The Penguin’s final episode, titled 'A Great or Little Thing', aired on Sunday night (or, if you stayed up to watch it in the UK like I did, Monday morning) and it’s set up a bunch of stuff for the sequel to Matt Reeves 2022 banger The Batman.
Obvious warning: I’m about to spoil some stuff in regards The Penguin, so stop reading here if you’ve yet to watch the finale.
If you’re on the fence about bothering though, take it from me… I think this is the best TV show I watched this year. Even if you didn’t much care for The Batman, I highly recommend giving it a shot.
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Now, on to the spoilers.
Perhaps the biggest teaser for The Batman Part II’s future lies in that letter Sofia Falcone received from her half-sister Selina Kyle.
The Batman loosely adapted parts of the DC comic Batman: The Long Halloween, most notably the twist in the story that revealed Selina Kyle was the daughter of Carmine Falcone (and the half-sister of Sofia).
Batman: Dark Victory, the sequel to The Long Halloween, was also semi-adapted for The Penguin.
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Two-Face’s role as the Carmine antagonist was replaced by The Penguin, and Alberto Falcone’s role as a Falcone family member who murdered several of the crime family’s members was given to his sister, Sofia, instead.
Take a look at The Penguin in action below.
The letter Sofia receives from Selina at the end of The Penguin sets up a couple of things in this regard, like their eventual battle (which leaves Sofia permanently scarred) and Sofia’s potential demise at the hands of Two-Face.
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Also, more obviously, Sofia ending up back in Arkham does imply that she could seriously take on the role of The Hangman in the future - much like she did in the comics.
One little teaser that I felt incredibly dumb for missing popped up in the r/ThePenguin subreddit last night titled, “Anyone else notice the owls in this scene?”
Absolutely no idea how I didn’t clock this one, because that’s a courtroom filled with owl silhouettes. You know, like the name of the super secret evil organisation the Court of Owls?
Considering the Court of Owls are a wealthy group of elites who influence the behind-the-scenes movements in Gotham, the parallel here couldn’t be more obvious.
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One of the most important themes in The Penguin was the ever-growing gulf between Gotham’s poor and its upper class, with Oz finding out that the wealthy even managed to divert the power from some of the city’s poorest neighbourhoods.
Also, bit of a wild theory on my behalf here, but Gotham’s mayor Bella Reál seemed like she was being super sketchy to me in the final episode. During the scene that Councilman Sebastian Hady spoke to Oz in the courtroom, he specifically noted that Reál had her eye on him.
In the comics, one of the Court of Owls’ most important members, Owlman, actually runs a campaign to become Gotham’s mayor under the pseudonym Lincoln March.
Nothing particularly concrete here, I just think there are some odd parallels. Plus, Reál’s grassroots, for-the-people style campaign would be the perfect cover if she is secretly a part of an ultra-elite, super-rich underground organisation.
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Finally, the Bat-Signal going off at the very end of the episode isn’t some simple, half-baked tease - at least according to The Penguin’s showrunner, Lauren LeFranc.
As LeFranc explained in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, this little stinger will directly tie The Penguin into The Batman Part II as a way “to launch into Matt's second film”.
Matt Reeves even corroborated this in a previous interview, stating, “We're kind of flicking you at the end to say the story's not over… The idea that Oz and these characters could be on a collision course at some point with Batman, that's of course out there.”
So, at the very least, we will likely see some kind of direct continuation of this story in The Batman’s sequel… which would make a lot more sense if the Court of Owls story and Oz’s story tie together.
Oh, hey, owls and penguins are both birds. I’m onto you, Matt Reeves.
Topics: Batman, DC, DC Comics, TV And Film