[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Penguin Season 1, Episode 4, “Cent’anni.”]
The Penguin‘s latest installment, “Cent’anni,” explored the backstory of Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), revealing whether her reputation as “The Hangman” truly precedes her as Oz’s (Colin Farrell) backstabbing seemed to be the last straw for the former Arkham patient.
As the episode plays out, picking up where the previous week’s installment left off, Sofia is left injured as Oz speeds away with Victor (Rhenzy Feliz). Phoning Dr. Rush (Theo Rossi), Sofia fades into a dream-like state as viewers are treated to her flashbacks, among which is the death of her mother, labeled as a suicide by hanging when Sofia was a child.
When a reporter approaches her during a charity lunch, Sofia begins to question her dad’s role as evidence hints at his guilt over killing various women in a similar fashion. Oz, who was driving Sofia around at the time, ultimately squeals on her to Carmine (Mark Strong) in an effort to climb the promotional ladder.
Oz’s words have devastating consequences though as it’s revealed that Carmine is under investigation for murder, and in order to evade the law, he throws his daughter to the metaphorical wolves believing her untrustworthy after looking into the situation. As Oz drives her away from Carmine’s birthday party, Sofia is arrested by Gotham P.D. for the murder of the reporter and the various women whose deaths the writer was investigating.
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Carmine gets several of the Falcone family members to sign documents, suggesting Sofia is mad and murderous, leaving her to rot in Arkham State Hospital for 10 years. Battered and bruised, poked and prodded, Sofia’s experience is a horrifying nightmare she can’t seem to wake up from, and she’s ultimately pushed to kill when she learns she’ll remain there beyond the six-month block she’d initially thought she’d be subjected to.
Of course, fans know by now that she was released from Arkham, and Dr. Rush seems to be her only confidante as the former Arkham employee helps her escape the Maronis in the present. With her fresh perspective and Rush’s advice for a fresh start, Sofia concludes the episode with a speech to her family, calling them out for their behavior and seemingly accepting her uncle Luca’s (Scott Cohen) suggestion that she fly off to Italy.
But Sofia had other plans, coaxing her cousin’s daughter out of the house with a piece of cake, she puts the girl to sleep in the property’s greenhouse as she proceeds to gas the entire mansion to death, save Johnny Viti (Michael Kelly) who Sofia opened the window for. It’s a compelling tale with so many layers to unpack, which is one of the reasons Milioti enjoyed tackling it so much.
“What I love about that fourth episode is that you get to see how she was driven mad. She has become the thing that she was accused of being by way of what they did to her,” the star tells TV Insider. “And so in a way, her madness is justified and she sort of steps into this thing… That’s what was so thrilling about it.”
HBO
“I really empathize with her enormously,” Milioti adds. “[I] just loved playing her. And I love that there is a lot of mystery around her. But then the more you get to know her, the more you see what she’s been through, and you get a full picture of whether or not you agree with her choices.”
When presented with the scripts for the season, director Helen Shaver remembers, “I got to [Episode 4]. I didn’t even have to look at [Episode 5]. I said, ‘I’m doing it. This is a great script. I want to tell this story.’” Of their collaboration, Shaver says she invited Milioti, “to explore the wit of the character… This character, smart people, intelligent people are often witty, and it is brilliant because it can be used as a defense, it can be used as a weapon, it can be used as an invitation, or it can be used to amuse yourself.”
Shaver commends showrunner Lauren LeFranc, noting that her writing, “has a lot of language and a lot of wit in it. And so we began there.” Throughout the creative process, Shaver says she and Milioti likened Sofia to a prism, “with all its facets that she can switch from one facet to another [quickly].”
Related‘The Penguin’ Star Rhenzy Feliz on Victor’s Choice to Stick With Oz
When shaping Sofia’s story for the show, LeFranc shares that what interested her in shining a light on the Arkham arc was, “speaking about the larger history of mental institutions and how women were put there for hysteria often, or who called a woman insane or crazy, who often gets to label them as such.”
“I think there’s just a lot of narratives of women and stories that we haven’t gotten to hear as a result of terrible things like that. So to me, I think that’s partly what inspired my idea to put Sophia in Arkham,” LeFranc adds. “I do think she’s also an underdog and she suffered very differently than Oz has suffered. We follow really complicated characters and I think there should be just as many complicated women as there are men in any type of story,” she concludes.
See what else Milioti had to say about Episode 4 in the full video interview, above, and let us know what you thought of Sofia’s backstory in the latest episode of The Penguin in the comments section.
The Penguin, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO and Max
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