The Penguin – Homecoming review S1 E5

Homecoming played out like a smart resetting of the status quo for the second half of The Penguin’s first season. By the end of the episode, some big players had to seriously readjust their initial strategies, go into hiding or both. Only one truly came out ahead and it was all because as always, she was overlooked.

Victor’s disappointed about wrecking Oz’s Maserati, but Oz appreciates the loyalty. When Victor asks the very important question about Sofia now that she knows about his real agenda, Oz blows it off saying she won’t get far without a guy. This is the irony of ironies as Oz was making his way up the ranks based on people not viewing him as a real threat. This would eventually come back to haunt him later on in Homecoming.

Still, with Nadia Maroni onto his plans, Oz knows he needs to gain control of the situation again. He accomplishes that by kidnapping the Maroni’s son, Taj (Aria Shahghasemi) and using him as a bargaining chip to get his Bliss mushrooms back.

Oz gives one of the prison guards a payoff to…take care of Sal, but before he leaves, he sees the news report about a gas leak at the Falcone complex that killed nearly everyone. Save Sofia, her little cousin, Gia, and Johnny Viti.

Johnny isn’t with Sofia or being taken to child protective services like Gia. He’s bound by zip ties and gagged in a cemetery tomb, the prisoner of Sofia Falcone. Johnny insists that her mother was trying to leave Carmine and that’s why he killed her. Sofia rightfully calls him out for working as Carmine’s underboss for many years after that, but he offers to serve in the same role for her to get buy-in from the grunts in the Falcone army.

To ensure his mother is safe, Oz has Vic watch after his mother. Francis might not be lucid too often but gets hyped to hear that Oz is running the show and has the gangs on the run as the new top guy. Vic might be exaggerating things a bit…

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It’s time to make the exchange. Tej for the shrooms. Nadia wants to know why Tej is so wet although it won’t matter as she’s got an ambush all set for Oz and his guy, Bruno (Daniel J. Watts). Unfortunately for Nadia, Oz and Bruno survive the ambush giving Oz the all-clear to pull off his own double-cross of flicking his lighter and igniting all the gas he poured over Tej, burning both of them. Cold blooded, Oz.

Oz didn’t consider the blaze setting off fire extinguishers, which damage all but two small buckets of his shrooms. Bliss production will be seriously affected. And in other bad news, Oz’s prison guard failed to get the job done. Not only is Sal still alive, but he’s also escaped and gunning for Oz.

Sal tells Oz “You’re cooked,” which gives Oz the perfect opportunity to taunt Sal one more time by saying “Do me a favor and call your wife see if she answers.”

Realizing how bad things have gotten, Oz has Vic take Francis to a safe place. It’s a homecoming for Vic as it’s his old neighborhood. But it’s very possible that Vic’s old rival Squid spotted him bringing Penguin’s mom to his hideout.

Julian tells Sofia he wants to enjoy that same freedom she has and wants to be part of what she’s doing next. Sofia did take Johnny up on his offer to be her underboss, but she quickly goes off script and telling the assembled crew that she killed the Falcone. She says the Falcone legacy is dead and from now on, they are welcome to be part of the Gigante family. Sofia has a homecoming of her own.

Johnny does not assess the situation properly at all and gets killed — the final remnant of the Falcone Family.  The scene of the grunts reaching over Johnny’s dead body to get the cash soaked in his blood is quite a sight.

Oz scrambles to get Eve away from the potential war zone, but she reminds them their arrangement worked best when he wasn’t causing her drama. And he’s not exactly a mover and shaker in the current status quo.

To make good on her promise to end the war, Sofia finds Sal and proposes an alliance to take out Oz. This felt like the natural end point for Homecoming as Oz’s biggest rivals who had screwed over multiple times already this season unite to take him down.

There’s a bit more with a decent cliffhanger of sorts, but it felt like all of it could have worked just fine for the opening moments of the next episode.

Oz apologizes to Francis for bringing her back to a place like she used to live. This isn’t a good homecoming for Francis. He just needs to figure out his next move.

A bit of memorabilia catches his eye while he strategizes with Vic. They head down to the deserted underground trolleys, which has plenty of space for a visionary architect — or an aspiring crime boss that needs to lay low. And bonus: the mushrooms will thrive here. Just as it seems Oz’s fortunes are getting brighter, the generator conks out leaving him and Vic in the dark. A funny visual payoff to this scheme.

Homecoming established the direction for the season’s second half as old enemies come together to take out The Penguin. This show just doesn’t believe in bad episodes and this was another very entertaining installment.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Photo Credit: Max

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