Written by John Stephens
Directed by Danny Cannon
Gordon (to Sofia): "This is about revenge for me killing Mario."
Exactly this time last year, Gordon's bull in a china shop method of doing things ended up with Mario Falcone being killed. One year later, Carmine Falcone finally bit the bullet and his daughter Sofia managed to achieve what Barbara kind of did last year by becoming Queen of Gotham and taking Oswald out of the picture for now.
Sofia playing the long game in itself wasn't the shocker here. No, we've known that from the first appearance that she was out to usurp Oswald and that her feelings for Jim were false but here, after all of her little plans coming together was she able to bask in the fact that she made an even bigger fool out of James than she did with Oswald.
You got to give Sofia her due - she really did play both Gordon and Oswald and both of them deserved it in their own way. I'm not entirely sure how either one of them will get out of their current predicaments - Oswald locked in Arkham for "killing" Martin and Gordon running the GCPD as a false hero but either way, it seems that Sofia is only just beginning with her takeover of the city.
This show's writing for female characters has not always been it's strongest with Selina up until this point the only consistently well written female character of the bunch but this season alone has been an improvement. The formation of the Sirens with Barbara, Tabitha and Selina was a great move, Leslie as a more benevolent crime lady in the Narrows has greatly helped that character, Harper's been a solid recurring presence in the GCPD and despite behind the scenes chaos, it also seems like Ivy herself will finally get more prominent on the show to boot. That in itself is satisfying as the little speech Sofia gave about Gordon's collective screw ups to be honest.
Having Sofia essentially going into Hangman mode in this episode was something of a blast. She faked it with the neck brace and wheelchair for a bit and she was pretty cold in revealing that she had her own father murdered and was the one responsible for bringing Pyg into the city in the first before also killing the latter. Now this is how you write a female villain, people.
Of course when the episode wasn't having Sofia strip away both Gordon and Oswald's power, we also saw the latter become acquainted with Jerome in Arkham and going by the trailer for the second half of the season, those two are going to be quite the team. After losing Zsasz to Sofia, Oswald could use just about anyone right now as a friend, even one as even more deranged as Jerome it would seem.
Moving things along, the episode also had some more poignant stuff to boot. Tabitha resorted to brute force to try and get Grundy to remember who he was as Butch, only to not stick around as the guy was starting to remember while Bruce and Alfred had a physical scrap that resulted in the latter being fired. Amidst all the other chaos, these two moments also sublimely delivered. The less said about Nygma's newfound crush on Leslie though, the better. Let's nip that little one in the bud, shall we?
- Bullock appeared in this episode just so he could resign. His friendship with Jim also seems to be over for now too.
- No confirmation date as to when the second half of the season will air or what the title is for it yet.
- No Leslie or Lucius in this one but we did get to see that both Ivy and Ras will be interacting with Bruce soon again.
- Chronology: Not long from where Things That Go Boom left off.
Queen Takes Knight was a strong mid-season finale, arguably one of the strongest the show has done. Sofia really has stepped up fantastically as a villain and with so much set up for the second half, it'll be interesting to see how and when she'll eventually lose her grip on the city but for now, she really has managed to best both Gordon and Oswald.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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