The Penguin shows the true human cost of Riddler’s “The Batman Plan.”

This article contains spoiler for “The Penguin.”

As MAX’s The Penguin series continues, showrunner Lauren LeFranc has increasingly demonstrated her commitment to making a full-fledged crime drama without any superhero shenanigans. The series is a dark and violent look at the underbelly of Gotham, based on classic crime stories of the past. But “The Penguin” isn’t just a “Sopranos” satire with a few “Godfather” references. This series also has something to say about anti-hero worship and offers an in-depth look at the real-world consequences of inequality.

The Penguin begins immediately after the events of 2022’s The Batman, in which Edward Nashton/The Riddler (Paul Dano) blew up Gotham’s seawall. This was his attempt to draw attention to the corruption in Gotham and how the Renewal Fund, which was supposed to support projects like the seawall, was stolen by organized crime groups with the help of city officials. In the chaos that ensued, Riddler and his online followers plotted to assassinate elected mayor Bella Reál, but were foiled by Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight. When “The Penguin” begins, large parts of Gotham are under water due to Riddler’s plan, and we see the titular villain breaking into the late Carmine Falcone’s lair, leaving wet footprints on the ground from having to trudge through the floodwaters to get there.

As the first and second episodes unfold, the series goes to great lengths to show the chaos wrought by Riddler’s plan. This is not the typical urban decay one might associate with Gotham City. Subways were derailed in train stations, entire neighborhoods were under water, and FEMA camps were set up across the city to support the dispossessed. But it’s not until episode 3, “Bliss,” that we get a real glimpse into just how misguided and evil Riddler’s plan was, and how tragic its consequences actually are – and in retrospect gives more seriousness and realism to the otherwise somewhat abstract and nonsensical plot of “The Batman”.

In episode 2 of The Penguin, we saw the titular villain’s new apprentice, Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz), pause briefly and stare at some missing posters nailed to a wall. These were the faces of the people lost to Riddler’s plot, and Victor lingering on them suggested some kind of connection. Were any of the people in the posters a relative? At some point later in the episode, Victor receives a text message from someone named Graciela asking if he is okay. However, not much is revealed about the character’s past beyond that.

Episode 3 changes that from the start. The pre-title sequence is a flashback showing Victor in his parents’ apartment, where he receives a text message from Graciela, who it turns out is his girlfriend. The show then shows Victor and Graciela hanging out on the roof of Crown Point waiting for fireworks. From their meeting point, Victor can see his family’s apartment a block across the street. As the pair talk, explosions begin to rock the city and we realize we are witnessing the explosions from Riddler’s seawall from a different angle. As Victor desperately tries to call his mother, the water begins to rush into Gotham, but he can only watch in horror as the water flows toward his house, into the building’s facade, through a Bella Real poster on his fire escape Parents etc. shoot directly into their apartment.

This is why in episode 2, Victor stopped and stared at the missing person posters. His own family was wiped out and his neighborhood destroyed when Riddler leveled the seawall, and he was presumably driven to the kind of petty crime that led to his rise to fame in Penguin’s Rims – a clever twist on Robin’s origin story from the comics. But there’s more to this than just fleshing out Victor’s backstory. The fact that Victor, who comes from a low-income neighborhood, was so directly affected by Riddler’s plan shows how misguided the plan was from the start. Far from affecting the corrupt elites who made Gotham a cesspool, Riddler’s plan hit the disadvantaged hardest, with Victor and Crown Point serving as physical evidence of this unpleasant fact.

There’s a reason The Penguin is based on Dolly Parton. Specifically, the country singer grew up in a one-room cabin with eleven siblings before becoming one of the most successful country stars of all time. What is Oz Cobb if not the gangster equivalent of Parton in his early career? An ordinary neighborhood boy who not only has ambitions to make it big, but also to become the most influential figure in his chosen business – except instead of country music, it’s about organized crime.

In many ways, “The Penguin” succeeds in something that “The Batman” simply couldn’t. That said, with eight episodes, the MAX series is truly able to delve into the themes that motivated Matt Reeves’ film – corruption, inequality, crime – and explore them in a way that actually reveals some truths the real world appeals socially and politically. The fact that Victor and his neighborhood have been hit so hard by Riddler’s misguided plan means that Victor is vulnerable. This makes him the perfect target for someone like Ozwald Cobb – a master manipulator who can talk his way out of anything and seeks victory at any cost. So it’s not just that Episode 3 of The Penguin gives us a more detailed look at the events in The Batman. It gives us a much more detailed look at Gotham and its problems with inequality, and a close look at how people like Oz Cobb can thrive in such circumstancesThis reinforces the series’ sense of realism and its connection to similar real-world themes.

Episode 3 makes “The Penguin” not only a worthwhile endeavor to perfect Matt Reeves’ Gotham, but much more than a “Sopranos” satire. The series tackles real-world issues and challenges you to side with its charming protagonist, just as Victor does at the end of the third episode. In this episode we see how such a mistake stemmed from an ill-conceived plan that decimated low-income neighborhoods and turned the events of “The Penguin” into a true continuation of the events of “The Batman,” an analogue for contemporary themes, and established this show as much more than just a superhero spin-off.

New episodes of “The Penguin” premiere Sundays on HBO and MAX.