REVIEW: The Penguin – Episode 3, “Bliss”

Television Reviews

“Bliss” slows things down just a bit so that The Penguin can focus on the characters, and that’s good because one character desperately needed this episode. “Bliss” is primarily about Victor, Oz’s sidekick who, until now, was more or less there to be a sounding board for the lead. This week, he’s humanized considerably and feels like an essential part of the show. And there’s still movement on the main plot, with some great character work for Oz and Sofia, as well as a heightening of the danger they face now that they’re moving against the Falcone family.

Victor gets a visit from the girlfriend he never thought he’d see again and wonders if he should leave Gotham with her or stick with Oz. Sofia shows Oz the drug she and Alberto were planning to market, and Oz looks for business partners and a distribution method. Johnny Vitti makes clear that he and Luca Falcone are getting fed up with Sofia’s unruly attitude.

“Bliss” opens with a flashback, which we don’t know is a flashback right away. Victor spends an evening with family and friends, and The Penguin establishes his relationships economically. His dad is a mechanic who loves to cook, a guy whom Victor and his sister agree is underpaid but who finds honor in doing honest work even for a meager check because it’s a step up from the poverty he and his family once suffered. Then, Victor’s girlfriend Graciela is established as another voice of reason, keeping Victor away from the criminals who run in their circles. Finally, we discover this is the night of the climax of The Batman, where that gimp they called the Riddler blew up the Gotham City dams and flooded the poor neighborhoods… including Victor’s. In one fell swoop, Victor loses his whole family and, for all he knows, Graciela. The episode has barely started, and already, Victor has come to life in a way he hadn’t yet.

***SPOILERS***

What makes “Bliss” so terrific is that Victor’s backstory is not just there for the sake of fleshing him out; it informs the three main characters of the episode. Victor, Oz, and Sofia are all at a crossroads, torn between loyalties or ideologies, wondering who they should trust and whether making the wrong choice will lead them to their deaths. Graciela suddenly reappears in Victor’s life and makes it clear that he’s likely going to get himself killed if he stays involved with gangsters like Oz, something she tried to protect him from before the flood and something his father tried to teach him in a more general sense. And Victor is starting to worry about his safety, not only because he screwed up his job last week but because Oz is now associating with Sofia Falcone, a crazed serial killer who doesn’t seem all that reformed. (I’ve been trying not to mention this too much, but since it’s obviously going to be a big part of the show, Sofia being called “the Hangman” is a reference to the comics, and it’s a spoiler for a great story, so I don’t want to go into too much detail.) But Graciela isn’t judging him or just warning him; she’s offering Victor a way out, and now, Victor is caught between the golden opportunity he’s got with Oz and living the life he once wanted with Graciela.

Oz, meanwhile, is caught between his emerging business and his old loyalties. Now teamed up with Sofia, Oz has the means to make a case for his running the Falcone family with Bliss, the drug she was going to sell with her brother. But that will mean betraying Sofia, and while he’s clearly making strategic alliances to bolster his power play, Oz seems to genuinely like Sofia. He also feels guilty because, as we learn this week, Oz already betrayed Sofia once; he was her driver when she was performing the Hangman killings, and he told her father, Carmine, what she was doing. He wanted Carmine to help her, but Carmine instead turned her in to the police and had her locked up in Arkham, where they fed her Bliss and made her docile. Obviously, this was for the best, but if Oz really cares for Sofia, to whatever degree, it probably hurt him to see her caged like an animal, despite her effectively being one. Oz also finds himself torn over what to do with Victor when he discovers his new employee is thinking about leaving; as with Sofia, Oz likes Victor, and he’s been trying to impart his own wisdom on the kid, much like Victor’s father did.

Now, not only is Oz caught between letting Victor do what he wants and hanging onto one of the few people he really likes, but Victor is struggling between two father figures, both of whom make some good points about how Victor should live his life. Victor’s father taught him the value of honest work and appreciating what you have – like Graciela, a good, moral girl who loves him and wants him to be safe and content. But Oz wants Victor to have ambitions and not to settle for the pittance life throws at him the way his father did. He also teaches Victor to stand up for himself and not to let the world disrespect him for his disabilities, and you can see in his eyes that Oz sees himself in Victor on that score. (Colin Farrell’s performance is getting better with each episode, which surprises me because I hated him in the premiere and The Batman; he seems to be getting a handle on Oz.) While Oz has his physical deformities, Victor has a severe stutter, and both are trying to overcome that as they fight their way to the top of the organized crime hierarchy. Victor doesn’t know which of his mentors should win out, and Oz doesn’t know what’s best for his ward.

Then, there’s Sofia, adrift in a sea of men she either knows or believes she can’t trust, all of whom want her dead, out of the way, or under their thumb. She doesn’t have the same loyalty problems Oz and Victor do; she was loyal only to Alberto, and he’s gone. She’s gunning for Luca, Johnny, and the rest of the Falcone high command, and Oz is mostly a convenience for her. But she’s also up against a wall, which is displayed in a scene where Johnny tells her that if she doesn’t leave for Italy like Luca told her to, he’ll kill her and tell everyone she went, and she’s such a liability that nobody will ask questions, even her family. This is important because Sofia has seemed almost like an invincible force of nature so far; hearing Johnny Vitti tell her this puts into perspective that she’s in danger, and if she miscalculates for a moment, she’s dead. I love this character (and Cristin Milioti’s endlessly captivating performance), and it’s uneasy watching her have to humble herself before Johnny, but it makes her more human and even easier to root for. It also makes hearing that Oz betrayed her even sadder (which is messed up when you apply logic to it – Oz got a serial killer off the streets – but The Penguin manipulates your emotions so well that you feel bad for the psycho). She’s got nowhere to go, and no one to trust, and you have to wonder if even seizing the reins of the family will make her happy.

But it’s not that simple, either. Throughout their escapades trying to bring the Triads in as their Bliss business partners, Sofia makes it clear that Oz is her employee and she is the one in charge of the business. You can see how much it hurts Oz every time she does it, how it reminds him that he is nothing to these people, even Sofia, whom he likes. The satisfying scene where they catch Johnny Vitti in flagrante delicto with Luca’s wife and blackmail him is great, but the undercurrent of distrust and animosity between Oz and Sofia reminds us of how ugly this is going to turn eventually. Oz and Sofia both want to rule the roost, and even if they kiss and make up (figuratively, one assumes), they’re ultimately going to find that their final impediment is each other. The ending reinforces that inevitability, as they’re about to be executed by Sal Maroni’s wife when Victor shows up and rescues Oz… and Oz tells him to leave Sofia behind. I doubt Sofia will die this early (she’d better not!), but I don’t see how Oz will salvage their partnership now. It also makes me wonder if Oz had been faking his concern for Sofia the entire time, if he really never cared about her, or maybe he has lost that affection over time and with Sofia’s dismissive attitude towards him. One friendship is solidified while the other is left in tatters, and I love that there are several different ways the show can go from here.

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