Whereas followers had been certainly hoping to get a glimpse of Pamela Isley throughout Sofia Falcone’s Arkham keep, there weren’t any such main Easter eggs in episode 4 of “The Penguin.” Magpie is admittedly the one notable DC character on this model of Arkham, and she or he would not even final your complete episode, with Sofia finally caving to the psychological stress of being incarcerated and taking it out on poor outdated Margaret. Curiously sufficient, nonetheless, there’s a connection between this character and Ivy.
Within the comedian books, the character was launched in 1986’s “The Man of Metal” #3 as a jewel thief who goes insane. She has been featured in numerous DC comics ever since, at one level being revealed as Poison Ivy’s cellmate at Arkham. Magpie has additionally appeared in Fox’s TV sequence “Gotham,” displaying up in season 5 episode “13 Stitches”, the place she was performed by Sarah Schenkkan. This wasn’t her solely live-action look, both. A model of Magpie performed by Rachel Matthews truly confirmed up in “Batwoman,” the place she additionally results in Arkham Asylum.
Now, we have had our third live-action Magpie in “The Penguin.” This iteration of the character tells Sofia that her title is “not Margaret, my stepmom used to name me Margaret.” Magpie’s actual title within the comics is Margaret Pye, confirming that that is nearly definitely the Reeves-verse model of the villain. Curiously sufficient, her demise in episode 4 vaguely mirrors her loss of life within the comics, the place Magpie is killed by the Tally Man, Orca, the Ventriloquist, and the KGBeast — all villains working for none apart from The Penguin.
Why is that this arcane DC villain current on this episode? There is not any method to make certain, however at one level the character says to Sofia, “I guess there will be numerous paparazzi at your trial, nobody even wrote about mine.” With that in thoughts, maybe showrunner Lauren LeFranc needed to offer what she noticed as an underserved DC character some shine, although she additionally would not hesitate to very swiftly kill her off so who is aware of.
As soon as once more, then, “The Penguin” not solely eschews the extra apparent alternative of Batman lore to work into its narrative, it rapidly dismisses the one Easter egg it does embody, suggesting LeFranc by no means wavered in her willpower to safe “The Penguin” as a narrative greater than able to standing by itself.