1) “This Is Us,” 9 p.m., NBC. Last week’s season-opener repeated a clever trick from the pilot film: Introduce some apparent strangers, without telling us a time-leap is involved. Only in the final minutes did we see that the blind singer (shown here) is a future view of Kate’s baby. In the present, the teen father befriended Deja, Randall’s adopted daughter; the alcoholic veteran (Jennifer Morrison) met Nicky, Jack’s long-lost brother. Now Randall’s family adjusts to life in the city, where he’s a new councilman.
2) “Mayans M.C.,” 10 p.m., FX. In a powerhouse start, “Mayans” goes 15 minutes before even rolling its opening credits. By then, we’ve seen dramatic moments from two of the best supporting characters: Potter (Ray McKinnon) is the cunning federal lawyer whose people have captured the pregnant rebel leader; Galino (Danny Pino) is the cartel leader who’s been secretly helping her. These are deep and intriguing people, in an hour that’s fascinating … until its perplexing conclusion.
3) “Pandora” season-finale, 8 and 9 p.m., CW. While the others plunge ahead with their fall season, CW is in the final week of its summer. Tonight, there’s mayhem at the Fleet Training Academy, when forces converge searching for Jax. And on Adar, Atria pushes to clone her brothers and sisters.
4) “Empire,” 9 p.m., Fox. With his dad Lucious on the lam, Andre has been trying to run the Empire company. But as last week’s season-opener ended, there were two fierce jolts: Hakeem schemed his way into starring in the movie about Lucious’ life; also, Andre apparently choked his former prisonmate to death. Now come the aftershocks, including a fresh family complication.
5) “Emergence,” 10 p.m., ABC. Last week’s engrossing opener left Jo (the small-town police chief) sure of only two things: This little girl – sole survivor of a plane crash – is from somewhere else; and lots of ominous people want to grab her. Tonight, Jo makes a deal with Benny, the reporter investigating this; and her friend Abby, a pediatrician, tries to trigger the girl’s memory.