The Penguin – Cent’anni review S1 E4

February 8, 2025 Jeffrey Lyles Aleksa Palladino, Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Marié Botha, Mark Strong, The Penguin

Cent’anni was one of the best character focused episodes I’ve seen in a long time. How good was this episode of The Penguin? It barely needed more than an extended cameo from Penguin to be the standout installment of the series so far.

Director Helen Shaver immediately signaled that this was going to be a special episode with an incredible opening shot starting from a pool of water on the streets as Nadia Marconi and her men had Oz and Sofia at gunpoint. We didn’t hear the full conversation in Bliss before seeing Victor get Oz out of danger, but Cent’anni reveals that Nadia confronted him about everything. How she thought Oz was using her family on Sofia’s behalf to kill Alberto Falcone, but now she knows he did it for himself.

Naturally, this news rocks Sofia, who was just beginning to open up to the possibility of trusting Oz again. Cent’anni shows just how far in the hole Oz’s trust credit was with Sofia and why she had a valid reason for treating him so coldly.

Sofia escaped the shootout with Nadia’s men and the escaping Oz. She calls her therapist Julian Rush for help as he’s been the one reliable ally she can still trust.

Cent’anni enters into an extended flashback as Sofia is speaking at a luncheon for the charity in her mother’s name to help depressed women. Just like her mother who didn’t receive any of the help she needed and ultimately committed suicide. Oz is driving her around and generally being a helpful chauffer who knows his place in the Falcone pecking order.

Summer Gleason, a reporter from the Gotham Gazette tells Sofia about Yolanda Jones, a waitress at the Iceberg Longue who also died by hanging herself.

This triggers a repressed memory for Sofia, who recalls seeing her mother hanging from a beam in the bedroom.

Fast forward a few years in the flashback where Sofia is having a dinner with Carmine (played by Mark Strong, whose makeup and hair does make for a solid resemblance to a younger John Turturro) and Alberto. Carmine knows Alberto is a screwup who is too soft to handle what needs to be done. He wants Sofia to run the family business, but she knows the rest of the family won’t go for her being in charge.

She’s happy about this unprecedented move, but it does make her think of her mother. Carmine insists her mother was good at hiding her depression. Sofia talks with Gleason about Yolanda Jones and other dead women, who all died by hanging themselves. That seems a bit too much like a pattern instead a coincidence. Gleason has evidence that reveals the women all had blood and skin in their fingernails to show that they were fighting off someone. These “suicides” were carefully covered up murders.

Sofia’s memories trigger a long-buried recollection of her father consoling her after she discovered her mother and the fingernail scratches on his hand. Clearly, Carmine killed his wife and it seems like The Hangman was a Falcone, just not the one who took the fall for it.

Oz advises Sofia it’s not wise to talk to reporters and she angrily dismisses him saying he’s just her driver. This is in contrast to how she normally regarded him as she got on Alberto for calling Oz “Penguin.” Never let it be said that Oz would miss an opportunity to come up, he tells Carmine about Sofia’s meeting with Gleason. At Carmine’s birthday party, he summons her to his room while she’s having a great time gossiping with her cousin, Carla (Aleksa Palladino).

Cristin Miloti has been excellent throughout the series and absolutely kills it in every scene in Cent’anni, but this scene is her “Give her all the TV acting awards for this performance” moment. Sofia is trying to come up with some rationale for what happened with her mother and explains that she doesn’t believe anything Gleason said. Carmine decides she’s no longer an asset to him and has Oz drive her home.

Oz apologizes for snitching, but this gets interrupted as police officers arrest Sofia for the murder of Summer Gleason (!) and the other women. It’s obvious where these officers are getting their payday as they tell “Penguin” to relax if he knows what’s good for him.

While in custody, a stunned Sofia meets with her lawyer and Alberto. All of the other family members have backed Carmine’s assessment that Sofia is unwell due to the depression stemming from her mother’s suicide. The judge agrees to send her to Arkham where she will stay until the trial six months from now. In Arkham, she’s under the care of Dr. Ventris (T. Ryder Smith) and Rush, who inform her she’s going to be in isolation.

Sofia’s treatment in Arkham is horrifying as she vainly tries to plead her case that she’s innocent. Her next-door cell mate introduces herself as Magpie (Marié Botha) and wants to be her friend. In one of her early meals at the cafeteria, Magpie is given the base version of bliss, which calms her down and puts her into a euphoric state. Another inmate beats up Sofia and puts her in the infirmary, where Rush checks in on her. Rush is consistent in his seeming desire to help and isn’t tipping off any sinister purpose.

The guards bring Sofia to the cafeteria along with the woman who beat her up. Sofia is given a fork, which she realizes is a trap from Ventris to frame her and extend her Arkham stay. The woman seizes the fork and uses it to kill herself.

With that plan failed, Sofia stars getting regular electroshock treatments, but the cruelest blow comes when a visiting Alberto tells her that Ventris won’t let her stand trial. She’s stayed her six months and now it’s going to much longer. This news breaks Sofia, who takes it out on Magpie, killing her in the cafeteria. That act leads to Sofia getting injected with her first dose of Bliss, which promptly knocks her out.

In a really well-done transition, Sofia awakens back to the present day with Rush looking after her at his place. Sofia has another quality monologue that Milioti delivers beautifully. She was in Arkham for 10 years for a crime she didn’t commit. “All my life, men have lied to me. I’m not broken. I’m not the one who’s sick. And neither are you. The world is. You’re right. I deserve a fresh start.”

She delivers this while doing some subtle flirting, which Julian doesn’t seem opposed to. Since he quit Arkham and is just her therapist on call, maybe patient/client borders don’t really matter?

Sofia crashes a Falcone family dinner and starts talking about her time in Arkham for murders she didn’t commit. “I trusted you. I loved you and yet not one of you tried to help me except for my brother. Tomorrow I’m starting a new life — a new beginning — Cent’anni.” Clearly the Falcone family hasn’t watched any of the Godfather films as they don’t hear her words as threatening as she intended. Because this Cent’anni can’t get kicked off until they’re kicked.

She takes her younger cousin, Gia, out into the greenhouse for cake as she’s got plans for the rest of the family. Gia says her mother said Sofia did bad things. Sofia responds she was put in a dungeon with monsters and had to do bad things to fight them, but she’s going to make sure she never has to fight any monsters.

In another great shot, Shaver has Sofia rising from the ground of the greenhouse and past the sunrise like she’s emerging from the grave. Sofia unleashed carbon monoxide in the house to kill everyone. Hard to say they didn’t have this coming. The real irony is that they lied and said she was a monster to the point that she became the monster that killed them.

Actually, Sofia didn’t kill everyone. She’d sealed off Johnny Viti’s room so he doesn’t know what happened to the others.

“Put your pants on Johnny we need to talk.”

Cent’anni was an incredible installment of TV backed by a layered and high-quality performance from Milioti. This wraps up the first half of The Penguin setting the stage for what should be a very memorable second chapter as Sofia goes for her revenge against the man that started all her problems in the first place — Oz Cobblepot.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Photo Credit: Warner Bros.

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Rating: 10 out of 10

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