Welcome back, Gotham.  Not so much of a welcoming return, though. Let’s pick up where we left off and jump into “Beasts of Prey.”

The episode begins with Fish strolling throughout Dulmacher’s mansion until she eventually makes her way out.  She tries to head toward the nearby helicopter, but is stopped by a group of henchmen who order her back inside.  Leading the henchmen is The Catcher, played by Phillip James Griffith.  Even though she’s Dulmacher’s new assistant, that position doesn’t give her any special privilege.  And these henchmen don’t do all of the dirty work, by the way.  That’s what the water is for.

Over at Wayne Manor, Bruce congratulates Gordon on his win as president of the Policeman’s Union.  Gordon is glad to hear it, but he knows that Bruce and Alfred lied about who Alfred’s attacker.  When Gordon presses for information, Bruce doesn’t give him any, so he instead warns him to stay out of Alfred’s business since this isn’t his fight.

Later on, an officer we’ve never seen before named Len Moore, played by Brendan Griffin, informs Gordon about a case dropped four months ago that involves a woman named Grace Fairchild.  The officers investigating her case eventually moved on, so Moore would like Gordon to look into it because the family deserves justice.  Gordon senses an angle, but Moore says that there isn’t one.  The younger guys like him look up to Gordon and want to be a part of the change he’s bringing to the GCPD.

So even though this puts a damper on dinner, Leslie is more than thrilled to help Gordon pursue this unsolved case.  Miss Fairchild was in the South Village- an area with which Leslie is familiar.  She tells Gordon to look into some speakeasies in the area for leads.

Meanwhile, deep in the bowels of Dulmacher’s mansion, Fish tells a still wounded Kelly that she needs his help to get off the island.  That or they’ll die trying.

Alfred is back at Wayne Manor and is ready to go, but won’t take Bruce with him.  Alfred doesn’t get very far anyway since he’s still bleeding, indicating that his wound hasn’t fully healed yet.

Penguin and Gabe speak with a local bar owner named Lidia Bicchieri, played by Barbara Rosenblat.  See, Penguin is interested in this establishment and even promises to be a silent partner, but Lidia remains adamant and tells Penguin that her place is not for sale.  Okay, fair enough.  If Lidia isn’t interested in money, what does she want?  Her granddaughter, Antonia, has been seduced by a silver tongued player.  If Penguin brings her home, then Lidia may consider terms.  Penguin promises to have her home by Sunday mass.  How very specific.

Gordon tries to rope Bullock into helping him investigate the Fairchild case, but Bullock wants nothing to do with it.  He figures that Gordon isn’t in this for justice- there’s something else driving him.  Hell, Bullock even has a riddle for Nygma: would you rather work more or less?

Nygma, however, is here to deliver the list of establishments in the South Village to Gordon- four locations were missed by the previous detectives.  Gordon also needs Nygma to find a missing piece of evidence titled 3A.  Gordon tries again to get Bullock to join him, and even after Bullock talking about Gordon potentially getting burned after flying too close to the sun, he eventually does decide to help Jim.

Fish enlists some muscle to help her get escape from Dulmacher.  Why them and not any of her closer friends?  She needs killers because Dulmacher won’t just let her walk away from him.  There’s a boat by the shore that will fit six people.  Sure, there’s the chopper, but Fish points out that none of the others know how to fly a helicopter.  That is important.  Fish now just needs the keys for the boat.

Gordon and Bullock haven’t made much progress into the leads so far until now.  They show a photo to a bartender who recognizes Grace Fairchild.  As it turns out, Fairchild visited this very bar with a hot date.  A good looking, but classy guy.

We then flash back to said date where Grace Fairchild, played by Willa Fitzgerald, enjoys a moment with a Jason Lennon, played by Milo Ventimiglia.  Fairchild is curious, though: how is it that a young, funny, and successful guy like Jason could still be single?  His past relationships didn’t work out.  What he wants would frighten people.  It sounds cheesy, but he’s looking for real, intense, and unconditional love.

