{"id":124571,"date":"2024-11-11T10:57:31","date_gmt":"2024-11-11T03:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=124571"},"modified":"2024-11-11T10:57:31","modified_gmt":"2024-11-11T03:57:31","slug":"the-showrunner-explains-that-shocking-ending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=124571","title":{"rendered":"The showrunner explains that shocking ending."},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"mainEntityOfPage\">\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"11\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xpsm2001wn2m4n3caczkw@published\"><strong><em>This article contains spoilers for the season finale of <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/culture\/2024\/09\/the-penguin-show-hbo-batman-colin-farrell-cristin-milioti.html\"><strong>The Penguin<\/strong><\/a><strong><em>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"206\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrn8u001j3572gsnxlf22@published\">Despite its comic-book origins, <em>The Penguin<\/em> started off as a straightforward gangland drama, like <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/culture\/2011\/10\/boardwalk-empire-like-mad-men-but-boring.html\"><em>Boardwalk Empire<\/em><\/a> with Batman waiting in the wings. But the series, which picks up with waddling wannabe Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) where 2022\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/culture\/2022\/02\/batman-2022-movie-review-robert-pattinson-zoe-kravitz.html\"><em>The Batman<\/em><\/a> left off, turned out to be full of twists and turns, both in terms of its plot and the kind of show we thought we were watching. Mobster\u2019s daughter Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), who in the comics is revealed as a serial killer known as the Hangman, was released from Arkham Asylum as a dangerous psychopath, only for us to discover that she\u2019s been unjustly imprisoned for a string of murders committed by her own father. Oz was a striver, a classic example of a low-level goon trying to engineer his rise to the top, but also a genuine danger, who in the season finale unexpectedly strangled his young second-in-command, Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz), because he worried that their attachment might make him vulnerable. The season, which ends by setting the stage for the 2026 sequel to <em>The Batman<\/em>, elevates Oz from a bumbling thug to a genuine threat, but Victor\u2019s death isn\u2019t larger than life: It\u2019s small and ugly, and the more shocking because of it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"38\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrnaj001k357201rmg5z6@published\">Slate talked to Lauren LeFranc, <em>The Penguin<\/em>\u2019s creator and showrunner, about that shocking death, writing muscular men and complicated women, and how John F. Kennedy\u2019s sister changed Sofia Falcone. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"15\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrnce001l35723r511frb@published\"><strong>Sam Adams: So, now that the finale has aired, I can finally ask you: Why? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"6\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrnee001m3572fp3dd9ws@published\"><strong>Lauren LeFranc<\/strong>: I know. I know.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"36\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrngd001n3572dw07qq7k@published\"><strong>Oz\u2019s murder of Victor is genuinely shocking, even for all the terrible things we\u2019ve seen Oz do over the course of the season. Did you go in knowing that was how this story had to end?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"87\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrnil001o3572yq10j3q3@published\">I mean, I\u2019m devastated by it too, but it felt like it was the thing that had to be done. From the very beginning, when I first came up with every character\u2019s emotional arcs, my early pitches to [<em>The Batman <\/em>director] Matt [Reeves] always involved, one, this kid Victor, who would become the heart of the series in many ways, and two, that Oz essentially rips his heart out by the end to become the monster that he feels he needs to be in order to succeed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"90\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrnk5001p35725rdrbp00@published\"><strong><em>The Penguin<\/em> is a genre show about an underworld crime war, so a lot of people get killed, to very different effect. When Oz shoots the corrupt cop Marcus Wise in the head and his brains splatter over the lens, it\u2019s funny. When Sofia shoots her father\u2019s deputy, Johnny Vitti, it\u2019s kind of badass. But Victor\u2019s death is ugly, and you don\u2019t give it that<\/strong> <strong><em>Godfather Part II <\/em>sense of tragic inevitability\u2014that this is something Oz has to do because of who he is. You don\u2019t give him that slack. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\n  <b class=\"pull-quote__text\" data-editable=\"quote\">\u201cIt was really important to me that you feel as if Oz doesn\u2019t need to do this, and yet he<span class=\"widont\">\u00a0<\/span>does.