Over the course of HBO‘s The Penguin, we’ve seen time and time again just how ruthlessly violent Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) can be. Whether he’s burning a rival’s wife and son alive or locking his own brothers in a drainage pipe to drown as a nefarious little boy, the Penguin shows no mercy. And yet, there was one kill — one final murder in The Penguin Series Finale, Episode 8 “A Great or Little Thing” — that seemed absolutely beyond the pale. A moment where Oswald Cobb completely shed himself of all vestiges of humanity and truly transformed into a Batman villain.
**Spoilers for The Penguin Episode 8 “A Great or Little Thing,” now streaming on Max**
It was, of course, when he brutally strangled his adoring protege, Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz) to death. Oz killed Vic!
The bond that the Penguin has built with young Victor has been one of the most compelling glimmers of humanity we’ve seen from the Batman villain and that’s specifically why the loyal lieutenant had to die. Still confused why Oz would murder Vic like that? In cold blood, leaving his dead body by the river? We got the explanation for Victor’s death straight from Penguin showrunner Lauren LeFranc and stars Colin Farrell and Rhenzy Feliz themselves…
In attaining his goal of ruling the underworld of Gotham, Oz Cobb doesn’t just have to eliminate all of his enemies; he has to get rid of his friends.
The Penguin showrunner Lauren LeFranc told Decider, “There’s no value in Oz achieving power without seeing the sacrifice that has also come from that and what he’s actively chosen to take away from himself.”
As Oz strangles Victor to death, he explains that he can’t have any weaknesses. His regard for Vic is a weak spot that could be exploited by other enemies in the future. So he eliminates that chance by killing Vic himself. “He really loses his humanity by the end,” LeFranc said, “or any inkling that he had of it.”
“He doesn’t even know that he doesn’t want to be human,” Colin Farrell told Decider, “but he’s basically saying, ‘I don’t want to be human,'” with that act.
The dark irony is that Oz killed Victor because he cared about him so much. “If Victor was just someone that he that he didn’t care about, he wouldn’t have to go to such great measures to make sure he wasn’t a liability or a vulnerability in his life,” Farrell said. “It’s messed up.“
“There’s a bunch of justifications. You know, Victor has seen him at his weakest. It’s the same thing he says to Victor in the scene. ‘You’ve seen me at my lowest,’ and all that.”
When Decider spoke to Rhenzy Feliz about the scene, he agreed with Farrell’s interpretation, surmising that Oz “doesn’t want to have a weakness.”
“If someone is able to get their hands on Victor, maybe he’d be willing to change his plans or change his mind. They’ll be able to have something on him. They’ll be able to blackmail him in some way and he realizes he can’t have that out there,” Feliz said. “‘You got to go.'”
For Feliz, the scene wasn’t simply tragic, but bittersweet. “You know, they’re at the dawn of what this thing that they’ve been working so hard to accomplish,” he said. “It’s finally beginning, like the sun coming up over the horizon. It’s coming up.”
“For it to be switched up like that, to turn into something very different, very quickly, reading that as an audience member, I was… I guess ‘shocked’ is the wrong word. I knew it was coming, but it was it was exciting to read.” And devastating for fans of The Penguin to watch.