13 Easter Eggs, References, And Hidden Details That Make 'The Penguin' Even Better

Trey Bloom is the chemist who Sofia and Alberto worked with to bring Bliss out of Arkham and onto the Gotham city streets. While he seems more like the type of guy to be selling some mind-expanding substances outside of a Phish show, Bloom shares a name with a Batman villain from the comics as well. 

Mister Bloom started out as an anonymous subject of metahuman experiments before transforming into an eerie power broker who offered “seeds” that would give everyday criminals superpowers before eventually killing them.

Protesters line up outside Alberto's funeral to share their voices on the corruption throughout Gotham. Their collected posters share lots of anti-Falcone sentiment, but at least one shows the Riddler's question mark right along the barricades, showing that there are still those who back the Riddler's mission despite the lasting damage from his attack.

When Sophia takes her place at the head of the Falcone family, she makes a major change that connects her to her comic book counterpart. In The Long Halloween and Dark Victory, she goes by the name Sophia Gigante after taking her husband's name. The Penguin shifts the origin by making Gigante her mother's maiden name, which gives additional emotional weight to her decision to abandon the Falcone name and honor her mother instead.

One background detail in the first episode is easy to miss, but it's a tribute to one of the original Penguin actors. Burgess Meredith played the Penguin in the original 1960s Batman series starring Adam West, and a jewelry store in the background shares his name as a small nod to the character's legacy.

Since The Penguin is set in the immediate aftermath of the Riddler's attack at the end of The Batman, there are lots of background details indicating the ongoing recovery efforts around the city following the flooding. Establishing shots of the city show collapsed highways, while pumps can be seen in the background of subway scenes to deal with flooded subway tunnels.

Sofia's neighbor in Arkham introduces herself as Magpie, and that nickname is more than just a sign of arrested development in one of the asylum's troubled inmates. She is one of the few characters in The Penguin and The Batman to openly identify according to an alter ego from the comics. 

Magpie started out as Margaret Pie before becoming obsessed with shiny artifacts and taking on the Magpie identity when stealing priceless antiquities. There's not much chance of her menacing Batman on the big screen considering the way Sofia handles her in Episode 4.