‘The Penguin’: Behind The Decision To Kill Off One Of The Drama’s Leading Characters In The Finale

Lynette Rice
·3-min read

SPOILER ALERT! This story contains details from the season finale of The Penguin on HBO.

Yes, Oz Cobb managed to stoop that low.

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In one of the final scenes of The Penguin‘s eight-episode season, Colin Farrell’s character had one final surprise to reveal to fans: no one, absolutely no one, is safe in his increasingly violent orbit.

Despite his love and admiration for young Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz), Oz takes the life of his most trusted confidante. For EP/Showrunner Lauren LeFranc, it was important to display that “inevitable quality” of the Penguin before it wraps its limited season on HBO.

“Oz has shown himself to be someone who is narcissistic and lives in his own delusion. He has really struggled with receiving love and seeks it out from his mother, but never fully trusts it from people,” LeFranc tells Deadline. “In so many ways, he is a broken man. When it comes to Victor, it was really important to me that Oz kill him — not because he has any reason to, and Victor did come through for him. Victor is like family. Yet Victor saw Oz at his weakest, at his most vulnerable. Oz really feels like he needs a level of power. He can’t have weakness, so he kills Victor.”

“It’s not because of anything Victor did wrong,” continues LeFranc. “I think Oz, in that moment, really chose to kill his own heart and embrace the monster that he is. It is a terrible tragedy, and I’ve always viewed our show as a tragedy. I hope that people are appalled by what Oz chooses to do because there’s no justifiable reason that we’ve been given for him to do it, which is always important. I think a lot about who dies and when and what people might think about those deaths. Who has power in that moment? Who mistreats somebody else in that moment to create these dark and terrible justifications?”

Fortunately for Feliz, he knew from the very beginning that his character was not long for the fictitious city of Gotham.

“At the very first meeting I had with Lauren, we sat down and she told me the entire arc of Victor’s character,” he tells Deadline. “So I knew where we were headed from before I even got to New York [where production occurred].”

At the very least, it helped inform his character’s journey. “I knew the ultimate point of what it was, so I could try and create an arc that would end and hopefully, make it as tragic and surprising as possible,” says Feliz. “Oz doesn’t want any weaknesses. He just experienced what it’s like when someone he cares about is put through pain. I think he doesn’t want to feel that vulnerable again, so he might as well just take Victor out now before someone uses it against him.”

RELATED: All The Actors Who Have Played Or Voiced The Penguin

Feliz says the death scene was shot in the wee hours on Roosevelt Island in NYC’s East River. In the week leading up to their scene, Farrell would sometimes nudge the young actor and ask “you ready for our scene? You ready for the thing?”

“It was kind of a big deal,” admits Feliz. “Colin was good. He was checking if my throat was all right because I would tell him, ‘go for it. Don’t hold back so much.’ I just wanted it to feel real, whatever that is. Am I bummed? Not necessarily. I mean, I knew it was going to be a limited series, so I knew going in that it would be one and done. If there’s a way to go out, what better way than to go down at the hands of the kingpin himself. And I’ve never died on screen before!”

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