What Happens in Episode Two, Inside Man?
WARNING: Major spoilers for episode two ahead.
While at a therapy session, Sofia Falcone imagines being back in Arkham Asylum, where she pictures herself witnessing brother Alberto being shot in front of her. Her therapist has to restrain her to calm her down, but she then walks off.
Oz continues to try and play both sides of the gang war. He visits Salvatore Maroni, who has guessed he’s been set up by him. Oz tells him the Maroni name is now back on the streets. Together, they arrange for Maroni's team to hijack the Drops operation from the Falcones.
On the day of the Drops being moved, he is told by Falcone’s second-in-command, Johnny Vitti, to drive with the drops to Robertsville – so he’s in the line of fire when the van is shot out. The van crashes, but Oz manages to escape with the Maroni men.
Sofia arrives at the Falcone mansion to hear Oz and Johnny having a huge argument. Halting the fight, Sofia alerts them to the fact that there must be a mole in their organisation, but is shut down by Johnny. Oz later tells Sofia that she should be the one to take over, but she hits back, wondering why he’s suddenly on her side. Later, she hears a radio show discussing her history as The Hangman, and is clearly angered by it.
Oz catches up with Victor and tells him how he came to work with Carmine Falcone. He later invites a group of sex workers and cronies over to his house for an evening of drinking. Victor starts talking to a camgirl, introducing himself as Oz’s driver.
Oz’s lover Eve confronts him about killing Alberto Falcone. He tells her he has information on Johnny Vitti that will allow him to take the fall for it all. He vows to protect her and her girls, with a position at a new club she plans to open.
At a bar, Sofia confronts a detective who used to work for her father and had gotten hooked on the Drops. She offers him money in exchange for figuring out who the inside man is in the Falcone organisation.
However, she’s still plagued by nightmares, sleeping in her closet and scratching herself at night.
The next morning, Oz is called over to his mother’s house after she was seen walking the streets without a coat. His neighbor warns him that his ma’s dementia is getting worse, but Oz dismisses it, then soothes her with jazz music. She then scathingly tells him, “if my son’s a nothing, then what am I?”
At Alberto’s funeral, there’s a protest outside, and Oz spots Sofia smoking inside. He shares an anecdote about his mother after his brother’s funeral. He also lies and says his mother died several years before.
At the memorial service, the detective brings one of Maroni’s drugged-up cronies so Sofia can get the answers she needs, and the cronies take him to the basement. Guests are scared of Sofia, but she tries to ignore it. Later, she spots guests looking at old home movies of her and Alberto as children, and it upsets her. Her cousin Carla shows her kindness but flinches when her daughter comes over.
Oz visits the Maronis and hands over photographic proof that Johnny Vitti is sleeping with Luca Falcone’s wife as leverage to get them on side. He then sets Victor on a new mission, which he is hesitant to take up.
When Oz spills about the man in the basement, Johnny gets angry and informs Luca. Meanwhile, Oz meets the drugged-up man and tells him to say Johnny’s name. But when he discovers his plan with Victor hasn’t worked, he stabs the man to death. When Luca and Sofia find the body, it triggers a lockdown of the family home to uncover the traitor.
In a fight, Oz slips the knife into a crony’s pocket, and when Sofia asks for a gun, Luca shoots him dead. Sofia is left raging, wanting vindication for her brother’s death. Luca then tells her to leave the home and go to Lake Como.
That evening, Victor helps Oz dig graves for the two bodies and warns him he could end up there if he doesn’t smarten up. He then gets a call from Sofia and meets her at the crematorium. Having found jewels that Oz had planted in the house, she now believes that Vitti has been double-crossing the family and swears to take them down.
She then asks Oz to join her, and he agrees.
The History of The Hangman
Throughout this episode, Sofia is haunted by her history as The Hangman, with even her family members afraid of her and what she’s capable of.
On The Penguin, she has been in Arkham for over a decade after murdering a dozen men, though it is not known why she killed them.
In comic book lore, Sofia was created in issue six of 1997’s Batman: The Long Halloween, set in the early years of Bruce Wayne adopting his Batman identity.
Sofia is introduced to the family fold after her father, Carmine, arranges for her to be released early from prison in order to track down The Holiday Killer for the family.
This is a dark period for Gotham, with most of its most well-known enemies – including The Penguin, The Joker, and Scarecrow – active within the city.
It’s so dark, in fact, that even Gotham’s biggest crime families, specifically the Falcones and Maronis, are struggling to retain control. Carmine hopes by snuffing out the Holiday Killer, he can regain some respect and fear among the people around him.
During the events of The Long Halloween, the creation of another enemy begins – that of Harvey Dent aka Two-Face, who is left with permanent facial scarring on the command of Sal Maroni. This later causes the once-righteous attorney to fall into a darker line of thinking, often leaving fate on the flip of a coin.
Maroni is later killed by the Holiday Killer, who is revealed to be Alberto Falcone after faking his death. But when Alberto is sent to Arkham, the city is still terrorized, and it becomes apparent there’s a second Holiday Killer on the loose.
This is later revealed to be Harvey Dent’s wife, Gilda, who wanted revenge on the men who targeted her husband.
Meanwhile, Sofia becomes paralyzed as a result of a run-in with Catwoman.
Sofia’s story continues in Batman: Dark Victory, where a new serial killer emerges – leaving behind Hangman puzzles and a noose with each crime.
Their target is largely police officers, especially those connected to Harvey Dent, who is the main suspect to be The Hangman.
However, in a stand-off with Dent and Batman, it’s revealed that Sofia has been The Hangman all along in an attempt to avenge her father’s death, lying about her paralysis. Two-Face shoots and kills her, marking the end of the crime family’s reign within Gotham’s city walls – and the start of the supervillain uprising.
Unlike The Penguin, there’s little love lost between Sofia and Alberto Falcone in the comics, with Sofia killing her brother during her time as The Hangman.
On the series, it’s her love for her brother that spurs her on throughout the first two episodes – and inspires her to try and take over the family empire.
The Position of Johnny Vitti
Johnny Vitti becomes a prime target to be a fall guy for Oz in episode two, largely due to his position as the right-hand commander of the Falcone Crime Family.
In The Penguin, he is someone who demands respect, even overstepping his bounds in order to try and assert it. He’s also having a secret affair with Luca Falcone’s wife, which is never the best idea when loyalty is everything.
In the comic books, Johnny is Carmine Falcone’s nephew and the son of Carla – which has been adapted for the show as, having met Carla, she is notably younger than Johnny. He’s also adept at money laundering.
However, he meets his maker as the first victim of who would become known as The Holiday Killer. He is found dead in a bathtub during The Long Halloween. A Halloween lantern is left by his side.