Since the first episode of The Penguin aired, we’ve been told that Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) is the serial killer known as Hangman. She killed seven women by hanging them, for unknown reasons, and was sentenced to Arkham State Hospital for a decade. Except, as we discover in this week’s episode, “Cent’Anni” — and spoilers past this point — Sofia isn’t Hangman. The real killer is her father, Carmine Falcone (Mark Strong).
In retrospect, we probably should have seen this coming. Heck, in last week’s episode “Bliss,” Sofia literally said, “I’m not The Hangman.” So we should have taken her at her word. In The Batman, Carmine (played in the movie by John Turturro) has a bad habit of strangling people to death. He killed Selina Kyle’s (Zoë Kravitz) roommate Annika (Hana Hrzic) by strangling her and tried to kill Selina the same way. Turns out, those weren’t the first two waitresses at 44 Below, the club below the Iceberg Lounge, that Carmine killed.
And even those waitresses weren’t the first women he killed that way. Though there may have been more women before that, we discover midway through the episode that he strangled his wife, Isabella Falcone (Jenny Heaton), and then hung her in the bedroom to make it look like she killed herself. However, Young Sofia (Ana Madelyn Trapasso) saw three scratches on his hand — reminiscent of the three scratches Carmine gets from Catwoman in the comic book series The Long Halloween, which is also repeated in The Batman — and suppressed the memory, or didn’t want to believe that her father had done what she thought he had done.
The Penguin Names The Victims Of The Hangman’s Murders
But yep, Carmine killed Isabella. And then he killed several more women, all of whom worked at 44 Below: Taylor Montgomery, Yolanda Jones, Nancy Hoffman, Susanna Weakley, Devri Blake, and Tricia Becker. He strangled them all to death and then made them look like hangings. Why did he do it? Unclear, but he’s a killer mob boss with rage issues. Whether it was because they found out too much about his business dealings, like why he killed Annika, or it was an affair, or just he got mad and wanted them dead… He killed them. And then trussed them up to make it look like they did it themselves.
(A little side note: none of these are DC Comics characters. However, a woman named Nancy Hoffman is the director and curator at something called the Umbrella Cover Museum. Which feels like an accidental Penguin Easter egg?)
Years later, Sofia is volunteering to help raise funds for The Lucy House, a non-profit that specializes in women’s mental health, when she’s approached by a reporter named Summer Gleeson (Nadine Malouf). Summer works for the Gotham Gazette, and wants to know if Sofia has any insight into the multiple deaths that have occurred at 44 Below. Despite Sofia being named heir to the Falcone crime family over her brother Alberto Falcone (Michael Zegen), this meeting shakes something loose in Sofia’s memory. She starts to recall — and question — bits from that night she discovered her mother dead.
And then we get to see how and when Oswald Cobb (Colin Farrell) betrayed Sofia. After an angry, late-night meeting with Summer, Oz — who at the time was Sofia’s driver — questions whether she should be meeting with a reporter. Sofia tells him to shut up, which clearly irks the quick-to-anger Oz enough that he tells Carmine what happened. And on the occasion of the mob boss’s birthday, he calls her into his office, where she confronts him about killing her mom.
“My sweet Sofia, what’s happened to you,” Carmine asks. But his softness belies that the deed is already done. That night on the way home, Sofia is arrested for all the murders Carmine committed, and one more: Summer Gleeson, who was found strangled to death and hanged.
(Another side-note: Summer Gleeson is a DC character, though was first introduced on Batman: The Animated Series, taking the place of reporter/Batman love interest Vicki Vale. RIP, Summer Gleeson of The Batman Epic Crime Saga.)
This is a twist not just because of the show, but also because of the source material… Sofia — nicknamed Sofia Gigante because of her size — is Hangman in Batman: Dark Victory. Mind you, Alberto is a killer named Holiday, and a lot of the circumstances are different. But introducing Sofia as Hangman, and then pulling the rug out is definitely a way of twisting fan expectations.
Sofia Becomes A Killer, But Not The Hangman
Sofia is subsequently sentenced to Arkham after the rest of the family — except Alberto — signs testimonials saying she suffers from mental health issues. And while she’s told she needs to wait six months in Arkham for a trial, she never gets that trial and rots in the hospital for 10 long years.
And it turns her into a killer. Not The Hangman, that’s Carmine Falcone. He ultimately dies toward the end of The Batman, shot and killed as part of The Riddler’s (Paul Dano) plan while Sofia is still in Arkham. But after discovering she’s seemingly never getting out, she beats a fellow prisoner, Magpie (Marié Botha), to death.
(Third side-note: Magpie, aka Margaret Pye, is a DC Comics villain mostly associated with the Batfamily. She was portrayed previously by Sarah Schenkkan on Gotham, and Rachel Matthews on Batwoman. Also RIP, Magpie.)
But the biggest deaths are about to come. After a speech to the assembled Falcone family over a meatball and spaghetti dinner, ostensibly as she’s about to be exiled to Italy, she instead gasses them all to death except for Johnny Viti (Michael Kelly) and young Gia Viti (Kenzie Grey) in an event I’m going to christen The Red Sauce Wedding. It’s not a wedding, but you get it. It’s HBO.
In any case, the point here is that after a decade of torture in Arkham, Sofia has had enough. She’s gone from a gentle soul who cared about mental health, to a woman who is ready to take back her power. “For ten years, men have lied to me,” Sofia says. “They think I’m broken. I’m not broken.”
She is ready to break everyone else, though. And in a twisted way, while she’s not Hangman, she has become what her father wanted her to be when he offered her the family business. She’s a killer. And Gotham City better watch out because Sofia Falcone is gone. Enter Sofia Gigante.
Where To Watch The Penguin:
The Penguin Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
The first episode of The Penguin premieres Thursday, September 19 at 9 pm ET on HBO and Max. There will be an encore airing on Sunday, September 22 at 9 pm ET, and then the show will move to its regular time slot of Sundays at 9 pm ET starting on September 29.
Here’s the full list of episodes in The Penguin, with premiere dates:
- Thursday, September 19, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 1: “After Hours”
- Sunday, September 29, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 2: “Inside Man”
- Sunday, October 6, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 3: “Bliss”
- Sunday, October 13, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 4: “Cent’Anni”
- Sunday, October 20, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 5: “Homecoming”
- Sunday, October 27, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 6: “Gold Summit”
- Sunday, November 3, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 7: “Top Hat”
- Sunday, November 10, 2024: The Penguin, Episode 8: “Great or Little Thing”
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