The Penguin episode 1 recap: It's Batman meets The Sopranos in "After Hours"

The DC Universe expands with The Batman spinoff The Penguin, but fortunately, the new mobster drama can stand on its own two feet, providing us with high-stakes drama, character-focused storylines, and an incredible lead performance worth applauding. The premiere episode, "After Hours," premiered tonight on HBO and Max, and will surely entice viewers to keep watching.

Colin Farrell reprises his role as Oz Cobb/Penguin in the HBO series, with a talented supporting cast including Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, Deirdre O’Connell as Francis Cobb, Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni, Carmen Ejogo as Eve Karlo, Rhenzy Feliz as Victor Aguilar, and others. From just the first episode of The Penguin, it's evident the limited series will become one of the best superhero shows yet. We break down all the biggest moments from episode 1 below!

WARNING: Major spoilers for The Penguin episode 1 are ahead.

The Penguin begins one week after the events of The Batman, opening up with newscasts playing to catch us up on the state of Gotham. The Riddler's attacks have wreaked havoc throughout the city, leaving it full of looting, rioting, and increased drug use. The big mob boss Carmine Falcone (Mark Strong) has been murdered, and his son Alberto (Michael Zegen) will be stepping up to take his place.

At the Iceberg Lounge, Oz's (Farrell) nightclub which served as Carmine's headquarters, we see Oz break into Carmine's safe and look through a file of documents and photos. He puts the file in his jacket before noticing some jewelry in the safe. But before he can inspect them more, Alberto appears and points a gun at him. Oz tells him he was simply gathering the jewels to give to him before others got to the safe first, which Alberto doesn't buy. Oz congratulates Alberto for taking over the operation and says nice things about Carmine.

The two drink together and Alberto opens up about the pressure he feels as the new boss. He then lets Oz in on a secret — he has a new drug coming in that will "revolutionize the game." As they talk more, their conversation grows tense, and Alberto suspects Oz wants the power he has now. He calls him "pathetic."

Goodbye, Alberto Falcone

Alberto ends up going a little too far, and when he calls Oz a "little b***h," Oz impulsively takes out his gun and shoots him dead. He laughs before he realizes what he's just done. Alberto might've crossed a line, but killing the new mob boss is not going to be an easy thing to cover up.

Oz has to dispose of the body, and when he walks outside he notices a group of kids trying to steal his car. He begins shooting at them and catches one, a boy named Victor (Feliz). Oz tells him he has to help him get rid of the body and they're in this together now, something that seems to, understandably, scare Victor. But he agrees. What else can he do?

Oz has Victor drive his car and they go to a woman named Eve's (Ejogo) apartment. Oz needs an alibi, and Eve agrees to cover for him any time after 10:00 p.m. Oz and Victor's next stop is to grab some food, followed by a trip to a junkyard. Oz opens up an abandoned car's trunk and throws Alberto's body in there, but not before taking the ring off of his pinky finger. As we learned earlier, the ring belongs to a rival mob family, the Maronis. We'll learn a little more about them later.

It's bad news for Oz and his plant

Now that their work is done, Victor is fearful Oz is going to kill him, and he begs for his life. He tells Oz he'll do whatever work he needs, and Oz agrees to keep him around for now. He brings Victor back to his apartment and gets ready for work. Victor looks around and sees a photo of three kids on a desk. At work at an illicit warehouse, Oz takes out one of the photos he took from Carmine's safe and asks someone to deliver it to a councilman to get the government on his side. As part of Gotham's underworld of crime, Oz oversees a drug operation plant, but not for much longer...

Oz gets a call from one of the mobsters and Victor drives him to a big mansion. Victor worries that they must know Oz killed Alberto, but Oz isn't so sure. He tells him to wait in the car as he meets with a couple of the guys. Unfortunately for Oz, he's told that he needs to shut down his plant and move it to Robbinsville. The cops are too close to the plant and they feel it's too risky, but Oz still doesn't understand. They argue, and Oz tells them he's got a big shipment of a new drug that will "revolutionize" the market and allow them to expand the operation. Of course, he's talking about Alberto's big plan, but they don't know it.

