As a scholar of moral development, the more animating questions guiding my work involve origins. In this case, does The Penguin‘s “story” of how we generally treat others have a discernible beginning? If so, what are its most significant inputs and how might they interact to produce a result irreducible to the sum of its parts?
This, and related questions color my viewing experiences, especially concerning superhero and dystopian media where my scholarship most closely intersects. So it makes sense that my full appreciation of Lauren LeFranc’s The Penguin came during this exchange – a flashback from Oswald Cobb’s (a.k.a. Oz’s/Penguin’s) childhood – at the start of the final episode (S1E8, “A Great or Little Thing”). Although it can be argued that a truer understanding of Penguin is revealed in the previous episode (S1E7, “Top Hat”), episode eight best illuminates the character because it cements how he would be construed among those who had a significant bearing on his future development.