Spoilers for episode four of The Penguin below

When Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti, in the role of a lifetime) told her therapist, Dr. Rush, that she wanted to make a fresh start, this was not the case. rather what he had in mind.

But after being accused by her family of murdering seven women – and sent to Arkham State Hospital where she was tortured and abused for a decade – it’s no wonder Sofia wanted revenge on those who framed her.

The last 12 minutes of episode four of The penguin will probably go down as the most shocking in the series (well, so far) as Sofia finally got her family back, with a blood-curdling mass murder all carried out quite gleefully – was that a minor skip we saw in the ending? – but what exactly did our little murderess do?

The backstory

So it turns out to be Sofia Falcone was not the Executioneras she was called in previous episodes. No, it was even darker than that. Through a tip from a reporter, Sofia discovered that not only was it likely that her father, Carmine, had murdered seven sex workers at the club, but that he was also responsible for her mother’s death, which left her with what appeared to be a strangulation. suicide (Sofia suddenly remembered that there were bloody scratches on his hands the day she found her mother’s body).

When she confronted him – Oz (Colin Farrell), her foul-mouthed driver, had told Carmine that Sofia had met the reporter – he then framed her for all the murders and had her locked up in Arkham State Hospital for ten years. , where we all saw the horrors of what happened there (violent attacks, murders, suicides, and electroconvulsive therapy, for starters). Her uncles and cousins ​​all falsely testified to her violent, psychopathic nature, and it was enough for the hospital psychiatrist, Doctor Ventris – paid by Carmine – to declare her unfit to stand trial in court.

However, thanks to her late brother, Alberto – apparently the only person she could trust in the family – and her other doctor, Dr. Rush, she escaped and told the family that she had been rehabilitated. But her uncles and cousins ​​still insist she is seriously mentally ill and want to ship her to Sicily to prevent her from becoming the head of the family. Enough, says Sofia. That happens to her dead body. Or, as it turns out, someone else’s corpse…

The Last Supper

Sofia crashes a family dinner looking stunning in a yellow cocktail dress, and promptly digs into the meatballs and huge cup of red wine.

But she interrupts her Uncle Luca’s speech to remind everyone that she was wrongly convicted of murdering seven women, and repeats all their names so they won’t be forgotten: “Summer Gleeson, Taylor Montgomery, Nancy Hoffman, Yolanda Jones, Susannah Weakly, Devri Blake and Tricia Becker. And in fact, Sofia could add her own name to the list, since her life was over the moment she was sent to Arkham.

She reveals how surprised she was that her trusted family betrayed her, and that no one tried to help her, and that she was innocent. She tells them that for the first time she has a new life – and she knows she no longer fits in with this family. She toasts them in the Italian “Cent’anni” (also the title of this episode), which literally means 100 years, or “may you live 100 years”. They don’t know that 100 minutes would be more accurate.

Hands up, who thought Sofia would kidnap her cousin’s daughter, Gia? In the middle of the night – after, most importantly, closing all the windows – she lures Gia downstairs for chocolate cake and then tells her they’re going to have a sleepover in the greenhouse, where she and Alberto used to camp.

She tells Gia that she had to fight monsters to survive, but Gia will never have to worry about being locked up as Sofia will make sure she never has to fight monsters. She doesn’t realize it yet, but she is one of the only survivors of familicide; and Sofia saved her (although she made Gia an orphan, which could have some consequences).

As the sun rises – and a jazzy little song, Goodbye, my love by Sarah Vaughanplaying in the background – Sofia saunters into the house, still wearing her ball gown and a… gas mask? There it is the reason why: as soon as she opens the doors of the mansion, there are a few guards lying on the ground. She gassed the entire house from the basement stash.

She goes to check on the family: Luca, dead! His wife, who had an affair with Johnny, dead! Everyone: apparently dead! “Let’s make the final scene nice and clean / No aftermath,” Vaughan says, which Sofia certainly took to heart.

But as she enters Johnny’s bedroom, the window is left open on purpose. Johnny is still alive, and has been kept alive for a very special reason. “Put your pants on Johnny,” she says, waving a gun, “we need to talk.” For the first time in a decade, Sofia has power, and a member of the Falcone family will finally have to obey her.