Alberto's sister Sofia (Milioti) then shows up, to Oz's surprise, back from Arkham Asylum. Her first question for Oz is whether or not he's seen Alberto, saying he went out the night prior without his guards and hasn't been home since. Oz is told he has 48 hours to shut down the plant and he leaves. Sofia follows him outside and asks again if he's seen Alberto, to which Oz says no and assures her that he's probably fine.

Sofia is a major highlight of The Penguin

Sofia sees Oz's purple car and pokes fun at the color, then asks him to go get lunch. At a restaurant, Sofia stuffs her face and chugs martinis, which seems to surprise Oz. Other customers stare at them, and Sofia tells Oz she knows they're looking at her, the "psycho killer." She then tells him Alberto said he was going to the club last night and asks why he was talking about his new drug. She knows all about it, having been working with Alberto on it, and questions why Oz would pitch it as his own. She says either Oz is stupid or he knows Alberto is never coming back.

Oz tries to play it off like he was involved in the idea too and that Alberto was playing them both, claiming he figured he'd continue on with the plan while Alberto was out on a bender. This statement surprises Sofia, and Oz tells her that Alberto is an addict. As they leave the restaurant and hug goodbye, Sofia cryptically tells Oz that while others underestimate him, she doesn't. She's definitely suspicious and doesn't trust him.

Oz and Victor take the subway to get a different car, and Victor smirks at the song "9 to 5" by Dolly Parton that starts playing when they start it. They go to Oz's mom Francis' (O’Connell) house, and wow, the writers were definitely channeling Tony Soprano's mom Olivia with this character. Oz tells her that they have to go on a little vacation and he finds a bag of cash he had stashed. Victor sees the same photo on the wall from Oz's apartment as he looks around, signifying that Oz, in his own way, values his family.

Oz's family life

Francis wants to know what her son has done, and he tells her he shot Alberto and it's not safe for her to be home right now. Francis wants to know why he killed him, and Oz tells her that it's because he laughed at him. In a surprisingly twisted moment, Francis calls her son a "p***y boy" before giving him words of encouragement. Oz then sends Victor off somewhere with an important task, and though Victor is hesitant to do it, Oz talks him into it.

Oz then pays a visit to someone in prison, Sal (Brown) of the Maroni mob family. He tells him he's done with the Falcones and wants to work for him instead, something that seems to annoy Sal, believing he has ulterior motives. Sal can't trust someone who flips their loyalty so easily and doesn't want to work with Oz, though Oz isn't ready to give up just yet. He tells Sal he'll be back before giving him the ring that was on Alberto's finger. Sal is shocked and wants to know how he could've had it, which insinuates what Oz did.

Sofia has Oz followed and there's a brief car chase and a violent casualty before Oz is taken by one of her men. Oz is then being held, tied up and naked, being beaten up while Sofia talks to him about Alberto. She says he visited her every week in Arkham, which gave her motivation to keep going. She ended up asking around and heard about Oz shooting at kids outside of the club, and reveals she has one of them tied up. Oz denies everything and says the boy she has is lying, to which Sofia shoots and kills the kid.

You really shouldn't underestimate the Penguin

Sofia's men begin to torture Oz as she asks him to tell her if she's just being crazy and he has nothing to do with Alberto's disappearance. Just in the nick of time before Oz has to answer, they all hear a car horn blaring outside. Sofia and her men rush outside to go look and there's a car with a cement block on the horn and the trunk slightly ajar. Sofia opens it and finds Alberto's dead body, missing a pinky, with the words "PAYBACK" written on the trunk lid.

This is the job Oz sent Victor on, effectively setting up the Maronis to look like they killed Alberto for revenge. Later when they're alone, Oz tells Victor he did good, asking why he didn't go along with the original plan. Victor says he couldn't decapitate Alberto and did the best he could, which is enough for Oz. Oz says he plans on running the city and wants Victor in on it with him. They revel in their success as the episode comes to a close and the song "9 to 5" begins playing again.

With episode 1, The Penguin is shaping up to be an awesome watch. I love the offbeat buddy cop-esque dynamic between Oz and Victor, and Cristin Milioti is awesome as Sofia. So far so good; I'm sure the DC drama will be one of the most popular shows of the year.

Continue watching The Penguin on HBO and Max every week. With episode 2, the release schedule will shift from Thursday to Sunday nights. We'll be recapping each episode here at Show Snob, so check back in with us soon!