In Episode 4 of The Penguin, it's revealed that Sofia Falcone's life takes a dark turn when she begins to question her mother Isabella's mysterious death. Her curiosity leads her to a reporter named Summer Gleeson of the Gotham Gazette, drawing troubling connections between Isabella's alleged suicide and the deaths of seven women who worked at The 44 Below, a secret club within Iceberg Lounge run by Carmine. All the victims were strangled.
Penguin betrays Sofia by informing Carmine of her secret rendezvous with Gleeson. In response, Carmine orchestrates her arrest and frames her for the murders of Gleeson and other women. As a result of this false accusation, Sofia becomes infamously known as "The Hangman," a moniker tied to the strangulations she was wrongly blamed for.
Sofia is then sent to Arkham Asylum, the nightmarish facility for the criminally insane. Despite its intended purpose of rehabilitation, Arkham frequently becomes a site of torment, making its patients even more dangerous.
Originally sentenced to six months for psychological evaluation, Sofia’s time in Arkham became a decade-long nightmare. Instead of protecting her, Sofia's family turns on her with fabricated testimony accusing her of violence, psycopathy, and animal cruelty.
With her trial denied, she endured relentless torture, electroshock therapy, and drug manipulation under Dr. Ventris, while her only ally, Dr. Julien Rush, ultimately quit out of guilt. The torment pushed Sofia to her breaking point, snapping in a moment of desperation that ended with her killing fellow inmate Magpie.
The psychological toll was immense. Sofia, who had already been emotionally shattered by her father’s betrayal, found herself further degraded in Arkham, stripped of her dignity and hope. Over time, the abuse transformed her into the very monster the system claimed she was, mirroring the manipulative narrative her father had constructed to discredit her. Arkham became the place where Sofia’s innocence and humanity were systematically dismantled, turning her into the ruthless figure she would later become.
It is then revealed that Sofia Falcone is released from Arkham Asylum with the help of her brother, Alberto Falcone and Dr. Julian Rush.
At a family dinner with the Falcones, Sofia feigns plans to leave for Italy, but her true intentions are far darker. In a shocking twist, she unleashes a deadly gas, killing the entire Falcone family while sparing Johnny and Gia Viti, marking her transformation into the feared Hangman—a vengeful force forged from betrayal, torment, and the unyielding quest for revenge.
The most surprising part? We find ourselves rooting for her.