A shocking death and terrible twists

It was very easy to get misled The penguinis the central premise. I’d bet that thanks to Cristin Milioti’s stunning, show-stealing portrayal of Sofia Falcone-Gigante, and her plot, most viewers were left completely blind to the true nature of the film – the origin story of Batman’s top-hatted, tailed nemesis showrunner Lauren LeFranc runs through the series masterfully.

But the finale was a tough blow for characters like Sofia, Francis and Vic. As much as we wanted to see them succeed, there was only ever one winner. How else could it end but with Oz Cobb, aka The Penguin (Colin Farrell), at the helm? If anything, it made it even more harrowing to watch the fates of these other main characters unfold while the evil mastermind succeeded. So what did we learn in the finale and how exactly did it all play out in the end?

Big revelations

Thanks Dr. Julian Rush’s dubious red light therapy revealed that Oz’s mother Francis (Deirdre O’Connell) knew all along that her strange, Oedipal son had killed his two brothers, her beloved sons. She had found a yellow flashlight in his coat and knew he was lying; Jack and Benny’s bodies were eventually found by police, and it turns out they had to “break down the door to find them.” She knew it was Oz and called local gangster Rex to drive away her remaining son. “I have the devil in my house, Rex, what should I do?” she asked.

The moment that Oz captured, his memory of the beautiful night when his mother took him dancing and he promised to give her the world? Yes, Rex should kill him. But she danced with the devil: either she was unwilling to kill her only remaining son (even though he was clearly a murderous psychopath), or she felt seduced when he offered her all the riches he could provide for her, and that she deserves. That’s why she kept quiet about ever revealing what he had done.

The reunion

Mother and son were eventually reunited by Sofia, who threatened to cut off Francis’ finger – as Oz did with her brother Alberto – unless he confessed to killing his brothers. Even faced with the fact that his mother’s fingers were cut off, he cannot tell the truth, and eventually Francis collapses, but Oz lights her up and tells her that they are “lies…just your illness.” She tells him, “I should have let Rex kill you when I had the chance,” and stabs him in the stomach with a broken bottle. However, after seeing a vision of her boys, she collapses on the ground. This gives Oz just enough time to escape in the ensuing scuffle and pull his mother over his shoulder.

The bounty

Sofia then puts a bounty on Oz and tells all the other crime bosses that she is willing to give up her empire to whoever runs it. She just wants Oz dead, then she’ll be gone forever.

Meanwhile, Oz goes to City Hall and gets Sebastian Hady to agree to put all the blame on Sofia. It was all very simple, he says: “A confused, angry woman got out of the mental institution and went on a killing spree.” Of course, Sebastian could be portrayed as a hero because he uncovered the matter and took part in the drug and gang wars in Gotham has set an end. Here’s another person joining a ruthless gangster in exchange for as-yet-unspecified favors – will these people never learn?

Vic (Rhenzy Feliz) befriends one of the Triads and arranges to hand over Oz to Sofia, but it’s obviously all a plan. Vic would never betray Oz! A shootout ensues, and Oz takes Sofia – who has just literally burned her family and house to the ground – to the riverbank and orders her to turn around. It looks like he’s going to shoot her, but instead the police come and drag her away.

Shocked death and terrible ending

We’ve got our fingers crossed for you, Sofia, we’ve all got our fingers crossed for you! Even if you murdered your entire family and left your cousin’s daughter, Gia, an orphan and placed in a nursing home. So it was incredibly upsetting to see Sofia defeated and back in the cells of Arkham. But who is that at her cell door? It’s Dr. Julian, who managed to find a job there again despite previously helping her escape! And there’s a letter from a woman, Selina Kyle, who claims to be her half-sister! Yes, that’s Selina Kyle as in Catwoman. And with a wry smile from Sofia, it looks like we could be back in business for season two.

Vic’s ending is nothing short of shocking. As the two men drink conspiratorially from a bottle of liquor by the river, they talk about everything they’ve been through together. And how they are now like family to each other. “It’s nice that we met!” says Vic.

Is that it? Before he can even take a breath, Oz grabs Vic and strangles him. “It wasn’t for free,” he says, before stealing it and throwing his ID into the river. Poor Vic.

But perhaps Frances, Oz’s mother, has it worst. She is still alive, but has suffered a stroke so severe that she is trapped in her body, meaning she cannot move, speak or communicate. Remember the time she begged Oz to kill her when the time came when she could no longer care for herself and he defied her wishes. In perhaps all of his cruelest acts (and there were many), he keeps her alive in her vegetative state in his new penthouse, a prisoner in her own body and in the home of her serial killer son. A small tear runs down her cheek, which is truly heartbreaking – he has been the architect of misery her entire life, and he won’t even give her the grace to leave this world of pain. It was never about her, it was about him and his twisted control and mastery over her.

If you think this scene sucks, wait until the next one… his lover Eve is back, and she’s dressed exactly the same as his mother the night she took him dancing. The incestuous atmosphere only gets worse when Oz – now wearing proper penguin attire – starts creepily dancing while Eve (Carmen Ejogo) plays his mother.

“Tell me you love me. Tell me you’re proud of me…Tell me I did it, Ma!”

“I knew you would, my beautiful boy,” she replies.

“Now nothing stands in your way.”

“Damn right,” he says as the camera pans out from his penthouse. Oh, but wait…what’s out there lighting up the night sky? It’s the Batman sign. Here’s hoping the caped crusader is finally ready to fly in to restore some justice to Gotham City.