The Penguin Season 1 Episode 7 Review: Top Hat

The Penguin Season 1 Episode 7, “Top Hat”, is a dramatic penultimate episode filled with hard truths and deep realizations that showcase how cunning Oz Cobb and Sofia Gigante really are.

Though previous episodes, like “Gold Summit” and “Homecoming”, were particularly focused on moving the narrative, this one is different. Here, those threads finally weave themselves together not just to tie up loose ends, but to dig into their harsher selves. As a good way of putting it, “desperate times call for desperate measures.”

This begins to show through Oz, whose story this episode opens up like Victor’s backstory in “Bliss”. However, Oz’s story goes all the way back to his childhood, when he still had his brothers, Jack and Benny, around.

In this flashback, we get to learn about the circumstances that led Oz down the path he’s on now. Being the middle child, he was the attention-seeker that always wanted to be with his mom, Francis. Yet, Francis always paid more to Oz’s other brothers and her work keeping the illegal books.

Due to Francis’s attention being directed elsewhere and his brothers taking advantage of that, Oz is unable to do much for his family. With Oz’s personality and his personal ambition, it allows his ruthlessness to peak through. He wants to be the breadwinner for his mom; if his brothers get in the way of that, so be it.

However, Oz is still forced to hide the truth from her even as he gets older. He doesn’t want Francis to realize what he’s done because he can’t bear the mental consequences it’ll have for the both of them. By keeping her in this fugue-like state, he can keep her.

In a way, Oz maintaining this facade for Francis is like him playing house with his mother. He wants to be able to control the situation, which he’s been able to do with Victor at his side. Unfortunately, Sofia takes advantage of Francis with the help of Dr. Rush.

In “Gold Summit”, Sofia Gigante (Falcone no more!) was able to kidnap Francis Cobb in order to pull Oz out of hiding. By doing so, she now has the upper hand in getting Oz to do what she wants. Although, she also still has Sal to do her bidding, which feels somewhat odd.

For the first few episodes, the antagonistic focus was placed on Sal Maroni and his rollup with Oz. Sal was very pragmatic and cunning, but he’s been more aggressive recently. Now, he’s pretty much relegated to being a side character as shown when he catches Oz off guard, temporarily taking his operation.

When Oz finally decides to take back his turf from Sal, it was somewhat disturbing to see him go out like that. I understand that Sal’s personal arc was about to wrap up at this point, yet the ending he felt slightly comedic. Yet, this isn’t where the main attention is put on.

It’s where Sofia finally confronts Francis about Oz’s past and the scenes between the two are truly scary.

Through Francis’s breakdown, we finally understand her perspective on things. She’s been very hesitant to believe that Oz is actually the bad guy for killing his brothers. Whether her condition affects her thinking is a fact that’s thrown out as the emotions come pouring out.

While she’s earnestly intimidating, Sofia’s meeting with Gia, who survived in “Cent’anni”, truly puts a metaphorical mirror in front of her. She’s become much like Carmine in the worst ways, something that she relegates to Dr. Rush in a panic. Through her previous actions, she became blinded to her ruthlessness, which she wanted to escape from.

Yet, this ruthlessness is the only way that she can overcome what Oz is planning in the endgame. As such, watching both Oz and Sofia’s narratives finally weave ever closer has never been more intense. With one more episode left, I hope that the finale wraps up everyone’s arcs with lasting impacts to come.

Stray Thoughts:

• Honestly, I didn’t expect Sal to go out like that and it was actually hilarious to see him keel over like that. Also, Oz’s monologue after that feels like that meme from The Batman when he’s shown the picture.
• That visual reflection of Sofia’s time in Arkham Asylum with the children’s home is so sad because you know she’s being put in the place that Dr. Rush was in all those episodes ago.
• On this, I really appreciated the deep, sincere sympathy that Sofia has for Gia and her circumstances. She knows that Gia’s now in the same position as her and she wants to change that, yet she’s too wrapped up in her father’s world.
• The young version of Oz was so incredibly adorable, but I need to get used to that New Jersey accent because it’s much more intimidating when Farrell does it.
• When Sofia’s van came into Oz’s little sewer hub, I honestly thought that she had found the bodies of Oz’s brothers and placed them there. The surprise bomb still worked for me, but I wonder what would’ve happened otherwise.

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The Penguin airs Sundays at 9 PM ET on Max.

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