‘The Penguin’ Star Cristin Milioti Breaks Down ‘Thrilling’ Episode 4 Turn: ‘They Did This to Her’

October 13, 2024 @ 7:01 PM

Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Penguin” Episode 4.

We finally know how Sofia ended up in Arkham Asylum.

“The Penguin” Episode 4 paused the forward trajectory of Oz’s (Colin Farrell) plotting and scheming to go back and show how Sofia (Cristin Milioti) got sent to Arkham, and how her time there changed her.

Milioti told TheWrap that tackling Sofia’s harrowing time at the asylum correctly came from a strong partnership with director Helen Shaver and making sure to find the “modulation” between intensity and delicacy.

“It was thrilling,” she said. “That stuff was very dark, but to get to be in that Arkham uniform and to get to show that and explore that and see how she changes. We definitely talked about modulation, and how to show at what stages she’s at and being challenged in the ways that she’s challenged and when she finally snaps and goes mad.”

Milioti pointed to shooting her arrival at the asylum, starting with her visceral scrubdown during admittance. She said that scene was emblematic of the “relentless days” shooting the entire episode.

“Those days were like really – because that episode goes through so many time periods – they were really full days,” she said. “We didn’t have that long in Arkham, so it sort of felt how that scene was shot. It is different pops. We had such an incredible crew and by then, in the fourth episode, we really knew each other so we just kind of dove in. They were relentless days but that was also kind of the madness of them that were fun too.”

Cristin Milioti in “The Penguin” (Credit: HBO)

Sofia’s snap into madness really doesn’t come until she learns that her promised six-month stint in Arkham was being extended. Her family — at her father’s behest — wrote in to say she wasn’t mentally fit to be back in the real world. After hearing that she mercilessly smashed a woman’s head into a cafeteria table before screaming to onlookers that she’s innocent.

Ask Milioti and she’s unsure if Sofia always had that rage in her or if her time in Arkham changed her entirely.

“I have my own feelings on that,” she said. “I think it’s both. I don’t think even she knows. I think it’s both.”

After that, the episode jumped back to the present. Sofia seemed a bit more self-actualized, confident and ready to take claim of her father’s empire. She headed to a dinner with all her family and the highest ranked in the Falcone gang. She made a speech, claimed she’s going her own way, and come morning she killed nearly every single person in the massive home. Milioti said this is Sofia finally coming into her own.

“That’s how I read it,” she said “She finally can breath and she’s finally become the thing that everyone said she was. They did this to her and she becomes it. She goes mad and I love that that’s how it goes even though it’s so brutal.”

“The Penguin” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT and streams on Max.