Diksha Sundriyal
HBO’s ‘The Penguin’ gives center stage to the DC villain, extending his story from 2022’s ‘The Batman.’ The fourth episode, titled ‘Cent’anni,’ however, takes a break from him and presents the story from the point of view of Sofia Falcone. This sudden turn of perspective comes after Oz and Sofia find themselves at gunpoint, with Nadia Maroni holding the gun. The previous episode ended with Victor arriving just in time to save Oz, who, interestingly, decided to leave Sofia behind just when they’d finalized a deal that would make Bliss the biggest drug on the market. It turns out that Oz had a very good reason for doing that. SPOILERS AHEAD
Sofia is Betrayed by the People Closest to Her
Before she came to be known as the infamous Hangman, Sofia Falcone was innocent and hopeful. In the flashback, we see her running a foundation in her mother’s name. She proves herself so valuable that her father, Carmine Falcone, seriously thinks about letting her succeed him when the time comes. But then, Sofia is approached by a journalist who asks her about the mysterious deaths of the girls working at the Iceberg Lounge. It turns out that all of them died by hanging, exactly how her mother, Isabella, had died all those years ago. While Sofia tries to keep a distance from the journalist in the beginning, her curiosity gets the better of her, especially after she remembers her mother’s fingernails, which were exactly like the other victims.
She also remembers the scratches on her father’s face after she found her mother’s body. All evidence points to the fact that her father killed those girls and her mother. Still, he is her father, and she tells the journalist to leave her alone. The only mistake that Sofia makes is trusting Oz. He is her driver; she trusts him and is even kind to him. But he has his own agenda. In Sofia’s secret meeting with the journalist, he sees an opportunity to elevate his standing and rats her out to Carmine. When the father is confronted by the fact that his daughter knows exactly what he has done, he throws her to the wolves. The same night, the journalist is killed, and Sofia is arrested for her murder while also being accused of the murders of the rest of the women.
Arkham Flips Sofia for Good
With the entire system in her father’s pocket, there is no way Sofia can escape what is coming for her. Following the sudden arrest, she discovers that members of the Family, like Luca and Johnny Viti, have testified that she has psychopathic tendencies. On the basis of their word, she is thrown into Arkham State Hospital, where she is to stay for six months before she gets to have a trial. Things turn very dark very fast in Arkham as Sofia finds herself tortured at the hands of Dr. Ventris. The only sympathy she gets is from his assistant, Dr. Julian Rush, but even he is not able to help her.
While each day gets worse for Sofia, the only hope she has is that she will be out of the place in six months when the trial begins. But then, she discovers that Ventris has described her as a completely hopeless case, due to which a trial has been rendered useless. This also means that she is now permanently stuck in Arkham. This information completely breaks Sofia. While she had tried to keep hold of her sanity all this while, she completely lets go when she sees that there is no point in it anymore. And so, she spends the next decade of her life trapped in the place that turns her into the very person everyone claimed she was.
Sofia Makes a Fresh Start
Back in the present timeline, Sofia finally discovers that it was Oz who killed Alberto. This information comes from Nadia Maroni, who accuses Oz of double-crossing her Family. As usual, Oz tries to convince her that his association with Sofia was just a way for him to get to Bliss so he could then turn it over to the Maronis. Sofia is shocked, not at Oz’s betrayal, but more at her own ignorance. She later chides herself for not heeding her intuition. Victor’s sudden arrival gives her enough time to run and hide, and as she reels from her injury, she calls Julian Rush.
The next morning, Sofia finds herself in Julian’s place. When she expresses her anger at Oz and her disappointment at the Family for casting her away one more time, Julian advises her to leave for Sicily, telling her that perhaps it would be good for her to stay away from all of this. Perhaps she needs a fresh start. The idea of having a clean slate sparks Sofia’s interest, but she is in no mood to leave Gotham. Instead, she goes back to the house to attend her uncle’s dinner, where all the major people in the family have gathered.
She makes a big speech at the table, which leads to some discomfort but mostly leads people to believe that it’s her saying goodbye. Sofia also talks about their betrayal, how each of them testified lies about her that led her to rot in Arkham for ten years. Later at night, she leaves the house with her niece, the only person she doesn’t want to harm and sleeps in the garden with her. The next morning, everyone in the house is dead except Johnny Viti. It turns out that Sofia had let loose a poison gas inside the house. With all the windows closed, everyone, including Luca, suffocated to death. Johnny Viti survived simply because he left the window open that night. Whether it was his luck or if Sofia wanted it so isn’t clear. However, she immediately takes charge of the situation by holding Viti at gunpoint. Now, she can finally take over and do what she always meant to do: run the Family.
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