How Will It Connect to The Batman 2?

WARNING! The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Penguin Episode 8!

Over the course of eight episodes, The Penguin has delivered one of the greatest modern TV crime dramas, and it just so happens to be set in Gotham City. The series charted Oz Cobb’s (played excellently by Colin Farrell) rise through the underworld of Gotham City to become the titular Batman villain fans know and love. Departing from his wacky comic book counterpart, the show’s iteration of the character is far darker, with some comparing him to Gotham’s version of Tony Soprano, a sympathetic villain who can be malevolently evil when required.

Episode 8, titled “Great or Little Thing,” brought the phenomenal season to a close. The finale will reportedly tie closely into the upcoming The Batman: Part II, which has a finished script and will have major ramifications for Gotham City and any future spin-offs. Let’s dive beak first into The Penguin‘s final episode and where it has left Oz Cobb — because, unlike in Black Adam, the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe is actually about to change.

Vic’s Death Transformed Oz Into The Penguin

Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz) became the audience’s window into Oz Cobb’s world. A resident of Crown Point (Gotham’s poorest district), Vic was directly affected by The Riddler’s floods, which destroyed his home and left him orphaned. As he didn’t have the resources to become Batman, Vic turned to a life of crime and unexpectedly became the closest confidant of Oz Cobb during his rise to power.

But Episode 8 swept the rug out from underneath audiences as Oz murdered Vic with his own hands. Considering his friend to be a loose end and a weakness, Oz strangled Vic outside Gotham City Hospital after having successfully thwarted Sofia Falcone’s plans. As Vic lay dead by a park bench, Oz grabbed his wallet and examined his ID (like he did in the very first episode) before throwing it in the river and walking away without an ounce of guilt.

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The moment was absolutely shocking and heartbreaking and confirmed the most important message about The Penguin: Oz Cobb is a villain. Movies and shows centered around villains, like The Joker, attempt to examine the iconic characters through a sympathetic eye. The Penguin certainly does this in spades, but Episode 8 quickly reminds us that, in the grander scheme of The Batman universe, Oz Cobb is a murderous, power-hungry villain and is a threat to Gotham City.

Sofia Falcone Could Team Up with Catwoman

While Batman was nowhere to be seen in the Penguin, standing in Oz Cobb’s way was Sofia “The Hangman” Falcone. Played excellently by Cristin Milioti (who could be looking at an Emmy nomination next year), Sofia slowly transformed into the comic book villain after being repeatedly betrayed by her own family. Her relationship with Oz bounced back and forth across the eight episodes, but “Great or Little Thing” brought their rivalry to a head as Sofia managed to capture Oz and his mother, Frances (Deirdre O’Connell). Sofia revealed that Frances once planned to have Oz killed after he murdered his own brothers. But Cobb’s twisted love for his mother blinded him from it. In a fit of rage, Oz managed to escape and devised a plan to bring down Sofia, gaining immense power in the process.

Sofia believed Oz would kill her when he led her out to an abandoned part of Gotham, but he quickly disappeared, and GCPD cars picked up Sofia, taking her back to Arkham Asylum. While the noise of the inmates quickly began grating at her ears again, Sofia received a mysterious letter from her half-sister. Narrated by Zoë Kravitz, the letter was from Selina Kyle, a.k.a. Catwoman, revealing that they’re half-sisters (with Carmine Falcone as their father). Neither Kravitz nor Milioti have been confirmed to appear in The Batman: Part II, but fans are desperate to see the pair team up on screen after their scene-stealing performances.

Where Is Batman in The Penguin?

As Oz Cobb terrorized the Falcones and the Marone crime families, a major Gotham City figure was nowhere to be found. It had already been confirmed that Robert Pattinson’s Batman wouldn’t appear in The Penguin, and Episode 8 made good on that promise. The closest fans got to seeing the Caped Crusader in the series came in the final shot, when the camera panned out over the Gotham skyline, with the Batsymbol shining in the clouds.

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How can a series that sees an entire town in Gotham explode still be too small in scale for The Dark Knight? In the first half of The Penguin, it is believed that Bruce Wayne is still recovering from the injuries he sustained in The Batman (including a point-blank shotgun blast to the chest). However, the show features a month-long time jump, giving Bruce ample time to recover (at least by his standards). The most obvious explanation suggests that whoever the big villain in The Batman: Part II is will be is so dangerous that Batman is too preoccupied with them to deal with Oz Cobb — after all, a major theme of The Batman was that Bruce Wayne is only one person. All episodes of The Penguin are now streaming on Max.