While this week’s episode of The Penguin wasn’t as amazing as last week’s supremely excellent offering, it was still a gripping piece of television that moved the plot forward in needful meaningful ways and made the audience question if we’re really supposed to be rooting for the titular lead. Battle lines were drawn and actions were taken that I don’t think can be untaken in this particular saga of criminal undertakings.

Homecoming didn’t have any flashbacks or context for us, opting (wisely) to propel the plot forward after the Maroni confrontation seen first in episode three. Knowing his bridge has been burned with Sofia, who just murdered near enough the whole Falcone crime family, Oz heads into hiding, charging Vic with protecting his mother, the one thing that “keeps him good”.

I question this statement from Oz, that being said, as this is the episode where we see him cross that line from “good-natured crook” to “downright evil” after he burns Nadia Maroni and her son alive and attempts to have Sal assassinated in prison in a bid to take over the Bliss trade for himself. It feels very Michael Corleone at the end of The Godfather, during the Baptism by Fire sequence, only he didn’t stick the landing with Sal surviving and seemingly teaming up with Sofia, head of the newly minted Gigante crime family, to combat his rise. With Oz in their crosshairs, I can only imagine his mother will feel their wrath and that will really set Oz off the deep end, as Vic was spotted by an old nemesis entering a building and I’m sure once word gets out, this guy will inform on Sofia and Sal to benefit personally. With the walls closing in around him, Oz makes his way to an abandoned underground subway station to begin the construction of a new base of operations to produce Bliss and to hide from those seeking to do him harm.

I always find it interesting to see a character fall from grace in stories. Up until this point, Oz was a cold-hearted crook but one that felt like he had limitations, such as sparing Vic in the firs episode. Actions like that are what keep us liking Oz enough to be invested in his plight and root for him combating scummier crooks. Burning a mother and child definitely makes Oz a villain (as he should be, don’t get me wrong) and watching the descent into darkness is always interesting from a storytelling point of view, but as there’s no “heroes” on this show, such as Jeffrey Wright’s Jim Gordon, it does make it hard to know who to “root” for in this saga of crime. With something like Breaking Bad, the pain came from watching Walt go from good guy to ultimate bad, while The Sopranos showcased Tony’s home life with his wife and children. In The Penguin, Oz has already started off in a position of corruption and there’s no one really to bounce off of that; even his mother is in on the criminality. So I do wonder where this show is going apart from Oz rising to the top and why we should care about that. I think a lot of that outcome will depend on what happens to Vic, a character who definitely feels like he’s in way over his head. Again, I’m not complaining about the show, I think it’s great, but with the double-burning murder, it does make you step back and evaluate who to root for and why we should care for Oz’s campaign.