After the Riddler’s devastating attack on the dam, chaos engulfs the city. Following the death of Carmine Falcone (Mark Strong), his criminal empire begins to disintegrate. Though his brother Luca (Scott Cohen) assumes control, he proves ineffective at maintaining the organization. Amid this turmoil, Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot (Colin Farrell), known as the Penguin, recognizes an opportunity to elevate his status.
Despite his years of loyal service to the Falcone family, Oz has never received the respect he deserves. Seizing the moment, he visits Carmine’s abandoned club and breaks into the safe, where he discovers compromising documents about the city’s elite alongside valuable jewelry. Penguin immediately recognizes these findings as his pathway to power.
His plans are interrupted by the arrival of Alberto Falcone (Michael Zegen), the deceased crime lord’s son. When Alberto reveals his intention to introduce a revolutionary new drug to Gotham’s streets and proceeds to taunt Penguin, Oz snaps and kills him. While attempting to dispose of the body, he encounters a group of teenagers trying to steal his car’s wheels.
Though most flee, Oz captures one youth, Victor “Vic” Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz). He forces Vic to help load the corpse into the trunk, and together they conceal the body. While Penguin initially plans to eliminate this witness, he sees potential in the young man and instead offers him employment as his driver and general assistant.
The following day, the Falcone family summons Oz and demands he relocate his drug operation outside the city, citing the unstable situation. Realizing this would devastate his ambitions, Penguin cleverly repeats Alberto’s words about the revolutionary new drug, presenting it as a promising opportunity for Gotham’s streets.
Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), recently released from Arkham Asylum, overhears this conversation. She grows suspicious of Oz regarding her brother Alberto’s disappearance, particularly since the drug concept was her idea, and Penguin’s knowledge of it seems suspicious. However, Oz successfully manages to allay her concerns.
Following this tense encounter, Oz rushes to visit his elderly mother, Francis (Deirdre O’Connell), whom he has carefully hidden from public view, maintaining the fiction of her death. Realizing he has left evidence that could link him to Alberto’s murder and knowing the Falcone family will soon uncover the truth, he plans their escape from Gotham. However, Francis refuses to flee, instead encouraging her son to stand his ground and pursue his ambitions.
In a calculated move, Oz pays a visit to imprisoned crime boss Salvatore Maroni (Clancy Brown), whose criminal empire had previously fallen to the Falcones. Penguin proposes that they exploit the city’s current chaos to restore Maroni to power in Gotham. Though initially reluctant, Salvatore ultimately accepts the partnership. Oz masterfully frames Maroni for Alberto’s murder, deflecting suspicion from himself, and then assists Maroni’s organization in stealing Falcone’s drug manufacturing equipment.
Meanwhile, Sofia grows increasingly convinced of a traitor within their ranks, launching an investigation that consumes the family. Despite her efforts, Oz continues to outmaneuver everyone. Though Sofia should have inherited leadership of the family, her brother Luca and his associates reject her claim, citing her history of psychosis as grounds to deny her control of their criminal enterprise.
Recognizing Sofia’s frustration, Oz suggests they operate independently of the family. When she agrees to trust him, Sofia reveals the truth about the new drug: a mushroom-derived substance previously tested on Arkham inmates. Oz brands it “Bliss” and establishes distribution through Chinese Mafia-controlled nightclubs.
During these developments, Vic struggles with his role in the criminal underworld and contemplates fleeing with his girlfriend. Though fearful that his knowledge makes him a liability Oz might eliminate, he is surprised when Penguin willingly releases him upon learning of his desires to leave. However, the situation complicated when Maroni’s crew discovers Oz’s secret alliance with Sofia, viewing it as a betrayal of their agreement and marking him for death. As Vic prepares to depart the city, he learns of the threat to Oz’s life. In a decisive moment, he returns to save his former boss, though Penguin chooses to abandon Sofia to her fate.
A flashback to ten years earlier reveals a young Sofia discovering a dark truth through a reporter’s investigation: her father, Carmine Falcone, may be a serial killer who strangles and hangs his victims. The revelation takes on personal significance when Sofia realizes her mother died in an identical manner. As she delves deeper and confirms these suspicions through further meetings with the reporter, Oz, serving as her driver at the time, learns of her discovery. His decision to inform Carmine earns him a promotion but sets in motion devastating consequences.
The aftermath proves far more brutal than Oz anticipated. Fearing his daughter would expose him to the authorities, Carmine orchestrates an elaborate scheme to commit Sofia to Arkham Asylum, framing her for the very murders he committed. For a decade, she endures chemical sedation and electroshock therapy, her mental state deteriorating until she ultimately kills another inmate. Throughout her ordeal, only Dr. Rush (Theo Rossi) believes her claims, though he remains powerless against the influential figures behind her imprisonment. Their shared understanding eventually blossoms into romance.
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Returning to the present, Sofia successfully escapes the execution planned by Maroni and Oz. Now aware that Penguin murdered her brother and forged an alliance with Maroni, she finds herself isolated, with her family dismissing her as delusional. Taking matters into her own hands, Sofia orchestrates a ruthless power grab. She waits until the Falcone family’s leadership gathers at their estate, then releases poison gas, eliminating everyone except for a single young girl whom she chooses to spare.
