Gotham season 3, episode 1 promised more chaos from new villains, but first it had to catch fans up on where their favorite characters are.

‘Gotham’ season 3, episode 1 recap

When fans last saw Gotham, the Indian Hill experiments had just escaped, Hugo Strange was taken into custody, and Gordon was leaving to go find Lee. The premiere shows Gordon going to see Lee, but finding her happy with another man. Then the episode suddenly jumps six months ahead.

Gordon looks much less wholesome than fans are used to seeing him, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. He’s now become a bounty hunter, it’s revealed, and he’s mostly going after the Indian Hill escapees. What’s different now is that he’s in it for the money instead of wanting justice for the city.

Despite not working at the GCPD, Gordon still seems to be pretty well connected to them. Bullock wants him to come back but is somewhat content to just help Gordon out where he can; at the end of the day they are after the same people. Barnes is less than pleased that Gordon has taken on a new role in the city, though, and seems to feel a bit betrayed.

Penguin is back in power with the gangs, but he’s also changed from what happened to him at Arkham. There’s something of a newer, softer side to him. He’ll still kill, but seems to have more morals than before.

One thing that Penguin won’t stand for is how the GCPD is handling the escapees. He knows Mooney is behind them, but Barnes won’t acknowledge that. Penguin tells the press directly, while they’re at GCPD for a conference with Barnes, and warns them that Mooney needs to be stopped.

Penguin is so serious about Mooney being stopped, he offers his own reward for her. This announcement is made at Barbara and Tabitha’s new club, where the more than lawless hang around. Penguin doesn’t care who stops Mooney, or how, but he wants it done and he’s willing to pay $1 million dollars to whoever does the job.

Tabitha and Penguin haven’t come to terms with one another, but they associate thanks to their line of work. Penguin makes it clear that even though he has no problems with Barbara, he still wants his revenge for what Tabitha did to his mother.

The only reason he isn’t currently going after her is that Butch still has feelings for Tabitha. It’s nice to see Penguin is now loyal enough to Butch to respect his wishes, but I’m not sure how this will play out as Tabitha roots herself nicely into Gotham. Penguin still has all the power.

Despite what happened between Nygma and Penguin before, they’ve made up and become friends again. It’s a little dampened by the fact that Nygma is still at Arkham, but Penguin visits with presents. They both know what it’s like to be trapped in there and continue to keep each other’s spirits up. Nygma reminds Penguin that he shouldn’t be afraid of Mooney because, “Penguins eat fish.”

It does seem a bit odd that after all of this time Nygma is still in Arkham. By now you’d think he would have found a way out. Or Penguin would have used his power to get Nygma out. Perhaps they’ve become more secure since the Indian Hill incident? That’s the only reason I can think of to explain why Nygma is still locked up.

Meanwhile, Mooney and her group have been breaking into pharmacies looking for a powerful drug. With their great new powers comes a lot of pain as their bodies reject all of the DNA changes. This problem of theirs helps Gordon and his new accomplice Valerie Vale track them down.

After failing to overtake Mooney’s gang when they go searching for the drugs, they get a tip from Selina that Mooney is after Ms. Peabody for information. Since Gordon is one step ahead of Mooney, he knows Selina was just following orders so Valerie would unintentionally lead them to Ms. Peabody’s hidden whereabouts.

Still, Gordon goes to see Ms. Peabody knowing they’ll be followed. Again, he isn’t able to stop them and the gang of escapees takes Peabody. Despite being sick, they’re still quite powerful, though not really scary if I’m being honest.

Once Mooney has her hands on Peabody, the woman says they must stop using their powers if they want to get better. The only other alternative is getting to Hugo Strange for help. Since Peabody won’t be of any further help, Mooney has one of her guys use his power on her, which is to rapidly age them with just his touch.

The same power comes in handy when Ivy is caught creeping on them. Wanting to know what Selina was up to, she followed her to Mooney’s hideout. Ivy makes a big mistake in saying she’ll tell everyone where they are, and Mooney orders her killed.

Instead of killing her, though, the guy with the power to age others only gets a hold of her for a few moments. This is clearly how we’ll see Ivy transformed into an older version. Selina thinks Ivy has been killed, though, so it should be interesting to see if she stays with Mooney or leaves.

Bruce didn’t appear as much as the others in this episode; he had been away for some time to investigate Indian Hill. Selina clearly isn’t happy that he went away again, but instead of telling him that, she gives him the cold shoulder. There’s an instance where Bruce comes in close proximity of the escapee that seems to be his carbon copy, but they don’t interact.

Wayne Enterprises also gets another visit from Bruce in which he informs the board that he knows exactly who was behind Indian Hill. He states that they’re in that very board room and he wants the Court of Owls to contact him or else he’ll go public with the information.

The Court of Owls isn’t having any of that, though, and sends someone after him instead. After breaking into the manor and knocking out Alfred, the henchmen takes Bruce. Presumably they’re not killing Bruce because they have bigger plans for him. It’s possible they’re hoping to convert him or somehow control him. By now we all know that any time Bruce is caught, his allies will come for him.

Overall the episode was good, but not mind blowing. The writers clearly had a lot to set up and catch up on going into the season. I’m expecting that the next few episodes will pick up in terms of pace and action. The cast they have coming up for the season is promising, and hopefully the plot lines will be just as good.

Extras from ‘Gotham’ season 3, episode 1:

What did you think of the ‘Gotham’ season 3 premiere?