In contrast Batman villains like the Joker and the Riddler, the Penguin has always been the kind of supervillain who seems to want an outcome that’s the opposite of chaos. Throughout the eight-episode run of the limited HBO series The Penguin, the titular gangster, Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell), has been striving for stability, rather than chaos. Yes, his brand of stability requires murder, betrayal and nonstop crime, but he’s not trying to burn the entire world down and inhale the smoke. If anything, the tale of The Penguin is much darker than any unhinged Joker story. In this season, we’ve seen how sociopath can manipulate the world, and those around him, to get exactly what he wants. It’s not that The Penguin is evil, it’s that, in this specific incarnation, he’s arguably the most realistic Batman villain.
In the final episode, “A Great or Little Thing,” several plot points come to their final conclusion, all of which result in a very different status quo for Gotham City than where we started. Here’s what it all means, and what it might mean for the future of this specific version of the Bat-franchise. Spoilers ahead.
