In The Penguin, Sofia Falcone is shown as a woman who had almost nothing left but her brother. In episode 1, Alberto walks into Carmine Falcone’s old headquarters and confidently taunts Oswald Cobblepot. The scene ends with Oswald shooting Alberto in cold blood, a sudden, violent turn that removes Sofia’s single anchor and sets the story in motion.
After finding her brother’s body, Sofia’s reaction is not just sorrow on screen; it is the point where grief becomes a plan. Later episodes show how her life before that moment was shaped by being framed and locked away at Arkham, and how Alberto was the person who kept checking on her while the rest of the family turned away.
The two facts, a public murder in episode 1 and family betrayal revealed in episode 4, explain why her world narrows to one person and then to one goal.
Alberto was her single, reliable family tie

In the opening hour of The Penguin, Alberto listens to Sofia and mocks Oz, acting like a brother who will protect her claim to the family. That protection ends when Oz shoots him. The premiere makes clear how sudden and total that loss is, and interviews with the cast confirm the writers meant Alberto to be Sofia’s emotional support.
She was framed and imprisoned while the family kept its image
Flashbacks in episode 4 of The Penguin show Carmine and others taking steps to label Sofia unstable and lock her in Arkham. The show stages medical tests and legal moves that look careless and more like a cover-up. Those scenes explain why Sofia had no real allies when she returned to Gotham, only memories and one brother who still stood with her for a while.
Alberto’s killing pushed her grief into action

After Sofia finds the body, a moment shown repetitively in recaps, she stops asking questions and starts acting. She confronts people in ways that make the plot move. She tests Cobblepot, she probes the Falcone estate, and she makes choices that show she will not let the answer be buried. Critics point out that the murder in episode 1 is the spark that pushes Sofia from wounded to dangerous.
Narrow loyalty explains later violence and decisions in The Penguin
When The Penguin shows Sofia strangling relatives in a flashback, it frames those acts as the result of long neglect and abuse, not simple greed. The pattern is clear: Wronged by her father, kept in Arkham, with only Alberto offering care, his death closes off any normal path for her. That is why she appears single-minded; the story ties her steps back to one loss and one promise of revenge.
Sofia’s arc in The Penguin is built on two concrete beats viewers can point to, which are Alberto’s murder in the first episode and the Arkham betrayal made visible in episode 4. Together, those moments explain why she cared only about Alberto and why she acts the way she does afterwards.
The Penguin keeps those beats at the center of her story so the audience can follow how a single, personal loss changes everything.