I finally watched season 2 over the last week and thought it was a big improvement over season 1. The episodes were just consistently better all the way through IMO (though I can understand that portions of season 1 that I found to be dragging were probably necessary to set up later story lines).
I'm sort of ambivalent one way or the other about Jimmy's death - the most positive aspect of it in my eyes is that Michael Pitt is off the show. The more I watched him, the less talent he seemed to have. Just entirely too stiff of an actor (and unlike the Van Alden, I don't think Jimmy was meant to be so stiff). I hope this isn't the end of Richard's character though as I find him to be a complete bad ass. Even with his seeming yearning to have a normal life.
And I agree with others that Margaret giving over the land to the church was a bitch move. I knew something was going to happen with the land every time Nucky brought it up. When she finally pulled out the deed, I thought maybe she was going to sign it over to her daughter. It will be interesting to see how that unfolds next season.