Penguin may have lost the alliances he has formed over the past few years on Gotham, but he’s about to tangle with a new partner. In “How the Riddler Got His Name,” the episode that aired on Monday, April 24, 2017, Oswald Cobblepot was saved by Ivy Pepper – the future Poison Ivy.
During a recent press event, Robin Lord Taylor, the actor who plays Cobblepot, confirmed the alliance.
“One of the hardest things for the character he went through in the previous episode was losing every alliance that he had,” Taylor said. “Literally everyone he had worked with at some point had turned against him. He’s all by himself and then even as an actor you’re like, ‘Bye everybody. I’m not going to work with you for a while,’ but then it’s a perfect opportunity to come in with another character who is also finding herself. It’s a perfect time for the two of them to come together and there’s a real odd couple about it. Someone who is as cynical, has been through it all, as Penguin, with someone who is very innocent.”
He also talked about how the pairing was interesting, considering the twists and turns his character has taken while hers is still rather untapped. “They need each other equally,” Taylor said. “That’s what I love about the show. Those kinds of switches and changes.”
Ben McKenzie, who plays Jim Gordon on the show, said that we’ll see more of the two together in the next episode, “These Delicate and Dark Obsessions.” That episode, which McKenzie also directed, airs next week on May 1.
“It’s a really fun pairing and speaks to where Poison Ivy can go for the future and also where Penguin can go as well,” McKenzie said. “The alliances that can form with a character that’s suddenly in adult form and yet they’re still childlike, and there’s a certain sort of interesting, aspirational aspect of Poison Ivy. She looks at [Penguin] like, ‘Teach me a few things. Teach me how to be bad.’”
With Penguin mentoring Ivy and the pair learning from each other’s experiences, it looks like things are going to get complicated and exciting for the duo on Gotham.