Fox has launched its new season, and one of the first out of the gate is Gotham. When we left off, Bruce had just found the entrance to a secret lair of his Dad’s; Barbara had gone bat-guano crazy; Jim and Lee were hitting it off, but Jim was going head-to-head with just about everyone else; and the Penguin was dumping Fish Mooney back in the sea.

The new season was all about power shifts in Gotham, and we’re back to the same theme of Season 1 really quickly — will Gordon do a bad thing in order to achieve the greater good? This time it is a favour for Penguin i.e. collect on a debt, so that Penguin will find a way to get the Commissioner fired and Gordon reinstated as a cop. The moralist in Jim says no, but a conversation with Bruce gets the momentum going again.

Fox has been teasing that this year is all about “rise of new villains”, now that Penguin is on top but Fish and Falcone are basically gone. This episode brought along the new king maker, Theo Galvin and his sister Tabitha (likely the future Tigress). Barbara joins their crew of criminal misfits, along with Jerome who appears destined to be the Joker. And the Riddler has gone off the deep end with a full psychotic break.

Overall a decent premiere, but there is a lot in there that is just placeholders for the rest of the season.