With its A+ acting ensemble and dense storytelling, The Penguin didn’t need to rely on tons of connections to Matt Reeves’ The Batman or other Bat-mythos alleyways to be a gut-shanking success. (I still rue the finale’s final shot, but so be it.) And while it was obviously fun to catch those early nods to The Riddler and the potential hints at Hush’s presence in this universe, there’s one fairly monumental easter egg that I’m 100% glad I didn’t catch the first time around: the Scarecrow glove.
Indeed, this is the relatively rare TV easter egg that went largely unnoticed by the bulk of the viewership when it popped up in The Penguin’s fourth episode, "Cent'Anni," and didn’t start fully making waves online until after the season was over. Now, we don’t even have to question the legitimacy of the visual reference any further, as a production designer for the show shared that it was indeed legit.
Scarecrow Easter Egg: Confirmed!
As seen above, the moment in question comes in Episode 4 soon after Cristin Miliotti's Sofia wakes up on the couch in Julian Rush's office, following being double-crossed by Oz and Victor. Whenever Julian leaves the room, we see his desk in a wide shot, and it features items that were not present the previous time the desk was shown. Namely, the displayed glove on the left, and potentially the mask-looking item on the right.
Though he didn't speak to the latter's legitimacy, production designer Kalina Ivanov did indeed chime in about the glove on an Instagram post about a different Penguin moment. When asked about the scene and the glove in the comment section, Ivanov first replied with:
We left it open for interpretation. The hands are from Bali.
I love the idea of leaving something open for interpretation that isn't even directly pointed to in a way that says "Interpret this!" Or even "Strongly notice this!"
The reference to Bali drew further curiosity, and one commenter supplied what they hoped was additional context by pointing to the Balinese demon queen Rangda, who is often depicted as having long and sharp fingernails. They presumably weren't a conduit through which to administer fear toxin, but Rangda was pretty fearsome all the same. In any case, gloves that were modeled after Rangda's hand were worn by Bali witch doctors, who served as an alternate for therapeutic treatments like Dr. Rush gives.
When the commenter asked if their summation was correct, Kalina Ivanov responded by saying:
yes all correct. It’s also a red herring :)
Which is all to say, "Have fun theorizing about it, because it doesn't actually mean anything." That could have just been the production designer's way of throwing fans off of the scent, but it likely wouldn't work, since many viewers were calling for Julian Rush to get more straightforward Scarecrow story beats. So now knowing that the creative team was winking hard and nudging us all with their elbows will likely only stoke speculation further about what Theo Rossi's role in this franchise will be going forward.
Why I'm Extremely Happy I Missed Seeing That Glove The First Time I Watched
As someone who specifically wishes that a Scarecrow TV series would exist as the next release amidst the various upcoming Batman projects, I would have been flying on Cloud 9.999 had I noticed that glove upon my first viewing of "Cent'Anni," and probably would have gone off the deep end with assumptions that Julian Rush would get a big reveal by the end of the season.
But, as anyone who's finished with the eight-episode season already knows, Julian doesn't factor into any huge twists, at least for his own character. He does deliver the letter to Sofia from half-sister Selina Kyle, but without any further context about him having previously changed his name from Jonathan Crane to Julian Rush or anything so direct.
So there's a very good chance not seeing any further Scarecrow development in the back half of the season would have made me feel like fans got cheated, considering it was such a clear reference with obvious indications. In hindsight, I can acknowledge that it was such a minor easter egg it wouldn't really count as hinting at anything. But had I actually seen it early on, that logic would have been tossed out the window. So thank you, my dumb eyeballs.
The Penguin is now available to watch in full with a Max subscription, but we'll all have to stay tuned to see whether or not Matt Reeves and HBO decide to head back to the penthouse for Season 2.
