The Penguin Recap: Episode 4 - Cent’Anni

Ash Walker • 14 Oct 2024 Features

“They think I’m broken. I’m not broken.”

SPOILERS AHEAD!

After a very brief reminder of where we left things last week - namely with Oz and Victor speeding off, leaving Sofia to fend for herself - we dive right into the past. That’s right, this is another ‘backstory’ episode, this time fleshing out the undisputed MVP of The Penguin’s supporting cast - Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti).

And it’s absolutely brilliant.

The Sofia we meet in flashback is a very different woman: she’s confident, collected and on top of the world. She’s running a foundation in her mother’s name and, crucially, she’s about to be handed the keys to her father’s criminal empire.

It’s going well until she’s approached by Summer Gleeson (Nadine Malouf), a reporter investigating a string of deaths that seem to have some connection to her father, Carmine Falcone (Mark Strong). Deaths that all bear a striking resemblance to Sofia’s mother’s.

At this point in her life Sofia might be a little naive, but she’s fully aware that her dad isn’t exactly the most upstanding citizen in Gotham. The idea of him being an actual monster though - and especially that he might have killed her mother - is too much to take.

And that’s when Sofia makes her biggest mistake: not in going to the reporter for more information, but in trusting her driver Oz (Colin Farrell) not to tell her father that she’s talking to the press. Which he does immediately, the slippery toad.

This is the betrayal Sofia keeps talking about, and it’s a pretty big one. Not only has Oz gone behind her back for his own benefit, but he’s also unknowingly tipped off a remorseless serial killer that the cops are onto him.

Before we (or poor Sofia) know what’s happening, she’s been arrested, labelled the Hangman and charged with the murders of multiple women - all at the hands of her own nefarious father. To make matters worse, Carmine has turned the entire family against her, and they’ve all signed sworn affidavits that Sofia is mentally unstable, a killer and a psychopath.

And in Gotham City, there’s only one place for psychopaths: Arkham.

In Batman-related media, from comics to video games to movies, Arkham Asylum (or Arkham State Hospital as it’s been renamed here) has always been portrayed as a pretty nasty place. Filled with monstrous villains like Two-Face, Riddler and, of course, the Joker, it’s basically a dumping ground for the worst of the worst.

But we’ve never really seen it from the point of view of an inmate, especially one who’s innocent and, even worse, perfectly sane - because if this episode makes one thing clear it’s that being locked up in Arkham would send anyone mad.

Throughout her stay, Sofia is repeatedly subjected to humiliations, violence and electroshock ‘therapy’. She’s broken, mentally and physically, until she finally snaps and bludgeons a fellow prisoner to death, becoming the killer that everyone has already painted her as.

This whole section is shot like a full-on horror movie. It’s dark and shocking and leaves you with a newfound sense of sympathy for Sofia Falcone. She might be a bit of a monster - after all, by the end of the episode, she’s massacred her entire family - but the world made her that way.

So yeah, about that massacre. Showrunner Lauren LeFranc has talked about how she views Sofia, not Oz, as the actual protagonist of this show, and after this episode I can totally see what she means.

Sofia has been wronged - she was an innocent woman, falsely imprisoned for murders committed by her own father, humiliated, tortured and forced to become a savage killer. And now she’s back to burn down the family that let it happen.

Turns out this has been a revenge story all along, and I’m totally here for it.

Easter Eggs & Comic Connections:

• Magpie (Marié Botha), Sofia’s creepy but (probably) harmless nextdoor neighbour in Arkham, is a character from the comics - although a pretty obscure one! First appearing in 1986’s The Man of Steel #3, she’s a common thief with a penchant for shiny things, just like her avian namesake.
• Summer Gleeson, the ill-fated Gotham Gazette reporter who alerts Sofia to her father’s crimes, also has a long Bat-history. Just like Harley Quinn, she first appeared in 90s classic Batman: The Animated Series before making the jump from TV to comics.
• Kenzie (Peter McDonald), the officer who arrests Sofia, is one of the crooked cops on Carmine Falcone’s payroll in The Batman, and actually gets his face broken by the Dark Knight himself. So he has that to look forward to.

Shout-Outs:

• Massive shout-out to Cristin Milioti once again. She just runs off with every scene she’s in, whether she’s having to be smooth and confident, screamingly unhinged or murderously psychotic. She’s just always excellent. Series MVP, which is saying something when Colin Farrell is absolutely smashing it.

Verdict: Dark, brutal and hard to watch at times, but also probably the best episode yet. Incredible stuff.

The Penguin airs every Monday at 9pm on Sky Atlantic, and can be streamed from 2am the same day.