\u201d<\/b>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"84\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrnm1001q3572rlbx95yq@published\">It was really important to me that you feel as if Oz doesn\u2019t need to do this, and yet he does. Not that anybody needs to enact violence in our show at any time\u2014they just all choose to for various reasons. It\u2019s easy to justify Oz\u2019s actions throughout the show, and Sofia\u2019s and so many of our characters\u2019. But it was really important for me that we do not justify what Oz does to Victor, and that it feels appalling and terrible and unnecessary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"102\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrno8001r3572zx42fvuq@published\">I talked a lot with our writers room about where you place it. Because I knew Victor needed to die, and as we were breaking the story for the finale, it felt very essential to put it later in the episode, not earlier. I want you as an audience to be surprised, and also thrown and disgusted with what Oz chooses to do. I worried if you did this to Victor sooner, it would be hard for you to even follow Oz or to understand what he\u2019s going through, or for the Oz-vs.-Sofia quality of the finale to carry the same weight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"28\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrnqe001s3572dc4ici1y@published\"><strong>Oz has already won, in a sense. His enemies are dead or imprisoned, he controls Gotham\u2019s underworld, and he\u2019s corrupted its government. There\u2019s just no need for it. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"81\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrns8001t3572mki5wxuf@published\">In the first episode, when Victor and Oz are sitting side by side outside sharing a suicide slushie, it\u2019s this moment where these two scrappy guys come together after a hellacious night, and I wanted to mirror that, so that it feels as if you can take a breath, that Victor made it. Victor\u2019s just come from seeing Oz at his most vulnerable with his mother in the hospital. And Victor tells Oz that he feels like he\u2019s family to him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"47\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrnu9001u3572hzfidvw8@published\"><strong>I\u2019ve watched the scene several times, and you really don\u2019t see it coming, except for the turn when Victor tells Oz he\u2019s like family, and Oz kind of grimaces, because he realizes that\u2019s precisely the wrong thing to say. Family doesn\u2019t work out well in this world.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"42\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrnw4001v35720cgl8ou5@published\">Oz almost lost the sort of, quote, unquote, \u201cgame\u201d to Sofia because he loves his mother, and he can\u2019t let that happen again, in his mind. The tragedy of it is how terrible it is that to Oz, that\u2019s the wrong word.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"61\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrnxx001w3572i0hps3l3@published\"><strong>You end the season with a little bit of setup for <em>The Batman: Part II<\/em>: Sofia gets a letter in Arkham from Selina Kyle, and we see the Bat-signal in the clouds. What sort of brief did you get from Matt Reeves about where you need to leave the characters? Did you have to, for example, keep Sofia on the board?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"176\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xro02001x35725ymdswdd@published\">I didn\u2019t have any mandates for any of the characters except that Oz needed to achieve a level of power that made him more noticeable to the Batman. I knew I didn\u2019t want to kill Sofia, because I really love what I was able to do with her, and she\u2019s become a really important character to me, and I hope for many other people. In a comic-book show, it felt more tragic that she ended up back in Arkham, and like a more terrible punishment for Oz to give her. But I would always ask Matt, \u201cCan I put Sofia back in Arkham?\u201d When I killed Salvatore Maroni in the way that I did, that was a big ask in my mind, because Salvatore is a big character in the comics. So I would always say, \u201cHere\u2019s why I want this character to end this way.\u201d And we would talk about it if there was an issue, but he was really supportive of my creative vision for the show, and it was a really nice collaboration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"72\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xro21001y3572ekwh1w1j@published\"><strong>You have another full-circle moment where Oz is once again driving with Sofia in the back seat, but instead of being her chauffeur, he\u2019s now the one in control. And he remarks how they\u2019re alike, raised by damaged single parents, outcasts in their own families. But because she comes from privilege and he doesn\u2019t, that\u2019s an insurmountable barrier for him. No matter how rich or powerful he gets, he\u2019ll always be aggrieved. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"106\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xro4f001z3572bbk6a55s@published\">Oz has a rationale for every decision he makes, and in Oz\u2019s mind, it\u2019s true that he sees Sofia as privileged, and Oz is, as Sofia sarcastically says to him, a \u201cman of the people.\u201d But this is how Oz needs to see himself to justify every action he takes. As an audience, we\u2019ve had the experience of understanding Sofia\u2019s plight in Arkham and what her family did, so we know that it\u2019s not that simple. Of course she was born into privilege, but she has been at a major disadvantage for most of her life and has been striving for similar things as Oz has. <strong\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"21\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xro6a00203572fgtxtt63@published\"><strong>Oz has always wanted this one specific thing, and all he can see is that she had it and he didn\u2019t.