‘The Penguin’: How did Sofia Falcone get her ominous nickname?

Episode 1 of Warner Bros. and DC Studios’ The Penguin is upon us, but despite its title, Colin Farrell’s Oz Cobb is hardly the only one taking center stage here. So who is Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), and how did she get her nickname of “The Hangman?”

In HBO’s newest drama, The Penguin, Gotham City is in awful shape. Picking up after the events of Matt Reeves’ The Batman, the death of former Kingpin Carmine Falcone leaves a power vacuum in Gotham’s criminal underground, leading opportunistic players to vie for control over the city’s drug operation. It’s a deliciously dark story of revenge straight out of The Godfather, made all the better by a great Colin Farrell performance—New York accent and awllll.

As mentioned, The Penguin sees a few mobsters grappling for power, but perhaps none will be as dangerous to Oz Cobb and his goal of controlling the city as Sofia Falcone, a.k.a. The Hangman.

Warning! Spoilers for The Penguin episode 1, “After Hours.”

Sofia Falcone’s nickname is morbidly fitting

The Penguin premiere dedicates the bulk of its runtime to Oz Cobb as well as his sidekick, Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz), but viewers are eventually introduced to Sofia during a meeting with The Family. Here, we discover that A) the two have met before, B) Sofia was just released from Arkham Asylum, and C) she knows something is up with her brother, Alberto (Michael Zegen), who Oz kindofsortofmaybe just killed. Whoops!

As the episode progresses, Oz and Sofia go out for lunch, where Sofia namedrops her moniker: The Hangman. In the DC comics, Sofia succeeds her late father and brother in leading the Falcone crime family. As her nickname suggests, she doesn’t exactly have the decorum of those before her. In The Long Halloween arc, Sofia goes full serial killer, targeting Gotham cops affiliated with Harvey Dent. Her calling card? A noose. She leaves clues around the city, forcing authorities to partake in a twisted version of the Hangman word game—hence the alias.

We already know that Oz Cobb and Sofia Falcone don’t exactly trust each other, so it’ll be interesting to see where the story takes their relationship next. Either way, The Hangman is bound to play a big role in the events to come when the next episode of The Penguin hits streaming on Sunday, September 29.