The Penguin episode 4 ending explained: The truth behind The Hangman is revealed and Sofia gets her revenge

Major spoilers ahead for The Penguin episode 4

Let's give a round of applause for The Penguin episode 4, "Cent'Anni," because the Sofia Falcone-centric hour was perfetto! Cristin Milioti's performance was Emmy-worthy as we watched the dutiful daughter of Carmine Falcone be stripped of her status and thrown in Arkham Asylum because she learned what kind of man he really was.

Remember last episode when Oz said that he was sorry for selling her out to Carmine but he couldn't regret his climb up the ladder or how it changed his life for the better? Well, seeing exactly what his decision put her through really hit home just how deep his betrayal was. And it's left me questioning just how much Oz knew because he's slippery as an eel!

Sofia bore witness to that as he turned and pled his case to Nadia Maroni right in front of her. He was so desperate in the words he was spewing that spittle was flying from his mouth as he rushed to save his own hide. "Cent'Anni" gave us Sofia's view of the moment Victor rammed Oz's car into Nadia's vehicle. She went flying forward from the force of the crash and hit her head hard enough to have a gushing wound. That's how Oz left her, bleeding and disoriented.

She stumbled to her feet and was able to call Julian Rush before she blacked out and we were dropped into the story of how The Hangman came to be.

Who is the real Hangman on The Penguin?

10 years ago, Sofia was doing charity work in honor of her mother who died of suicide. It was an opportunity to help women and girls like Isabella Falcone get the help they need for depression and prevent suicide. It also helped that buttering up the women at said charities greased the wheels of Carmine's business as their wives had their husbands' ears and said well-to-do men held positions of power.

However, at one event, Sofia was stopped by Summer Gleeson, a reporter digging into the high suicide rate at 44 Below, Carmine's exclusive members only club. A total of seven women had took their lives using the same method--hanging. Summer pointed out that Isabella had died that way as well. With that seed planted, Sofia wasn't able to shake the revelation it grew into.

At nine years old, she was the one who found her mother hanging from the ceiling. Carmine was the one who rushed in and scooped her up, telling her not to look. She'd accepted the story that she was told, that her mom was depressed and struggled with her mental health. But Summer's words made Sofia question it even in the face of her father telling her that he was making her his heir apparent in spite of tradition.

She met with Summer who showed her pictures and the case files for each woman--Taylor Montgomery, Yolanda Jones, Nancy Hoffman, Susan Weekly, Devry Blake, and Trisha Becker. Their deaths were officially ruled suicides by hanging but they had defensive wounds and the bruising on their necks fit those that would be made by a hand not a rope. If you've seen The Batman then you know where this is going.

Sofia remembered that her mother had the same kind of wounds on her fingers and that her dad had scratches on his hand. Shocked and uncomfortable as the horror of it all began to sink in, she belittled Summer's efforts though it was clear the journalist saw that the penny had dropped for Sofia. She was so upset that when she got in the car, she did something out of character. Sofia made Oz feel small and like he was only her driver when he tried to give her advice which she hadn't done before this moment. This likely played a part in the decision he made to give her up to Carmine.

At her father's birthday party, Sofia was called into his office. The message was delivered by Oz who was in a snazzier suit which she complimented not knowing he betrayed her. Carmine knew she'd spoken to Summer and over the course of their conversation about it, he assessed just how much Sofia was aware of his past crimes. She tried to assure him that she didn't believe the allegations of murder but she couldn't help disclosing that she remembered the detail about the scratches he had on his hand the day her mother died.

Seeing that she knew the truth, Carmine sent her away from him, forcing her to leave the party with Oz to drive her home. Sofia and Oz argued about what happened but they didn't get far down the road before the cops pulled them over. Kenzie, the cop in the Falcones' pocket, arrested her on the spot for the murder of the seven women. Oz seemed like he didn't know what was going on, though he could have, you never know with him. She pleaded for him to help her, but he couldn't.

What Sofia didn't know was that her situation was going to get far worse. Carmine not only framed her for his murders, he also got her committed to Arkham by having the family vouch for his claims that she'd had a mental break after her mother died, a history of mental issues, and that she had violent outbursts. None of this was true but she still had to stay in the asylum for six months before she could get a trial and even after those months passed, Carmine kept her there thanks to the report the asylum doctor sent in that she was unfit to stand trial.

Sofia was in Arkham for 10 years knowing she was innocent, that her father murdered her mother, that he murdered all those women, and only her brother Alberto was willing to stand with her. The trauma she was put through--which included electroshock "therapy", an attempt to induce her to be violent that resulted in witnessing the suicide of the woman who beat her, committing her first murder, and having to survive that place and its abuse--explains why she takes out nearly her whole family in "Cent'Anni."

Sofia decides to start over with the Falcone family

The night before she was due to get on a plane to Sicily lest she be killed by Johnny Viti, Sofia turned up to family dinner late and looking stunning in a yellow dress. The episode's continuation of "The Yellow Wallpaper" allusion that ran through the Arkham scenes was chef's kiss.

I could talk for days about the nod to the short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman about how a woman's hysteria was caused by forced isolation her husband subjected her to under the doctor's orders. As well as Sofia looking like the canary in the coal mine, signaling a warning but I shouldn't digress. Just know I'm in love with the writing and visual choices in this episode.

Sofia was rude, bold, and powerful at this dinner. She cut her uncle off in the middle of his speech and every time Viti said something to her, the way she looked at him shut him up. In her own speech, Sofia called them all out for what they did to her. How she loved them and how they betrayed her, taking 10 years of her life by doing her father's bidding. But she planned to start a new life and she toasted to it.

Later, Sofia led her young cousin (Carla's daughter) out of the house. The girl had been dismissed from the table before Sofia had laid into her family so she didn't know what had happened. She took the child to the greenhouse, gave her the cake she didn't get to have at dinner, and convinced her to sleep in there with her. Sofia admitted to her that Carla was right, she had done bad things but she did them because Carmine locked her up with monsters and she needed to fight them. She promised her cousin that she'd make it so she wouldn't have to do the same.

We saw what Sofia meant the following morning. The girl stirred but she told her to go back to sleep and then she took the backpack she'd carried into the greenhouse and went back to the mansion. It contained a gas mask. Sofia had gassed the place overnight, killing everyone in the home except for Johnny Viti who survived because she had left his window open.

Sofia woke him and drew a gun on him, telling him they needed to talk. "Cent'Anni" ends there and what an ending it was! The Penguin just keeps getting better and better. And Sofia is done living by the dictations of men who over and over again have lied, dismissed, used, and stolen from her. It's time for a queen to rise.

The Penguin airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.