One of the most chilling scenes in The Penguin Episode 7 “Top Hat” is ironically one of the HBO show’s quietest. Sofia Gigante (Cristin Milioti) finally deigns to visit her cousin’s orphaned daughter, Gia (Kenzie Grey), in Brookside Children’s Home. Sofia, of course, is the person who murdered Gia’s parents along with the rest of their family with a carefully orchestrated gas leak all the way back in The Penguin Episode 4. Sofia is also the relative who made a point to spare Gia’s life only to blithely throw her to the state for safe-keeping.
When Sofia arrives at the orphanage, she is haunted by memories of her own time at Arkham, drawing a line of similarity between herself and Gia. The entire reason why Sofia is even visiting the little girl isn’t to check in on her well-being. No, it’s to make sure Gia has her story straight about her family’s murder. You see, Gia has started telling her doctors she remembers seeing someone with a mask…
“Is that what you think? That I would do something as horrible as that?” she asks Gia. “I know you want someone to blame, but it was nobody’s fault. It was a terrible accident. Do you understand?”
What makes the scene all the more chilling is that by gaslighting Gia, Sofia is echoing the disturbing speech her own father, Carmine Falcone (Mark Strong), gave her when she dared question how her own mother died. Though the words are not verbatim, Penguin star Cristin Milioti confirmed to Decider that the scene is definitely meant to show how much Sofia has turned into her father despite her best efforts.
“That was one of my favorite scenes of the whole show because of that,” Milioti gushed. “Like here, she has rebelled against her family and her circumstances and has become this like different creature. And she ends up doing the same exact thing that her father did, the person who has wronged her the most.”
Milioti went on to explain that it wouldn’t have occurred to Sofia immediately that she had “just made a mini Sofia” in Gia.
“Look, of course, she wouldn’t realize that in the moment. And of course, she thinks she’s doing the right thing for that child,” she said.
Which is why Sofia goes on to force Gia into an embrace wherein she gives the wounded little girl some chilling truth. “It might sound confusing, but I know that it hurts…but your mom and your dad and everyone in our family, they were bad people,” Sofia says. “This is a gift.”
“You know, her candor with that little girl is so — it truly is one of my favorite scenes when she says, ‘This is a gift,’” Milioti said. “Because that was certainly one of the more heartbreaking things about her…she turns into the person she hates the most.”