Okay, like a lot of people, I love HBO’s The Penguin. In fact, I think Colin Farrell should definitely be nominated (If not win!) for his portrayal of Oz Cobb when awards season rolls around.
However, as good as Colin Farrell is, he doesn’t play my favorite character on the show. No, that would actually be Rhenzy Feliz, who plays Oz Cobb’s reluctant right hand man, Victor (who made a really big choice in the third episode of the show).
So while you’ll likely see a lot of articles applauding Colin Farrell's performance (and for good reason), I wanted to spend some time talking about the character that I’m rooting for the most: Victor Aguilar.
Oh, and MAJOR SPOILERS up to episode 3 of The Penguin if you haven’t watched it yet.
Firstly, I Just Love That He Became Oz's Right Hand Man By Happenstance
Do you want to know one of my favorite Breaking Bad characters? Jesse Pinkman, and it’s probably obvious why. Besides Walt Jr. (and possibly Skylar White upon reevaluation) Jesse is Walt’s biggest victim when it comes to the path he led him down.
Because in a lot of ways, Jesse was the moral compass of the show. His trajectory as a punk kid to a man who actually got to change his life around was one of the best story arcs in the entire series.
This trajectory makes me think about Victor Aguilar on The Penguin. Now, due to Episode 3, we now know that Victor was a good kid who got dealt a terrible card. His family was destroyed in the floods that we saw in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, and he started carjacking just to survive since he very much lost everything.
But I also love that his meeting up with Oz was because he was carjacking, as he had no idea who he was stealing from, and probably now wishes that he had tried to steal from somebody else. Because unlike the incident with the bombings, where Victor was actually in the right place at the right time (though he probably would have preferred to die with his family), when we see him stealing Oz Cobb’s car, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
So I take great pleasure in knowing that Victor probably could have gotten away scot-free if not by happenstance. That gives his partnership with Oz an almost fatalistic outlook.
I Also Really Love That You Can Tell That He Both Does, But Also Doesn't Want To Work With Oz
Though we’ve only gotten three marvelous episodes so far, I also really love Victor’s feelings toward Oz. In some regards, he wants to work with him because you can see that 1, he thinks he can make something of himself, and 2, he likes his companionship with Oz, which makes sense since he’s lost pretty much everybody besides his girlfriend in the bombings.
On the other hand, we constantly see him reconsidering his role in Oswald’s life. For example, in the third episode, after a startling incident of PTSD at the club, Victor goes into the bathroom and reflects on things while literally looking at his reflection in the mirror. He comes to the conclusion that his father would be ashamed of him for distributing narcotics.
Oz, of course, grows closer than ever to Victor after his deal goes through with the Triads, and you can tell that Victor doesn’t want to leave his new employer, but he also wants a better, more morally sound existence separate from Oz.
It’s this warring dynamic within Victor’s soul that makes his character fascinating. Will he fall to the Dark Side like it looked like Luke Skywalker was heading in The Last Jedi, or will his conscience prevail? Either way, I eagerly want to see what happens next.
He Comes Through In Clutch Situations
Circling back to Breaking Bad, one of the moments that blew my mind on that show was when Walt saved Jesse’s life by running over people who intended to kill him. I remember hopping out of my seat and shouting, “No way!” when that happened, and it still gives me chills thinking about it to this day.
Well, something very similar happens in the third episode of The Penguin, in that Oz and Sofia are on their knees, ready to be executed, when Victor comes to the rescue and runs over the people who were just about to off the two of them.
Victor obviously wasn’t thinking things through (whereas Walt likely relished mowing down people in his Aztek), and the only reason he likely did it was because he felt he needed to protect his boss (I’m reluctant at this point to call Oz Victor’s “friend”).
But, this wasn’t the only time that Victor came though in a clutch. In the first episode, he crashed yet another car outside of the Falcone property to get Oz off the hook for murdering Alberto Falcone.
This was the moment that solidified the partnership between Oz and Victor, and it’s pretty telling who’s looking out for who more when Victor has twice saved Oz’s life, while the best Oz has done is not shoot Victor after pointing a gun at him on multiple occasions.
I Also Like How Victor Doesn't Always Come Through In A Clutch, Which Makes Him All The More Fascinating
Episode 2 of The Penguin was an interesting one. We got to see Oz Cobb hoodwink and hobnob his way into the Falcone hierarchy, only for him to manage to pin the blame of Ervad’s murder on somebody else.
The thing is was that this was never in Oswald’s plans. No, he actually went to rescue Ervad, but didn’t because Victor couldn’t plant the evidence to pin Johnny Viti on Alberto’s murder. Because of this, Oz killed Ervad instead, which completely changed all of his plans and forced him to think on the fly.
I absolutely love this about Victor’s character. Because he’s not some skilled accomplice. Instead, he’s a kid off the street who’s now way in over his head, and Oswald knows this. He’s well aware that Victor isn’t the best person for the job, but he’s also the only person he’s really got.
Victor being so green though makes him totally unpredictable, and I adore that about his character. He’s trying, but he’s not quite there yet, and he’s still wondering if he even wants to be there yet, which is fascinating to watch.
In The End, Though, I Like How He Truly Humanizes Oz's Character
Lastly, I love how Victor’s character truly humanizes Oz. I’ve seen every live-action Batman movie, and I really enjoyed The Batman. That said, while Oz Cobb was in that film, he kind of got lost in it, which is fine. He wasn’t the main antagonist in the film anyway. But still, I left that movie not really thinking about Oz, except for the knowledge that it was Colin Farrell beneath all that makeup.
However, Oz is probably the best character we have ever gotten out of a live-action DC story. I’m a big fan of Bane from The Dark Knight trilogy, but I think Oz is a far superior character, and I think it’s all because of Rhenzy Feliz’s portrayal of Victor, as he truly has humanized this villain more than any other Batman-related villain in the past.
This is no small feat, since Danny DeVito’s portrayal of The Penguin in Batman Returns was quite sympathetic. However, Oz’s bonding with Victor truly makes this version of The Penguin stand out. Because Victor, by Episode 3 anyway, has chosen to stand by Oz, and you can tell that Oz sees Victor as a friend, albeit one whom he also sees as his underling.
Victor is, like Jesse Pinkman, the heart and soul of this show, and I don’t think I could ever forgive Oz if he decides that Victor’s expendable like he feels about Sofia. I’d truly give up on Oz if that were to become the case.
But what do you think? Are you also a huge fan of Victor? For more news on all things The Penguin-related, be sure to swing by here often!
