The bodycount is really starting to pile up on The Penguin. Sure, Sofia may not have killed the people she was imprisoned for, but she's more than made up for it by this point, and Oz is no slouch himself. Spoilers follow for The Penguin Season 1, Episode 5, "Homecoming."

"Homecoming"

This is a fascinating turn for Matt Reeves' version of Gotham City. In most fictional versions of Gotham, the Falcone and Maroni families are permanent fixtures. They're facts of life that Batman just has to deal with--something for him to do when the Court of Owls is happily away in the shadows and all his regular friends are vacationing at Arkham. They play significant roles in some major Batman storylines, including the Long Halloween (parts of which inspired Reeves' The Batman) and the origins of Harvey Dent turning into Two-Face.

This episode eliminates the Falcone family, replacing it with Sofia's Gigante family, and reduces the Maroni family to a shadow of its former self. With how prominent the mob was in The Batman, I like the idea that this clears the way for Batman's core adversaries to take center stage in the sequel. At the same time, though, it's a huge change to the political landscape of the city, and I'm fascinated to see how things progress this season.

Sofia and Oz both make big moves, and by the end of the episode both of them have some pretty grisly murders under their belts. Oz' hostage exchange with the Maroni family is particularly horrifying. It feels like a particularly extreme move for Oz, who has to this point mostly used pretty classic mob tactics to accomplish his goals.

On Sofia's side, we get plenty of time to see just how hard she's willing to go when it comes to taking power from the Falcone family. She's gassed the entire family, aside from Jonny Viti and a little girl (her sister-in-law's daughter, I think? It's hard to keep mob families straight.). I can already see comics writers incorporating this event into future stories about the Falcone family so that they can have the girl come back around to Sofia for vengeance as a new vigilante.

Sofia's doctor, Julian Rush, reappears this week. I'm a little perplexed by this character. He seems to mostly be around to make creepy doe eyes at Sofia. His presence is unsettling, and it seems like Sofia doesn't like him. And yet she keeps going back to him or allowing him into her life. I like Theo Rossi; his character in Luke Cage was one of my favorite parts of that show. But here he has so little to do aside from stand there. We haven't gotten any hint that he's going to do anything interesting, that he's plotting or has some hidden potential, or anything close to that. If he was edited out of the show entirely, I'm not sure how how much we'd really be missing.

While Sofia and Oz are making big moves, Oz tasks Vic with getting his mother to safety, and this gives us some time to see Vic on his own. Unlike Dr. Rush, Vic has been given real time to grow through the series, from a scared homeless kid to the beginnings of a confident mobster. He seems like a nice kid, so we're all worried about what that means for him.

Last week's episode was a standout; right now, it's one of the highest-rated episodes of television ever on IMDb. That won't hold, and I don't think it quite stands up to the likes of The Last of Us' episode "Long, Long Time" or Twin Peaks: The Return's "Part 8," but it was still a strong episode.

This episode moves the plot forward significantly and gives us a lot to chew on with Oz and Sofia both, in how they think and operate. But I'd hate to have to follow a standout episode like that, knowing that even if you make a solid piece of television it's going to pale in comparison.

Disclaimer: HBO provided Batman-News with early access to The Penguin episodes for the purposes of review.