The Penguin Finale Does a Masterful Job Revealing Oz Cobb’s True Villainy

For a few episodes, The Penguin played around with the idea Colin Farrell’s Oswald Cobb would be a sort of antihero. After all, he presented himself as a working man, willing to upset the status quo for the people of Crown Point. Of course, that was nothing more than a façade, and The Penguin’s finale did a masterful job hammering down Oz’s villainy.

The Penguin’s Altruism Was Always a Sham

Let’s get straight to the point: Oz is not a good guy. Whenever he’s cornered, he’s quick to throw anyone under the bus if he can escape a tough situation with his feathers unruffled. In short, Oz’s pathological relationship with the truth means that his every grandiose speech about unity is nothing more than a scam to get him more power in Gotham City’s criminal underworld.

Nevertheless, when Oz talks about how the city stole his brothers from him, you can imagine that there is a heart beneath all those prosthetic layers. In addition, Oz’s affection for his mother, Francis (Deirdre O’Connell), and his protégé, Victor (Rhenzy Feliz), seemed genuine. Together, these emotional hooks help paint the picture of a man who’s cruel but who has been forced into a life of violence by Gotham City’s glaring social inequality and is willing to go the extra mile for those he loves.

Episode 7 of The Penguin shattered fans’ expectations by revealing that Oz is responsible for his brothers’ deaths. The episode also explains Oz’s unhealthy need to have his mother’s love, a force that pushes him to commit all sorts of atrocities. That wasn’t enough, though. For The Penguin to cement its titular character as the villain he truly is, the limited series’ final episode needed to deconstruct Oz’s humanity so there’s no shadow of doubt about him being a narcissistic sociopath. The Finale excels in this endeavor by hitting the audience exactly where it hurts: Vic and Francis.

Francis’ Fate Shows Oz’s Sociopathy

While The Penguin has its fair share of touching scenes, one of the show’s best happens in Episode 6, when Oz finds his mother freezing in a bathtub. By then, dementia had begun to claim Francis’ mobility, trapping her under cold water for the entire evening. Sitting on the cold tiles with a towel wrapped around her, Francis reveals she fears nothing more than becoming a vegetable, so she asks Oz to take her out when the time comes. Oswald accepts the difficult task, promising to honor his mother’s wishes.

Alas, in The Penguin’s finale, Francis has a stroke due to the stress of being kidnapped by Sofia and forced to relieve the death of her sons. After that, she can no longer speak or move by herself. It was time for Oswald to honor his vows and give Francis the clean death she hoped for. Instead, Oz strapped her to a hospital bed inside a penthouse so that she could watch Gotham City from above. The tear rolling down her cheek is proof that Francis is somewhat aware of her situation, even though she’s trapped in a flesh prison for the remainder of her days.

Some could argue Francis is getting her due punishment. She did weaponized Oz to get her the life of luxury she wanted as a consolation prize for the loss of her sons. Still, Oswald’s choice to keep his mother alive proves he never truly cared about her. Oz is addicted to praise and wants his mother to love him, but she doesn’t matter as a human being. For him, she’s not a person with specific needs that should be respected but only an object whose worth is measured by its ability to validate his fantasies. That’s also why Oz has Eve dressing up as his mother and telling him how good he is.

An Autonomous Victor Is a Threat

While Francis’ fate is atrocious, Vic has arguably the most tragic fate in The Penguin. Over the season, we watched as Vic slowly embraced a life of crime, inspired by the class-divide lies Oz fabricated to justify his gruesome actions. Once he kills someone in cold blood to protect the secret of Oz’s underground Bliss lab, there’s no turning back for Vic. Even so, it’s the finale that cements Vic’s transformation, as he stages the coup that removes every gang leader from the equation and puts in charge their second-in-command.

Vic’s clever maneuver ultimately saves Oz’s life. At the same time, it shows how brilliant and dangerous the young man can be. It’s no wonder Oswald decides to choke Vic with his bare hands. From the moment he proved himself to be more than a loyal puppy to be ordered around, Vic became a potential threat to Oz’s criminal empire. Vic’s genuine admiration for Oz and the fact that he considers the Penguin his family sets some high standards for the mobster. Oswald can’t have Vic by his side, questioning his actions, especially now that they both know what he’s capable of.

Sure, Oz tries to frame the murder as “removing a weakness,” but that’s just another lie added to his devious machinations. The Penguin is a villain through and through, and anyone who ever thought he could be redeemable was just falling for his empty words. At least now, watching the Dark Knight beat him to a pulp in The Batman: Part II will be even more satisfying.

The Penguin is now streaming on Max.