When executive producer Matt Reeves first spoke to showrunner Lauren LeFranc about the making of “The Penguin,” he encouraged them to take the same approach as they did with “The Batman”: Dive deep into the Batman comics to Finding inspiration but having the freedom to create something new.

“Matt never wanted to do a direct adaptation of a comic,” LeFranc said. “It's fantastic that these stories exist, but I would like to create new stories. I wanted to create a new canon.”

There is no better example of what LeFranc has done with that freedom than how she flipped the script on the character of Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), who, in the shocking conclusion of Episode 4, leads the Falcone family to the mafia's palatial estate -Family gassed. It's not just an amazing ending to the episode; It's a surprising reveal of the character – a side of Sofia that LeFranc hid from audiences using comic book lore and crime genre conventions.

“Sofia is drawn and portrayed completely differently; “In the comics, she’s really kind of like daddy’s daughter,” LeFranc said. “Historically, women in comics and crime fiction really don’t have a lot of depth and you don’t get to spend a lot of time with them.”

As we learn in the episode 4 flashback, Sofia was a daddy's girl, so to speak, as there is a certain level of trust and admiration between Carmine Falcone (Mark Strong) and his daughter. It's a relationship that the mafia boss quickly breaks up as soon as Sofia asks one question too many and has his daughter committed to Arkham Asylum. He uses his considerable power to make those closest to the family, including Oz (Colin Farrell), aka the Penguin, testify that she is crazy. Only her brother Alberto (Michael Zegen) supports her.

“When we first meet Sofia in the first few episodes, she's feeling a lot of anger from living in Arkham for 10 years, but she's trying to get everything under control,” LeFranc said. “We also discussed hair, makeup and wardrobe. She puts back on the clothes Sofia may have worn before she was taken to Arkham. Against her will, she naturally tries to fit back into this patriarchal mob world.”

When constructing the Sofia arc for The Penguin, LeFranc was inspired by Rosemary Kennedy, the “forgotten” or “hidden” sister of President John F. Kennedy. The eldest Kennedy daughter was considered difficult by her father, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., who had her undergo a lobotomy at age 23. The procedure left her permanently incapacitated, unable to speak, and she was institutionalized for over 60 years.

“Rosemary was taken to a mental institution and given a lobotomy, and then her story ended, her story was never told, which I always found fascinating, tragic and horrific,” LeFranc said. “In the history of mental institutions, someone would usually say a woman was 'hysterical,' and we don't really know what that meant, and then they would lock her up. That's why I asked Matt right at the beginning, “I want Sofia to come from Arkham State Hospital, and he was there, which I'm so grateful for because Matt has the ability to say absolutely no and went for it instead.” “”

LeFranc liked to play with the idea of ​​how easy it was to say Sofia was crazy. When we meet Sofia's character in the first two episodes, it's clear that she's struggling to control her simmering emotions after living in the disturbing institution. LeFranc, who intentionally switched between viewpoints in the first few episodes, makes the viewer question the character's sanity.

“Early on, it was important to me to play Sofia as a kind of cipher from the perspective of Oz, like you've seen in a lot of crime shows. “Unfortunately, you never really have the opportunity to engage with these women and find out who they actually are,” LeFranc said. “The fact that at first you might think Sofia is crazy and everyone around her thinks she's crazy, I want the audience to think that too and then realize, oh, they're wrong.”

Another aspect of this false impression is that Sofia Falcone plays the mysterious cop killer The Hangman in the Batman comics. It's another label that LeFranc wanted to convey to viewers, planting this idea at the start of Episode 4 before flipping the script.

“Sofia is the executioner in the comics, so I took that as inspiration and thought, 'What if she was innocent?'” said LeFranc, who changed the role from a cop killer to someone who allegedly killed sex workers. “I found the violence of women against women interesting, especially when we found out that her father is the one who blames his own murders on his daughter.”

Forcing Sofia to search through her memories in flashbacks in Episode 4 and discovering that not only was her father the executioner but also killed her mother is a startling discovery for the character.

“It's just terrible and brutal, Sofia lost her mother and her father in that moment,” LeFranc said. “That’s why she and Alberto are so close. They’ve always had each other.”

This makes the discovery of Oz's treachery at the end of Episode 3 a double whammy for Sofia. For one night, Sofia overlooked Oz's role in her induction into Arkham, only to discover that not only had he been betrayed again, but he had also killed Alberto, the only family member who stood by her.

Here, too, LeFranc carefully raised the audience's expectations and suggested that the story was going in a different direction. Episode 3 would explore how Oz and Sofia would form a dynamic duo as they drive through Gotham and lay the groundwork for their new drug venture.

“Oz and Sofia are two sides of the same coin, they could actually make a really great team because they have similar drives,” LeFranc said. “Episode 3 was so much fun. I would call it our “Moonlighting” episode in the writer's room because I thought there had to be some banter and some tension between the two; They might have a connection.”

One of the reasons Sofia finds it easier to look past Oz's past transgressions in Episode 3 is because he treats her with respect, something that was sorely missed when Sofia tried to return to her father's world after leaving Arkham has left.

“She eats a lot of shit; These men treat her so horribly and with so much contempt that you think, how much can this woman take. And after the revelation about Oz, after she trusted him again, I think I feel really stupid and angry and frustrated,” LeFranc said. “That the door was opened a little bit for Oz again, just to find out what he did to her brother. She did it. She's finished. It's like, “Why do I have to abide by the game that was constructed, by the institution of the mafia?” Why should I abide by these rules? It's not built for someone like me.' And so she decides to burn everything down, to gas her entire family, and she does it with a level of joy that feels very free, and suddenly opens up about the woman that Arkham has made her become.”

Sofia reveals her scars and no longer feels the need to suppress the well-earned anger that has been building within her for a decade. She has an almost Gene Kelly-esque lightness in her movements and a palpable joy at the end of the episode as she obliterates her father's world, which she now sees with absolute clarity.

“It's so easy to say she's crazy, but what if she's not?” LeFranc said of her holistic approach to crafting Sofia's arc. “I wanted Sofia to take back that narrative in a way that Rosemary Kennedy would never have allowed. I wanted Sofia to be able to tell her own story on our show.”

Episode 4 of “The Penguin” is available on HBO and Max. Episode 5 will air on Sunday, October 20th.