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"30\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xro8x00213572ffm0lkx0@published\">Right. Yeah. And he has to rationalize to himself what he does. He really is a narcissist, and he constructs his own view of the world to his benefit, always.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"29\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xroab002235728c8bgb4m@published\"><strong>Your job was to lay out an origin story for the Penguin, but the show is really two origin stories: Oz Cobb\u2019s and Sofia\u2014do I say Falcone or Gigante?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"8\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xroc800233572xu4txy8u@published\">You better say Gigante or you\u2019re in trouble.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"82\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xroea00243572m11q4vin@published\"><strong>Sofia Gigante, then. She is someone who is really made into who she is: an innocent person confined to an asylum for 10 years, essentially driven mad. But when we see Oz as a kid, he\u2019s already who he\u2019s going to be, a child who will allow his two brothers to die so he can have more of his mother\u2019s attention. His mother might not be quite right in the finale when she calls him \u201cthe devil,\u201d but she\u2019s not all wrong. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"123\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrogh002535728qw5bito@published\">I think you could argue there\u2019s many other ways for Sofia to move forward in her life. The path she chooses coming out of Arkham is very self-destructive. It\u2019s empowering in some ways too, but by the end, she comes to this realization that she\u2019s still playing, as she says in Episode 7, by her father\u2019s rules. It\u2019s this game. And it\u2019s a game that Oz knows very, very well too. She\u2019s still trying to prove to her father that she has value. Why is she spending her time doing that? Is this something she even wants? Certainly she wants power, but does she need or want power on this level, and does this give her strength? It isn\u2019t quite healing for her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"50\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xroip00263572toi2pe9x@published\"><strong>Cristin Miloti plays the moment when she realizes what Oz has done so well. You have a moment of relief when you realize he hasn\u2019t killed her, but when the cops show up to take her back to Arkham, the look on her face is so clearly \u201cAnything but this.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"54\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrokx00273572ti656xkd@published\">It\u2019s gut-wrenching. That\u2019s the hope, really, even though that sounds terrible to say. I really have always viewed this show as a tragedy in a way, one that I hope is engaging and enthralling and funny in moments. But at the end of the day, we\u2019re trying to have it feel a bit operatic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"69\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xromt00283572puf1okrc@published\"><strong>Can you talk about what you wanted to achieve with Sofia more broadly? In the comics, she\u2019s a serial killer called the Hangman, and on <em>The Penguin<\/em>, people think she is, but she\u2019s actually been framed by the real killer, who is her father. So if people just know the comics, or even if they skimmed the Wiki, they\u2019re going to be surprised by how you turn that inside-out.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"220\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrooo00293572hmm9ozk7@published\">Carmine Falcone\u2019s death in the film led to a power vacuum in our show, and that was the main thing that I knew: Oz was taking advantage of a power vacuum. So when it came to thinking about adversaries for Oz, I thought Sofia would be a really interesting person to bring into the fold. I wanted this interesting brother\u2013sister relationship at its center, and I wanted a really interesting, complex, flawed female character. I mean, I wanted many of them. There\u2019s some tropes in comic books and crime dramas, and they don\u2019t always serve female characters as well as they might men. So I really wanted to try to subvert those tropes and just add more dimension in the way that I wished I had when I was a kid growing up, and that as a woman now, I would still love. I can\u2019t say I love Oz, because I really find him very difficult to write, especially towards the end. He\u2019s really an appalling character in a lot of ways. But he speaks so many truths that I personally connect to as well, and he\u2019s a really amazing character to get the opportunity to write. I don\u2019t think people like me are given a lot of opportunities like that, in terms of writing a muscular type of character.<\/p>\n<p>\n  <b class=\"pull-quote__text\" data-editable=\"quote\">\u201cThere\u2019s so many people like Oz in our world who hold a lot of power, who also connect with people because they speak, on some level, the<span class=\"widont\">\u00a0<\/span>truth.