Easily one of the best comic book-based series of all time, viewers wondered if The Penguin would stick the landing in the season finale. In this case, “stick” referred more to sticking a knife in the gut of everyone watching with a brutal, unflinching finale that in some ways feels like the only way the series could have ended. Spoilers follow.

First of all, it was probably the right decision that the show decided to throw Sofia Falcone back to Arkham instead of having Oz execute her after she “won” the town. That’s a roundabout fate for her, and worse than death, considering how horrific her original time in the asylum was. And it also gave us a nice tease about perhaps a future meeting with Selina Kyle.

But of course the cruelty comes in the episode’s final moments, where after Vic confesses how much his time with Oz has meant to him, Oz then utters a line that won’t soon be forgotten: “Boy, I can’t handle you this time with me.” He then proceeds to strangle him, explaining why he is doing so as Vic chokes and pleads for his life.

I say for me personally: I saw this coming. But mostly because I think this was spoiled to some extent by Colin Farrell in an interview weeks ago, discussing Oz’s future behavior:

“I would be surprised if anyone liked him at the end of (episode) eight. I actually asked the producers, ‘Did HBO sign off on all of this?’…There are a few scenes in there that are really brutal, especially one in episode eight. We talk about the crew’s involvement and investments; there was a terrible funk on the set that night. I don’t think I’m exaggerating, you won’t ask me what scene I was talking about.”

When I heard that, I kept thinking in the context of this show, what’s the worst thing Oz could ever do? And I kept coming back to the idea that he would have Vic killed to save himself, or at worst, kill Vic himself. Well, it was the worst option, as it turns out. And even then he didn’t even shoot him without Vic knowing what was going on, he actively strangled him while he begged for mercy. Just… bleak stuff.

This reminds me of those old warrior fables where a young soldier is given a puppy to raise and care for, but in order to complete his training they must then kill him. That’s essentially what happens to Oz here, as he believes that a “family-like” bond with Vic will be used as a potential weakness in his new empire and he must sever all ties that way. But he also implies that this is because Vic has seen him at his absolute weakest. With Vic in the room while Oz was babbling about his comatose mother because she wanted her to say she was proud of him, I had the foreboding feeling that Vic Real shouldn’t see that.

One thing that some may have missed, and that wasn’t even discussed in post-episode interviews, is that I think Oz also saw Vic as a potential threat. Not now, but in the future. Vic essentially orchestrated the entire plan with Link, putting Oz on top, and if he can do that, what else could he do to take power? After all, the plan they had just executed had every gang member in charge killing their leader.

This was horrible, in a good way I guess. It also feels like the only way this would ever end. Oz was never a hero, never an anti-hero. So was Sofia in some ways, but this week we got to see who Oz was, living in his own warped reality and destroying everyone who could ever get close to him, except his mother. And chief among them was Vic who paid the price. It was a finale that cements an all-time great series, and I’m not even sure how The Batman Part 2 can live up to that.

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