Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Twice if it’s Sofia Falcone. Jim and Cobblepot do not know what they’re in for once they get on the wrong side of Sofia, but there’s another man on his way to town who is probably the only person to put the junior gangster in her place. Let’s dig in to the winter finale for Gotham, “Queen Takes Knight.”
(Warning: contains spoilers!)
1. Daddy’s Home
Party’s over Sofia. Ms. Falcone and Gotham’s newest girl gang arrives at the family house only to find a surprise guest: Don Falcone. Daddy was not happy to see his daughter in Gotham, and really didn’t want her there in the first place, much to his daughter’s chagrin. Cobblepot and Falcone, despite their differences, agree that Sofia needs to be out of the city, all in the first 10 minutes. It’s a shame this reunion, tension-filled as it was, was this brief. There’s a family dynamic that would have been interesting to explore in future episodes: father and daughter battling for their birthright, the city of Gotham. Sad to say that’s not coming, and not just because Sofia’s being forced out of town….
2. A Short Lived Family Reunion
You had to have guessed that Don Falcone’s desire not to return to Gotham was prophetic. In a short moment of the daughter wanting to capture a memory of home in one her mother’s roses, the drop of blood on her finger turns into a bloodbath, with Don Falcone dead and Sofia severely injured. The framing of this scene was perfect: the focus on a drop of blood on Sofia’s finger, her lingering look at it as if she knew as well that Gotham was not safe for her or her family anymore.
3. Daddy’s Home – Part 2
Oh, Bruce. It’s nice to see you acting like a normal teenager with loud parties that involve the police, but that kind of behavior does get you in the gossip pages. You’re going to end up on the wrong side of a tabloid if you keep going down this route, and the Wayne Enterprises board will not like that. Alfred plays perfect British straight man here upon greeting the two-thirds of Bruce’s threesome, with a simple “Miss” and “Miss,” but the humor ends there, as Alfred finds the best medicine for rebellious Bruce is the same that Don Falcone applied to his daughter: get the progeny out of Gotham. Except . . . Bruce has drawn up emancipation papers to remove Alfred as his legal guardian. And has a nasty bruise on his face to show the police if Alfred doesn’t sign.
(As an aside: the establishing shots of Wayne Manor place it on acres of grounds with what appears to be no neighbors nearby. That had to be one hell of a party for the GCPD to be called for a noise complaint.)
4. All the Other Chickens Come Home to Roost
With Cobblepot safely behind bars halfway through this episode, we get some movement on the other storylines. Tabitha and Grundy/Butch have their awaited reunion as she tries to spur his memory for their previous life, even if means he gets smacked around a bit. Nygma’s still fighting with himself and slowly realizing what Grundy knew all along: he’s falling for Lee. Barbara gets her club back, but does she keep the side piece in weapons trafficking? And what’s happened to Ivy? This has been Gotham’s great weakness this season: too many stories in a compressed time frame. I’m hoping we can find some closure to these loose ends in the spring season, or at least have them weave together with the main narrative of Gordon-Falcone-Cobblepot, but with the introduction of a familiar face in the closing minutes to jumpstart what will be the springtime arc…I’m not too confident.
5. Everything is Connected
Sofia has been watching this chess game, controlling it. All of it. We thought her machinations ended with Jim’s appointment to the head of the GCPD and befriending Cobblepot to make him weak. Nope. Professor Pyg’s reign of terror? Part of Sofia’s plan. Her wounds during the shootout that killed her father? Staged by Pyg. Was it revenge for the death of her brother? Perhaps. Both of them need each other, and Jim (reluctantly) realizes this. He’s not the fully free man he thinks he is. What does Sofia have in mind for Phase 2 of her grand plans?
