‘The Penguin’ Episode 3 Ending Explained: Rhenzy Feliz Explains Why Victor Chooses Oz Over Graciela

The Penguin Episode 3 “Bliss” ends with Oswald Cobb’s (Colin Farrell) protege making a monumental choice. Will young Gotham teenager Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz) break free of the cycle of pain, violence, and tragedy that defines the city in the wake of 2022’s The Batman? Or will he choose loyalty to Oz? Providing him with a future as a criminal and potential supervillain in the HBO show’s universe?

**Spoilers for The Penguin Episode 3 “Bliss,” now streaming on Max**

In the final moments of this week’s all-new episode of The Penguin, Victor ghosts childhood sweetheart Graciela (Anire Kim Amoda) at the bus station to return to Oz’s side just in time to save the Batman villain from certain death.

It’s a fascinating moment because up until this week’s episode, it appeared obvious that Cobb was holding Victo sort of hostage. After all, the gangster pressed Vic into his service after stumbling upon the stuttering teen trying to steal his hubcaps. For most of The Penguin Episode 1 “After Hours,” Victor assumed Oz would kill him. He even begged for his life! However, when Victor reveals in The Penguin Episode 3 “Bliss,” that he’s hoping to leave Gotham with Graciela, Oz acquiesces. Well, I mean, he does draw a gun on the teenager and screams insults at him. But Oz lets Victor go his own way and Victor returns to the Penguin.

So why? Why would Victor pass on a future in California with sweet, pretty Graciela? Especially when his only other option is to sink deeper into the deadly danger of life alongside the Penguin?

“Oh man. There’s so much going into that moment,” Penguin star Rhenzy Feliz told Decider. “From that scene in the bathroom, where [Oz’s] kind of yelling at him. He has a gun to his head and he’s asking them what he wants out of life and he’s calling him nothing. ‘You don’t get any awards for dying in the projects,’ and all these kind of really harsh, rude things.”

“But the way that Victor sees it, he’s got a point.”

The cold open of The Penguin Episode 3 “Bliss” takes us back to Victor’s life before The Riddler (Paul Dano) blew up Gotham’s seawall. Although his immigrant family lived well, they lived humbly. Victor clearly yearns for more, while his father chastises him for wanting more than they need. While Victor survives the ensuing mayhem thanks to the fact he was hanging out with friends at a nearby roof party, the sea swallows the Aguilar’s apartment, leaving the rest of Victor’s family presumed dead.

“The road that’s out ahead of me, it’s not looking very, very bright,” Feliz explained. “I don’t know whether I’m ever going to make out of my life, but if I stay here with this guy who seems to have a plan, who seems to be figuring it out, my life could change.”

“I could have money. I could have, you know, a life. I could be a part of something bigger than myself.”

Feliz also explained that another scene in this week’s episode — the one in which Oz treats Victor to an upscale meal in a fine dining restaurant — also made a huge impression on Victor, inspiring his choice to stick by Oz.

“[Oz] tells me kind of to take up space. You know, ‘Stop cowering, take up space. You can do that,'” Feliz said. “I think that there’s a power that that Oz feels like he should have. He sits high up in a chair, chest out. And I think Victor looks up to that and admires that a bit.”

“So it’s a bunch of things, I think, combined that make him go,’ I love this girl and I love what she represents. She represents the good in me. She represents my my life, my parents, everything, my family. But right now, I think the thing that’s going to leave me better off in the future is going to be going back with Oz.'”

Did Victor make the right call? He might now have Oz’s favor, but the Penguin is now on the run from the Maroni family and almost-ally Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti). Standing next to Oz Cobb might make young Victor a victim before long…