To this point, it felt like The Penguin was just about a sleazy underboss attempting to make his way to the top, but perhaps with a heart of gold. But in you know, Batman world. His foil would be the different crime families he played, but also Sofia Falcone in particular, hiding the fact that he killed her brother and attempting to use her. She would claw at power herself after her time in Arkham when she had been convicted as a serial killer.

Episode 4 has...turned things around quite a bit. Spoilers follow.

Not only did Sofia already find out that Oz killed her brother and was playing her from the start, it's that it now feels like Sofia Falcone is the actual protagonist of The Penguin we should be rooting for here. Oz may care about Victor and assorted other people here and there, but Sofia has genuinely done nothing wrong. And even after murdering a house full of people she has genuinely done nothing wrong.

We learn her full backstory, and while "backstory" episodes can be pretty hit or miss, this one knocked it out of the park and was an Emmy-worthy turn for Cristin Milioti. As it turns out, Sofia stumbled upon an unfortunate truth that her father had apparently murdered a bunch of prostitutes, presumably those he had affairs with, masking their strangulations as hangings-by-suicide. But Sofia then also realizes that the suicide of her own mother was also a murder perpetrated by him.

Oz turns her in to Carmine for talking to the press, however briefly, where she was getting facts about that case, and she is forced to confront her father. Whether Oz intended this or not (it doesn't seem like he did) Carmine throws her in Arkham and bends the family and legal system to his will to keep her there for a decade. She goes in perfectly sane, but after years of abuse is driven to being at least some level of crazy, though now that she's emerged she's bent on cold revenge, even if her father himself is dead.

The scene where Sofia is turned from mob socialite into Arkham inmate almost instantly, complete with stripping, hosing and cavity searches is harrowing, and I now fully understand why there was originally a plan to do an entire series based on her time in Arkham, now relegated to this flashback. Funnily enough we are briefly introduced to another minor Batman villain, Magpie, who Sofia eventually beats to death after believing her to be a spy (it's unclear if she was, it didn't seem like it to me).

The episode concludes with a wild moment where Sofia kills her entire extended family with carbon monoxide poisoning in her uncle's mansion, sparing only her cousin's young daughter and Johnny Vitti, presumably to help cement her rise to power. Incredible sequence. Incredible episode.

Now, of course, she will seek revenge on Oz, and there's certainly no going back for that relationship now that she knows he killed her brother. But after last night I don't understand how we...don't want Sofia to win? She deserves to, and Oz is a self-serving traitor.

But that's sort of the point, isn't it? He's The Penguin. Batman villains are not exactly known for being you know, heroes, most of the time, and Colin Farrell himself has repeatedly warned viewers to not feel too fuzzy about Penguin. He promises something especially brutal in episode 8, whatever that may be.

I think this is great. I don't need Oz to be the misunderstood gangster hero. I don't need Sofia to be some evil mafia queen. Changing those dynamics like we saw last night was excellent, and I cannot wait to see more. I am growing more and more convinced that The Penguin may be the single greatest superhero TV show we've ever seen, if it can stick the landing.