The two then head to Lennon’s place.  It’s been awhile since he’s had company.  Lucky for him, Fairchild decides to stay.  Oh, and Lennon has torture devices kept hidden.  How romantic.

As Bruce heads to the Polk Gun Range to do some investigation, Penguin and Gabe have a chat with the silver tongued player who is dating Antonia.  He refuses to stop seeing her since he believes they’re destined to be together.  Penguin doesn’t want the guy killed, even though Gabe just wants to shoot him.  Instead, Penguin prefers to take off the guy’s fingers.

Leslie finds something strange in her autopsy on Fairchild’s body.  Despite being missing for four months, other than stab wounds to the throat and heart, Fairchild’s body is still in pristine condition.  Bullock has a theory: it’s possible that Fairchild ran off on her own, but her being missing could have nothing to do with her murder.  The findings would support that, but Gordon disagrees.  Fairchild had a good job, good mortgage, and even called her mother the day she went missing.  He figures that Fairchild was taken, locked away against her will, and then killed.

We flash back to the next morning at Lennon’s place.  Fairchild enjoyed herself and has a full day ahead of her, so she can’t see an exhibit or spend any time with Lennon, who really wants her to stay.  Maybe, though, they can arrange for something this evening.

Fish sneaks into Dulmacher’s office in hopes of finding a key, but she’s soon caught by Dulmacher.  Her explanation for being there is that they’re running low on supplies for the inmates, but Dulmacher reminds her that she just needs to look in the storage room.  Dulmacher pulls out a gun and tells Fish that he is not a fan of dishonesty at all.

Truth is she’s had nightmares about the horrible stitch job done to the office manager.  I’m just having nightmares about that terrible CGI.  Anyway, Fish would have preferred to take her own life than end up like that sort of creation.  Well, if Fish pulls anything like that, her nightmare will come true.

Bruce enlists Selina’s help in finding Reggie Payne.  A shooting range isn’t the same as the gun range, didn’t you know?

Nygma delivers Bullock and Gordon a long forgotten photocopy of a painted broken heart, which GCPD found at the Fairchild crime scene.  Bullock is now livid about this discovery and reminds Jim about the dangers of getting too deep.  The person behind Fairchild’s death?  This isn’t his first murder.  He’s a serial killer.

We then flash back to dinner between Lennon and Fairchild, who may have overcooked the lamb.  Well, Lennon gets to enjoy it since Fairchild is cuffed in place.  Lennon isn’t too pleased with dinner.  He really thought Fairchild would be the one, but he’ll have to wait for the next one.

Having kept his promise, Penguin is now able to talk terms with Lidia.  Gabe isn’t a fan of the location, but Penguin tells him that this isn’t about the money.  There are other motivators, such as lust or ambition.  His decision for this place is simple: it’s where he’s going to kill Don Maroni.

Okay, it’s time to escape Dulmacher.  Fish assembles her muscle and warns them about the alarm that will sound when they try to leave.  As far as the gate, Fish tells them that it was unlocked last night.  Right now, though, she needs to get Kelly.  Sentimental as it sounds, she won’t leave him behind.

So when Fish heads back down, Dulmacher intercepts her.  Luckily, the inmates pounce on him and then they all flee.

The muscle men arrive at the gate and find it locked.  They realize all too late that they’ve been played.  They’re soon killed by The Catcher and his henchmen.  He’s unable to prevent Fish and the others from boarding the helicopter, but he does get in one good shot that nails Fish in her stomach.  That’s some damn good aim.  I wonder if this Catcher could give Deadshot a run for his money.

Bullock fills Gordon in on this killer: he abducts and kills young women.  He’s killed at least a dozen.  The broken heart is his calling card.  Some call him the Don Juan Killer, others refer to him as The Ogre.  This isn’t some well-known fact, though.  Only a few in the GCPD know of this tightly guarded secret, but haven’t leaked it to the press because The Ogre is known to retaliate against people who investigate him, particularly their loved ones.  Therein lies the question of how Gordon came across the Fairchild investigation in the first place.  What officer would talk to him?

