The GCPD arrives later and finds one of the members barely alive who manages to say Bruce and Shaman's role in their deaths before dying of his wounds.
Nygma (Cory Michael Smith) informs Barbara (Erin Richards), Butch (Drew Powell), and Tabitha (Jessica Lucas) about Cobblepot's (Robin Lord Taylor) return and that he will go after them as they are all involved in his supposed death and sets to find him.
Bruce, the Shaman and some Talons leave with the bomb when the place is raided by Bullock (Donal Logue) and Alfred (Sean Pertwee), who arrest Strange.
They have her arrested and while Bullock and many officers go to search for Gordon, Alfred interrogates Strange for Bruce's location, revealing he's on Wayne Enterprises and that the bomb is set to detonate on a train station in just a few minutes.
Seeing they won't find him, Gordon injects himself with the virus and uses his strength to get out of the coffin while Bullock sends a unit to the station for evacuation.
In May 2017, it was announced that the twentieth episode of the season will be titled "Pretty Hate Machine" and was to be written by Steven Lilien & Bryan Wynbrandt and directed by Danny Cannon.
In May 2017, it was announced that the guest cast for the episode would include Jada Pinkett Smith as Fish Mooney, Raymond J. Barry as Temple Shaman, and B. D. Wong as Hugo Strange.
[5] Matt Fowler of IGN gave the episode a "good" 7.2 out of 10 and wrote in his verdict, "Gotham crammed a lot into its quasi-penultimate Season 3 chapter as the show's sloppiness collided with its elevated endgame stakes.
"[2] Nick Hogan of TV Overmind gave the episode a 4.5 star rating out of 5, writing "More than anything, this show got me excited for what's to come in next week's two part finale.
"[6] Robert Yanis, Jr. of Screenrant wrote, "The days are numbered for Gotham season 3, and after this week, it appears that viewers may have seen the last of the Court of Owls, at least for now.
But before that happens, there is the little matter of the season-long arc involving the Alice Tetch virus as well as the promised showdown between two of the series' best villains; namely, Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor) and Riddler (Cory Michael Smith).
"[9] Kayti Burt of Den of Geek wrote, "'Pretty Hate Machine' was a non-stop hour of action, comic villainy, and absurd fun.
"[10] MaryAnn Sleasman of TV Guide wrote, "This sort of prefabricated destiny, however, is why I've been having some trouble getting psyched for this particular part of the Court of Owls saga on Gotham.