Every Major Death In The Penguin Ranked

The Penguin has come to an end, leaving many bodies along the way, and the show’s impactful deaths helped the DC series become one of 2024’s most gripping new shows. Colin Farrell did a spectacular job as the lead of The Penguin‘s cast. Oz Cobb’s layers were peeled back in the show, revealing the truly terrible figure that hid behind a more comedic persona seen in The Batman.

Besides the reveal of Oz Cobb’s despicable nature, The Penguin added many complex new characters to The Batman universe before Robert Pattinson returns as the Dark Knight in The Batman – Part II, such as Cristin Milioti’s Sofia Falcone. As Oz and Sofia fought to be the person to control Gotham City’s criminal underworld, they left a pile of bodies in their wake. From the DC series’ first episode to The Penguin‘s ending, several characters died in bloody and surprising ways. Here are The Penguin‘s biggest deaths:

13 Marcus Wise

The Corrupt GCPD Detective Was Killed By Oz Cobb

First up is one of the members of the GCPD to appear in The Penguin, Marcus Wise. As The Batman had already established, this universe, like the comics, shows that Gotham City’s institutions are filled with corrupt politicians, cops, judges, and more. Wise was one of the figures chosen to represent that in The Penguin.

Early in the season, it was shown that Wise is addicted to Drops, the most popular street drug in Gotham. In exchange for finding the mole among the Falcones, Sofia promised him Drops. After working for Sofia throughout the season, Wise would be killed in The Penguin‘s finale. The character was fittingly shot by Oz Cobb as he used Drops on the street when the Penguin escaped Sofia’s grasp.

12 Summer Gleeson

The Reporter Was Killed By Carmine Falcone

Summer Gleeson is one of the characters who died tragically in The Penguin. A reporter for the Gotham Gazette, Gleeson crossed a line when she attempted to get to the bottom of the mysterious deaths of the women who worked at Carmine Falcone’s club. Gleeson tried to get Sofia Falcone to help her.

That move would result in her death. After Oz Cobb alerted Carmine that the reporter met with Sofia and Cristin Milioti’s character told her father about her suspicion that he had killed her mother, it was over for Gleeson. Carmine murdered her and framed Sofia for Gleeson’s death, which led to her being sent to Arkham.

11 Squid

The Drug Dealer Was Killed By Victor Aguilar

Squid is far from being a major character in the series, but he still played a key role in The Penguin. Squid is the cousin of one of Victor Aguilar’s friends, knowing Vic from before the Riddler flooded Gotham in The Batman. Vic never liked Squid due to him being a drug dealer.

Squid was the first person Victor Aguilar killed.

That relationship would come to a boiling point toward the end of the season. After Squid saw Victor entering a building with Francis Cobb, Oz’s mother, he decides to pressure Vic into a meeting with Oz. Squid wanted to get in on Oz’s drug operation. After failing to pay him off, Vic tricked Squid and killed him. The moment was bloody, as Vic had no experience, and Squid bled out from a bullet to the neck.

10 Victor Aguilar’s Family

The Innocent Characters Were Taken Out when The Riddler Flooded Gotham

Squid is not the only character from Victor Aguilar’s past that appears in the series. The DC show features flashbacks to Vic’s life before Gotham’s seawall broke. The character’s dynamic with his family is established. Vic lived with his mother, father, and sister.

The Aguilar family died tragically due to the Riddler’s actions in The Batman. Victor was hanging out with his girlfriend Graciela and some friends when the tidal wave released when the seawall broke swept through the streets. It hit the Aguilar family’s apartment in full force, killing all of Vic’s family as he could do nothing but watch from the rooftop he was on.

9 Johnny Viti

The Member Of The Falcones Was Killed By Sofia Falcone

Save for Sofia Falcone, The Penguin did a good job of killing the rest of her family. While most of the Falcones would die together, Johnny Viti was a special case. As one of the more powerful members of the family, Johnny was one of the characters who looked down on Sofia when she got out of Arkham.

Sofia tortured Johnny to find out where Carmine Falcone’s hidden money is.

Not only that, but Johnny Viti also helped Carmine Falcone put her there alongside the rest of the Falcones. Interestingly, Sofia let Johnny live longer than the rest. Sofia tortured Johnny to find out where Carmine Falcone’s hidden money is. After she assembles a new crew at a reunion and Johnny Viti constantly interrupts her, Sofia shoots Johnny in the head.

8 Magpie

The Batman Villain Was Killed By Sofia Falcone

One of the most interesting aspects of The Penguin was its exploration of Arkham. Sofia Falcone went through a truly awful journey at the location. That would end with her becoming a ruthless killer, and the inclusion of the Batman villain Magpie directly led to Sofia’s transformation.

Magpie befriends Sofia at Arkham. However, as Sofia quickly became paranoid as her mental state deteriorated at the facility, she would come to believe that Magpie was not her friend. Instead, she comes to think that Magpie is spying on her in exchange for drugs, which leads to Sofia brutally bashing Magpie’s head into a pulp.

