Oz takes a bit of a backseat in this week’s episode of The Penguin to finally shine a light on Vic, the stuttering teen working as his driver. He’s been a bit of a wallflower the past two episodes, but in this week’s entry, the attention shifts firmly to his point of view, showcasing his backstory and his thoughts on his current predicament. Much like Sofia, Vic has now morphed into a fascinating supporting character in this DC crime epic.

We actually open episode three, titled Bliss, not where we left off but right before Riddler’s attack in The Batman. Vic is a teenager with a family living in a lower-income part of Gotham with his own hopes and dreams. His parents, while not rich, are content with what they have: a job, a family, and a roof over their head. Vic and his sister do question this mindset however, stating that they shouldn’t settle for less when they can try to get more, something their father disagrees with. This does seem to create some tension between Vic and his dad, but nothing that strains their relationship. This scene actually frames the end of the episode quite nicely, when Oz basically spits these words back to Vic and we get the sense that Oz is actually looking out for Vic in some capacity, despite the obvious manipulation. Vic spends a lot of the episode debating leaving Gotham with the girl he likes, Graciela, but fear of his boss has kept him in place. Oz, furious at this revelation, reveals he could’ve left whenever he wanted, that he wasn’t a prisoner, but instead, he was offering Vic something more, the thing he himself was trying to encourage in his own father who was content with what little they had. Oz started off as a low-life criminal and eventually worked his way up to become Sofia’s driver, so the parallel between the two characters is well-defined.

When Riddler bombs the walls and floods Gotham, Vic loses his family but Graciela survives and the two reconnect when Oz and Sofia head out to secure a drug distribution deal with the Triads. Vic has this one shot of a normal life, to flee the life of crime he’s descending into (and perhaps not suited for) but opts to not get on the coach bus to California. Not only that, but proceeds to rescue Oz from the Maroni crime family, who jumped him and Sofia, accusing him of treachery. I wonder how this will affect Oz’s rocky relationship with Sofia, who must surely not trust him at all now. So Vic has definitely made his bed and it sucks to see him succumb to the life of crime because, contrary to what Oz tells him, Vic is too good for this life of crime.

Oz, as mentioned, is making a play to control the drug trade in Gotham and finds himself working with Sofia to secure a distribution line for a new drug the Falcone’s have been developing called Bliss, a psycho-active drug that Sofia was forced to take during her time in Arkham Asylum. In their scenes together, we learn that Oz may be responsible for Sofia’s tenure in Arkham after he said something (still unknown) to Carmine, but Oz swears up and down that he had no idea that a ten-year stint in the asylum would be the result. One has to wonder how genuine Oz’s word is, as setting up his boss to remove her from play and allow him to rise up the ranks sounds exactly like a move he would pull.

After blackmailing Johnny Viti to broker a deal with the Triads, Sofia breaks into a monologue sales pitch about the effects of their new drug and it had me wondering if Vic may end up using it to suppress the emotional baggage he carries with him, which often manifests itself into insecurities which causes him to stutter. Everything she said seemed to highlight something that Vic is dealing with in some way shape or form and the speech would’ve seemed inconsequential to the audience.

Episode three of The Penguin pushed the plot forward in meaningful ways while also providing some fascinating and much-needed insight into one of its most interesting characters. I wonder what will happen not only to Vic now going forward, but to Oz and Sofia. Oz seems worse off now than how he was at the start of the episode, so he’s going to need quite the excuse to get out of this hole. Curious to see what happens next!