It’s always exciting to watch a villain origin story. And while it would make sense to think we’re watching one for Oswald Cobb (Colin Farrell) on a show called The Penguin — which mind you, we are — this week’s episode gave us another iconic Gotham City villain. Spoilers past this point, but in this week’s “Homecoming,” Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) becomes Sofia Gigante.
Here’s how things go down. After gassing the entire Falcone family in “Cent’Anni,” other than Johnny Viti (Michael Kelly) and Gia Viti (Kenzie Grey), Sofia is now holding Johnny in the family mausoleum, and torturing him to find out where the liquid cash is. Johnny, meanwhile is begging for his life. And as part of that, he confesses what happened to Isabella Falcone (Jenny Heaton), Sofia’s mother, back in the day. It turns out she tried to leave Carmine Falcone (Mark Strong) twice. The first time she came back for the kids. The second time, she was planning on taking the kids — Johnny was outside in a car waiting for them — when Carmine instead strangled her to death and made it look like she hung herself.
Johnny tells Sofia that he can help her by being her right-hand man, providing her legitimacy with the Falcone soldiers. But that’s not quite how things work out. Instead, Sofia ends up going through her mother’s old clothes, and discovers a fur coat she wore with her maiden name sewed into it: Isabella Gigante. At the same time, Dr. Julian Rush (Theo Rossi) comes to her and pledges his loyalty to her, after being inspired by seeing her gas everyone, on TV.
That’s all the push Sofia needs. She enters the room of Falcone footmen, and announces this is no longer the Falcone crime family; it’s the Gigantes. And unlike the Falcones who kept all the money and power to themselves, she’s going to run the Gigante crime family as, well, a family. Johnny objects, so Sofia shoots him in the head. RIP, Johnny!
And to put a capper on everything, Sofia finds Sal Maroni (Clancy Brown) in hiding after Oz murdered his wife and son and offers to ally their two families. She tells him that his approach is the correct one, and they have a mutual enemy: Oz Cobb. In a classic Gotham City villain plot, they’re going to team up to kill the Batman. Oops, sorry. The Penguin.
Sofia Gigante Comes Straight From The DC Comics Source Material
No pun intended, but why is this a big deal? It’s just a name change, right? Except it actually comes directly from Batman: The Long Halloween and its sequel Batman: Dark Victory. There, she was born Sofia Falcone, then married a gangster named Rocco Gigante. The new married name was appropriate, though, because Sofia was extremely large in the comic books.
The TV show has been liberally picking and choosing from the comic books all season long. Sofia was The Hangman in the books; not so much on the TV show. Milioti isn’t enormous (she’s actually 5′ 2″ in real life), but taking on an outsize role in Gotham City crime leads to her taking on the Sofia Gigante name. It’s a neat way to pay tribute to the comics by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, without copying them directly.
There’s one other aspect to this, though, that’s pretty fascinating. And that’s her starting to look like a Gotham City villain, as well. Showrunner Lauren LeFranc discussed this evolution at The Penguin‘s New York Comic Con panel, noting that as she grows into her own she begins to show off her scars and wear different clothing. With the fur coat and chopped haircut, she’s starting to look as unhinged as The Joker. Or perhaps another DC Comics villain comes to mind: Addison Cobblepot, the daughter of The Penguin.
By the way, ignore the robot on that page, it’s not important. What is important is that Addison and Aidan Cobblepot are the children of Oswald Cobblepot, recently featured in both Batman and Tom King and Rafael de Latorre’s recent The Penguin series. While there’s no reason to think Sofia is Oz Cobb’s daughter, there is a similarity physically between Addison and Aidan, and Sofia and Julian. And if things go the same way they do in the comics, well, those two are not long for this world.
We’ll see how well that pans out, but for now, Sofia Falcone is gone. Long live Sofia Gigante. Or at least, good luck until the end of the season.
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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