Inside Sophia and Dr. Rush’s BDSM relationship

No matter what version of Batman, comics, movies or series, Arkham Aslyum for the criminally insane will never be an institution that promises professionalism and the best psychiatric care. It was on “Penguin” thought creator Lauren LeFranc when she created Dr. Julian Rush, played by Theo Rossi, a character very similar to this series that gives a completely different meaning to the Batman story.

“We brought Dr. Rush in because of how infamously there are so many Arkham psychiatrists in the comics, and they’re all usually crazy or villains themselves,” LeFranc said. “It doesn’t really generate a lot of healthy practices.”

gathering wherePenguin» Executive producer Matt Reeves stopped in Batman, showing a grim vision of Arkham, where Riddler (Paul Dano) meeting the Joker (Barry Keoghan), LeFranc expands Reeves’ vision by painting a dark landscape of hell where Sofia Falcone (Christine Milioti) is institutionalized under false circumstances and experiences something worse than prison.

“It’s not really rehab like Sophia claims she was rehabbed in the first episode,” LeFranc said.

When Sofia returns after ten years in Arkham, she’s desperate to be accepted as normal, and life can go back to the way it was before her now-deceased father, powerful mob boss Carmine Falcone (Mark Strong), changed her life. the course of her life, giving her to Arkham. Ironically, as we see in flashback episodes 4, Sophia was in good mental health before her barbaric treatment at the asylum.

As LeFranc told IndieWire, the part Her version of Sophia was inspired by Rosemary Kennedywhose father had a lobotomy on her at the age of 23 because she was difficult and, unlike Sophia, was never able to tell her story. At first, Dr. Rush became a narrative tool that allowed LeFranc to reveal Sophia’s story not only to the audience, but also to Sophia herself.

“I wanted to introduce a character from Arkham, and I wanted you not to know who the man was in the second episode,” LeFranc said. “And then we go into episode 4 and you realize that he and Sophia have a deep history in Arkham. He’s the one who finally believed her.”

In true Arkham tradition, Rush crosses professional boundaries in an unexpected, revealing, and sympathetic way. Carmine Falcone is so feared that only Sofia’s brother Alberto (Michael Zegen) supports her, but he is powerless, even with lawyers, to free her. With all the signed affidavits declaring Sophia insane and falsely painting her as the Gallows killer, the facility’s doctors also fall in line. In her darkest moments, trapped in the darkest hell, Rush, a junior doctor, is the only one who sees what is really happening to her.

“Even though his hands were tied and he couldn’t do much about it, (he) also allowed us to introduce EMDR (eye movement desensitization and recovery) therapy, which is a very useful therapeutic tool for exploring your past trauma and trying to cope this,” said LeFranc.

In episode 4, LeFranc and the team take on a cinematic role in a red-light therapy treatment in a noisy setting, while Rush helps Sophia uncover the painful truth about her father (he was actually a Hangman who killed several sex workers) and her mother (she did not commit suicide by hanging, but was one of her father’s victims). It’s a truth that sets Sophia free as she stops hiding her scars and anger seizes control of the Falcone crime family, killing those who were loyal to her fatherand rebranded Gigantes after mother.

These revelations of EMDR had a profound effect not only on Sophia, but also on Rush and their already unconventional patient-doctor relationship. In episode five, Rush shows up at Falcone’s mansion, now a crime scene, not to advise or advise her to kill her family—he agrees with Sofia when she says, “I think we’re out in terms of analysis, aren’t you?”

“When I saw what happened on the news, I knew it was you, that you did what you had to do. I can already see it,” Rush explains why he came. “What did it give you – a release. And I would like to experience it with you too. I’d like to be a part of what’s next.”

In the next scene, Rush watches like a lovelorn foot soldier as Sofia takes on the head of the Falcone crime family by shooting Johnny Vitti (Michael Kelly) in the head.

“I was interested in the idea of ​​creating a dynamic between Sophia and Julian Rush that felt like she was alpha and he was beta,” LeFranc said. “Where he admires her and sees something darker in her and sees what she’s become and is really fascinated by it and wants to be there for her and wants to be a part of it.”

This goes to a whole other level when we next see the two characters together in episode 6, when Sophia is getting dressed after intercourse, she checks to see if a bound and naked (pants around the ankles) Rush is unharmed during their BDSM encounter.

“I deserved it,” Rush replies as Sophia unties him from the chair and opens the door, to which he replies, “Am I sick yet?”

“I have work,” Sofia replies coldly.

LeFranc told IndieWire that this was part of her main desire to create different types of roles for female characters than we’ve come to expect in crime dramas.

“Sofia doesn’t feel a deep emotional connection with him, again, kind of flips on its head that idea that you’ve seen in a lot of crime dramas — a lot of men sleep with women and then dump them. And that, I think, was relevant for Sofia, she’s going to use Rush for the things that he brings as a psychiatrist, and of course she uses him (in the last two episodes of the series),” LeFranc said. “But will also use him in any way – he’s fascinated by her, she’s very happy to enjoy it, and then she’ll call him when she needs him.”

Episode 7 of The Penguin airs on HBO and Max on November 3.