The following story includes small spoilers for The Penguin episode 2, “Inside Man.”
THE MATT REEVES Batman universe– beginning with 2022’s The Batman and now continuing with 2024’s HBO series The Penguin— understands, with certainty, precisely what it is: a grounded, gritty, noir and crime-infused variation of the Batman world. Reeves himself, who co-wrote and directed The Batman and works as an executive manufacturer on The Penguin, just recently mentioned that his universe would press things “to the edge of fantastical, however … would never ever enter into complete fantastical,” continuing to state that it was essential to adjust the source product comics and characters, to “equate it so that Gotham seems like a location in our world.”
This appears throughout the 2 tasks launched in deep space up until now. Undoubtedly, The Batman‘s primary bad guy is a variation of The Riddler (Paul Dano) who is more like a Zodiac Killer-esque maniac than any previous variation of the character; The Penguin (Colin Farrell) is much more like Tony Soprano than the animal Danny DeVito played in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns.
Then there’s the small modifications too; Riddler is traditionally called Edward Nigma or Edward Nygma, however The Batman modifications his name to Edward Nashton. The Penguin’s name went from Oswald Cobblepot to just Oz Cobb. Which is all to state that, in this variation of the Batman and Gotham City universe, not whatever is precisely as it appears.
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In The Penguin‘s 2nd episode, “Inside Man,” when we open with Sofia Falcone conference with a therapist called Dr. Julian Rush, we do not always need to trust that Dr. Julian Rush is simply a brand-new character called Dr. Julian Rush. Rush, as played by star Theo Rossi, is presented in a brief however incredibly efficient scene that in the beginning appears like a flashback before it comes down into a clear problem. Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioiti) is seen in her Arkham Asylum get-up when her bro, Alberto (Michael Zegen) check outs her on the other side of the protective glass. She’s enjoyed see him, before seeing his missing out on pinky finger– which was how it was when she found his dead body in the trunk of an automobile. He’s then assassinated once again, and 3 flashing traffic signals lead her to get up in a therapists workplace. This therapist is Dr. Julian Rush.
Dr. Rush and Sofia plainly have some sort of innovative, intimate relationship that surpasses a common medical professional and client; he holds her carefully and extremely as a method of relaxing her down after she go crazy from the treatment. What that treatment is? We do not understand for sure, however it appears like some type of immersive method to review her injury head on … and it’s something she’s not taking incredibly well.