‘The Penguin’ Showrunner Lauren LeFranc Breaks Down the HBO Show’s Gender-flipped Joker and Harley Quinn: “Julian Rush is the Beta in this Relationship and Sofia Knows It”

The Penguin Episode 5 “Homecoming” on HBO delves into the different ways Oswald Cobb (Colin Farrell) and Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) shore up their families and solidify their power bases in the aftermath of all the violence that has come before. While Oz begins to fully embrace the underworld, Sofia rebrands herself and the Falcone crime family. Sofia might have eliminated all the Falcones (save for little Gia), but she’s not standing alone. No, she has Dr. Julian Rush (Theo Rossi) by her side. 

The Penguin Episode 5 “Homecoming” finally reveals that the former Arkham Asylum psychiatrist doesn’t just want to be Sofia Falcone’s doctor…he wants to be her man. If the former Arkham doctor’s romantic obsession with his sinister former patient is giving you echoes of the Joker and Harley Quinn, that may be unintentionally intentional…

**Spoilers for The Penguin Episode 5 “Homecoming,” now streaming on Max**

Last week’s spectacular episode of The Penguin delved into Sofia’s harrowing time as a “patient” at Arkham Asylum. We watch as the twisted prison methodically breaks down the Gotham socialite’s polite shell to reveal the villain lurking underneath. The Penguin Episode 4 “Cent’anni” ends with Sofia using a gas leak to murder almost her entire surviving family members, leaving the door open for her to take over her father’s crime empire.

Halfway through The Penguin Episode 5 “Homecoming,” Dr. Rush visits Sofia as she readies herself to officially take over the Falcone crime family. When she asks him what he wants, Julian explains that he doesn’t miss the control he used to exert on her as a patient. Rather, he wants to join her dark crusade.

“I can already see it. What it’s given you. The release, and I’d like to feel that, too. With you. I’d like to be a part of whatever’s next,” Julian Rush says. “If you’ll have me.”

When Decider asked Penguin star Cristin Milioti if this relationship — between a Batman villain and their Arkham analyst — reminded her at all of the situation between the Joker and Harley Quinn, she nodded and said, “For sure.” That said, Milioti also admitted that it was something that only evolved halfway through shooting The Penguin.

“I think when we started, I’d only read the first four and then we got the last four as we were shooting, so I was also learning about their relationship in real time,” Milioti said. “But I’m so glad to hear you say that, because I do [see it]. I was intrigued by it, even just reading the scripts.” 

The Penguin showrunner Lauren LeFranc told Decider that she actively wanted to subvert what audiences might expect from the gangster genre.

“We’ve seen so many gangster films where the way men treat women is very like, in a diminished way, I guess. And to me, it was interesting that Julian Rush could be somebody who admires Sofia and is in awe of her, but is the beta in this relationship, and Sofia knows it,” LeFranc said. “I just don’t think you’ve gotten to see that type of dynamic that often.”

“Then I thought it would be interesting that they would have this history and where their relationship formed was actually in Arkham.” 

Milioti also revealed that she had “never seen” a relationship quite like Rush and Sofia’s, which she found “exciting,” but she felt “it’s also like so twisted and weird.”

“Theo was so fantastic and so wonderful to work with and was so willing to also get weird,” Milioti said. “I got to say, everyone in this cast, not only are they astonishing actors, but everyone was like, “Let’s get into it.” Everyone wanted to like get into the pit and that’s a very infectious energy.”

So how could Dr. Julian Rush and Sofia Gigante (not Falcone, anymore) get even more weird? You’ll have to keep tuning into The Penguin on HBO and Max to find out…