The Penguin Finale Finally Acknowledges That Batman Still Exists

Light up the Bat-signal, because this article contains major spoilers for the season finale of "The Penguin."

Every milk carton and street corner in Gotham is probably plastered with the same message: Have you seen this (Bat)man? He's dressed all in black, has a history of beating up petty criminals, and tends to refer to himself as "Vengeance." Yet despite casting such a long shadow that lawbreakers assumed he was lurking in literally every dark alleyway, upstanding citizens of the city haven't seen Robert Pattinson's Batman since his feats of heroism that fateful day when the sea walls came crashing down and set off widespread flooding in the final act of director Matt Reeves' "The Batman." So where has our favorite masked vigilante been hiding since then, anyway?

"The Penguin" has given us another extended look at the shadiest parts of town through the eyes of Oswald Cobb (Colin Farrell), causing all sorts of mischief and mayhem while working his way to the top of Gotham's underbelly, yet the actual Batman has been nowhere to be found while all this goes down right under his nose ... until now. The season finale brought a fitting end to Oz's scramble for power, concluding with the Penguin now under control of the city's surviving crime families. But as he stands at the top of the food chain and looks out at the skyline that belongs to him in everything but name, director Jennifer Getzinger and writer/showrunner Lauren LeFranc make sure to end the hour on a teasing note. The camera pans away from Oz, settles outside his new penthouse, and silently observes as the Bat-signal lights up the sky in the far-off distance.

Finally, "The Penguin" provides the acknowledgement that fans have been waiting for — Batman is, in fact, still around and has some unfinished business.

"Fear is a tool. When that light hits the sky, it's not just a call. It's a warning." Bruce Wayne narrates those ominous lines early on in 2022's "The Batman," perfectly setting the tone for how Gotham City's troublemakers ought to feel with Batman ready to spring out from behind every corner. He lived up to that reputation all throughout the movie, apprehending supervillains like Paul Dano's Riddler and even tussling with Barry Keoghan's Joker prior to the events of the film. But he also dedicated plenty of time to dealing with lower-level mobsters — Oz Cobb chief among them. The HBO spin-off series would've seemed like an opportune moment to hint at the continued presence of the Caped Crusader, even if only as a silhouette in the background. (The cost and logistics of getting a star like Pattinson himself to appear in the show, after all, likely would've been too prohibitive and too distracting.) Instead, "The Penguin" patiently saved all its bullets for its final shot, sneaking in a Batman "cameo" without ever actually having to show him.

Thus ends one of the funniest running jokes in recent years, in which viewers repeatedly took to social media to wonder how explosive things would have to get before Batman finally intervened in the show's plot. Before ending up behind bars (again), Sophia Falcone orchestrated a car bomb attack that blew up an entire neighborhood and left untold hundreds of casualties. Prior to that, the Maronis, Falcones, and the Penguin himself all fought a grisly gang war that frequently spilled over into the streets. Yet despite numerous car chases and gun battles and literal explosions, apparently none of these rose to the level of Batman's radar. What that last scene seems to be implying, however, is that Batman will have his hands full dealing with the Penguin in "The Batman: Part II."

Matt Reeves' highly-anticipated sequel won't arrive until October of 2026, but you can watch all 8 episodes of "The Penguin" now streaming on Max.