As the sole surviving senior member, Sofia assumes control of the family. Rather than maintaining the status quo, she initiates a dramatic transformation, abandoning the Falcone name in favor of her mother’s surname. Under her leadership, the criminal organization is reborn as the Gigante crime family.
Oz executes a bold but deceptive move by kidnapping Maroni’s son, ostensibly to exchange him for the stolen Bliss. However, at the meeting, Penguin reveals his true intentions by killing both the son and Salvatore’s wife. He then arranges for prison guards to eliminate Salvatore himself, though the attempt fails when Maroni unexpectedly survives and escapes imprisonment.
In an unexpected turn, Sofia tracks down Salvatore, who assumes she seeks vengeance for the historic feuds between their families. Instead, she proposes an alliance, recognizing that their combined forces could dominate Gotham. This development forces Oz to reevaluate his position. With Maroni alive and allied with the vengeful Sofia, he retreats with his mother to the flood-ravaged slums of the city.
Rather than admit defeat, Penguin demonstrates his resourcefulness by establishing a new base of operations in Gotham’s forgotten underground tunnel network. From this hidden location, he revives Bliss production and forges partnerships with smaller local gangs to distribute the drug throughout the city. Though Sofia and Salvatore become aware of these operations, their inability to locate Penguin’s base leads them to adopt more brutal tactics, systematically executing street-level Bliss dealers.
Their intimidation campaign succeeds initially, as terrified gangs cease purchasing from Oz. Penguin counters with a cunning strategy: distributing Bliss free of charge to create widespread demand. He then convenes a meeting with the city’s smaller gangs, proposing a united front against the Maroni-Gigante alliance. He argues that together they can overthrow the old guard and establish a new order in Gotham. Despite initial reservations, the gang leaders ultimately agree to join forces, setting the stage for an unprecedented power struggle.
A haunting flashback reveals young Oz’s dark past: consumed by jealousy over his mother’s affection for his two brothers, who constantly tormented him, he orchestrated their deaths by trapping them in a sewer during a severe storm. In the present, his elderly mother Francis, her mind clouded by age, suffers in their powerless slum hideout. Leveraging the compromising documents he acquired from Carmine’s club, Oz coerces a corrupt council member to restore electricity to the area.
Meanwhile, Vic confronts an unexpected threat when an acquaintance threatens to reveal Penguin’s location to Sofia and Salvatore. Left with no alternative, he eliminates the would-be informant. As Sofia and Salvatore search for leverage against Oz, they focus on finding his close associates, unaware that his supposedly deceased mother lives. Their breakthrough comes when they locate a prostitute regularly visited by Penguin, who reveals his hiding place.
Sofia successfully captures Francis from her apartment, and Oz soon falls into their trap. Though Maroni forces him to reveal his base’s location, the situation spirals out of control when Penguin’s loyal followers mount a resistance, resulting in Salvatore’s death at Oz’s hands. Desperate to save his mother, Penguin proposes exchanging her for his laboratory and drug operation. Sofia, anticipating another deception, responds by sending an explosives-laden vehicle that destroys his base, though Oz somehow survives the blast.
The final confrontation unfolds in a grotesque tableau: Penguin and his mother bound to chairs as Sofia reveals the fruits of Dr. Rush’s hypnotic exploration of Francis’s memories. The devastating truth emerges that Francis had always known about her son’s fratricidal act but chose silence. Sofia, determined to inflict maximum psychological pain, forces Oz to confess his childhood crime to his mother. When Francis denounces him as a monster, she suddenly suffers a stroke. In the ensuing chaos, Penguin breaks free and rushes his mother to medical care.
Sofia attempts to turn the tables by offering Penguin’s former gang allies exclusive business rights in exchange for his capture. Though they successfully apprehend him, the exchange reveals Penguin’s masterful manipulation: the younger gang members, dissatisfied with their leaders’ betrayal, had already aligned with Oz, eliminating their superiors in a calculated coup.
When Oz drives Sofia out of the city, she anticipates her execution. Instead, law enforcement appears in an unexpected twist. Earlier, Penguin had orchestrated this outcome through a meeting with corrupt councilor Sebastian Hady (Rhys Coiro). Oz fabricated a narrative pinning the tunnel explosion and Maroni’s lab destruction on an unstable Sofia Falcone. He subtly promises Hady political advancement for portraying Sofia as the source of Gotham’s troubles, while Hady’s role in restoring electricity to the slums ensures public support. In return, Penguin requests only introductions to Gotham’s elite.
Sofia returns to Arkham, where Dr. Rush delivers a letter from her cousin, Selena Kyle—the Catwoman. Meanwhile, Penguin’s triumph turns bitter when he learns his mother’s stroke has left her in a vegetative state. After his long climb to power, the ability to fulfill her dreams proves cruelly meaningless. In a chilling demonstration of his evolution, Penguin meets Vic in the park. After expressing genuine gratitude for his loyalty, Oz eliminates him, viewing his extensive knowledge as a liability to future ambitions.
Time passes, and Penguin establishes himself in a hotel penthouse, placing his unresponsive mother in the top floor suite she always desired. The season concludes with a disturbing scene: in the hotel lobby, Penguin seeks comfort from a prostitute who resembles his mother, asking her to express the love and pride he desperately craves. Her performance provides a haunting finale to Penguin’s rise to power.
