Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Penguin, Episode 8.
The Penguin is officially over, and that finale did not leave us without a lot to digest. In fact, the closing moments of the series included one of the biggest betrayals we’ve seen all season, and nobody saw it coming.
Before we dive into specifics here’s your last warning, as the following paragraphs will include spoilers for the entire series The Penguin, including the finale, so make sure you’ve seen that first before reading on.
Okay, now what we’ve warned you: The Penguin finale includes Oz Cobb’s biggest betrayal yet as he kills his most trusted companion Victor Aguilar right after the teen helps to win the struggle for power in Gotham. Talk about a head-turning twist that will remain with us for years to come, eh?
Oz is left dealing with his mother in a vegetative state after suffering a stroke, but in terms of his criminal aspirations, he’s in the best spot that he’s ever been. The Penguin now seemingly rules Gotham with a handful of bosses under his leadership all fresh into their roles. This would seem like the perfect situation for Oz, but he sees Victor as a loose end and has to cut it off before moving on with his life.
This is one of the most tragic moments in the entire series. We first see the pair share a heartfelt conversation where Victor thanks him for taking a chance and bringing him at the start of the story, even going as far as to call him family. Only moments later, Oz starts choking his former ally to death and justifying it the only way that the Penguin would.
Seeing this shocking move play out it becomes clear that Oz would quite literally sacrifice anyone including his own mother to get what he wants, and we see this literally earlier in the episode when he’s willing to have his mother lose a finger just to avoid telling her the truth.
Lauren LeFranc spoke with Deadline elaborating on Oz’s actions in the finale and explaining why it was important to have the Penguin be the one to end Vic’s life.
“In so many ways, he is a broken man,” LeFranc said to Deadline. “When it comes to Victor, it was really important to me that Oz kill him — not because he has any reason to, and Victor did come through for him. Victor is like family. Yet Victor saw Oz at his weakest, at his most vulnerable. Oz really feels like he needs a level of power. He can’t have weakness, so he kills Victor.
It’s not because of anything Victor did wrong,” continues LeFranc. “I think Oz, in that moment, really chose to kill his own heart and embrace the monster that he is. It is a terrible tragedy, and I’ve always viewed our show as a tragedy. I hope that people are appalled by what Oz chooses to do because there’s no justifiable reason that we’ve been given for him to do it, which is always important. I think a lot about who dies and when and what people might think about those deaths. Who has power in that moment? Who mistreats somebody else in that moment to create these dark and terrible justifications?”
That’s sad news for those viewers who have come to love Victor over the duration of The Penguin and were hoping to see him return in future projects set in The Batman universe, but it’s also one of the reasons the show was so good. You never really knew who was safe, and who wasn’t.
If you want to enjoy the story of The Penguin over again, then you can check out every episode so far on Max. Hopefully, with the gigantic success the show has been, we’ll get more from this series in the future.