Why Did Oz Kill Victor? Colin Farrell Has the Answer

Despite being a part of numerous movies and shows in the past, fans always wondered when Colin Farrell would get his due credit. When everyone saw him as the notorious Penguin in The Batman, it was as if Farrell was finally here to redeem himself and sweep the awards season when it arrived. Not just the makeup and costume were on point, but Farrell’s menacing energy on screen as the mafia boss left everyone speechless.

Now, as the first season of The Penguin is coming to an end, fans are eager to get the answers to all the burning questions. Read on to know what Farrell has to say about the finale and the story so far.

Colin Farrell Addresses Victor’s Death

The pivotal season finale of The Penguin has been making waves in the television landscape. The story arcs of the central characters of the show have culminated into this thrilling finale episode where we see Oz Cobb at his breaking point where he takes a drastic step. Played by Colin Farrell, Oz is a complicatedly layered character.

While his eye is always on the bigger picture over the horizon, that does not stop him from considering current scenarios. This is, in large part, what makes him such a feared man in the underworld, and is able to run the empire with a firm hand. However, this level of success does not come without strings.

Farrell explains to Collider how Oz is driven to madness by the end of the events of The Penguin series. After making tough decisions and dealing with cruel characters along his journey, it’s understandable for the mafia boss to lose his grip on sanity. Farrell continued,

I think by the end of the eight episodes, there is a degree of psychopathy that has found its way into his psychology, and thereby found its way out to the world, and the most violent and most explicit articulation of that psychopathy is committing the act that he commits at the end of Episode 8.

And he commits it without compunction and with absolute understanding and with a rationalization for why he’s committing it. He says it to Vic himself, “Family is everything, but god damn it if they don’t make you weak, too,” if they don’t make you vulnerable. And I think it’s a case of that.

Oz is a man of many flaws but nobody expected his actions to get so bleak and threatening. But at the same time, he is a glorious villain of the Rogues Gallery, so fans somewhat knew he had it in him.

His decision to strangle Victor to death shows how far Oz will go to protect the place he has made for himself in the world. He will not accept looking weak at any cost. Moreover, his latest crime in the finale acts as a turning point for the titular character who has remained likable so far.

The audience at least empathized with Oz earlier, but will the viewers keep rooting for him in the future, only time will tell.

Is Oz Cobb capable of redemption?

The Penguin does not give a newsflash that Oz is a villain, rather chooses to show the viewers exactly who he is at the core. Even though the masses came to like him during the span of the show, the finale clears the air and presents Oz exactly as who he is.

He had earned the affection of the audience with his goofy humor and a more humane side of his personality. The Penguin finale, however, showcases Oz’s ability to be brutal and deadly when the situation arises.

His merciless strangulation of Victor perhaps puts him beyond the realms of redemption as fans believe he could have handled the situation better. Nevertheless, Oz had to come into his essence as a true villain and present his power in plain sight. The scene also hints at the draining of humanity from the villain.

The showrunners have posited the psychological finality in such a dynamic way that Oz may never be able to redeem himself fully in the eyes of the audience if he returns for another season.

Colin Farrell Hated Victor’s Death Scene

Farrell is not holding back on claiming just how much he despised shooting that scene on top of hating the story arc altogether. While he understood the writers’ perspective behind writing the scene that way, the actor did not like strangling Victor on screen.

The actor further shared how he was unable to shake the gnawing feeling in his heart even after the director yelled cut and the filming had ended. He said,

Honest to God, fiction though it is, sometimes what you’re doing is so moving, sometimes as an actor, what you’re doing is so tender, sometimes it’s so cruel that it stays with you. You bring it home at night, and that was a sticky scene. I had to have a shower with a wire brush at the end of that night.

I feel like Victor would have been loyal to Oz, but I also understand Oz’s apprehension because Victor is seeing the real Oz. We’ve already started to see Victor changing from where he started, so you never know what could have happened. Because the truth is, Victor could have been the one who… I see all sides of this.

This is one of the reasons why Farrell was able to bring such grace and humanity to the titular role. He understood all the ways that make him a deadly villain but also the softer aspects of his personality that people did not see before.

HBO has not yet announced if The Penguin will return for another season. Given the viewership numbers and popularity of the show, fans expect the DC series to return for another chapter and continue the brutal yet effective escapades of Oz and his crew.

The Penguin is streaming on HBO.