The penguin

cylinder

Season 1

Episode 7

Editor's Rating

4 stars

****

Photo: Macall Polay/HBO

The penguinIn the penultimate episode the question is: What's in a monster? Be it in the cheesy pop art satire disguised as normal children's entertainment or in Christopher Nolan's Michael Mann larping Dark Knight Most poignant in the trilogy are the Gotham City tales, which draw on the triangulation of noir films, B-movies and EC horror comics that reflected the fractured postwar American soul of the mid-20th century. “For those unlucky enough to be alive and sane, society was a noir film that played on an endless loop,” writes David J. Skal in his book The monster show of the mid-century mix of pulp, noir, and post-war terror that fuels the entire wacky comic book scene that spawned Batman. “Marriage as an institution existed only as a backdrop for murder. No good deed would go unpunished.” If the horror origin story of Sofia the Hangman in episode four, “Cent'Anni,” argued for it The penguin An essential story of Gotham City, “Top Hat” will go down in history as the chapter that sealed the deal.

The episode begins with a flashback to Oz's childhood and the horror story we've heard all season, still hidden in the fog of an unreliable narrative. Little Oswald Cobb is not like his brothers. A deformed leg and a correspondingly clumsy body kept him from the frivolities of a limitless city boy's life, and from his penguin seat Oswald has already observed what it takes to get ahead in this world. And he embodies it in Rex Calabrese (Louis Cancelmi, apparently on loan from Martin Scorsese's current evil gangster rep firm), the local capo and criminal protector. Crown Point's “Dark Knight”, as close as little Oz can see. “Mr. Calabrese is not a good guy,” his older brother Jack tries to warn him. “Have you ever wondered where he gets all this money?” Oz doesn't have to be surprised. “He's a gangster.”

Oz clings to her mother (played in flashback by Emily Meade) with possessive, Oedipal affection, while his brothers are a sweet reminder of his physical shortcomings and the childlike innocence he was never able to lose, let alone enjoy. He would much rather lie in his mother's arms and watch Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers cylinder than playing flashlight catch in the abandoned trolley tunnels. Childhood celebrations don't fill Mom's coffers or give her a penthouse view of the city from which you can both dance the night away.

Did little Oswald know that he was trapping Jack and Benny in a watery grave when he closed the door on them? Probably not. At least not on a fully conscious level. Regardless, the creation of the monster lies not in the moment of senseless cruelty, but in the selfish impulses that are most zealously encouraged and nurtured by a merciless world.

Back in the present, Oz arrives at his hidden apartment in Crown Point to find the door open, his mother gone, and Victor lying unconscious on the floor. Sofia has picked up Francis, and Sal Maroni is hot on her trail, along with a bunch of his henchmen to give Oz a few hits with one of his own stupid golf clubs, then heads to the trolley station to close down the Bliss operation take over. But Sal underestimates the fighting spirit and loyalty of Oz's band of misfits, and when a firefight breaks out, Oz comes out on top. It's a cheap victory to defeat your opponent while he's dying of a heart attack, especially when he was just seconds away from delivering the killing blow. But Oz was born to take advantage of every cheap opportunity that the cruelest fate offers him. It's better to be the lowest, dirtiest devil in the underground than to have your ass handed to you.

Meanwhile, Sofia splits the difference between calling Francis names and mocking her, but the argument is more balanced than she expected. “It's a good thing you let the boys die before you can turn them into monsters like Oz,” Sofia says, rising to her feet, unwilling to hear the harsh truth Francis has already delivered: a name change doesn't change anything Game. “It’s all the same shit. Same winners, same losers.”

But the truth comes to light when Sofia visits her cousin Gia in her dreary, unwelcome children's home. Gia raised the alarm by asking to speak to the police and immediately confirmed that she saw a gas mask in Sofia's bag before that fateful night of the “big sleep.” Sofia denies killing Gia's parents and the rest of the family, but in the moment of her denial she realizes what she will later say to Julian Rush: “Francis is right… I'm still playing my father's game.” And in that moment , when she realizes that she committed all of her father's crimes against another innocent girl, all she can tell Gia is that her family were bad people who deserved what they got – killing all the unvarnished, unreliable childhood memories, that were left to her. The cruelest consolation for an innocent life turned to ashes before her time.

Sofia is still crying over Gia's lost innocence when Oz calls her and tells her that he killed Sal. His offer is simple: the entire operation, “the keys to the damn kingdom,” in exchange for his mother remaining unharmed. Sofia knows it's a trap, but she's now going to try to play a new game – end the old one by literally blowing everything up.

But leaving the game victorious is more challenging when you're determined to make your old opponents suffer. As Oz falls through the same hole in which he imprisoned his brothers – ironically saving himself from the same fate in which he imprisoned them – we return to the fateful dance between little Oswald and his mother at Monroe's house , in which the adult Oz claims Francis has gotten her mojo back. It's a moment that Sofia wants to recreate in the present, in one devilish way or another, after she discovers it with a little help from Dr. Rush has gained access to Francis' memories of the location and is taking her there to await Oz's possible survival. And so he does, fixated on the same insatiable urge that made him a monster all those years ago: “You deserve this preferably Life,” little Oz tells his mother. “I’ll get it for you, I promise. And I won't give up until that happens.

Oz awakens and emerges from the freshly scattered rubble, surrounded by screams, carnage and twisted metal, and is greeted by a dirty cop with an invitation to the final showdown. The great American film noir freak show is playing on a continuous loop. Same monsters, same losers.

Come see Gotham's newest villain Vulture Festival16-17 November in Los Angeles, where we will speak with Cristin Milioti.