The Penguin Season 1 Episode 2 Review: Inside Man

The Penguin Season 1 Episode 2, “Inside Man,” finally puts Victor to work while Oz tries to appeal to both the Falcones and the Maronis.

As the effects of Oz’s actions from The Penguin Season 1 Episode 1, “After Hours,” begin to settle in, Oz, Sofia, and Victor are confronted with several new obstacles. As such, we get treated to a near-hour-long episode with Oz creating new odds and Sofia trying to fit back into her family.

The episode may contain tedious conversations to fill in some narrative gaps left previously. However, it also does a great job of exploring new sides of these iconic characters — such as, Chris Zobel showing Oz’s care for others.

Sure, it was shown that Oz was only looking out for himself at the start. However, that’s changed, thanks to some inspiring words from his mother, Francis, as seen in his previous conversation with her.

This is reflected in the conversations he continually shares with Victor and one of his “broads,” Eve. Oz’s sharing his own insight into Gotham’s underworld with Victor influences you to believe that Oz genuinely wants Victor to be like him. He does so by putting Victor in situations like this little networking thing Oz sets up to keep suspicions off his back.

Yet Victor’s still struggling to fit into this new community. His nervousness really presents itself, whether it be through an easy conversation with one of Eve’s friends or something that really goes wrong later. This might have been hinted at with a brief shot of a poster of the flood rescue, which can open up a whole new chapter in Victor’s arc.

Still, you can’t help but feel bad for Victor because of his accidental encounter with Oz. He tries to do the best he can for Oz with the simplest things, like ordering tacos for Oz and Eve’s party.

Unfortunately, Oz wants to speed things up in Victor’s case because he knows that if Victor falls behind, he’ll fall a step and be punished, whether it’s by Sofia or the Maronis.

Knowing this, Oz tries to keep himself ahead by playing both sides. Desperation comes with desperate measures, as seen when Oz and the Maroni goons hijack one of the Falcones’ shipments at the start.

Oz clearly still has fears of being exposed and that distrust plays into his little interactions. It’s initially played for slight laughs, but the twist that causes that derailing truly captures Oz’s anger just like The Batman did.

Zobel is able to showcase Oz’s ruthlessness to a dime by intricately planting these thoughts for other characters. At the funeral, he does exactly that by relating to Sofia about his own troubled past, his brothers’ deaths, and his mom.

While it does feel like there’s more to be uncovered with Oz’s past, The Penguin‘s persuasive subtlety about this keeps it detailed enough to heighten my interest. You can slightly tell that his story isn’t really truthful, but hey, the man’s got to have an alibi, right?

This drives Sofia to play into Oz’s hands, somewhat unaware of the truth. She also wants to be a step ahead of her family’s game, but she has to wait it out, given her “reputation” preceding her. Her moniker as the “Hangman” actually has its own influence over how others see her, which is surprisingly shown to have its benefits and detriments.

At the beginning of “Inside Man,” it’s obvious that Sofia doesn’t want to have this title because it essentially degrades her to being sadistic. She’s still reeling from being in Arkham for so long, it’s nearly driven her mad to Harley Quinn-levels.

When the Falcones meet later, there are a ton of visual cues that show this aura of fear surrounding Sofia. Sure, she may be cold-hearted like her father Carmine, yet she still has this empathy for others who truly respect her and vice versa. 

Later in the episode, she meets with one of her friends and her daughter, who Sofia tries to warm up to. However, because of what she’s done, Sofia isn’t trusted with interacting with literally anyone. Not even Johnny Viti nor her uncle, Luca, fully trust her with the reigns of the family.

All of this climaxes in a dangerous game of “whodunnit,” given how Oz rushes to cover his tracks. Tying back to the opening scenes, a survivor of the hijack was found and taken by the Falcones for his witness statement.

Due to Victor not being able to carry out his part of Oz’s plan, Oz adapts by killing the survivor. However, there’s this tension that makes you wonder whether Oz will get away with the act or not, given the timeliness of everything happening. It makes you think Johnny will be the one who gets caught out as he scuffles with Oz.

Surprisingly, though, this isn’t the case, as Oz somehow plants the knife on Sofia’s guard. I’ll say that it was somewhat of an interesting twist, but I also knew that it would be unlikely for The Penguin to get rid of an important character this early on.

Yet, it’s not even the biggest emotional twist of the episode. That comes when Oz forces Victor to dig his own grave with the two bodies due to his failure. It might feel like a repeat of The Penguin Season 1 Episode 1, “After Hours,” with Oz holding Victor at gunpoint, but it also feels more stressful here.

In the episode’s final moments, as Victor is ordered by Oz to lie with the corpses, I really start to hope that it won’t lead to his eventual death. The terror that shows on Victor’s face influences you to believe that further, but in reality, all of this was another formative lesson from the rising kingpin to stoke more confidence in Victor.

Given what the two have gone through so far, The Penguin begins to show that it’s as much an “apprenticeship” story as it is a criminal thriller. Each episode may have its own teaching moments for the two to share along the way, albeit in ways that fit with this world’s dark tone.

With all this newfound trust and capability, Oz is given an opportunity to team up with Sofia, thanks to his indirect and twisted planning. Everything seems to flow smoothly, and it will definitely be interesting to see how their “partnership”  will develop in the episodes to come.

Stray Thoughts:

• I think Francis’s dementia might play a role in Oz’s backstory and potentially reveal the truth about what happened to Oz’s brothers, but until that’s shown, it remains unknown!
• That dream/hallucination sequence that Sofia had keeps making me think about Harley Quinn for some reason. I think it’s because of that suspiciously enticing laughter at the beginning.
• We love a bilingual prince and Oz happily becomes that in the middle of the episode!
• I really love The Penguin using a lot of ’40s-’60s tunes in its soundtrack like it did on Episode 1. I do have to figure out what song that is, though.

What did you think of this episode of The Penguin? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Penguin airs Sundays at 9 PM ET/PT on Max.

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