\u201d<\/b>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"172\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xror7002a35726qm6a6jv@published\">When it came to Sofia and her story specifically, I was interested in Rosemary Kennedy. I thought it was so tragic what happened to her and how her father\u2014who obviously came from a very patriarchal household and a very wealthy family\u2014had the power to put her away. She was 23, and she was given a lobotomy, and her story\u2019s never told. So I wanted to see if I could tell a Rosemary Kennedy\u2013esque story, and also flip on its head the comic-book tradition of how everyone who comes from Arkham is a psychopath. It felt exciting and fun to me to lead the audience down a path of all these preconceived notions of what we think of someone who comes from Arkham, but also how common it is to label women as insane. I mean, you can look at people like Britney Spears, for instance. Mental institutions used to do these terrible things to women, and women would be deemed hysterical and be thrown into an institution. That wasn\u2019t that long ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"30\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrota002b3572gj84jozi@published\"><strong>While we\u2019re talking about great actresses and complicated women: You got to create Oz\u2019s mom, Francis, played by Deirdre O\u2019Connell, essentially from scratch. What went into that character for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"204\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrovu002c3572e4qla9ow@published\">What little of Oz I knew was based on the movie, because he\u2019s not in very many scenes. I got to read the script early, which was really helpful and informative, and I was thinking about, OK, if I\u2019m going to take on this series about Oz, I need for my own self to understand where he comes from, who he comes from, why he is the way he is, what makes him tick, what he fears, what he wants, all that. In the comics, Oz\u2019s mother, in various forms, plays a prominent role, but I wanted to create my own version of who his mother would be, and so I created Francis. What I liked about her is that she is a ballsy woman, she is brash, and they have this strange connection. I always imagined that as a woman of her generation, she was overlooked herself. She was not given the opportunity or the respect that someone like her felt like she deserved. Circumstances didn\u2019t allow her to succeed and make a better life for herself in the way that she dreamed of. And yet, here\u2019s her son, who she believes can do that for her, and should do that for her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"105\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xroxo002d3572maxs7853@published\">In \u201cTop Hat,\u201d the flashback episode, we see she was always brash. She always talked the way she does, but she loved her sons deeply, all three of them. And the revelation we come to in the finale where we realize that she always knew what Oz had done, and she\u2019s been sitting with that \u2026 I mean, the two of them are quite terrible at closure. They don\u2019t talk about their feelings. If anything, this show could be an example of one of the many reasons people should explore therapy\u2014but not the therapy that Julian Rush does on Sofia, because that\u2019s also very bad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"59\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrozl002e3572qsaekovz@published\"><strong>On your Twitter account, you link to an <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/therumpus.net\/2017\/10\/05\/supermom\/\"><strong>article you wrote for the Rumpus<\/strong><\/a><strong> about growing up with a girl who was killed by her mother, and being afraid that your own mother might hurt you. Did that play into creating a character like Francis, who we eventually find out came very close to having her own son killed? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"56\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrp1e002f3572rg3ahmez@published\">Well, I do always try to bring my personal experience. The best thing you can do as a writer is try to live an interesting life and talk to other people who live interesting, very different lives than you. I definitely had an interesting one, and I am interested in trauma for a lot of reasons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"105\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrp39002g3572nczlmfal@published\">In so many ways, actually, I based Francis on my grandmother, my dad\u2019s mother, and she\u2019s a very different woman. She came from Mexico and immigrated to the United States, but was very prideful and very challenging as a mother to my dad. And yet she would never speak like Francis. I mean, Francis speaks the way she does because that\u2019s Oz\u2019s mom and I wanted you to know that Oz gets his mouth from a woman like her. My grandmother would be appalled if she knew that I would ever associate the two of them together, because she really viewed herself as quite classy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"33\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrp5c002h357238ikkb9c@published\"><strong>In the last scene, Oz is dancing with Eve (Carmen Ejogo), who looks so much like his mother that it made me wonder if I\u2019d been missing it the rest of the season. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"75\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrp7v002i3572auiyajqw@published\">That\u2019s very, very intentional. With Eve, we established that she becomes who her clients want her to be. The woman that we met early in the season was who Oz wanted her to be and what she looks like for Oz. When Sofia finds her in her apartment, this is who she actually is. She\u2019s not wearing a wig. She\u2019s not dressed up or dolled up. She looks really different. She has no makeup on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"163\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrp9u002j3572somxi5u9@published\">It was always important to me, and this was always part of my initial pitch, that if Oz was to achieve a level of power\u2014and that is something that was not up for discussion, that was my job that I was tasked with for the season\u2014that he has to lose something emotionally.