The top story in Gotham City on September 5, 2012? Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) was arrested for the Hangman murders. But as seen on this week’s episode of The Penguin, there’s a curious second story that ran in most of the papers. So what’s up with that fire at the industrial plant?
Spoilers for The Penguin Episode 4 “Cent’Anni” past this point.
In the episode, Sofia has been wrongly accused of being The Hangman killer. But thanks to her father Carmine Falcone (Mark Strong), she’s been framed for seven murders he committed… And the whole Falcone family has signed testimonies saying that Sofia has been mentally ill for a long time. They’re all lying of course, but the fix is in. And it’s made it’s way to all the major papers.
The Gotham Times goes with “‘The Hangman’ Arrested; Sofia Falcone Exposed As Hangman Killer.” Westward News is partially obscured, but their headline seems to be “Sofia Falcone ‘The Hangman’; Strings Up Seven.” Then there’s a paper whose name is obscured… The Westside Talker, maybe? They claim to have “The Real Story Behind The Hangman.” And on the bottom of the pile is Gotham Gazette, also obscured but they lead with “The Hangman Arrested.” And it’s clear that towards the bottom they don’t ignore that Gazette journalist Summer Gleeson (Nadine Malouf) was among the slain.
However, on three of the four papers, there’s a second story running: a fire at an industrial plant. On The Gotham Times, it says “FDGC Take on Blaze at Industrial Plant,” which looks like it’s written by one John Edmondson. Below is a tease that inside the paper you can read about, “Experts Warn Gotham City’s Infrastructure Failing,” which could probably run every day in Gotham, in perpetuity.
Westward News has “Fire At Industrial Plant; Firefighters Respond To Blaze At Industrial Plant.” And the Westside Whatever goes with “Firefighters respond to…” Something.
Do The Industrial Fire Headlines Tee Up Another Gotham City Villain? And Is It The Joker?
Why am I spending so much time breaking this down? This may be just placeholder text, and at no point did the producers of The Penguin expect someone to screenshot this. They were just looking for a solid second story to flesh out the props in the scene. But is there an industrial plant blaze in Gotham City history this might link up to?
As of now… No. If you know Batman/Gotham City at all, your mind likely went to the creation of The Joker (Barry Keoghan). In previous media, The Joker is usually created while fighting Batman, and falling into a vat of chemicals. But what if he was scarred in an industrial fire, instead?
Well, sorry to say, he wasn’t. Unless The Batman director Matt Reeves changed his mind. Though Keoghan’s Joker only appeared briefly in one scene, and in a deleted scene released after the movie hit theaters, Reeves already had his backstory fleshed out.
“It’s like ‘Phantom of the Opera,’” Reeves told Variety. “He has a congenital disease where he can’t stop smiling and it’s horrific. His face is half-covered through most of the film. It’s not about some version where he falls into a vat of chemicals and his face is distorted, or what [Christopher] Nolan did, where there’s some mystery to how he got these scars carved into his face. What if this guy from birth had this disease and he was cursed? He had this smile that people stared at that was grotesque and terrifying. Even as a child, people looked at him with horror, and his response was to say, ‘Okay, so a joke was played on me,’ and this was his nihilistic take on the world.”
So no, this fire isn’t a reference to The Joker. And anyway, this is about eight years before Batman becomes active in Gotham, so it’s a little early on the timeline anyway. So is this fire something we’ll loop back to later? Or just another terrible thing happening in the worst city on the planet? We may never know.
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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