The Penguin Episode 7, “Top Hat” was a game-changing penultimate chapter of the story, which both looked back at the dark past of Oz Cobb/Penguin (Colin Farrell) and changed the stakes of his war with Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) in the present. In the midst of all that, Penguin Episode 7 also made the late-game introduction of a character whose presence has influenced the events of the series from the very beginning – but who we are only now meeting in the flesh.
The Penguin Introduces Rex Calabrese
“Rex Calabrese” is a name that got dropped in the shocking opening scene of The Penguin, and has been a recurring reference point for Oz Cobb during the series. In Oz’s conversations with Alberto Falcone (Michael Zegen) and Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz) he made it clear that in his vision of things, Rex Calabrese was a neighborhood legend – a gangster who showed favor and love to neighborhood kids like Oz. However, in the opening flashback to the life-changing day of Oz’s childhood, we find out that Rex Calabrese was something much different.
WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW!
“Top Hat” begins with Oz’s mom, Francis Cobb (Emily Meade), doing bookkeeping for Rex Calabrese’s numbers business. Francis sends her three boys Jack (Owen Asztalos), Benny (Nico Tirozzi), and Oz (Ryder Allen) out in the streets to deliver the book to Rex (Louis Cancelmi); the boys find him on the corner, roughing up a local storekeeper who is overdue on payment in broad daylight. While Jack is cautious about approaching the gangster, Oz is enamored with Rex and brazenly calls out to him. But Rex doesn’t even know Oz is alive, instead showing favor to his older brother Jack, just like Francis does.
The hunger for favor from his mother and surrogate father figure pushes young Oswald over the edge: after meeting with Rex, a game of hide-and-seek with the Cobb boys goes wrong: Oz leaves his brothers locked in a water drainage tunnel to spend the evening with his his mom. When heavy rain starts falling over Gotham, Oz ignores the obvious peril his brothers are in, leaving them to drown.
The point of the flashback scene is to provide insight into Oswald Cobb’s true pathos. Oz’s entire psychological matrix – his mother as his moral compass, Rex Calabrese as the model for his life and legacy, and his “love” of his family – is a self-constructed mask of lies and self-delusion.
The Penguin: Who is Rex Calabrese?
In DC lore, Rex Calabrese was introduced in the 2010s Batman Universe comics and has been established as the true father of Selina Kyle/Catwoman (or “Selina Calabrese”). In the underworld, Calabrese earned the nickname “The Lion,” and ruled that jungle until he was dethroned by Carmine “the Roman” Falcone. Calabrese survived the gang war and went into hiding, taking on the name “Leo Leone” when he was eventually caught and sent to Blackgate Penitentiary. Under that alias Calabrese would still influence the underworld from prison, eventually making contact with Catwoman and letting her know her true family legacy.
The Penguin TV series has reframed Rex Calabrese as a gangster operating in Gotham’s Crown Point neighborhood during Oz Cobb’s youth. It’s unclear at this point if The Batman Universe version of Calabrese has any ties to Catwoman, but we do already know that he has a history with Penguin’s family. There are also a lot of clues that Penguin’s depiction of Rex echoes his comic origin of being a big deal until Carmine Falcone rose to power.
The Penguin airs on HBO and streams on Max.
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