Okay, so Bruce and Selina find Reggie.  Selina takes his bag of meds and threatens to drop them out of the window unless he starts talking about who sent him.  Reggie had only meant to take some documents, but then Alfred entered.  He received his orders from a woman named Mathis and a guy named Sid Bunderslaw, both of whom wanted to know how far along Bruce had come in his investigation.

Selina does drop the bag anyway, but only onto a ledge.  Reggie, the moron that he is, leans out the window to try and retrieve his meds, not really remembering that either of the two kids could easily push him out the window.  Bruce hesitates, but can’t bring himself to do the deed.

So Selina does it herself.

Bullock and Gordon confront Moore, who spills that he had been ordered by Loeb to hand the case over to Jim.  He had no choice, as everyone is aware of what Loeb can do.  Gordon wouldn’t have been able to turn down such a case.  Bullock warns Gordon against further pursuing this matter because it could put Leslie in danger.  This isn’t the time to be a hero.

After leaving a message on Leslie’s answering machine, Gordon confronts Loeb and gives zero cares about what the surrounding officers think.  No more games or deals.  Once Jim is done with this Ogre situation, he’s coming for Loeb.

So, where were we?  Gotham has returned after a bit of a hiatus and, based on the promos, it looked like the series wanted to take a darker, more serious turn.  Well, not really.  What we got with “Beasts of Prey” wasn’t much better than the episodes before it, but there’s some good setup with the GCPD.

We know that Jada Pinkett Smith apparently won’t be on Gotham for its next season, so my best guess is that Fish Mooney may be on her way out soon.  Maybe it would be through that gunshot wound or some other way, but whatever it is, I do hope it holds my interest.  We’ve seen so much of Fish since she left Gotham that one would think her arc is all that integral to the series.  Sure, she’s trying to make her way back to the city, but if you had removed Fish’s storyline from the show after she left Gotham, I don’t think we’d have lost anything.

Sure, it’s because of this that we got our official introduction to The Dollmaker, but this side story isn’t as interesting to me as I found her plan to overtake Falcone.  That at least led to a major shakeup with Liza’s death and Fish discovering that Penguin had been playing her the entire time.

I still find it strange that Bruce would trust Selina, given how she admitted to lying about seeing the man who killed Bruce’s parents.  But hey, she knows the streets better than Bruce, so I suppose that’s something.  I liked the fact that Bruce was tempted to cross that line and possibly kill Reggie.  He had every reason to, but it looks like he didn’t want to start himself down that dark path.  Selina taking the kill isn’t out of character for this show since we’ve seen how brutal she can be, but it was a very telegraphed kill.

At the very least, Bruce now knows that he’ll have to be on his guard even more, especially since Alfred still isn’t in the best of conditions.

But I did like some of the stuff with looking into the Fairchild case.

Not the Fifty Shades of Grey nonsense.  Let’s not pay that any mind.

That the entire situation was a setup for Gordon was a pretty smart move on Loeb’s part.  Everyone in the GCPD knows that Gordon is a boy scout who can’t turn down a case if it means someone gets justice.  And given how we’ve never seen or heard of this Len Moore guy before, it was clear to me early on that he wasn’t being completely honest.

This revelation gives Gordon the push he’ll need not just to pursue this killer, but also rid himself of Loeb by any means.  Gordon had leverage before, but now he needs something more.  There was a good amount of buildup to the confrontation at the end and we know that Gordon still takes issues with how the GCPD operates, so it was nice to see him lash out against the Commissioner and put other officers in their place when they tried to stop him.

“Beasts of Prey” was nothing spectacular or special for Gotham’s return.  I thought that the hiatus would maybe lead to a revamped quality in writing because I want the show to do well with the potential that it has.  However, what did work in this episode was weighed down by everything that didn’t.  The Fish Mooney subplot is still uninteresting, but Fish’s fate is now up in the air with her injury.  What’s keeping everything going is Gordon’s war against the establishment.  More focus should go to this, I feel, as there’s great potential here.

But no more Fifty Shades of Gotham.  We do not need that.