The Penguin Episode 7: "Top Hat" recap and breakdown

The penultimate episode of The Penguin reveals that Sofia Gigante is turning into the one thing she's hated for years. She's becoming more like her father, Carmine Falcone.

Photograph by Macall Polay/HBO
Photograph by Macall Polay/HBO

Sofia Gigante (formerly Falcone) learned where Oz Cobb, Victor Aguliar, and Francis Cobb were from Eve Karlo. Eve didn’t want to give up his location but felt bad for Oz's part in Sofia being sent to Arkham. This leads to her going to Oz's hideout, knocking out Victor, and kidnapping Francis. Once Oz got back to the house and learned what happened, Sal showed up and told him that he needed the location of his operation.

Of course, Oz has a plan. Once Oz and Sal and Sal's goons get to the abandoned subway, Oz gives one of his guys a look that sets Oz's guys up to take Sal’s henchmen down. With nothing left between them between space and Opportunity, Oz and Sal fight. Instead of a clear winner, Sal has a heart attack and dies. Oz takes this as a win because he’s still standing and Sal is dead.

“You were supposed to destroy me, Sal! Show me what a big man you are, what a big (censored) man you are!” -Oz Cobb

With Sal dead, all that’s left for Oz is to go after Sofia. The problem is she has Oz’s mother. So Oz makes a deal. She gets the product and he gets his mother back unharmed. This doesn’t go as planned. Sofia rigs a bomb to go off in Oz’s hideout. It’s so powerful that everyone in the area is affected. 

Throughout this season of The Penguin, there was sympathy for Sofia Gingante. Everything done to her was unfair. Even after leaving Arkham, she tried to avoid becoming what she hated most, her father, Carmine Falcone. Unfortunately, it will be impossible to support her after what she did to Gotham City to get to Oz.

"It's why everyone expected me to die in Arkham. No one even considered that I might learn something there...how to play new games." -Sofia Gigante

That part of Gotham has been through enough with the flood caused by Riddler's (this happened in The Batman). Now another bomb goes off because Sofia is obsessed with killing Oz.  At some point, she'll have to look at what she did and realize she can't blame her father and Oz for everything. That includes the psychological damage she's caused to Gia Viti.

Gia is in a group home cutting herself on top of living a life without her mother. Who knows what kind of life she'll have? As much as Sofia wanted to protect Gia, Sofia realized that she was the one who hurt the only person she was trying to help. 

Another big takeaway is Oz’s past. Due to wanting his mother all to himself, Oz finds a way to kill his brothers when they’re kids. Oz gets exactly what he wants. After they drown in the sewer (the same place he runs his business) Francis doesn’t have anything except OZ thus starting their very…odd relationship.

With that in mind, you have to wonder if showing their origin is a lead-up to Francis Cobb dying in the season finale of The Penguin. Maybe she stays alive and lives in the Gigante/Falcone Mansion. What if Oz kills her to keep the last weakness out of his life? Stay tuned to Caped Crusades to find out.

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