'The Penguin's Rhenzy Feliz Dishes on Vic's Turning Point in Episode 6 [Exclusive]

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The Penguin

Editor's Note: This article contains spoilers for Episode 6 of The Penguin.

In the twisty world of television, some characters never change, and some characters can be changed forever on a dime. In the latest episode of The Penguin, Vic (Rhenzy Feliz) is pressured into making a drastic decision after he's blackmailed by local drug dealer Squid (Jared Abrahamson). Even though Vic's solution to the episode's problem is far from ideal, you can't help but notice that this isn't how he'd like for events to play out. In an interview with Collider during NYCC, Feliz talked about building up to that moment throughout the season.

During the interview, Feliz told Collider's Perri Nemiroff that he and showrunner Lauren LeFranc had been discussing this moment in Vic's arc from the start. He also broke down his approach to the character's state of mind to play it as best as he could:

"That was something Lauren [LeFranc] and I talked about from the very first time that we'd even met in Los Angeles before we went and shot the show. Knowing that huge moment was going to happen for Victor and what that was going to feel like. It's one of those things that you're thinking about the entire shoot because it's a big moment. You are thinking about it a lot. One of the things that I had found that maybe isn't good for my psyche in general, but I started looking up some videos of horrific things that happened to human beings. I shouldn't have said all that out loud, I know!

What I found was that it was really hard to, although awful to look at, it was hard to look away from also. I always thought about playing with that, and there's obviously this remorse thing going on. He doesn't want to have to do this thing. He feels like he had to do this thing. He almost feels like he was forced to do this thing. Then it turns into this 'mad at you for making me do this.' It was something about capturing something. It wasn't so black-and-white. I think that was something that we wanted to capture, how complex that kind of moment could be for Victor."

Vic Had a Gangster 101 Lesson in 'The Penguin'

Colin Farrell and Rhenzy Feliz standing on a subway train in The Penguin

Feliz also talked about the moment itself in the series and that it ends up being as unexpected to Vic as it is to viewers. In Vic's mind, he'd be able to send Squid away and dismiss the whole thing as a minor inconvenience — that's why the shot he fires is almost like a knee-jerk reaction. He stated:

"I think he goes into it totally thinking that the money play is gonna work, and then I think it's a heat-of-the-moment thing where there's not much time to make a decision but [he thinks] 'what the consequences could be if you let him come back?' So without really having much time to think, you gotta make a decision, and I think before he knows what he's doing, he's doing it, which I thought was really exciting the way that when I read it, I thought it was really cool."

The other sort of unexpected twist in the story is that Oz's (Colin Farrell) reaction to when Vic tells him what he did is basically "business as usual." Does that mean that part of Vic's arc is him becoming a lot less humane, and we just witnessed the birth of a ruthless new criminal? We'll have to wait for a couple more episodes and maybe the new Batman movie to find out.

Max airs new The Penguin episodes on Sundays.

It follows the transformation of Oswald Cobblepot from a disfigured nobody to a noted Gotham gangster.

Release Date September 19, 2024

Cast Colin Farrell , Cristin Milioti , Rhenzy Feliz , Michael Kelly , Shohreh Aghdashloo , Deirdre O'Connell , Clancy Brown , James Madio , Scott Cohen , Michael Zegen , Carmen Ejogo , Theo Rossi

Seasons 1

Prequel The Batman (2022)

Writers Lauren LeFranc

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