By the end of The Penguin, Oz Cobb is the “f**king king” – but that rise to power came with the sacrifice of the audience’s sympathies, especially after one appallingly sad scene that reminded everyone exactly who he is: a villain.
Some of the best TV shows of 2024 have gone straight for the emotional jugular: all of Baby Reindeer, but especially Episode 4 and the fallout of Donny’s trauma; X-Men ’97’s heartbreaking Genosha massacre, with Rogue holding Gambit’s corpse and whispering, “I can’t feel you”; and every brutal, shrieking death in Masters of the Air.
On paper, The Penguin didn’t seem like it’d be particularly poignant or upsetting; the origin story of how a Gotham gangster becomes an iconic Batman foe is fertile ground for backstabbings and violence, but nobody was expecting it to carry any hefty emotional weight.
How wrong we were: it was often incredibly (and grimly) affecting, whether it was Oz’s Oedipal commitment to his mom leading to his mother’s death, the tragedy of Sofia Fal– sorry, Gigante, or most of all, the doomed arc of Victor Aguilar, Oz’s right-hand carjacker-turned-ally.
Victor’s death in The Penguin is unforgivable
Victor had nothing when he stumbled into Oz’s life; barely any friends, no family, no job, and a decrepit neighborhood he could barely call home. Oz, in his own morally dubious way, gave him purpose and the confidence to assert himself, whether it was being the bagman in a club full of drugs or trusting him to look after his mother; he “took up space” instead of trying to hide between the cracks.
In the finale, as Oz says, they’re all that’s left. Victor stayed by his side the whole way, and he saw him at his worst. They depend on each other… and that’s why Oz had to kill him.
Going into the last episode, many viewers – myself included – suspected that Victor would bite the dust, but not like this. I thought Sofia would kill him to get revenge on Oz, or that Oz would give him up to save his own skin. Instead, he murdered him in cold blood with his bare hands.
It’s hard to watch, even now. Vic tells Oz he’s like family, and you can see the switch flip in his head. “F**k,” he exclaims as the reality of what he (thinks he) has to do sinks in. He puts his arm around him, telling him that he’s glad that they met and he couldn’t have achieved any of it without his help.
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However, as he explains, family drives you, but it makes you weak, and he can’t thrive as a kingpin with that sort of connection. He pulls him in closer and puts his hand around his neck, choking Vic as he begs for his life on the bank of the river, whimpering as he slips away.
It gets even worse: as Vic’s body slumps to the ground, Oz takes out his wallet, steals his cash, and throws his driving license in the water. Even if he’s found, there’s a chance nobody could identify him; he’s just another dead body in Gotham, fated to rot on the banks or get zipped inside a nameless body bag.
I’m not saying I liked Oz before this scene, but there was some level of morbid catharsis in his actions throughout the series; he offset the blame of a Maroni goon’s death onto Sofia’s pr*ckish helper, he cruelly set Maroni’s son alight just to prove a point, and his decision to put Sofia back in Arkham – “You’re going to hell, sweetheart,” he told her, and he really meant it – was exquisitely despicable.
Victor’s death wasn’t just shocking – it provided unexpected, but essential clarity. Oz is a monster, he always has been, but his journey to the top was rooted in insecurities we’ve all felt: listlessness, unimportance, and the desire for more.
His relationship with Vic showed his humanity, as twisted and temperamental as that could be – but in the end, unlike what Oz said, it was all for nothing.
In the meantime, find out what we know about The Batman 2, how The Penguin earned his nickname, and the one condition to make The Penguin Season 2.
