The least important storyline in The Penguin Episode 3 is, believe it or not, Oz and Sophia.

We finally take a run down memory lane with Vic this week, and it just keeps on going, man. This is good stuff. The show’s continuing to do exactly what it’s been doing, which is be, essentially, comic book Sopranos, and it’s doing it in a really powerful way. You’ve got two storylines here. One is the first real steps Sophia and Oz take together, and man, does it go some places. The other one is Vic, and that’s the actual story.

The Least Important Storyline Is Oz and Sophia

Oz and Sophia are finally building their thing together. Sophia picks Oz up and takes him to where the drop is supposed to happen, for this big fancy new drug, and she introduces him to a guy named Bloom. Now, I don’t know if this character is directly related to Mr. Bloom from the comics. I don’t think he is. I think it’s possibly just a shared name. The point is that this is a drug that comes from a specific kind of mushroom, and it’s the drug Sophia and the inmates at Arkham were being given. Oz calls it Bliss.

They just need a distributor. So they use the information they’ve got on Viti to get him to call and give them the A-OK, which means Viti knows something’s going down.

Running underneath all of it is a conversation between Sophia and Oz, because apparently Oz betrayed her. Oz used to be her driver, just like Vic is Oz’s driver. And she asks him: “Was it worth it? What you did to me. Was it worth it? Did you get everything that you wanted?”

He doesn’t want to answer. He doesn’t answer until much later, and when he does, it’s in a different light. You asked, he tells her, so that’s my answer: he got the club, the drug operation, his own thing to run. She looks at him and she literally says she doesn’t know how to trust him. He tells her to let him keep showing her.

Boom. That’s when the Falcones show up. And the Falcones, whoa boy. The Falcones are nothing nice.

The Last Normal Night Vic Had

The episode begins with Vic getting a flashback to the last normal piece of life he had. He has a girlfriend. We get to meet his family, we get to see his mother and his father.

It’s funny, the actor who plays Vic has expressed that he wants to play Miles Morales, and he totally could. He’s got a Puerto Rican mother and a black father, and I’m like, oh yeah, okay. All day long. This guy should be playing Miles Morales without a doubt.

But we get to see what happened to Vic. He was up on the roof with his girlfriend to watch the fireworks after the election, and he sees all the explosions from The Batman. They’re high up on top of a taller building, so you get to see the moment the floodwaters came in, and the waves came in at about the height of the actual building he lives in. He can see it from where he’s standing. He tries calling home, but they’re gone.

A Thousand a Week and a Bus to California

Then he comes back to regular life. He and Oz are talking, this is before the meeting with Sophia, and Oz realizes he completely forgot something. They never talked about Vic’s salary. “What do you say? We start you on one a week, huh?” A thousand a week. So now the kid’s got money.

Sophia wants to take Oz by herself, so Oz tells Vic to chill out there. Vic calls his girlfriend over, and they talk, and she’s leaving. She’s leaving Gotham, going to California, and she wants him to come with her. He tells her he doesn’t know. He’s seen some stuff. He doesn’t think his boss would let him.

This creates a genuinely amazing encounter later.

There’s other stuff happening in the storyline. They go to test the new Bliss at the clubs so they can show it off for the Triads and everything else. Whatever. Okay, fine. Vic is the bag man at the club, and the girls keep coming to him to get the drugs.

The Bathroom, the Gun, and the Bus Stop

Finally Vic’s in the bathroom, and Oz comes in, because they’ve made the deal. Sophia left him in charge of making it, Oz made it, and he’s excited. He wants to tell Vic, because Vic is the first person he thinks to tell. We’re in it now, buddy. It’s going to be us.

That’s when he notices the phone, and of course Oz gets a little bit suspicious. Let me see the phone. And he sees it. You think I was going to stop you? You can go. Vic says, I can go? Yeah.

Oz pulls out a gun and tells him he has freedom, he has opportunity. You could have left whenever you wanted. Get out of here. Go. And he’s going to let him leave.

So Vic gets all the way to the bus stop, and he took Oz’s car to get there. He sees his girl. And you begin to see this change in him. He realizes there’s opportunity here, and I’m screwing it up.

He goes back. He goes back just in time to catch the Falcones with Oz and Sophia on their knees with guns to their heads. And what does he do? He slams the car into one of the Falcones and saves Oz’s life. Then it ends pretty much on a cliffhanger. What about Sophia? Leave her, Oz says. We’re in it now, buddy.

And you’re sitting there like, what is going on? It was a good cliffhanger.

A Filler Episode That Worked

Under normal circumstances we might call this a filler episode. Those of you who’ve been watching the show for a while understand that filler episodes are essentially the ones that get you from A to B, and sometimes they get used for character development. That’s what this was. It was a character development filler, but it really worked, and it really let you understand who Vic is.

It gave us this really interesting throughline. At point A, Vic feels like he’s an indentured servant. Yes, he’s getting a place to stay, but in his head it’s Oz keeping me close because he wants to keep an eye on me. Now things are different. Going into next week, he’s going to be working with Oz. Actually working with him. He’s got the freedom to do what he wants to do, and now he just has to take the opportunity.

I think what was getting in the way of him doing the stuff Oz asked him to do is that he seems to have constantly been thinking, I don’t have a choice. Now he has one. I don’t know whether that’s going to open up the floodgates or not. I don’t think Vic’s suddenly going to become a bad guy shooting up everything. I do think he’s going to realize there’s more opportunity here than even he might have thought, and I’m interested to see where that goes. I genuinely am.

Meanwhile, Viti knows something’s happening. And Sophia just watched the Falcone people come at Oz with how dare you, you thought you could play us. So she clearly knows something’s up. That’s all the more reason not to trust him, even though a deal has now been made and Oz was part of making it with the Triads. It’s an interesting conundrum they find themselves in.

The Most Comic-Connected Hour So Far

One thing I thought was really interesting is that this felt like the most comic-connected episode yet. The connection to Arkham. The connection to some fancy chemical thing. It felt very elaborate, though obviously I know drug operations are elaborate.

Sophia walks Oz into this big laboratory, and you see the hippie dude, Bloom, walking them past these hanging manure bags with the mushrooms coming out of them. I could have seen that as a panel in a comic book all day.

The Verdict

The Penguin Episode 3 takes it back to an 8.5 out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index, for sure.

For me, the show is doing amazing stuff in that it’s telling a dramatic story, and it’s a dramatic story that’s keeping us engaged. That’s what I’m finding the most exciting, especially in an age where everything seems to be trying to catch our attention. This show has been doing it right.

It’s also coming hot on the heels of the apparent box office flop that is the Joker 2. I’m not taking any stance on that one. I haven’t actually seen the movie yet myself, so I’m taking no position. I had no interest in seeing the original, I waited until it came out on VOD, and nothing about the second one has compelled me either. But this feels so much more like the origin story a lot of folks may have wanted for the Joker, and I’m really loving it.

So if you’re one of those people who’s been jaded by the Joker, give The Penguin a shot. It’s doing the Lord’s work in terms of how these things should be structured.

I cannot wait for next week’s episode.

Tell me in the comments on the video above what you think of the relationship that’s developing between Vic and Oz, and what happens now that Viti knows something’s going on. And tell me whether you’re enjoying the show as much as I am.