At the end of The Penguin Episode 8, Oz murders Victor by choking him to death on the banks of the Gotham River. It’s a shocking scene, but Vic doomed himself with one line.
Vic started off as Oz’s prisoner in The Penguin; an unlucky teenager forced to help hide a body, knowing that when the night was over, he’d probably have a bullet in his head as the sun rose over the city.
But Oz had a change of heart. Instead of pinning everything on Oz, he took him under his wing and changed his life; money, power, confidence. Vic repaid him with loyalty, saving him from Salvatore Maroni’s wife earlier in the series and rallying a Gotham-wide coup among the city’s mobs.
However, just before The Penguin’s ending, Oz kills Victor in cold blood – and we should have seen it coming.
Vic sealed his fate by calling Oz “family”
After Oz finds out his mother suffered a stroke, he sits on a bench by the Gotham River with Vic. He ponders what his brothers would have thought of him if they got the chance to grow up, and Vic says he misses his parents.
Oz thanks Vic for all his help, telling him he couldn’t have pulled everything off without him. And then it goes very wrong with one line. “Thanks for taking a chance on me, for taking me in. You’re like family to me,” Vic says.
Oz says, “F**k” – but it’s not because he’s charmed by Vic’s affection. In that moment, he knows he has to kill him.
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When Sofia kidnapped Oz’s mother, Oz was vulnerable; he was on the back foot, and he was also desperate. As he tells Vic, “That’s the thing about family, it’s your strength that drives you, but f**k if it don’t make you weak too, and I can’t have that no more.”
If Oz is going to be Gotham’s kingpin, he can’t be concerned about the lives of his family – or, more accurately, he can’t afford to have anyone around him that a rival could use to get under his skin.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, showrunner Lauren LeFranc said: “In a way, he shouldn’t have survived the pilot. I think Oz kills Victor because Victor has seen him at his most vulnerable and because Victor really cares about him and loves him — and because Victor does view him as family.
“He learned something from how desperate he was when his mother was threatened. I think Oz believes that for him to achieve the next level of power, he cannot have weakness. And he views love and affection and family as weak.”
This was echoed by Colin Farrell, who agreed: “For sure, right after Oz’s love for his mother was used against him and nearly brought him down, the idea of having somebody close enough that it would make him vulnerable is something he can’t really truck with.”
Make sure you’re up to date with our The Penguin release schedule, find out more about Magpie and why Dr Julian Rush may be a secret Batman villain, and if you’re looking for something to watch next, we’ve ranked the best superhero TV shows of all time.