‘The Penguin’: What Really Happened To Sofia Falcone’s Mum, Isabella Gigante?
The greatest trick The Penguin ever played was claiming the show was solely about Colin Farrell’s underworld villain. In fact, what we’re really watching is one of the greatest origin stories of recent DC history, with Cristin Milioti absolutely revelling the role of Sofia Falcone, aka The Hangman.
As we found out in the jaw-dropping finale of episode four, Sofia was a woman truly pushed to the edge by her family. But what really nudged her along into bonafide serial killer territory was the discovery of a repressed memory: that her dad had killed her mother and made it look like a suicide.
And in episode five, we got further information about her late mother, Isabella, from the ill-fated Johnny Viti, her mother’s cousin. This new detail will go on to change the course of the family's future, as Sofia embarks on creating her own legacy. Let’s get into what really happened.
What happened to Isabella Gigante?
In the previous episode, Sofia realised that her dad, Carmine, had more than likely killed her mother, Isabella. We found out that in the immediate wake of the death, Carmine sensed that Sofia was getting close to the truth – thanks to a tip off by the double-crossing Oz – and shipped her off to Arkham State Hospital for a decade, framing her for the murder of seven women. By the time she escaped, Carmine was dead and Alberto, her brother, was too, leaving her to deal with the rest of the family who lied to the judge and claimed she was a violent psychopath.
Cut to the morning after she’s gassed most of her remaining family members to death, and she’s spared Johnny, as she needs him to cough up where the family cash is stashed.
But unexpectedly, Johnny sings about her mother’s death, and confirms that her dad did kill her. “She was gonna leave him, you know, the night Isabella died?” he says. “She was going to leave Carmine. You remember, don't you? You were all packed and ready to go, she was going to take you and your brother on a trip, at least that’s what she told you.”
He reveals that she had asked for his help in escaping the evil clutches of the head of the Falcone mob, and that he had a car waiting to drive her off that night. She never showed up, because Carmine got to her first.
Johnny also reveals that he blames himself for his “beautiful” cousin’s death, as he had introduced them. “Your father was smitten right out of the gate,” he says. However, he went on to explain that she tried to leave him once before, but had to come back for Sofia and Alberto as Carmine had threatened to hurt them. “What’s done is done,” he weakly says about his beloved cousin’s murder.
Sofia quite rightly questions why he continued to work for Carmine after the death, and he doesn’t really have an answer. Sofia sees him for what he is: a pathetic coward who helped cover up her mum’s killing (and who also shipped her off to her death, too).
The episode pushes Sofia into renouncing her family name. She drapes herself in one of her mum’s fur coats and announces that not only is she taking over the business, but that they're now to be known as the Gigante family, after her mum.
Oh, and now that she’s got what she needed from Johnny? He’s shot dead at point-blank range when he disagrees with her: she’s finally got revenge for his part in the cover-up of her mum’s murder.
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