The following review contains spoilers for the third episode of The Penguin, “Bliss”
After watching The Penguin’s premiere, it was surprising how much Game of Thrones DNA was present, since everyone was comparing it to The Sopranos going in. Now, the third episode of The Penguin warrants even more comparison to HBO’s adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire, mimicking its signature “people talking in rooms” style in “Bliss.” This is definitely the most dialogue-heavy episode so far, and all the better for it thanks to a good structure and pace that moves the characters smoothly from one conversation to the next. It’s the conversations between Victor, Sofia, and Oz that stand out, though, homing in on who these characters are, what they want, and what they need (and how those differ). It’s the deepest look we’ve gotten into the minds of our three leads, and especially Victor, who is slowly becoming The Penguin’s most interesting character.
It really is a Victor-centric episode, adding a ton of much-needed backstory to the character thanks to a lengthy flashback. Flashbacks can be a difficult storytelling mechanism to get right. They’re often tasked with either providing context for a character and why they are the way they are in the present-day storyline, or revealing something that happened in the past that recontextualizes the events of the story so far. But if the throughline of how the character changed between flashback and present doesn’t add up, or if the way in which the flashbacks are sequenced throughout the series isn’t paced right, it can feel like a break in continuity and knock a story off its axis. Luckily, right as I was thinking, “Man, I wonder when we’re going to find out exactly what happened to Victor’s family,” “Bliss” delivered an emotionally crushing answer. It’s a sad story we knew was coming, but writer Noelle Valdivia sets up a devastating end for the Aguilar family, while weaving those feelings into the current day situation Victor finds himself in.
And save for a few moments of Bliss-related business meetings, the rest of the episode remains locked in on Vic, bringing his girlfriend Graciela back into his life, and serving up a number of meaningful and dramatic interactions with his captor/mentor, Oz. Graciela is a character that every bad-guy-protagonist has to have. They’re the person that draws them to the light, away from a life of crime and villainy, but in the end will always be disappointed by our character’s final decision. Victor is The Penguin’s Jesse Pinkman, always drawn back to the life to our dismay, and while we aren’t given a great sense of Victor’s thought process in the moment of his big decision at the end of “Bliss,” his conversations with Oz throughout the rest of the episode frame it up pretty well.
At lunch, Oz and Vic talk about Vic’s father Ramon, who worked as a car mechanic and loved to cook. Oz gets very close to getting it as he imparts some almost-wisdom: that “the world isn’t built for the honest man to succeed.” But where the takeaway in any other hero’s story would be to help work towards a world that does see the honest man succeed, Oz has a different take: “fuck the world.” It’s honestly a relatable viewpoint, and one that a young, impressionable kid can hang on to. The push and pull of Oz and Graciela on Victor’s life is really the crux of the episode, culminating in the emotional moment from Oz when he finds out Vic was trying to leave. The outburst serves as a final, genuine plea to keep Vic around, but it also shows just how much Oz’s manipulative behavior is ingrained in his very being. Even when he’s expressing genuine emotion, he’s still playing the game. And it works.
That genuine sadness and anger over their seeming break-up fuels another emotional moment between Oz and Sofia, as she relentlessly digs at him for his (still somewhat mysterious) betrayal of her all those years ago. Oz ratted Sofia out in some way that led to her sentence in Arkham, and that’s why he feels he owes her. So after another dig he explodes, expressing sincere apologies for what he caused to happen to her, but not regretting what he was able to gain from being loyal to Carmine. It’s another great representation of how Oz thinks about the world, and again the work being done by Farrell and Milioti is top notch. And the way it all comes crashing down in the end with the Maronis and Victor’s big stunt, leaving Sofia behind – Oz and Vic are in it now!
