THE PENGUIN - EPISODE 4 REVIEW & BREAKDOWN

Warning: This review contains heavy spoilers!

The Penguin previously left fans eager and in anticipation for its continuation, one that would pick up where the phenomenal cliffhanger at the end of episode 3 left off. After last week's Victor-centered narrative, one that proved the show's proficiency with individual character analyses, episode 4 of The Penguin brings us right in the shoes of its most captivating character since the start, further demonstrating that there's more to Oz's iniquity than meets the eye..

THE STORY

The Penguin's fourth episode begins with a brief recap of last week's cliffhanger, in which Oswald and Sofia found themselves held at gunpoint by the rightfully pissed-off Maroni family. As Sofia learns of Oz's betrayal, Vic's impromptu rescue leaves her knocked out at the side of an alley, in which she starts to recollect the events that brought her to that moment. From there, the majority of the episode takes place in the past, 10 years before The Penguin takes place.

Living under Carmine Falcone's (Mark Strong) roof, a young Sofia hauntingly discovers her mother hanging from a noose, a memory that would stick with her for the rest of her life. Years later, in the days approaching her father's birthday, Falcone tells her that when he dies, she'll be the one to inherit his empire, a fact she's ecstatic to learn. It's clear that Falcone doesn't think of Alberto as highly as he does Sofia, even going as far as to admit it directly to her. Sofia is then privately contacted by an investigate journalist, trying to uncover the case of the "Hangman", a serial killer strangling and hanging women from various nightclubs around Gotham. She secretly suspects that Falcone is the one behind the murders, an assumption which Sofia immediately shoots down.

The episode also provides us glimpses towards Oswald's days as Sofia's driver, proving that he cared about her deeply at one point. However, his care would soon be triumphed by his greed, leading him to tell Falcone that Sofia was meeting with the press. That single action soon spirals into a visceral chain reaction, as Falcone doesn't deny that he was the one who killed her mother all those years ago, as well as all the women at the nightclubs. He labels Sofia as "mentally ill", and through the manipulation of the entire Falcone family, Sofia is thrown into Arkham Asylum under the global belief that she is the Hangman.

Her initial 6 months in the institution are horrifying, to say the least. Whether it be through constant shock therapy or getting beaten up by other psychotic inmates, it seems like Sofia is unsafe wherever she goes. Even her cellmate Magpie (Marié Botha) ends up inadvertently fueling Sofia's inner fury, resulting in her getting brutally murdered by the enraged Falcone daughter. What began as a 6-month stay in Arkham soon develops into a decade, in which Oz had plenty of time to rise up the ranks and become Falcone's right-hand man. After Sofia wakes up in the present, she visits the Falcone household and delivers a powerful speech connoting her bitter resentment towards the family for standing by as she was imprisoned in the institution for years. The episode ends with Sofia having killed the rest of the Falcones (except Viti and Carla's daughter), physically and metaphorically releasing herself from her innermost burdens.

THE MADNESS

Fittingly so, "Cent'anni" is The Penguin's craziest episode yet, upping the show's madness by over 100 as it provides an eerily realistic depiction of how crime can damage an individual's psyche. The episode cuts no corners in depicting how much Sofia was beaten down by her family, abandoned at her lowest and forced to embrace the madness to survive in a world where everyone is against her. It's a far cry from her comic counterpart, in which she commits the Hangman murders herself, but the change works beautifully in the context of the show, one which centers itself around the cruelty and unforgiving nature of Gotham's criminal underworld.

The depiction of Arkham Asylum (or in this case, simply Arkham State Hospital), is equally tragic and haunting throughout the episode's duration, and once paired with Milioti's expectedly captivating performance, it turns into one of the most chilling depictions of the institution outside of the "Batman: Arkham" video game titles. If one wishes to survive in Matt Reeves' depiction of the Arkham Hospital, they must be just as mad as everyone else inside...

THE PERFORMANCES

Being an episode entirely centered on one character, it was imperative that each performance would have to be good enough to draw audiences within the narrative's semi-slow burn. Thankfully, they do just that, most notably Milioti's greatest performance as Sofia yet, Mark Strong's detestable depiction of a younger Carmine Falcone, and the surprisingly delightful addition of one of Batman's most obscure villains. Although he isn't quite able to reach the heights of John Turturro's phenomenal depiction of the character in "The Batman", Strong is still able to provide a greatly enjoyable take on a much crueler side of Falcone that we weren't able to fully explore in Reeves' film.

Milioti, on the other hand, is certainly on route to win an Emmy after her performance in this week's episode, managing to continuously defy expectations and build upon the character of Sofia in ways nobody thought imaginable. Although it may be too early to say, I wholeheartedly believe that her depiction of the character will go down in history as one of the greatest in a comic book project, along the likes of Heath Ledger's Joker and Viola Davis' Amanda Waller.

On a surprising note, Magpie manages to slip from her limited comic appearances into The Penguin's newest episode (a character I'm sure nobody expected to see), delivering a delightfully charming performance by Marié Botha. Unfortunately, her death means that we likely won't get any more appearances from her character, as much as I'd like to see more of her antics in Arkham

VERDICT/WHAT'S NEXT?

"Cent'anni" takes a relatively grounded show and amps the craziness to 11, completely subverting all expectations in its shocking depiction of Sofia Falcone's backstory. Even though some might argue that it feels weird to bring Oswald's story to an abrupt halt in lieu of an episode revolving around Sofia, I found that it brought so much more depth to the character than before, almost making the audience root for her instead of Oz. Everything about the episode is brilliantly executed, from performances, cinematography, editing and writing, quickly dethroning episode 3 as my current favorite episode in the series

10/10