<br \/>It can\u2019t come without a cost. Some of the costs involve his own choosing, like Victor, and Francis, how she loses her mental capacities by the end and realizes her greatest fear. Oz does not give her the things he promises, one of which is to help her die and release her from the sort of mental prison that she\u2019s feared, because she, in his mind, betrayed him and didn\u2019t ever tell him she was proud of him\u2014and in fact, calls him the devil and wounds him. That\u2019s the last thing he gets from his mother, which is the antithesis of everything that he\u2019s wanted or demanded or felt like he deserved.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"95\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrpbn002k3572cbtr81ip@published\">So it made a lot of sense that Eve, who is someone who he pays to do what he wants and to say what he wants, that he would have her dress up like his mother in a distorted way and tell him she\u2019s proud of him in the way that his mother never did, wearing the dress that we establish in the second episode, and we see again in seven and eight. That\u2019s something that Francis wore to the jazz club that night when, unbeknownst to Oz, she was considering having Rex kill him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"12\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrpdn002l3572in6vqwql@published\"><strong>Which, up until Episode 8, he\u2019d always thought was a great night. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"114\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrpfk002m3572xbyze4hl@published\">In his mind, he was like, \u201cOh, what a special night. We celebrated my brothers, but they\u2019re gone now, and I get my mom all to myself.\u201d And Francis, we realize, is considering having someone who Oz looks up to as his mentor take him out. Our show\u2019s a tragedy, and I want it to be distorted and weird, but I also hope that we\u2019ve laid the groundwork for you to see that Oz is a man who creates his own delusions. With Eve, it\u2019s to the extreme, but that is how he reconciles his own decisions, and that is how he gets what he wants, no matter if it\u2019s completely true or not.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"56\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrphe002n35724rhjgioy@published\"><strong><em>The Penguin<\/em><\/strong><strong> ends up not just establishing Oz as a formidable foe for the Batman, but as a genuinely horrifying person, not a comic-book villain. He\u2019s not someone who is going to carry out some elaborate plot against the people of Gotham so much as someone you would not want to be in the room with. <em\/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"152\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrpjq002o3572zrmsya7q@published\">That was my goal and intention. I mean, it\u2019s the greatest gift in the world to have Colin Farrell be the lead in your show. He is a really exceptional actor and a very soulful actor, and he has great comedic timing. And he allowed himself to go to these very, very dark places, because Oz is a very dark character, at the end of the day. He\u2019s charming and he\u2019s fun as well, but he\u2019s dark. And the fact that he lives in his own delusion is a lot. I can never understand fully what it\u2019s like for Colin to literally inhabit this man. It\u2019s wild. And it\u2019s easy to forget that it\u2019s him. And I attribute that to Mike Marino, who did the prosthetics for Colin, but also Colin as an actor. You just stop remembering that it\u2019s Colin inside of Oz. You just think of Oz as this man.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"recirc-line\" data-via=\"recirc-line\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/recirc-line\/instances\/cm34xpsm2001xn2m4l1medo5j@published\">\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/culture\/2024\/09\/colin-farrell-penguin-show-batman-hbo-max-movies.html \" class=\"recirc-line__content\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"recirc-line__img\">\n          <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/3e4a98f9-7730-4718-804f-0bb64c59b1d0.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=140\" width=\"141\" height=\"94\" srcset=\"https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/3e4a98f9-7730-4718-804f-0bb64c59b1d0.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=320 320w,&#10;https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/3e4a98f9-7730-4718-804f-0bb64c59b1d0.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=480 480w,&#10;https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/3e4a98f9-7730-4718-804f-0bb64c59b1d0.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=600 600w,&#10;https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/3e4a98f9-7730-4718-804f-0bb64c59b1d0.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=840 840w,&#10;https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/3e4a98f9-7730-4718-804f-0bb64c59b1d0.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=960 960w,&#10;https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/3e4a98f9-7730-4718-804f-0bb64c59b1d0.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=1280 1280w,&#10;https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/3e4a98f9-7730-4718-804f-0bb64c59b1d0.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=1440 1440w,&#10;https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/3e4a98f9-7730-4718-804f-0bb64c59b1d0.