We’ve always understood that HBO‘s The Penguin is a story about lowly Gotham gangster Oz Cobb’s (Colin Farrell) rise to supervillain status in The Batman universe. However, The Penguin Episode 6 “Gold Summit” also explores the almost complete corruption of the show’s one “innocent” main character. The Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz) we meet in this week’s episode of The Penguin has transformed into a trusted and capable member of Oz’s underground crew. He’s got a more confident swagger, a bit of flashy facial hair, and a death on his hands.

**Spoilers for The Penguin Episode 6 “Gold Summit,” now streaming on MAX**

We’ve known for a while that one of the few people who spooks Victor Aguilar, even after becoming the right hand man of the Penguin, is his long-time neighborhood bully, Crown Point drug dealer, Squid (Jared Abrahamson). Squid is one of the few people who knows that Victor is hiding Oz’s beloved mother Francis (Deirdre O’Connell) in the ramshackle slums of Crown Point. He’s also keen to get in on whatever new criminal activity has elevated Victor from stuttering orphan into a well-dressed and powerful ally of a gangster, aka the pushing of Bliss on the streets of Gotham.

Victor initially tries to buy Squid off the scent of Oz and Bliss. “I’m annoyingly going to have to give this guy money and then it’ll be done,” The Penguin star Rhenzy Feliz told Decider. “He’s just seen the way that Oz pays people off and Oz at the beginning of the episode tells him, ‘You know why we have their hearts? You know why we have their loyalty? Because we pay them.'”

So “that’s the lesson learned,” Feliz said. If Victor wants to get rid of Squid, he has to pay him. However, because Squid knows about Francis, he believes he has the leverage to bully Victor into an introduction with the Penguin. Because Victor knows Squid is ruthless and untrustworthy, he can’t trust him with the secret about their underground base.

“I don’t know what to do,” Feliz says, invoking Victor’s thought process. “I don’t know what to do, but I can’t take him back. I don’t have any time…and before he can really make up his mind about what’s the right thing to do, he’s already done it.”

Victor impulsively kills Squid with a gnarly gunshot wound and is immediately contrite, telling his dying peer that he didn’t want to do it, but that Squid made him do it.

“Seeing it visually is always different than pulling a trigger. Pulling a trigger, is this,” Feliz said, making a fist. “Seeing someone die in front of you from something that you did is a very different feeling.”

“Not that I would know,” he added quickly, with a smile, “but that’s where you try to get your imagination to go there.”

Feliz explained that Victor’s regret was “immediate,” but complex. “Like, I didn’t even want to do this. It’s almost just like he’s blaming him. He’s almost upset at him, as he’s dying, which is such a gruesome scene. You know, the way it looks and the visual effects and stuff like that.”

Of course, Victor’s transformation over the past season of The Penguin has manifested itself in more than just his ability to kill or rock facial hair. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll have noticed that his stutter even seems to pop up less. It’s not completely gone, but Feliz confirms it was on purpose.

“You know, it was definitely a conscious decision to have this arc from him being who he is at the beginning to who he is at the end and kind of having the confidence to do some of the things that he does,” Feliz said.

What else is Victor now capable of? There are only two more episodes of HBO’s limited series The Penguin — and potentially The Batman Part 2 — to find out…