The latest episode of The Penguin, “Cent’Anni,” is a bloodbath. Spoilers past this point, but in a little event we’re calling The Red Sauce Wedding, Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) murders nearly the entire Falcone family, only leaving Johnny Viti (Michael Kelly) and Gia Viti (Kenzie Grey) alive. But that’s far from the only deaths in the episode, as the show also introduces a classic Batman villain, and an iconic character from Batman: The Animated Series… Before promptly killing them both off.
We’re talking, of course, about Magpie (Marié Botha) and Summer Gleeson (Nadine Malouf). The former has been portrayed dozens of times in DC Comics, as well as various animated and live-action incarnations. The latter was first seen in Batman: The Animated Series, but clearly flew a little too close to El Rata Alada himself, aka Carmine Falcone (Mark Strong) in this week’s hour.
With that in mind, let’s break down how Magpie and Summer Gleeson appear in The Penguin, as well as where they come from in DC Comics and the animated shows.
Magpie, AKA Margaret Pye, Is A Classic Batman Villain
First introduced in 1986’s The Man of Steel #3 by John Byrne, Magpie was initially a non-superpowered jewel thief who liked to replace the items she stole with little figurines of birds — hence, Magpie. Side note here, real-life magpies do not steal shiny objects, as they do in folklore. In fact, according to the BBC they’re scared of shiny objects! The more you know!
In any case, while Magpie was introduced as a Superman villain, she was quickly adopted by the Batfamily as a recurring nemesis. She was also given a superpower after DC’s New 52 reboot, where she could extend her fingernails into talons. That said, probably the most relevant storyline to this episode is from Arkham Asylum: Living Hell, by Dan Slott and Ryan Sook, which found Magpie rooming with fellow villain Poison Ivy in the insane asylum.
Previously in live-action, she appeared on Gotham, played by Sarah Schenkkan, and on Batwoman played by Rachel Matthews. In animation, she was voiced by Grey DeLisle on Beware the Batman, and made a non-speaking appearance in Kite Man: Hell Yeah!
Here, Magpie is portrayed by actress Marié Botha as an inmate of Arkham State Hospital who immediately tries to become friends with Sofia. They’re next door to each other, so shades of the Poison Ivy/Magpie relationship from the comic. However, as soon as Sofia finds out she’s not getting a trial, and is in Arkham long-term, Magpie pushes her too far by suggesting that’s great news because she’ll be able to get the red pills given out by the doctors now (the ones Sofia and Oswald Cobb eventually coopt to make the drug Bliss). So Sofia beats her to death with a cafeteria tray.
As for Marié Botha, originally hailing from South Africa, she’s a graduate of the Yale School of Drama with an MFA and has appeared in plays Off-Broadway. She also appeared in a recurring role in the TV drama Erfsondes, in HBO’s Slave Play. Not A Movie. A Play. as herself, and an episode of the late, great Dickinson as Mary Bowles. She’s credited on IMDb for two episodes of The Penguin, so perhaps there will be another flashback, or she recovers from getting beaten to death. If not, though, RIP Magpie.
Summer Gleeson Finally Gets Her Live Action Debut And Promptly Dies
Summer Gleeson, meanwhile, has never appeared in live-action before. And now that she’s dead, she’ll maybe never appear again. Gleeson was first introduced in the classic Batman: The Animated Series as an on-air reporter voiced by Mari Devon. Though this has never been explicitly stated by the producers of that show, she was essentially Vicki Vale, who had just appeared as a romantic interest for Batman in the 1989 movie. However, Gleeson was never a romantic interest, which is probably why they subbed out Vale for Gleeson.
Regardless, she appeared over a dozen times on the animated series, in one of the spinoff films, and even an episode of Batman Beyond. Later she made her way to comics, appearing in Batman: Gotham Knights, as well as Batman ’89 and Harleen, among others.
On The Penguin, Summer Gleeson is played by Nadine Malouf and is a reporter for the Gotham Gazette, a newspaper. She’s noticed a disturbing pattern of deaths — seemingly by suicide — around 44 Below, the “secret” club below the Iceberg Lounge. All of the women have been found hanging to death, and Gleeson suspects there’s murder going on. Not only that, she suspects Carmine Falcone. Sofia initially rejects this theory but finds that it’s proven true after Oswald Cobb (Colin Farrell) tells Carmine about Sofia meeting with Summer. Carmine denies the murders when confronted about them, sending Sofia home early from his birthday party. That’s when she’s pulled over by the cops, and accused of all the murders Carmine committed… Including Summer Gleeson, who was found killed the same way as the others.
Malouf, meanwhile, is probably best known to nerds — aka, you — for her voice. She played Cora on 10 episodes of the podcast Marvel Wastelanders: Old Man Star-Lord, and its sequel, Marvel Wastelanders: Doom. She also appeared as Nikki Brooks on four episodes of the highly underrated Hulu series High Fidelity, opposite Zoë Kravitz (aka Selina Kyle in The Batman). And bringing it back full circle to DC, her first role was in a Static Shock fan film as a reporter named Daisy Watkins. Who, I assume, does not get killed off-screen.
Summer Gleeson’s Business Card Reveals She’s A Phone Scammer From Africa (But Not Really)
Before Summer lets Sofia go toward the beginning of the episode, she hands the Falcone daughter her business card. And we get a clear shot of that card as Sofia looks at it in her car. It establishes a few things. First, I’ll just mention that absolutely nobody would put “journalist” as their job title on a business card. Likely Senior Writer, or something like that. But whatever.
Second, note the address is 2315 Broadway, Gotham City, US, 00431. Despite a viral tweet seemingly showing off that Victor Aguilar‘s (Rhenzy Feliz) driver’s license set the show in New Jersey, that seems to have been altered in some way… The Batman and The Penguin steadfastly don’t set Gotham City in a state. It’s just in the United States, somewhere. And to that point, despite what Google’s supremely unhelpful AI will tell you, 00431 is not a valid zip code, per the United States Postal Service.
Similarly, if you were hoping to call Summer Gleeson on the phone and get some sort of fun alternate reality voicemail message… Well, you can’t. Her office number is 222-651-0824, and mobile number is 222-421-2297. However, the 222 code is not in use in America. It is, however, a frequently used code by scammers from the African nation of Mauritania. So conceivably you could get called by one of those numbers, but they’re trying to rip you off, if so. Sorry, Easter egg hunters. And even if you tried to call her, you couldn’t get her. Because she’s dead.
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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