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    • The Penguin: Episode 4 Review – “Cent’anni”
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    The Penguin: Episode 4 Review – “Cent’anni”

    Caradoc Wyn Posted on

    The following review contains spoilers for the fourth episode of The Penguin, “Cent’anni.”

    As dark and grounded as 2022’s The Batman was, “grounded” is a relative term. Yes, there are no people with superpowers (and there won’t be, according to writer/director Matt Reeves) and Robert Patinson’s Batmobile is just a souped-up muscle car with no rocket engines or James Bond-like gadgets, but this world is still full of crazy, cocky characters who don’t quite feel like real people. In “The Penguin,” however, the most fantastical element – Bruce Wayne himself – has been removed from the equation, allowing for an even more realistic story… until this week’s episode, “Cent’anni.” A flashback to Arkham finally lets go of the comic book weirdness in an episode that abruptly stops the series and takes a focused, spooky look at Sofia Falcone’s last 10 years, but it’s an episode that gets both feet off the ground and leans in inherent weirdness of a world in which Batman exists.

    Her stay at Arkham State Hospital (asylum would be too far-fetched) is a tragic tale of betrayal by those she trusted most. The episode makes it clear how cruel the Falcone family was to her, which makes for a really good closing sequence. But it also highlights how cartoonishly over-the-top some of the characters in this series can be. Not just in Sofia, who we obviously see a lot more of in Cent’anni, but also in characters like Doctor Ventress (even in name), Dr. Rush and Magpie as well as the nameless prisoner who takes her own life. It’s truly a nightmare what’s happening in Arkham, and it will definitely give you reason to think about whether Batman is doing the right thing by sending deranged criminal minds there. Some might say that this is where the series makes a major step away from the pure mob movie vibe it’s had so far, but I don’t think that’s ever really what The Penguin was aiming for. It may be more grounded than other recent adaptations, but just like the film from which it was derived, it has found its own balance between the two.

    My complaint is more that “Cent’anni” doesn’t always feel like it’s properly tied into the overall story of the series. It must be very difficult to bridge a series, especially in this day and age when there are eight to ten episode seasons and limited series (The Penguin is an example of both). Loads of new character introductions to make and any flashbacks you feel necessary need to be strategically placed so as not to disrupt the balance of the series.

    Some would say that the series is a step ahead here.

    Last week, Victor had time to shine in an episode that cleverly mixed flashbacks to show us his past while also relating his life before the Riddler’s attack to what’s happening in his present. In contrast, “Cent’anni” relies on a more “Inception” structure, in which an unconscious Sofia goes on a magical mystery tour through her past – but then in this flashback we experience another jump in time to the day her mother died. On the surface it sounds like a lot to take in, and it is, but each step back in time feels necessary to tell Sofia’s full story and is smoothly executed, as is the return to the present.

    As neat as it is to create these transitions, it’s still unsettling to have two flashback episodes in a row at a time when the third episode left so much in the present, with Victor and Oz speeding away and Sophia dying let. While this could further Oz’s rise to power while laying the groundwork for Victor’s character arc, this time the sole focus on Sofia makes it work as a standalone piece, but it doesn’t do the same good for what’s happening in the now, aside from the climactic sequence at the end.

    I like that earlier conversations make more sense when the pieces fit together in The Penguin. The moment in the second episode where Oz tells Sofia that he owes her one, we have absolutely no idea what he’s referring to. Knowing now how everything went 10 years ago re-contextualizes these conversations in a really satisfying way. It’s the attention to detail in the script that gives shape to the characters and makes the passage of time seem real, which for me is often a sticking point in films and series that span decades. If there’s a big jump in time but the characters are seemingly unchanged and it feels like nothing happened in the intervening years, why jump at all? But “The Penguin” is rooted in that one particular time jump, and that helps keep things stable, especially since in “Cent’anni” we get to see some of what happened in those years (or at least at the beginning ) happened.

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    Caradoc Wyn
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