Sophia’s Arkham Hell is a perfect episode of DC

The penguin has bucked the trend of most comic book TV shows by refusing to bend in the middle. The inspired move that makes this possible is shifting focus away from Colin Farrell’s Oz Cobb for a chapter dedicated almost entirely to Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), who has so far proven to be a revelation. If you weren’t convinced of that already, this episode will be the clincher. It’s easily one of the most impressive episodes of DC TV I’ve ever seen.

Episode 4 takes a detour away from Oz’s attempts to consolidate his rising power and wants to build on the shocking confrontation of Oz by Nadia Maroni (Shohreh Aghdashloo). Instead, we go to Sofia’s past and the Hangman crimes with an extended flashback that introduces Carmine Falcone, opens the doors of Arkham and offers a brutal, sublime 60 minutes of premium television.

Unless, somehow, any DC fan isn’t fully invested in The penguinOr – God forbid – is not involved at all, this is the episode to tell about it. That’s the reward for investing in the show’s slow-burn narrative. This is evidence that Cristin Milioti’s Sofia may be one of the greatest additions to Batman’s screen lore ever. So what is the best episode of The penguin until now? And more importantly, what does it deserve a perfect score?

The Penguin pulls Oz’s own trick of the Batman against him

Colin Farrell gets a bit of a break in episode 4

in The BatmanColin Farrell had precious little screen time, but was so immediately memorable that the decision to give him his own spin-off was hailed as unquestionably logical. Why wouldn’t we want to see more of this transformative, darkly charming performance, after all? The penguin Episode 4 throws all the good will for the characters out the window by pushing Oz to the edge of the storyDespite how the previous episode ended. He’s in it, but it’s not his story.

Instead, Milioti’s Sofia takes center stage, and the reward is immediate. Picking up where The penguin The end of Episode 3 left her – bloodied and betrayed outside the Apex Club – the episode jumps back in time to 2012, before her incarceration in Arkham. In doing so, it builds up not only the outrageous evil of Carmine Falcone’s backstory, but also builds on a lot of the ideas that we’ve all been so entertained for the last 3 hours of The penguin.

and indeed, If Oz had been around more, he would have been too much of a distraction. The episode makes a conscious statement about Sofia reclaiming her own story, after the show has drip-fed vague details and allowed the specter of Sofia’s reputation to drive audience perception. It’s not so much a carpet-pulling as an artful connecting of dots, and it’s hard not to shower the whole thing with superlatives.

A comment on Mark Strong’s Carmine Falcone

He’s not John Turturro, but then, who is?

The penguinCarmine Falcone’s version is very different from the one presented in The Batman. He is a more domestic creature, seen through the eyes of his daughter, who disturbs him, largely within the walls of his own home. That, combined with the big twist of the episode, it was appropriate to make him a little softer. He was also played by Mark Strong, after John Turturro had to be recast as the mob boss due to scheduling issues.

That said, Strong is an excellent choice to play Carmine, even if he’s not quite an excellent choice to replace Turturro. He looks about right, and he certainly makes a good carmine, but it’s clearly not the same. Is there a problem? Not really. There’s actually something to admire in an actor who isn’t necessarily distracted by the need to clone someone else’s performance, and it’s probably best to avoid Turturro’s excellent performance anyway.

Hell is another prisoner in Arkham Hospital

We finally get to see a real picture of the horrors of the Gotham landmark

A lot has been said about the idea of ​​an Arkham spin-off for The Batman. It’s always been a fun idea because we all seem to have this collective misconception of what Arkham is, largely because of the opportunity to see a high density of Batman’s rogues gallery. When you think of Arkham, you think of a prison largely run by the inmates and a breeding ground for Gotham’s worst residents. Why wouldn’t that be cool?

The penguin Doubled down on Matt Reeves’ strong realism by making Arkham a deeply troubling place. Just as the city is poisoned by corruption, Arkham is a hell of abuse where Carmine’s influence trumps all pretense of treatment.. Arkham Hospital, for Sophia, is an insulting name because it effectively turns her into what she is accused of, and The penguin Episode 4 does an excellent job of showing both sides of her origin: trigger and rebirth.

The new additions to The penguinThe cast for the Arkham scenes are all excellent. T Ryder Smith plays the despicable Arkham chief psychiatrist Dr. Ventris, and while he’s not in it a great deal, he offers enough to really sell what he represents. Then there’s the Harley Quinn-like Magpie (an odd-ball new Version of ​​the DC character, played by Marié Botha), which is The penguinS’s reply to Multiple Miggs from The silence of the lambs.

The real stand-out is Syd Skidmore’s AbbyThe Arkham prisoner who plays a key part in Sophia’s… awakening, let’s say. Skidmore is very much a newcomer, with few roles to her name, but is incredible as Abby: equal parts terrifying and haunting. Her physical performance is jarring—no doubt thanks to Skidmore’s clowning training—and there’s an otherworldly feel to her compared to Sophia that fits right in with how the episode plays with reality. I can’t get the performance out of my head, and she’s on screen for a matter of minutes.

Sofia Falcone is not Bruce Wayne, but from a different point of view…

The Penguin continues to offer deep character work

From Sophia’s introduction in episode 1 and in Oz’s indoctrination of Victor, we’ve been fed an idea of ​​supposedly lesser characters taking up space. Both Oz and Sophia are characters who should exist on the fringes but who take up space and who radically challenge the natural order of power. This episode is the culmination of this clever seeding.

In a more subtle way, it also justifies what Batman is missing from The penguin. Sophia’s story is one of direct parallels to Bruce Wayne and Batman’s, and his presence would be too common. It’s much better to give the audience the hints they need to build the parallelAnd to work out the subtle message that runs through the whole show about the perception of Batman as a symbol, and Bruce Wayne as a male member of Gotham’s elite class. His absence makes the examination more compelling than if he were around more tangibly.

It’s incredible story-telling, directing and acting

There is just nothing to blame

The acting in episode 4 is typically top notch. Colin Farrell is largely sitting it out, but we get a flashback version of him that is less corrupted by power, and less twisted by exploitation, which wins at his nickname, and clearly takes up less space. For all the prosthetics, Farrell is able to pull off a surprisingly subtle performance as OzAnd again, it’s the brightest moments that really sell it. When his betrayal of Sofia is revealed, the momentary flash of shame that he then gobbles back down is incredible.

Christine Milioti is an absolute force of nature: willing to allow herself to be mistreated in the harrowing Arkham induction, forced into a covering reduction of herself, and then blossoming out of it like a furious wounded animal. The third act, in which she becomes what Carmine wanted her to be, is as close to a horror movie villain as we’ve seen on this show. and for once, I agree with Matt Reeves’ assessment that the world doesn’t need supernatural characters: it makes its own monsters.

The difficult switch in the story from Sofia’s time in Arkham to her dealing with Luca Falcone’s attempt to send her away to Italy is irresistible. You will hear people say it is The penguin‘s Emmy episode, and it’s really hard to argue otherwise: the story is blistering but complex – delivering ideas that were seeded in the first 4 episodes – the performances uniformly great and in the best way you can see the directing playing.

The way the camera frames Sophia’s treatment in Arkham adds infinitely to how horrific it feels, and the genius framing of her long-gestating retaliation in the final act is delicious. It’s almost like a new take on the much-memed ending sequence in SaltburnOnly with an even darker spin. If this isn’t the best episode of DC TV ever, it’s very, very close.

New episodes of The penguin Airs every Sunday on HBO.