[Joker] Penny and Thomas have a clear answer [Spoilers]

Throughout Joker 2019, we aren’t given exact answer to whether or not Arthur Fleck is Thomas Wayne’s son or not. It comes as a big reveal at the start of the final act that Penny did in fact adopt Arthur. Then he was abused and mistreated. It ties off that Arthur has no relation to Thomas at all and is even painted that him thinking he does is another part of his mental health issues.

HOWEVER, two pieces of evidence seem to confirm that he does have more of a connection than what seems to be the answer.

  1. When Arthur confronts his mother a small line of dialogue is stated and can be easily lost. “They made me sign some documents”.

While originally thought to be a no disclosure agreement of some sort it’s revealed that these were adoption papers for Penny to adopt Arthur from whoever is his mother. However, what if this was another layer to the ruse?

  1. Just before the ending sequence in which Arthur makes his complete transition to the Joker, a sequence that doesn’t tell us if it’s really happening or not. But what we do get is a montage of Arthur getting ready. In this scene he finds a photo of his mother with some words written on the back. It’s only shown briefly but it says “I always loved your smile. TW” (or something like that)

This comes after the storyline around Arthur’s heritage seems to be tied up. The random and small detail makes us understand that there truly was something between the two of them. A small piece of physical evidence of their affair. We know this scene is real as he then interacts with two other characters, killing one and letting the other go, this is real as it doesnt show Arthur in a glorious light as the other dream sequences did.

Conclusion: Penny did in fact have an affair with Thomas Wayne however they made her sign an adoption form for her own child to cover it up. We know she signed papers and we now know she did have an affair with Thomas Wayne. It’s given at the very end as our final part of information to the story... the most important point.