The season finale of “The Penguin” is about as dark as it gets

Easily one of the best comic book series of all time, viewers wondered if The Penguin would make it through to the season finale. In this case, “Stick” was more about sticking a knife in the guts of everyone watching, with a brutal, unflinching finale that in some ways feels like the only way the series could have ended. Spoilers follow.

First, throwing Sofia Falcone back to Arkham instead of letting Oz execute her after she “won” the city was probably the right decision. This is a fate worse than death for her, considering how terrible her original time in the institution was. And it also gave us a nice tease about a possible future date with Selina Kyle.

But of course the brutality comes through in the final moments of the episode, when Vic confesses how much his time with Oz meant to him, and Oz utters a line that won’t soon be forgotten: “Child, I can’t take this “This time you’re with me.” He then strangles him and explains why he’s doing this while Vic chokes and begs for his life.

Personally, I can only say: I saw this coming. However, mostly because I think Colin Farrell distorted this to some extent in an interview weeks ago where he addressed Oz’s future behavior:

“I would be surprised if anyone ended up liking him [episode] eight. I actually asked the producers, “Did HBO approve all of this?”… There are a few scenes in it that are really brutal, particularly one in episode eight. We’re talking about the involvement and commitment of the crew, there was terrible excitement on set that night. I don’t think I’m exaggerating, you won’t ask me what scene I was talking about.”

When I heard that, I kept thinking: What’s the worst thing Oz could do related to this show? And I kept coming back to the idea that he would either have Vic killed to save himself, or in the worst case scenario, kill Vic himself. Well, it turned out to be the worse option. And even then, he didn’t just shoot him without Vic knowing what was happening, but actively strangled him to death while he begged for mercy. Just… dark stuff.

This reminds me of the old warrior fables in which a young soldier is given a puppy to raise and care for, but then has to kill it to complete his training. That’s essentially what’s happening here with Oz, as he believes that a “family-like” connection with Vic is being used as a potential weakness in his new empire and he needs to cut all ties that way. But he also suggests that this is because Vic saw him at his absolute weakest. While Vic was in the room and Oz was crying over his comatose mother, trying to tell her she was proud of him, I had the ominous feeling that Vic Really shouldn’t see that.

One thing that some may have missed, and that wasn’t even discussed in the post-episode interviews, is that I think Oz also saw Vic as a potential threat. Not now, but in the future. Vic essentially orchestrated the entire plan with Link that put Oz at the top, and if he succeeds, what else could he do later to take power? After all, the plan they had just implemented called for every gang member in command to kill their leader.

That was terrible, in a good way, I think. It also feels like this is the only way it would ever end. Oz was never a hero, never an anti-hero. Sofia was, in a way, but this week we got to see who Oz was, living in his own distorted reality and destroying everyone but his mother who could ever get close to him. And Vic, above all, paid the price. It was a finale that cemented an all-time great series, and I’m not even sure how The Batman Part 2 can live up to it.

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