Gotham's second season ended on a very strong note indeed, with Professor Hugo Strange's gang of superpowered test subjects unleashed upon the titular city, so it's no surprise that excitement is rapidly building for the show's third outing as more and more details are released.
After recent casting reports revealed that a new actress is being sought for the role of Poison Ivy and that (sort of) original character Valerie Vale will be making her series debut, we now also know the titles of the first two episodes of Gotham season three, thanks to Drew Powell's twitter account. Powell, of course, is the actor behind the show's perennial mobster, Butch, who single-handedly took over the underworld of Gotham after Fish Mooney was killed and Penguin was sent to Arkham Asylum to experience a form of therapy most qualified mental health professionals would frown upon.
Mr. Powell tweeted a photo of the covers of his scripts for episodes one and two, revealing the titles to be "Better To Reign In Hell..." and "Burn The Witch" respectively. We can also see that the show's executive producer, John Stephens, will be penning episode one, whilst Ken Woodruff will be handling writing duties for episode two. Both installments are being directed by Danny Cannon. Interestingly, the original tweet appears to have been deleted by Powell, suggesting that the reveal was something Fox hadn't sanctioned or planned and that Butch is in for a slapped wrist when he returns to work.
Reassuringly, the three names mentioned as writers and director are all Gotham veterans, with Danny Cannon being one of the show's more frequent men behind the camera, and also responsible for directing the show's pilot, and the two named writers previously delivering scripts for such series highlights such as "Under The Knife," "The Last Laugh" (both Stephens) and "Mr. Freeze" (Woodruff).
Three pairs of safe hands are in place for season 3's opening then but what of the titles themselves? Obviously Butch will be returning but the "reign in hell" phrase is somewhat more ambiguous. Could it perhaps be referring to Fish Mooney attempting to once again take over the underworld of Gotham City now that she is alive, free and gifted with some impressive powers of persuasion? Or could the title be suggesting that the glut of villains now roaming the streets will be taking over the city? The episode two moniker, "Burn The Witch," could fit with either of these theories. Mooney's resurrection may be met with hostile skepticism from her former colleagues, or maybe the recently freed supervillains will establish some form of mob law and begin to enforce their own brand of "justice" in the same way Hugo Strange's other creations Azrael and, to some extent, Firefly did.
Of course, until the first episode airs this is merely speculation, so let us know in the comments what you think these episode titles mean for the future of Gotham.
Gotham season three begins on September 19th on Fox.
Source: Drew Powell (via Comicbook.com)