One of the best things about HBO The Penguin is that he doesn’t need Batman. Yes, this takes place in DC Studios’ pocket “Batman Epic Crime Saga”, which began with the Matt Reeves film. The Batmanbut the show goes beyond that. It reveals parts of Gotham City we’ve never seen before. Digging deeper than any Batman cinematic universe. These are all things we love and wouldn’t change the show.

However, after this week’s episode, you can’t help but think (to quote Jack Nicholson’s Joker), “Where…is Batman?” Because his absence has finally started to have ripple effects, even if they are unconscious.

Episode six of The Penguincalled “Gold Summit,” culminated with Oz (Colin Farrell) bringing together the leaders of several crime syndicates from across the city to team up against the Gigante/Marionis. It takes a bit of massaging, but it’s the biggest step yet toward Penguin actually becoming the true-to-form DC Comics supervillain we know and love, at least through the Batman lens. Epic Crime Saga.

Meanwhile, Sofia (Cristin Milioti) and Sal’s (Clancy Brown) evil alliance is in full swing, with the two seemingly living together under one roof with one goal: to find and destroy Oz. The majority of the episode follows Sofia looking for leverage against Oz, and in the episode’s final scene, she does just that by locating her mother, who she thought was dead.

So let’s come back here for a second. Gotham City is in turmoil. Crime families are falling left and right. Others unite and gain power. Thanks to Oz, there is a new drug called “Bliss” on the streets. The previous drug of choice, “Drops,” has dried up. We even see Oz have an impact on a local politician. There seems to be a lot of very bad and big things happening underground in Gotham City, and yet the city’s savior, its crime-fighting vigilante, is nowhere to be found. It’s not even mentioned. You mean to tell me that all the drug dealers Oz has on the streets are wandering without thinking about the Batman lurking in the shadows? Has it not been established that the fear its existence arouses is its greatest power? That he walks the streets every night? What is going on here?

From a pragmatic point of view, the reason is The Penguin doesn’t want to get into all that. Once you introduce Batman, or even the idea of ​​Batman, it overshadows everything else. So we understand and respect. Really, we do. Honestly, I’m pleasantly surprised it hasn’t been mentioned yet. You have to show great restraint so as not to play the trump card up your sleeve.

On the other hand, by not mentioning it, the show kind of drops it. Every time a crime is committed in the streets and there is no more fear of Batman, the feeling that he is important to this world diminishes. Its sole objective is to combat these crime syndicates which are very clearly rampant without any fear of retaliation from anyone except other crime syndicates. In The Batman film, Batman reflects on exactly the impact he had and, in the end, thinks he gave the city hope. That may be true, but we don’t see it here. Thanks to his complete absence in all aspects of the story, The Penguin strongly suggests that Batman did almost nothing. He’s bad at his job.

Of course, the whole point of crime syndicates is to be criminals in secret. Maybe Batman just hasn’t figured all this out yet. It’s only been a few weeks since the events of the film. Maybe he’s still licking his wounds. Plus, there are two episodes left. We have to assume he gets some sort of name in one of them. Otherwise, this could be our first look at where Matt Reeves takes the Caped Crusader in the future: a place where Batman fails to become the powerful, confident hero we all know and love, even after his victory against Riddler and Falcone.

Feel free to rip this theory to shreds in the comments below. The Penguin is now streaming on Max.

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