It was very easy to be misled The penguin‘s central premise. I’m willing to bet that most viewers were completely blinded to its true nature – the origin story of Batman’s arch-enemy in top hat and tails – thanks to Cristin Milioti’s stunning portrayal of Sofia Falcone-Gigante, who stole the show, and her storyline, so masterfully runs through showrunner Lauren LeFranc’s series.

But the finale was a stake through the heart for characters like Sofia, Francis and Vic. As much as we wanted to see them succeed, there could only be one winner. How else could it end but with Oz Cobb, aka The Penguin (Colin Farrell) at the top? If anything, it made it even more soul-wrenching to witness the fates of these other main characters as the evil mastermind flourished. What did we learn in the final and how did it all work out in the end?

Big revelations

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

The moment Oz held him so tightly, his memory of the beautiful evening when his mother took him out dancing and he promised to give her the world? Yes, Rex was supposed to kill him. But she was dancing with the devil: either she was unwilling to kill her only remaining son (despite him clearly being a murderous psychopath) or she felt tempted by him offering her all the riches he could for her, and she deserved. So she kept quiet about ever revealing what he did.

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 when his mother’s digits are chopped off, he cannot tell the truth, and eventually Francis bursts into tears, but Oz gass her up and tells her that they are “lies…just your disease”. 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 falls to the ground. This gives Oz just enough time to escape, pulling his mother over his shoulder, in the fight that follows.

The bounty

Sofia then puts a bounty on Oz’s head and tells all the other ganglords that she is willing to hand over her empire to whoever controls it. All she wants is to see Oz dead and then she’ll be gone forever.

In the meantime, 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: “an unhinged angry girl got out of the nuthouse and went on a murderous rampage.” Of course, Sebastian could be presented as a hero for exposing this and putting an end to the drug and gang wars in Gotham. Here’s another guy cozying up to a ruthless gangster in exchange for unspecified favors. Will these people never learn?

Vic (Rhenzy Feliz) joins one of the Triads and arranges the transfer of Oz to Sofia, but this is clearly all a set-up. Vic would never betray Oz! A gunfight occurs and Oz takes Sofia – who literally burned her family and their 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 pop out and they drag her away.

Shocking deaths and gruesome endings

We were rooting for you Sofia, we were all rooting for you! Even if you killed your entire family and left your cousin’s daughter, Gia, an orphan, housed in a nursing home. So it was incredibly disturbing to see Sofia defeated and back in the cells of Arkham. But who is that at her cell door? It’s Doctor Julian, who has managed to get a job there again, despite helping her escape earlier! And there’s a letter from a woman, Selina Kyle, claiming to be her half-sister! Yes, that’s Selina Kyle as in Catwoman. And with a wry smile from Sofia, it looks like we’re back to business for season two.

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

Right? Before there is even a chance to breathe, Oz grabs Vic and strangles him. “It wasn’t for nothing,” he says, before pocketing it and throwing his ID into the river. Poor Vic.

But perhaps the worst is Frances, Oz’s mother. She is still alive, but has suffered such a severe stroke that she is trapped in her body, meaning she cannot move and cannot speak or communicate. Think back to when she begged Oz to kill her, when the time came when she could no longer take care of herself and he went against her wishes. In perhaps the cruelest of his actions (and there have been 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 control of her.

If you think that scene is ruined, wait until the next one… his mistress Eve is back, and she’s dressed exactly like his mother the night she took him out dancing. The incestuous atmosphere only gets worse when Oz – now wearing the proper Penguin outfit – starts dancing creepily while Eve (Carmen Ejogo) plays the role of his mother.

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

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

“Nothing stands in your way now.”

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