue for Oz, who was so busy bluffing everyone that he forgot to check his own cards in the first place. Oz broke Eve’s trust as well, and it’s time for him to pay for his actions.
Will Sofia Kidnap Oswald’s Mother?
Oz brings together all the gangs of the East Side of Gotham, including Triad chief Zhao, to form an alliance against the Gigante-Maroni union, the crime families who have been feeding off of the city for way too long. Zhao shares his doubts about Oz’s reputation of shifting alliances, which Oz accepts while diverting the focus of the gang leaders to the big fish. Oz has a way with his words, which works really well in this situation too; he presents himself as a small-time guy trying to take back the control of the city from those who exercise it, to give it to with whom it belongs. The gang leaders, impressed by Oz’s words, agree to join his side—and even Zhao comes around as well. Although, from the looks of it, the Triad’s loyalty remains questionable.
Power returns to Crown Point, and seeing Francis all giddy while enjoying her music, Vic decides to let go of his guilt-stricken self for a bit and helps the old lady to forget her woes as he breaks a leg with her. The moment is marred by an ominous situation as Sofia, steadily watching the duo, has found Oz’s apartment at Crown Point. Oz had lied to Sofia about his mother’s passing, and now Sofia realizes that she has the opportunity to settle scores with Oz for Alberto’s death by taking Francis hostage, or worse, taking her away from him. The opportunity to take back her Bliss business also remains open at the same time if Sofia is up for negotiating a deal with Oz, but that option seems unlikely given her vengeful streak up to this point.
