HBO’s ‘The Penguin’ Episode 7 Review - Mommie Dearest

You are hit with a sense of familiarity while watching the seventh episode of The Penguin. It does some interesting things here and there, but overall, you think you are watching a conventional narrative executed in a conventional style. The gangster who gives money to one of Oz's brothers acts like an aspiring actor auditioning for the role of a gangster. Sal's physical fight with Oz ends with a lame device, like a heart attack. A bomb is disguised as a corpse to merely provide a temporary shock to the audience. And by now, it has already become crystal clear that Oz loves his mother. The opening scenes, set in the late 1980s (Beetlejuice is running in the theaters), imbue the Oz-Francis relationship with an Oedipal flavor. It quickly becomes evident that Oz has no girlfriend. He also resents his brothers. Why? Because they steal Francis' attention.

The love that Oz receives from his mother fills him with so much pleasure that he hates sharing her with others. When the brothers disturb Francis while she is doing her work, she gets up from her chair, and Oz smiles because he thinks Jackie and Ben will be punished for their behavior. Oz thinks this will only elevate his image in the eyes of his mother. This is why he expresses disappointment when Francis, too, starts playing with the brothers. What eventually happens during the hide-and-seek game results from Oz's bitter sentiments, though his actions, far from having traces of shock or discomfort, only make this part of the episode the equivalent of a bland horror film featuring evil children. I liked discovering the fact that Oz, as a kid, was a fan of a Fred Astaire musical. The reason is pretty obvious. He wishes he could move his legs as smoothly as the Astaire character.

In the present, Oz returns home to find an injured Vic, who tells him that Sofia kidnapped Francis. Since one of Oz's skills is to come up with new plans as quickly as possible, he sends Vic to assemble an army to launch a counter-attack. Sal arrives at the apartment, beats up Oz a bit (he cannot kill him yet), and forces him to take him and his men to his site. Meanwhile, Sofia and Francis attack each other with their words. The former is actually impressed by the latter's sharp tongue. But when Francis gets all confused and emotional and begins to talk about Jackie and Ben, Sofia displays kindness towards this old, sick woman. What an interesting character. Sofia could have grown into a fine, gentle individual - a saint among the criminals. Even now, during certain moments, you feel as if the good human within her would come out and swallow the darkness around her. Alas, the hate she feels for Oz is stronger. She doesn't kill Francis, but that does not mean she has forgiven Oz. She is driven by a single motivation: To torture the titular character. Make him pay for what he did to her. With only one more episode left, let's see how Sofia will execute her plan.

Final Score – [5/10]