Why The Penguin Kills His Family
At the start of the series, we were all rooting for The Penguin to take down the old families and become the new King, but as the series progresses we all realize something is so rotten in The Penguin that it stinks across the screen. Let’s dive into the mind of Oswald Cobb, aka Oz, aka The Penguin.
Sin of Envy ft. Attention
Why Oswald killed his brothers? The same reason Qabil(Kane) killed Habil(Abel): Envy. The only reason a brother kills a brother is envy, not hatred, not desires, not survival. He didn’t want to kill them, he just wanted to punish them for making fun of him. He kept looking at the rain, realizing that the water would go down the tunnel container and the area would submerge. Then he realizes if his brothers do not escape they are going to drown. For the entirety of his life, he now has his mother’s full attention just for a moment, because his brothers are not here. In his mind, “It’s better for Ma if they are gone, Ma will have more money to spend on herself, and Ma will be happy in the long run”, he justifies killing them not for his need for attention but for his mother’s overall well-being.
Don’t seek validation, seek God.
What is it that we seek? Is it fame, is it power, is it money? It’s none of that, it’s the attention that comes with fame, power & money that we want. Tell me why we seek it, because we crave attention: Attention is all we need. It is never fame, power, or money. Man seeks fame, power, and money all his life not because he wants to be powerful, he wants to be famous, he wants to afford every luxury the world has to offer, but solely because all of these things will make him the center of attention.
The irony is the only way a man can detach himself from the desires of seeking attention is when he realizes that the only one who can truly be the center of attention is God himself, it will never be you, me, or any other mortal flesh for the matter.
There is no Truth with a Capital “T”
When asked to the penguin why he does what he does, he replies, “There is no morality, just survival”. This is how he justifies killing when he holds the gun, but when he’s not, he appeals to the moral code of the authority. He denies morality, while knowing morality exists, just not for him. By denying his morality he escapes his guilt, if you keep denying it long enough, you will be dead and no longer have to face your guilt. He rather watch his mother get tortured right in front of him than face his guilt.
Justify killing, and your guilt will beautify you. Don’t justify killing, and your guilt will crucify you.
This is the same thing that happened between mentor Roy Cohn and apprentice Donald Trump. Roy teaches young Donald there is no morality with a Capital T, but when Trump throws him out of the building, Roy argues with Trump for having no shame, no respect, no gratefulness, etc. indirectly invoking Morality. No matter what you say and believe, when the gun points toward you, you will beg the gun to follow the moral code.
The End
When I watched Narcos, I found myself rooting for Escobar(a paranoid terrorist). These types of stories are told from the perspective of evil, but that does not mean we have to get brainwashed into loving these characters. The characters like Penguin and Escobar don’t even love themselves and know they are going to hell. When Oz says to Sofia, “You are going to hell”, knowing well he is 100 times worse than her, he is saying he deserves much worse than hell. He kills Victor Aguilar, a son-like figure, just because he thinks Victor may betray him or even worse — remind him of his brothers. These characters don’t deserve love, they don’t deserve hate, they deserve death.
I will finish this discussion on sin, guilt, morality, good & evil in my upcoming book I Am God (A phone convo between Man & God).
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