GOTHAM Season 4 Episode 11 Review: Queen Takes Knight


The war has started in Gotham. However, the moment that the word “war” is uttered, Falcone is summoned. He arrives in Gotham to save his daughter from losing to Penguin. Also, to call her a disappointment and let everyone know about her sex life, like all good parents do. Barbara’s reaction to hearing that Sophia slept with Gordon is great, and her kissing Gordon afterwards probably doesn’t help Barbara’s opinion of her. We’ll see if Barbara ever acts on it though. 

Falcone intends to take her out of the city, but a black van comes out of nowhere to shoot at all of them. Sophia and Falcone get shot, and in a great twist, Falcone ends up dead. It’s a little sad that his great legacy ended so easily, but also a great addition to the story. Those who previously stood with Falcone rise again in anger that he was shot so unfairly, including Victor. Sophia wants Penguin behind bars, and Harvey thinks that Gordon should finish what he started. They convince him it’s time for a war with the GCPD this time. 

For once, the GCPD is competent. They refuse to let Penguin have Sophia, and are following all of Gordon’s orders. However, they need some sort of evidence to get Penguin behind bars. There’s no evidence that he killed Falcone, but Sophia believes that there is evidence that he killed Martin. That didn’t actually happen, but Victor wants to see Penguin go down now and agrees to testify that Penguin killed Martin. 

Now, Sophia has surmounted a large crowd behind her. She has the GCPD, Victor, and the girls (once they were given their bar back). She is going to unify the gangs, but Gordon does not want her to take over. He will come after her to uphold the law, just like he did with Penguin. 

Finally, we get to hear her plan. She hired Pyg to make a ruckus around Gotham while she gained Penguin’s trust, and had her own father killed (knowing everyone would assume it was Penguin’s doing) in order to start a war. In the end, this is all revenge for Gordon killing Mario. She literally killed her father, so it’s surprising to think that family means that much to her, but okay. If Sophia gets arrested, she will talk about all the horrible things that Gordon has done. She shoots Pyg, and offers Gordon the chance to do his job. Instead, Gordon says he killed the Pyg. Sophia has free reign. 

Gordon is feeling disappointed in himself as a captain, but Harvey isn’t coming back. Even though Gordon tells him of the Sophia situation, it doesn’t change that everyone in the GCPD sees Gordon as a hero and actually follows his orders. Harvey was never able to do that. He feels like he is not needed anymore and he walks out. It’s up to Gordon to fix this himself. 

Meanwhile, Tabitha comes back for Butch. I honestly forgot about that in all of this war talk. Butch only refers to her as “pretty lady” and doesn’t remember anything else. Even after a kiss, he doesn’t remember anything. At least Gotham doesn’t follow the rules of fairy tales yet. 

Since kissing doesn’t work, her next best option is hitting him on the head until he remembers. And she does not hold back. I’m amazed his head doesn’t split in half. After an undefined amount of hitting, she eventually gives up. However, Butch realizes what happened after she leaves. He remembers everything, so Nygma is screwed. More than he already is, that is. 

Nygma is fighting with is mind again. What’s stopping him from being the Riddler again? Isn’t that what he wanted in the first place? Now, he has changed his mind. He wants to remain Ed Nygma. Lee likes Ed Nygma, after all. This leads to the revelation that Nygma is in love with Lee. Just another person for Penguin to kill in the future, I suppose. 

In the meantime, Bruce is still doing his own thing, unconnected from everybody else. The first time we see Bruce is this episode he is surrounded by a bunch of girls in bed. Alfred is reasonably concerned about this. I would personally love to see Selina’s reaction to all of this. Alfred is trying to kindly get him away from all of this, but I’m sure Selina would slap some sense into him. 

Bruce says he is okay with who is right now, like every college freshman does after their first full week of partying, but Alfred refuses to let him continue down this path. Maybe he realizes that slapping some sense into him might be the only way to save him. They start a good old-fashioned fist fight. Unfortunately, it ends with Alfred accidentally punching him in the face. 

After punching him, Alfred realizes that he should probably back off. Bruce makes that extremely easy for him by removing him as his legal guardian. Turns out a black eye is all you need. Alfred really hit him harder than I thought he did. Does Bruce need a replacement legal guardian now? Do any of his “friends” even question his black eye? 

I can think of one thing that may make Bruce snap out of this. Maybe if Jerome came back into the picture, he would have a reason to fight again. But that wouldn’t happen, right? 

Now that Penguin is in Arkham again, he has the chance to meet (or be accosted by) the other inmates. And who would happen to be the first to make a deal, other than Jerome himself. He still seems as unstable as ever, and I can’t wait to see what a partnership between these two would look like. As long as Penguin doesn’t end up falling in love with him too.

Written by Nicole Teeters, GOTHAM Beat Writer


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