The fourth episode of “Penguin” has a strong connection with the Batman movie

This article contains spoilers in the latest episode of “Penguin”.

Four weeks into 'Penguin' and there has been no mention of Robert Pattinson's bat-themed masked vigilante, colloquially referred to by Gotham's criminal element as 'The Revenge' – although that doesn't mean the events of Matt Reeves' 'Batman' have been ignored Of course, the show's action takes place immediately after the 2022 film, when the most disadvantaged citizens are still reeling from the Riddler's plan to flood the entire city and gangsters like Colin Farrell's scene-stealing Oswald Cobb are hoping to take advantage of the sudden vacuum power. This means that in the case of the deceased Carmine Falcone (originally played in the film by John Turturro, but has since been replaced by Mark Strong) to appear at some point this season and that moment finally came in a long flashback with last episode, titled “Cent'Anni”. However, this was only the tip of the iceberg (living room).

Once Carmine returns, the entire hour focuses on the Falcone family, especially Sofia's (Cristin Milioti) tragic story. We know that she recently took up residence in Arkham Asylum following a killing spree that was only vaguely referenced throughout the series… but it was enough to earn her the nickname “The Hanged Man.” But in a sense, we learn that Sofia asked a few too many questions about her mafia boss father's alleged crimes – a series of strangulations that were ruled suicides but were almost certainly murders – and then was set up to take the fall. .

In this way, “Penguin” made its strongest and most overt connections to “Batman.”

Will a real rat get up? 2022's “The Batman” stood out from a string of recent reboots by essentially focusing on a crime story that primarily revolved around the unknown “rat” who sold out the Maroni crime family (represented in “Penguin” by Clancy Brown in role of the imprisoned Salvatore Maroni) took their place and essentially bought Gotham's silence by bribing and/or threatening politicians, cops, and every other influential party. I don't want to spoil one of the most successful and well-received comic book movies of the decade, but the rat turned out to be none other than Carmine Falcone. In the latest episode of “Penguin” we take an even closer look at his shady dealings and his tendency to literally squeeze the life out of anyone who gets in his way.

Often the victims were various dancers from his nightclub 44 Below (a club-within-a-club type of venue located inside Oz's Iceberg Lounge), a disturbing discovery that “The Batman” investigated by vengeful vigilante Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz). Where she was avenging her mother's death, believed to be strangulation by her father Carmine, Sofia meets a reporter investigating even more killings using the exact same method: manual strangulation.

Carmine is obviously guilty – Sofia even remembers the distinctive scratches on his hands the night she, as a child, stumbled upon her dead mother hanging from the ceiling of the family mansion – but no one can fully prove it. The remaining deaths are officially ruled suicides and listed in police reports, but attentive fans will notice unspoken implications throughout the episode. After buying and paying off the Gotham Police Department, Carmine apparently managed to cover up his crimes using the same intimidation tactics he later used to silence his nosy daughter Sofia and send her to Arkham Asylum for ten years.

So far, the writing team has resisted the all-too-common urge to pack “Penguin” with distracting references, deep-cut Easter eggs and unnecessary scenes; this is all the more impressive since the one big exception (besides Arkham prisoner “Magpie”) is a minor character from the original film. Casual viewers may not have even noticed it, but episode 4 includes an early scene in which Carmine names “Kenzie,” a Gotham City police officer on his payroll who learns that a reporter has been sniffing around and trying to dig up dirt connecting Falcone to the Falcone women's deaths working in 44 Below. This is, of course, the same reporter who Oz notices meeting with Sofia in an attempt to uncover the truth – and the same reporter who ends up dead when Oz squeals at Sofia to her father. Kenzie finally shows up in person as one of the cops who arrest Sofia for the murder of that journalist… along with the murders of all the women she was investigating.

William Kenzie appears in “The Batman” (played by Peter McDonald) as a corrupt cop who moonlights as one of Oz's mercenaries, but who, of course, takes orders directly from Falcone. Amusingly described by Batman himself as “a mustache with a broken nose,” Kenzie's most important role in the film comes when Selina learns that he was the one who kidnapped Selina's roommate and friend (and possibly lover), Annika, for Carmine to kill via gruesome-sounding strangulation. She narrowly avoids a bullet to the head when Batman intervenes and prevents Selina from taking revenge. In “The Batman” his fate remains ambiguous, but “Penguin” sheds more light on the crimes he committed in the years before the film and spin-off series. And it was just the right amount of connective tissue to connect both elements of the medium.

New episodes of “Penguin” air on HBO and stream on Max every Sunday night.