7 Gotham City’s Gang Bosses

Oz Cobb’s Words Make The Underlings Kill Their Bosses

Oz Cobb always wanted to rise to power to show society that he mattered after growing up as a nobody. That sentiment is shared by many underlings from Gotham City’s famous gangs. After the heads of the gangs decide to turn on Oz, their subordinates decide it is time for a change.

Feng Zhao, the head of the Triad, is the first to go down after Link and Zhao’s crew betray him. The Penguin then presents a sequence showing the bosses of Gotham’s gangs being killed by their underlings. Oz Cobb and Victor Aguilar made speeches that appealed to them, and that led to a power shift in Gotham.

6 Nadia And Taj Maroni

The Wife And Son Of Sal Maroni Were Killed By Oz Cobb

While Oz Cobb’s biggest obstacle to leading Gotham’s criminal underworld was Sofia Falcone, the Penguin had to deal with other players to get there. The Falcones and the Maronis were Gotham’s two biggest crime families. Oz successfully made the two fight each other, and when it was time, he destroyed both.

The fall of the Maronis started with the death of Nadia and Taj, the wife and son of Salvatore Maroni. Oz kidnaps Taj to exchange him for the mushrooms that the Maronis stole. Knowing Nadia would try to kill him, Oz doused Taj in flammable liquid, with the Penguin lighting the trail Taj left when he went over to his mother on fire, leading to the Maronis being burned alive. These might be The Penguin‘s most brutal deaths.

5 The Falcones

The Falcone Family Was Killed By Sofia Falcone

The Penguin had many shocking deaths, and Sofia Falcone was responsible for several in a single episode. Magpie’s murder was only a taste of what could happen when Sofia snaps. After being belittled by her family when she is finally freed from Arkham and not being heard by them, Sofia snaps again.

This time, the character carefully plans how to take out all the Falcones, once and for all. Sofia kills all the Falcone family — save for Johnny Viti and her young cousin Gia — via carbon monoxide poisoning. In the end, Sofia was able to murder everyone who claimed she was insane on Carmine’s orders.

4 Sal Maroni

The Head Of The Maroni Family Died While Fighting Oz Cobb

Salvatore Maroni is one of The Penguin‘s biggest characters. He never liked Oz Cobb, and after the Penguin killed his wife and son, Sal struck a deal with Sofia Falcone to take Oz down. Sal even managed to have the upper hand against Oz when the two finally came to a final fight.

However, the character would have a shocking death. It seemed like there was no way Oz could beat the rageful Sal in their fight. That is when Sal Maroni shockingly starts to have a heart attack and dies. Oz gets mad that he is not the one to kill Sal, so he shoots his dead body repeatedly. Sal’s death after being so close to killing Oz was tragic.

3 Alberto Falcone

The Heir To The Falcone Legacy Was Killed By Oz Cobb

Save for the show’s very final death, no character death in The Penguin is more important to the plot than that of Alberto Falcone. After Carmine Falcone died in The Batman, Alberto was set to assume control of the family as his son. However, he had Oz Cobb in his way.

After mocking Oz, Colin Farrell’s character unceremoniously shoots Alberto Falcone and kills him in The Penguin‘s first episode. Alberto’s death is the driving force of the series, as it is the reason why Sofia Falcone and Oz Cobb start a gang war. Alberto was short-lived in the show, but the character’s death had a lasting impact like no other.

2 Oz’s Brothers

Jack And Benny Cobb Were Indirectly Killed By Oz Cobb

Oz Cobb’s backstory was revealed in The Penguin, and it instantly made the character one of the most vile in The Batman universe. The show had already made it clear that there was something wrong with Oz, but his childhood story revealed that the character had issues from an early age.

Oz was jealous of his brothers. He wanted his mother’s attention just for him, which led to Oz abandoning Jack and Benny in the sewers. Before leaving his brothers, Oz locked them in, and when the rain made the water level rise, Oz’s brothers drowned. Their mother was later revealed to have always known that Oz killed his brothers and hated him because of that, adding to the complexity of the Cobb family.

1 Victor Aguilar

Vic Was Killed By Oz Cobb In The Penguin’s Finale

Finally, The Penguin‘s biggest death was its last. As he says in the DC series’ finale, Oz Cobb would not have been able to rise to power without Victor Aguilar’s help. Vic and Oz bonded on a deep level throughout the season, resulting in Vic calling Oz his family. That triggers the Penguin, leading to Oz choking Vic to death.

Oz’s motives for killing Vic are complex. On the one hand, he did not want to have someone that could be used against him by his enemies. On the other hand, he betrayed Vic before giving him a chance to do it to him. After losing his family and doing everything he could to save Oz and help him win, Victor Aguilar’s death was The Penguin‘s biggest and most tragic.

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