BDSM relationship between Sofia and Dr. Rush from the inside

No matter what version of Batman, comics, movies or TV series, Arkham Aslum for the criminally insane is never an institution that promises professionalism and the best mental health care. It was on “Penguincreator Lauren LeFranc thought as she created Dr. Julian Rush, played by Theo Rossi, a character much like the TV series that brings a completely different flavor to the Batman story.

“We had Dr. Rush reflecting on how notorious it is that there are so many Arkham psychiatrists in the comics, and they’re all usually either crazy or villains themselves,” LeFranc said. “It doesn’t really promote healthy practices.”

Pick up where”Penguin» executive producer Matt Reeves stopped in “Batman”, showing a dark vision of Arkham, where Riddler (Paul Dano) meets the Joker (Barry Keoghan), LeFrank expands Reeves’ vision, painting a dark hellscape where Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) is institutionalized under false circumstances and experiences something more painful than prison.

“It’s not really a rehab in the sense that Sophia claims she was rehabilitated in the first episode,” LeFranc said.

When Sofia returns from a ten-year stint in Arkham, she desperately wants everyone to see her as normal and for life to go back to the way it was before her now-deceased father, powerful mob boss Carmine Falcone (Mark Strong), changed. her entire life, sending her to Arkham. The irony is that, as we see in the flashbacks of episode four, Sofia was in good mental health before her barbaric treatment at the orphanage.

As LeFrank told IndieWire, part the inspiration for her version of Sophia was Rosemary Kennedy.whose father lobotomized her at 23 because she was difficult and, unlike Sophia, was never able to tell her own story. Initially, Dr. Rush’s creation became a narrative tool that allowed LeFranc to reveal Sophia’s story not only to the audience, but to Sophia herself.

“I wanted to introduce a character from Arkham and I wanted you to not know who this person is in episode two,” LeFranc said. “And then we get to Episode 4, and you realize that he and Sophia have a deep history at Arkham. He is the one who ultimately believed her.

In true Arkham tradition, Rush crosses professional boundaries, but in unexpected, frank and compassionate ways. Carmine Falcone was so feared that only Sofia’s brother Alberto (Michael Zegen) stands by her, but he is powerless, even with lawyers, to free her. Despite all the signed affidavits declaring Sophia insane and falsely portraying her as the killer of “The Executioner”, the doctors at the facility also comply with this requirement. In her darkest moments, trapped in the darkest of hells, Rush, a junior doctor, is the only one who sees what is really happening to her.

“Although his hands were tied and he couldn’t do anything about it, (he) also allowed us to establish EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy, which is a very useful therapeutic tool to dig into your past trauma and try to confront it.” , LeFranc said.

In Episode 4, LeFranc and his team put their own cinematic spin on the therapy treatment: waves of red light in a noir setting as Rush helps Sophia uncover the painful truth about her father (he was actually the Executioner who murdered several sex workers) . ) and her mother (she did not commit suicide by hanging, but was one of her father’s victims). This is the truth that frees Sophia as she stops hiding her scars and anger and seizes control of the Falcone crime family, killing those who were loyal to her father.And renaming it Gigantes in honor of her mother.

These EMDR revelations have a profound impact not only on Sophia, but also on Rush and their already unconventional patient-doctor relationship. In the fifth episode, Rush appears at the Falcone mansion, now a crime scene, not to rebuke or advise her for killing her family – he agrees with Sofia when she says, “I think we’re past the point of analysis.” , don and you?

“When I saw what happened on the news, I knew it was you, that you did what you had to do. I can see it already,” says Rush, explaining why he came. “What it gave you was liberation. And I would like to feel this too with you. I’d like to be a part of what comes next.”

In the next scene, Rush, like a loving footsoldier, watches as Sofia grabs the reins at the head of the Falcone crime family table and shoots Johnny Viti (Michael Kelly) in the head.

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

This goes to a whole other level the next time we see the two characters together in Episode 6, as a post-coital Sophia gets dressed, she makes sure that a tied up and naked (pants around his ankles) Rush isn’t hurt during their BDSM encounter.

“I deserve it,” Rush replies as Sofia unties him from his chair and opens the door, to which he responds, “Am I bored yet?”

“I have work,” Sofia replies coldly.

LeFranc told IndieWire that this was part of her overall 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 to him, again kind of turning on its head the idea that you’ve seen a lot of crime dramas – a lot of men sleeping with women and then leaving them. And what I thought was relevant for Sophia is she’s going to use Rush for these things that he brings as a psychiatrist, and of course uses him (in the last two episodes),” LeFranc said. “But he’ll also take advantage of it in any way – he’s fascinated by her, she enjoys it, and then she’ll call him when she needs him.”

Episode 7 of Penguin will air on HBO and Max on November 3.