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=1600 1600w,&#10;https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/3e4a98f9-7730-4718-804f-0bb64c59b1d0.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=1920 1920w,&#10;https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/3e4a98f9-7730-4718-804f-0bb64c59b1d0.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=2200 2200w\" sizes=\"auto, 141px\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>\n        <\/div>\n<p><h4 class=\"recirc-line__byline\">Isaac Butler<\/h4>\n<h3 class=\"recirc-line__promoline\">One of Our Finest Actors Became a Laughingstock. Now He\u2019s Having the Time of His Life.<\/h3>\n<p>        <b class=\"slate-link--bold recirc-line__read-more\">Read More<\/b>\n      <\/p>\n<p>    <\/a><br \/>\n<\/aside>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"19\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrpnn002q3572pdwjs41v@published\"><strong>I had to give up trying to find Colin Farrell underneath the prosthetics, because I just couldn\u2019t do it. <\/strong><\/p>\n<aside data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/in-article-recirc\/instances\/cm34xpsm2001yn2m4sccc5nbu@published\" class=\"in-article-recirc\" data-via=\"article-inline_recirc-section-culture\">\n<ol class=\"in-article-recirc__list\">\n<li class=\"in-article-recirc__item\">\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/culture\/2024\/11\/rivals-tv-show-hulu-disney-rupert-taggie-sex-scenes.html\" class=\"in-article-recirc__link\"><\/p>\n<p>            Disney\u2019s Soapy New Series Is a Debauched Delight. Let Us Analyze the Sex Scenes in Detail.<br \/>\n          <\/a>\n        <\/li>\n<li class=\"in-article-recirc__item\">\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/culture\/2024\/11\/joe-rogan-endorses-donald-trump-election-harris.html\" class=\"in-article-recirc__link\"><\/p>\n<p>            Joe Rogan Just Showed Us Who He\u2019s Really Been All Along<br \/>\n          <\/a>\n        <\/li>\n<li class=\"in-article-recirc__item\">\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/culture\/2024\/11\/hugh-grant-heretic-movie-2024-horror-villains-paddington.html\" class=\"in-article-recirc__link\"><\/p>\n<p>            There\u2019s a Reason Hugh Grant Makes Such a Good Villain<br \/>\n          <\/a>\n        <\/li>\n<li class=\"in-article-recirc__item\">\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/culture\/2024\/11\/anora-ending-explained-movie-2024-mikey-madison.html\" class=\"in-article-recirc__link\"><\/p>\n<p>            This Year\u2019s Best Picture Front-Runner Starts as a Rom-Com. But What Does It End As?<br \/>\n          <\/a>\n        <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/aside>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"119\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrppg002r3572czvf89wy@published\">I think you stop looking, also, because you\u2019re just experiencing what he\u2019s doing. It\u2019s really tremendous. The appeal to me, in part, of taking on a show like this is that the Penguin is not the Joker, meaning he\u2019s not someone that you\u2019ve seen many renditions of. I think to me, the most memorable is Danny DeVito\u2019s version. I loved <em>Batman Returns,<\/em> and I loved him in it. But it\u2019s very fantastical, it\u2019s very over the top, and it\u2019s just a different tone than what Matt established in his movie. It was exciting to me, the idea that we\u2019re going to meet Oz as a mobster, and to play him as just a man. There\u2019s nothing fantastical about him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"155\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm34xrprh002s3572eq2lzp48@published\">There\u2019s so many people like Oz in our world who hold a lot of power, who also connect with people because they speak, on some level, the truth. They can be charming and engaging, but also really terrifying and calculated, and not necessarily doing what they say that they will do or caring for people in the way that they say that they will. It felt so timely and so important to really engage with a guy like Oz and not turn away from him, but actually turn towards him so we can start to unpack, in our own society, what makes a man like Oz so appealing, and what makes him equally appalling? I don\u2019t know yet what people will think of Oz by the end of this, if people will make excuses for him or if they\u2019ll be turned off by him. I think it\u2019ll be a mixed bag, but I\u2019m not <span class=\"slate-paragraph--tombstone\">sure.<\/span><\/p>\n<aside class=\"slate-kicker-promo\" id=\"kicker\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-kicker-promo\/instances\/cm34xpsm2001zn2m44ik5lqtb@published\"\/>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){\nif(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\nn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\ndocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/culture\/2024\/11\/penguin-finale-episode-8-ending-explained-victor-batman-2.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article contains spoilers for the season finale of The Penguin. Despite its comic-book origins, The Penguin started off as a straightforward gangland drama, like Boardwalk Empire with Batman waiting &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=124571\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=124571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124571\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=124571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=124571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=124571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}