Erik Adams
The following review contains spoilers for the finale of The Penguin, “Great or Little Thing”
In great pieces of media, a story will go to places that the audience wasn’t expecting or didn’t even know they wanted it to go, and deliver something fresh and unique. It’s something that modern audiences have struggled with in an age of neverending fan service (I have many thoughts on the subject), but is often the outcome of an artist with a vision for a project that is so thought through and rounded out that it succeeds despite the trends. The Batman is a great example of this, with Matt Reeves taking a character full of opportunity for fan service and creating something both familiar and unique that the audience didn’t know they wanted. Because The Penguin sprung from that well of creativity, it has benefitted a lot from it. The tone, characters, and aesthetic of The Batman can all be used as a blueprint. And ahead of the finale, the series has done solid work at “yes and”-ing the movie without veering much at all into overtly flattering or catering to its most ardent devotees (or those of Batman in general).
Now, The Batman isn’t entirely innocent on this front. The Joker bit at the end is a huge fan service-y teaser (and probably my least favorite moment of the movie). The Penguin, too, has saved its fan service for the end, with the final shot of the series almost literally passing the baton to The Batman Part II. Reeves has said that The Batman would lead directly into The Penguin, and The Penguin would then lead directly into The Batman Part II, but the series makes it crystal clear. That, on top of a note sent to Sofia Falcone from Selina Kyle a.k.a. Catwoman, gives audiences a ton to look forward to in the sequel film.
There’s a part of me that thinks The Penguin could have done away with these moments. They stoke anticipation for what’s to come in a heavy-handed way. But at the same time it was enough to get me excited for the Batman Epic Crime Saga to continue, now that The Penguin has added so much lore and backstory to Matt Reeves’ little pocket dimension of the DCU.
The Penguin does a really good job at the hardest part of concluding its own story: How do you finish something like this, or even begin telling it, when the protagonist is a villain? It’s something that I’ve mentioned before while reviewing the series, and I think throughout, The Penguin has always done the right things in this regard. It never tried to paint Oz as a good guy – maybe sympathetic, but never good – and the more time spent with him, the harder it is to be on his side. And “Great or Little Thing” is not a happy ending. As much as he’ll try to convince himself he won, and that he got what he’s always wanted, it’s easy to see in those final moments how empty his success is. That his quest for power over Gotham has driven him to become his worst self, and he was already pretty terrible. “Great or Little Thing” leaves a bad taste in your mouth, and that’s exactly what The Penguin is going for, as well as what it should do. Oz is not the hero of this story, and the finale sinks that knife in deep.
It’s the pacing of the finale that really takes it out at the knees, though. The story logically heads down the path it created for itself last week, but in a way that meanders at times. It takes its time getting to the better moments towards the end. I feel like each week I’ve talked about how every scene is a necessary and impactful one, and that it’s just about the order they’re placed that throws off the rhythm. It’s a symptom that much of the latter half of The Penguin has suffered from, and “Great or Little Thing” is no exception. While every scene adds up and makes sense for where the characters are and who they are as people, it just doesn’t always flow. “Great or Little Thing” has a number of impactful moments that will excite and dismay (in a good way), but they’d have been more impactful if the smaller moments of the episode lived up to them.
The most impactful moments are the final scenes we get with these characters. Vic’s final scene in particular is awful to watch, as the kid talks his way into trouble just by being human, letting Oz know how much he means to him. Vic was always too good for this world, and his death at the hands of his supposed mentor and protector solidifies that we can no longer excuse Oz’s actions. Sofia gets to leave with her life, at least, but is sent back to Arkham, ending up right back where she started, all thanks to Oz once again.
But where we leave Francis is maybe the most horrifying of them all. To live the rest of her life in a vegetative state, the one thing she said she could never do, while she’s forced to stare out at a Gotham she’ll never again really see. And yes, she sucked, but no one deserves what she got. Where Oz leaves the people around him is the ultimate indictment, putting the final nail in the coffin of his soul. He’s sold it, and has truly become The Penguin.
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