What, would you say, is the crossover in audiences for HBO’s The Penguin and The CW’s Vampire Diaries spinoff, Legacies? Not very large, I’m guessing. Which means you might have missed the probably accidental Legacies Easter egg in this week’s episode, “Homecoming.”
In the episode — and spoilers past this point — Oswald Cobb (Colin Farrell) is amping up tensions big time with the Maroni family, after they stole his magic mushrooms (used for making the drug Bliss) in the last episode, “Cent’Anni.”
His first move? He sees Sal Maroni’s (Clancy Brown) son Taj (Aria Shaghasemi) acting like a fool on his TikTok account, @ViewFromTheTaj. He’s calling out the Falcone family, and saying they’re going to bring the war to them. He’s also clearly about to get a new tattoo at a recognizable tattoo parlor, so Oz and his crew head there, kill everyone around Taj, and then take him hostage.
A lot more happens, but what concerns us Legacies fans is the tattoo that Taj is getting:
Yep, that’s a phoenix all right. And in the episode, it’s a bit of foreshadowing about how Taj ends the episode. Oz covers him in gasoline, and when he’s betrayed by Taj’s mother Nadia Maroni (Shohreh Aghdashloo), he sets Taj on fire, burning them both to death.
But here’s the funny part: on Legacies Shaghasemi played a character named Landon Kirby, a seemingly normal kid who attended a school for supernatural creatures. But Landon wasn’t normal at all — surprise, surprise — he was unique. He was a creature known as… Wait for it… The Phoenix. And yeah, he regularly burned up or died and came back to life, a major plotline and arc for the series.
While this is almost 100% definitely accidental, it still is very funny to see Shaghasemi end up as a Phoenix for the second TV show in a row. And I guess they’re both Warner Bros. TV shows, so perhaps there was a little “hey, give the Legacies fans a little treat here.” Probably not, though. Or it won’t be until the next episode of The Penguin when Oz explains he set Taj on fire because #hosie should have been endgame. Just kidding.
Where To Watch The Penguin:
The Penguin Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
The first episode of The Penguin premieres Thursday, September 19 at 9 pm ET on HBO and Max. There will be an encore airing on Sunday, September 22 at 9 pm ET, and then the show will move to its regular time slot of Sundays at 9 pm ET starting on September 29.
Here’s the full list of episodes in The Penguin, with premiere dates:
- Thursday, September 19, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 1: “After Hours”
- Sunday, September 29, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 2: “Inside Man”
- Sunday, October 6, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 3: “Bliss”
- Sunday, October 13, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 4: “Cent’Anni”
- Sunday, October 20, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 5: “Homecoming”
- Sunday, October 27, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 6: “Gold Summit”
- Sunday, November 3, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 7: “Top Hat”
- Sunday, November 10, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 8: “Great or Little Thing”
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