When we left our friends in Gotham at the end of last season, Jim has given up saving Gotham and the bad guys are out en force. In tonight's premiere, Mad City: Better to Reign in Hell, we take up where we left off with Jim having left Gotham and hoping to find Leslie. He is crushed when he arrives at her house with flowers to find out that she is seeing somebody new.
Six Months Later. Gotham is in chaos as usual. A pharmacy is being robbed and the Indian Hill escapee is looking for something. He attacks the pharmacist until Jim (Gotham’s new Bounty Hunter) saves the day.
Inside GCPD, the Mayor and Captain Barnes are assuring everyone during a press conference that the situation involving the Indian Hill escapees is under control. Valerie Vale (reporter for the Gotham Gazette) doesn’t believe this and continues to ask questions. Jim chats with Bullock and Lucius. Lucius tells him that the three pharmacies were robbed all had an immune suppressant that the IH escapees were looking for. Bullock begs Jim to come back, but Jim is enjoying the bounty hunting business. Lucius has left Wayne Enterprises due to all the corruption and now works at GCPD.
Vale continues to ask questions and Penguin bursts inside (with trusty Butch by his side) and he wants the truth to be told about Indiana Hill. He says that everything that happened is the responsibility of Fish Mooney. Penguin says she is the enemy and nobody is safe until she is found. Jim/Penguin have one of their usual run-ins.
Penguin and Butch go to their club that is now being run by Barbara and Tabitha. Butch is clearly still heartbroken over his break up with Tabitha. Penguin offers an alliance between them and Barbara says they will think about it. Penguin tells Barbara is putting a $1 million reward for Fish Mooney. Selina shows up like she normally does. She does what she does best. She steals Butch’s wallet. She is walking outside with Ivy and gives some random kid money. The random kid is actually Bruce’s evil doppelgänger from Indian Hill.
Jim is sitting at the bar when Vale joins him. She knows he is the bounty hunter and wants to know about Indian Hill. Jim is obviously deflecting her. He hopes Fish is not behind the IH crew and seems intrigued by the $1 million bounty of Fish. I don’t blame him. Edward is now back inside Arkham and gets a visit from Penguin. They briefly catch up and Penguin tells him about his paranoia of Fish and Edward tells him to stay focused. “Penguins eat fish!” he tells Penguin.
Fish is following Selina inside a pharmaceutical warehouse where they are looking for more of the suppressant drug. (I’m not a huge Fish fan but I admit she does have an awesome power). Jim arrives at the warehouse and draws his gun on Fish. He is attacked by one of the IH crew who is able to distract Jim so they can escape.
Bruce and Alfred are having a meeting with the board of Wayne Enterprises. “There is no turning back,” Bruce tells Alfred. Bruce tells the board straight up he doesn’t believe Hugo Strange worked alone at Indian Hill. He tells the board he knows which of them were involved and is giving them 24 hours to come clean or he is going to release all of the information. Later, the mysterious woman who leads this sketchy council in Gotham tells her associate to quietly take out Bruce Wayne.
Selina goes to Vale and asks her about the money for the IH story. Vale finds Jim and tells him she knows where Fish will be next. They go the apartment and Jim handcuffs Vale to the car so she can’t follow him. Jim goes inside the apartment and we find out it is actually where Ms. Peabody is hiding. She isn’t in prison because she testified against Hugo Strange. He tells her Fish is coming for her. Peabody realizes Jim set this up to catch Fish. Fish doesn’t show up…but the winged IH creature that Jim fought at the warehouse. Tabitha also arrives and kidnaps Peabody. They go at it for round 2. The crafty Vale was able to escape from the handcuff and take some picture of Jim fighting this creature.
Bruce visits Selina on the roof and tells her why he had to leave. He wanted to find out about the secret group that has infiltrated his company. Bruce and Selina. The tension is always there. We notice that Bruce’s doppelgänger is creepily watching them. He then approaches Ivy and she is very confused why he is acting strange. He demands to know who Bruce Wayne is.
Barnes is absolutely tearing into Jim and Bullock. He tells Jim to stay away or he will take him out. He tells Bullock he was so proud of him but now he just makes him gassy. Interesting. It also looks like Barnes’ health is declining. Bullock tells Jim maybe he should stay away for a little bit. Vale finds Bruce and wants to know if he knew Fish was setting them up. Vale wanted to tell him something but she held back. She obviously has a secret.
A group of men come into the club and threaten Barbara and Tabitha. They kill 2 of them and leave the one alive. Penguin and Butch arrive to straighten this out. We find out that Butch was responsible for this to try and get in Tabitha’s good graces. Penguin quickly kills the man and warns Tabitha once Butch gives him the word, he is coming for her.
Fish and the IH crew have surrounded Peabody and Fish wants to know where Strange is. Her power is affecting her body and the only way she can recover is to stop using it. Naturally, Fish doesn’t want to. Fish wants and army and she uses one of the IH crew (Marv) to slowly drain the life from Peabody. RIP Ms. Peabody. Tabitha finds Ivy who was spying on them. She tries to escape and ends up falling into what looks like a sewage run off. Selina is devastated.
The episode concludes with everyone adjusting to their new roles in the Mad City. Alfred and Bruce are talking about Wayne Manor’s new alarm system when the masked man arrives and attacks Alfred. He knocks him out then kidnaps Bruce as the episode comes to a close. (So much for that new alarm system).
Tune in to Gotham every Monday night at 8 p.m. on FOX!
Need to revisit last season's moments? Read our recaps here.