Naturally, this story will dig into spoilers for the season finale of The Penguin, so stop reading now if you aren’t yet caught up.
The bulk of the season finale of the excellent HBO series The Penguin dealt with Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) tying up the loose ends created by his hasty decision to murder Alberto Falcone (Michael Zegen), way back in Episode 1 of this gripping crime thriller. Oz has had to deal with Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), the entire Maroni crime family, a young protege named Victor (Rhenzy Feliz), and his own mother (Deirdre O’Connell) over the course of the season. But one scene in the finale, I believe, suggested where Matt Reeves might want to take this story when he resumes the action in The Batman: Part 2.
To the credit of The Penguin, this show was not overwhelmed by teases for upcoming DC movies. Instead, showrunner Lauren LeFranc laser focused on the characters in her soap opera, building out her dingy corner of Gotham and fleshing out key characters who could be important in future Gotham stories… or might never be heard from again. I’m quite sure everyone’s ears perked up when Sofia – back in Arkham – received a letter from her half-sister, Selina Kyle (Zoe Kravitz). No doubt that will be a thread that Reeves and his team pull on in The Batman: Part 2.
But one complete scene stood out to me in the finale as a deliberate set up for where we might see Oz in The Batman: Part 2. Almost as if Matt Reeves asked LeFranc to include this one sequence, just to lay the groundwork for a story he’d like to explore down the line.
Into the Lion’s Den
Oz (Colin Farrell) finds himself in a number of tight situations over the course of the finale. Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) has the fast-talking rat pinned down a few times, once with his mother (Deirdre O’Connell), and once with the crime family leaders. But then there’s a complete detour in between the actions of the main saga, where Victor (Rhenzy Feliz) takes Oz to City Hall, so he can win some allies and establish himself as a larger player.
Once inside City Hall, Oz meets with Councilman Sebastian Hady (Rhys Coiro), whom he bribed in an earlier episode to get the electricity back on in his devastated neighborhood of Crown Point. As they talk, Oz manages to reverse engineer his recent crime spree and blame it on several others. He pins the underground Bliss ring on the now-deceased Salvatore Maroni (Clancy Brown). He blames Sofia for blowing up the tunnels under Crown Point (which she did). And he explains to Hady:
Councilman, look. You got an opportunity here to give the people someone to hate. And? Someone to love. Sebastian Hady. That’s the guy who turned the lights back on in Crown Point. Restored people’s dignity. Locked up the last Falcone. Ended a fucking drug war that has plagued these city streets for decades. … That’s the kinda win that you can ride all the way to the top, councilman.
In the DC Comics, Sebastian Hady goes on to become Mayor of Gotham City. A corrupt mayor, but still, a city leader with immense power. That’s a good friend to have in Gotham. And as we all know, Oz doesn’t do anything for free. When asked what Oz wants in return, the crook tells Hady:
Might be good to feel welcome in a place like this for a change. Meet some of those friends you got. Hell, maybe one of these days, we’ll bump into Bella Real, you know?
Who are these “friends” Oz is referencing? I think I know… and I think the scene tells us.
The Court of Owls
Fans have had a good time speculating on the villain (or villains) that Matt Reeves might want to introduce into The Batman: Part 2. Hell, we have been guilty of this, as well. So far, Reeves has introduced The Riddler (Paul Dano), The Penguin (Farrell), Joker (Barry Keoghan), Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz), and other lower-level threats. The key seems to be finding grounded criminals who don’t fall into the camp of an exaggerated comic-book type threat.
Lots of DC Comics readers have suggested that Reeves use The Court of Owls, a secret society pulling the strings on Gotham’s rich and powerful for centuries, and I think that they would fit perfectly into what intrigues the writer/director. The plot of his The Batman even rooted itself in historic corruption, with Riddler being motivated to punish Batman (Robert Pattinson) for the actions of Thomas and Martha Wayne. Reeves has said he hopes to further explore Gotham’s corruption in the sequel. Bruce Wayne discovering that the evils of his city trace back generations to one main group manipulating all of the power lines up beautifully with the manipulation on display in The Batman and The Penguin.
Some fans have even pointed out that the curtains in the courtroom where Oz confronts Sebastian Hady LOOK like the outlines of owls. And dammit, they really do:
Was this a hat tip? Or an innocent set design? We won’t find out until October 2026, when The Batman: Part 2 is scheduled to reach theaters. And I wonder if we will get a Penguin Season 2, or if Reeves will back a different spinoff for another key character. Either way, I just hope we get more time in this version of Gotham before Pattinson returns to clean up the seedy streets.
