The Penguin: Why Was Sofia Falcone in Arkham Asylum? Serial Killer Explained

September 30, 2024

The Penguin, a spin-off of Matt Reeves’ The Batman (2022), is as much a show about the titular character (played by Colin Farrell) as it is about Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), the daughter of deceased mob boss Carmine Falcone. While we were already introduced to Oz in The Batman, Sofia debuted in The Penguin. The first two episodes have provided some key insights about her character and how she compares to her comic-book counterpart. We now know that she spent a considerable time at Arkham Asylum and at least part of why she ended up there.

Here is everything you might want to know why Sofia Falcone was institutionalized at Arkham Asylum.

Who did Sofia Falcone kill to end up in Arkham Asylum?

Arkham Asylum is a fictional forensic psychiatric hospital located in Gotham that regularly appears in DC Comics and related media. In the comics, Sofia made her first appearance in the 1996–97 limited series Batman: The Long Halloween and is a serial killer known as the Hangman.

Sofia is also a serial killer in The Penguin who has received the moniker the Hangman. The show has established her as unstable and violent and she is likely still criminally insane. In Episode 2, we learn that she has killed at least seven women and was sent to Arkham because of it. She is still deeply troubled by her time there and experiences nightmares and hallucinations about it. She also holds deep resentment toward the Falcone family for not getting her out sooner. The only person who visited her and promised to free her from the facility was her brother, Alberto. Because of this, she desperately seeks vengeance against the person who killed her brother.

In the episode, Sofia erroneously concludes that her lieutenant, Castillo, is the mole working for the rival Maroni family and her brother’s murderer. She later allies with Oz, not realizing that he is her brother’s real killer.

In the comics, Sofia’s modus operandi seems to be different. Instead of targeting at least mostly women, her victims in the comics are members of the Gotham City Police Department once associated with Harvey Dent / Two-Face. Dent hasn’t appeared in Reeves’ Batman universe yet.

However, during a recent press roundtable for The Penguin, executive producer Dylan Clark indicated that another series was in development. When The Direct asked whether there would be a legal drama series revolving around Dent, Reeves said that the media person was “thinking certainly in the way that [their] conversations have gone.”