So far it’s felt like The Penguin was pretty much a dirty underboss trying to make his way to the top, but maybe with a heart of gold. But in you know, Batman world. His enemy would be the various crime families he played, but also Sofia Falcone in particular, who hid the fact that he killed her brother and tried to use her. She would seize power herself after her time in Arkham, when she was convicted as a serial killer.

Episode 4… changed things up quite a bit. Spoilers follow.

Not only did Sofia already find out that Oz killed her brother and played her from the beginning, it now feels like Sofia Falcone is the actual protagonist of The Penguin that we’re supposed to be rooting for here. Oz may care about Victor and various other people here and there, but Sofia does really didn’t do anything wrong. And even after she kills a house full of people, she still has that really didn’t do anything wrong.

We learn her full backstory, and while “backstory” episodes can be pretty hit and miss, this one knocked it out of the park and was an Emmy-worthy turn for Cristin Milioti. It turns out that Sofia stumbled upon the unfortunate truth that her father had apparently murdered a bunch of prostitutes, presumably the ones he was having affairs with, and masked their strangulations as hangings by suicide. But then Sofia Also realizes that her own mother’s suicide was also a murder committed by him.

Oz reports her to Carmine for speaking to the press, however briefly, in which she was given facts about that case, and she is forced to confront her father. Whether Oz intended this or not (it doesn’t seem like he did) Carmine throws her into Arkham and bends the family and legal system to his will to keep her there for ten years. She is perfectly sane, but years of abuse have left her at least to some extent insane, although now that she has emerged she has an appetite for cold vengeance, even if her father himself is dead.

The scene where Sofia almost instantly transforms from mafia socialite to Arkham inmate, complete with stripping, hosing and cavity exploration, is gripping, and I now fully understand why there was originally a plan to make an entire series based on her time in Arkham, now relegated to this flashback. Funnily enough, we are briefly introduced to another minor Batman villain, Magpie, who ends up beating Sofia to death after thinking she was a spy (it’s unclear if she was, it didn’t seem that way to me).

The episode ends with a wild moment where Sofia kills her entire extended family with carbon monoxide poisoning in her uncle’s mansion, sparing only her cousin’s young daughter and Johnny Vitti, presumably to help her cement her position of power. Incredible sequence. Incredible episode.

Now, of course, she’ll get revenge on Oz, and there’s certainly no turning back for that relationship now that she knows he killed her brother. But after last night, I don’t understand how we… don’t want Sofia to win? She deserves it, and Oz is a selfish traitor.

But that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? He is the penguin. Batman villains aren’t usually known as heroes, and Colin Farrell himself has repeatedly warned viewers not to get too vague about Penguin. He promises something particularly brutal in episode 8, whatever that may be.

I think this is great. I don’t need Oz as the misunderstood gangster hero. I don’t need Sofia as an evil mafia queen. Changing that dynamic, as we saw last night, was excellent, and I can’t wait to see more. I’m becoming increasingly convinced that The Penguin might be the greatest superhero TV show we’ve ever seen, if it can stick the landing.

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