With its A+ appearing ensemble and dense storytelling, The Penguin didn’t must depend on tons of connections to Matt Reeves’ The Batman or different Bat-mythos alleyways to be a gut-shanking success. (I nonetheless rue the finale’s ultimate shot, however so be it.) And whereas it was clearly enjoyable to catch these early nods to The Riddler and the potential hints at Hush’s presence on this universe, there’s one pretty monumental easter egg that I’m 100% glad I didn’t catch the primary time round: the Scarecrow glove.
Certainly, that is the comparatively uncommon TV easter egg that went largely unnoticed by the majority of the viewership when it popped up in The Penguin’s fourth episode, “Cent’Anni,” and didn’t begin totally making waves on-line till after the season was over. Now, we don’t even need to query the legitimacy of the visible reference any additional, as a manufacturing designer for the present shared that it was certainly legit.
Scarecrow Easter Egg: Confirmed!
As seen above, the second in query is available in Episode 4 quickly after Cristin Miliotti’s Sofia wakes up on the sofa in Julian Rush’s workplace, following being double-crossed by Oz and Victor. At any time when Julian leaves the room, we see his desk in a large shot, and it options objects that weren’t current the earlier time the desk was proven. Particularly, the displayed glove on the left, and probably the mask-looking merchandise on the proper.
Although he did not converse to the latter’s legitimacy, manufacturing designer Kalina Ivanov did certainly chime in in regards to the glove on an Instagram put up a few totally different Penguin second. When requested in regards to the scene and the glove within the remark part, Ivanov first replied with:
We left it open for interpretation. The arms are from Bali.
I really like the concept of leaving one thing open for interpretation that is not even instantly pointed to in a method that claims “Interpret this!” And even “Strongly discover this!”
The reference to Bali drew additional curiosity, and one commenter provided what they hoped was further context by pointing to the Balinese demon queen Rangda, who is commonly depicted as having lengthy and sharp fingernails. They presumably weren’t a conduit by which to manage concern toxin, however Rangda was fairly fearsome all the identical. In any case, gloves that have been modeled after Rangda’s hand have been worn by Bali witch medical doctors, who served as an alternate for therapeutic remedies like Dr. Rush offers.
When the commenter requested if their summation was appropriate, Kalina Ivanov responded by saying:
sure all appropriate. It’s additionally a purple herring 🙂
Which is all to say, “Have enjoyable theorizing about it, as a result of it does not really imply something.” That might have simply been the manufacturing designer’s method of throwing followers off of the scent, but it surely doubtless would not work, since many viewers have been calling for Julian Rush to get extra easy Scarecrow story beats. So now figuring out that the artistic group was winking laborious and nudging us all with their elbows will doubtless solely stoke hypothesis additional about what Theo Rossi’s position on this franchise shall be going ahead.
Why I am Extraordinarily Glad I Missed Seeing That Glove The First Time I Watched
As somebody who particularly needs {that a} Scarecrow TV collection would exist as the subsequent launch amidst the varied upcoming Batman tasks, I’d have been flying on Cloud 9.999 had I seen that glove upon my first viewing of “Cent’Anni,” and possibly would have gone off the deep finish with assumptions that Julian Rush would get a giant reveal by the top of the season.
However, as anybody who’s completed with the eight-episode season already is aware of, Julian does not issue into any big twists, at the least for his personal character. He does ship the letter to Sofia from half-sister Selina Kyle, however with none additional context about him having beforehand modified his identify from Jonathan Crane to Julian Rush or something so direct.
So there’s an excellent likelihood not seeing any additional Scarecrow growth within the again half of the season would have made me really feel like followers obtained cheated, contemplating it was such a transparent reference with apparent indications. In hindsight, I can acknowledge that it was such a minor easter egg it would not actually matter as hinting at something. However had I really seen it early on, that logic would have been tossed out the window. So thanks, my dumb eyeballs.
The Penguin is now out there to look at in full with a Max subscription, however we’ll all have to remain tuned to see whether or not or not Matt Reeves and HBO resolve to go again to the penthouse for Season 2.