The Penguin Episode 4 Recap and Spoiler Review — What is Sofia’s Fresh Start?

This article from the HBO and Max miniseries The Penguin Season 1 Episode 4 contains significant spoilers.

The new HBO and Max miniseries event The Penguin finally answers the series’ two most pressing questions: How and why did Sofia end up at Arkham Asylum, and how did Oz help send her there? The characters have been hinting at these questions for weeks, but greater context has been needed.

The Penguin season 1, episode 4, titled “Cent’Ann,” is a standout moment for star Cristin Milioti, one that should garner her an Emmy nomination. The episode begins by revisiting the end of the previous episode from a different perspective. Nadia (Shohreh Aghdashloo) exposes Oz for playing both sides.

While Sofia kneels beside Oz, Nadia reveals that Oz visited Sal at Blackgate Penitentiary. How will Sal and Nadia now control the new stash house? However, the biggest bombshell Nadia drops is that Oz killed Sofia’s brother. That’s when Victor (Encanto’s Rhenzy Feliz) saves the day.

Max’s The Penguin Season 1 Episode 4: Who Is Summer Gleeson?

According to The Batman lore, Summer Gleeson is Gotham’s most prominent media personality and one of the city’s biggest celebrities. This seems to be before she made it big as a news anchor. Here, she approaches Sofia after a charity event before Carmine Falcone’s only daughter goes to prison. 

Gleeson asks her about Yolanda Jones, a woman who died by suicide. This is part of a string of women who have died by hanging, either while working at or known to attend a Falcone property called The Iceberg Lounge. The reporter also connects the dots for Sofia, bringing up her mother.

How Did Sofia’s Mother Die?

Sofia’s mother died of suicide by hanging herself. In a flashback, we see that as a child, she found her mother dead. She was dangling from the ceiling with a noose tied around her neck. That is running through her mind as she looks at a family painting and sits down to dinner with her family.

Carmine (Mark Strong) andAlbert (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s Michael Zegen) are there. After her brother leaves, Sofia’s father announces she wants her to be his successor. However, she brings up her mother. Carmine doesn’t allow the conversation, saying he dislikes bringing up old wounds.

Why Is Sofia Arrested As The Hangman Killer?

Sofia is arrested and charged with being “The Hangman” killer because her father set her up to take the fall. Oz (Colin Farrell) tells Carmine that Sofia has been talking to Summer Gleeson, whom she met again. Now dressed in a new suit, Oz is inside the house, whereas he usually stays in the car.

When Carmine confronts his daughter, she brings up the connections. As a child, she also remembers her father having scratches on his hands the day her mother died. Carmine sends Sofia home, but with Oz driving her, the police pull over the car and arrest her for killing the reporter and the other women.

Carmine uses his political connections to keep Sofia at Arkham State Hospital. He sets up an evaluation, railroading her. She won’t sit for a trial for six months while under evaluation. That is where she meets a familiar character from the DC Universe.

Who Is Magpie?

In DC Comics, Magpie is Margaret Pye, a former curator at the Gotham Museum of Antiquities. The job drove her insane, turning her to crime and ultimately landing her in Arkham. She is Sofia’s cellmate neighbor, having lost her mind, and her gums are constantly bleeding. At lunch, sitting next to Magpie, Sofia is attacked by a woman who was let into the cafeteria.

We then see Sofia meet Dr. Rush (Theo Rossi), who doesn’t believe her story about her father framing her. Later, the guards take her to the cafeteria alone and give her a fork. The same woman who attacked Sofia is chained to a table. They want Sofia to kill her, but she refuses. The troubled woman knocks her over, takes the fork, and repeatedly yells for Sofia to “end it!”

The woman then begins stabbing herself in the neck multiple times. Sofia is then framed for her murder, keeping her in Arkham for good. Later, Sofia kills Magpie because she thinks she is a jailhouse snitch. Also, she begins acting like the killer her father, Arkham officials, and society have placed upon her.

The Penguin’s Season 1 Episode 4 Ending Explained: What is Sofia’s “Fresh” Start?

The Penguin ends with Sofia announcing to her family at dinner that she is ready for a fresh start. She will be going to Italy tomorrow. However, during the night, she takes her cousin’s daughter outside to protect her because Sofia has rigged a carbon monoxide leak in the mansion, killing everyone.

It is the “silent killer,” after all. The Falcone goons, including the muscle and the captains, are dead. Her uncle Luca and his wife are found deceased in their bedroom, along with her cousin and his husband, leaving their daughter without parents. However, Johnny Vitti is alive.

That’s because Sofia made sure a window was open in his room. Why does she keep the underboss alive? We don’t know for sure. What we do know is that Sofia picks up the gun on his nightstand. Vitti wakes up, and she points the gun at him, telling the gangster, “We have to talk.”

You can stream the new limited series The Penguin on HBO and Max, with new episodes dropping weekly.