'The Penguin' Showrunner Explains That Time Jump in Episode 6 [Exclusive]

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The Penguin

Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb with a cigar in his mouth

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

It's not very common for TV shows to have time jumps between episodes — unless you use House of the Dragon Season 1 as a parameter. For the superhero universe, stories tend to be pretty linear, but for tonight's episode, The Penguin decided to break that pattern. Before we even know what's happening, we find out that we're not going to see the immediate aftermath of Oz's (Colin Farrell) actions in Episode 5 because the Max series jumped forward several weeks. But why did they do that? In a conversation with Collider, showrunner Lauren LeFranc broke down the writing team's decision to speed up the story.

During an interview that took place at this year's NYCC, LeFranc told Collider's Perri Nemiroff that one of the reasons why Episode 6 ("Gold Summit") jumps ahead is because they wanted us viewers to witness something that would otherwise take half a season to set up — the tunnels:

"Well, I think the way we ended [episode] five where Oz and Victor ( Rhenzy Feliz ) go down and Oz tells Victor about the tunnels, and we see this meaningful potential underground layer for him. It felt right to then jump ahead and see it in action, and then also it just gives story-wise, all of our characters some breathing room."

Winter Is Coming To Max Again With 'The Penguin'

Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb in The Penguin Episode 6.

Jumping ahead in time also puts us in winter, which makes Gotham City an even more cruel place than usual. Fans are also eager to see the new Sofia (Cristin Milioti) after her season-best Episode 4 and after her decision to bury the Falcones in every sense of the word. With the time jump, we also get to see Oz and Vic's Bliss business thriving and how Oz deals with the fact that he now has a powerful drug under his control.

Jumping ahead in time may also calm down fans who were quick to point out last week that the tunnels under Crown Point looked like the Batcave. While we still don't have confirmation of what exactly it is, it's likely that both The Batman's Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) and Oz Cobb use the same abandoned trolley station network as their base of operations. Additionally, a time jump advances the storyline of Francis Cobb (Deidre O'Connell), and at this point, fans can tell in which direction it is going — as well as what it might do to Oz.

Max airs new The Penguin episodes on Sundays. The season finale will be just a couple of weeks from now, on November 10.

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

Franchise(s) Batman , DC Elseworlds

Showrunner Lauren LeFranc

Avg Episode Length 60 Mins

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