The Crisis on Infinite Earths began last week on Batwoman, Supergirl, The Flash, and Arrow. Nash Wells (Tom Cavanagh) opened a door to what he thought was a portal to The Monitor, Mar Novu (LaMonica Garrett). At the same time, the Crisis began.
The Monitor explains that existence started with only one single black infinitude. The infinitude found release and the darkness broke, filling up with the multiverse. Every reality was split by possibilities and spread throughout space and time. Civilizations rose and fell. Life persevered until the Age of Heroes was born. Champions keep chaos at bay across the multiverse.
The heroes all came together to fight on behalf of all creation. And just in time. The entire Multiverse is under attack. A malevolent force is at work, one with a single goal – the destruction of everything, everywhere. Time for preparation has passed. Crisis on Infinite Earths is upon us.
THE DESTRUCTION OF MULTIPLE EARTHS
On Earth 89 in Gotham City, Alexander Knox (Robert Wuhl) notices the red skies and hopes the big guy is paying attention. The Bat signal shines in the red skies behind him. On Earth 9, in San Francisco, Titans Robin (Curran Walters) and Hank Hall/Hawk (Alan Richson) watch as the antimatter takes them over.
The Ray (Russell Tovey) flies toward the antimatter, watching it destroy Earth-X In Gotham City on EARTH – 66, Dick Grayson/Robin (Burt Ward) walks his dogs and the sky turns red. He exclaims, “HOLY CRIMSON SKIES OF DEATH!”
EARTH-38, NATIONAL CITY
A strange man (Wil Wheaton) screams at the top of his lungs that the end of the world is coming. And Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) won’t be able to save everyone. Well, sort of, it’s actually a large fire breathing dragon and Supergirl does save him. The dragon is afraid of something. Supergirl coaxes the dragon to calm down. She touches something on the dragon’s ear and it shrinks. The ground begins to shake and she takes the lizard to the DOE.
Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh) and Brainiac-5 (Jesse Rath) are monitoring the situation and the cause is actually from outside the planet. J’onn J’onzz (David Harewood) arrives and tells them that they have a crisis on their hands. He explains that the Monitor released Malefic (Phil LaMarr) to test J’onn the same way he tested Kara and Earth -1’s heroes last year.
Brainy shows them the energy that is causing the earth to shake. It’s traveling at a high speed and will reach the edge of the universe in about five hours. Then it will bounce back and hit their world. They have until the following night to stop it. Alex asks if there are any inhabited planets in its current path. Argo City is in the path. They don’t have much time. Brainy works on trying to get a message through the Haran-El shield.
ARGO CITY
Kal-El, aka Superman (Tyler Hoechlin) and Lois Lane (Elizabeth Tulloch) are living a happy, normal life with their newborn son, Jonathan on Argo City and have no idea about what’s coming. Kara gets a message through, but the message is muffled. She tells them that Argo is in danger and to leave.
The skies turn red. They leave to find Alura Zor-El (Erica Durance). She says a massive energy is moving through space, killing everything in its path. She leads them to the only escape pod. They place Jonathan in the escape pod and set a course for Earth. Lois says they will always be with Jonathan, even in their death. The pod takes off as the antimatter destroys Argo City. Kara, Alex, and J’onn watch from National City. Brainy says they are next.
GATHERING OF HEROES
Lyla, now Harbinger (Audrey Marie Anderson) gathers our known heroes. She finds Oliver Queen/Green Arrow (Stephen Amell) with Mia Smoak (Katherine McNamara) on Lian Yu. Barry Allen/The Flash (Grant Gustin) runs through Central City checking on the status of his world. Kate Kane/Batwoman (Ruby Rose) stops a robbery by the rabbits and asks for Alice (Rachel Skarsten). Harbinger arrives as a rabbit is about to talk.
On Earth-1 in Star City, Sara Lance/White Canary (Caity Lotz) and Ray Palmer/The Atom (Brandon Routh) are participating in Trivia Night. The Quiz Master (Griffin Newman) asks for the last song written by Janice Joplin. Sara gets the wrong answer because when Ray was at Woodstock, Janice Joplin saw him. She called him Little Robot Man and that was her last song. Harbinger tells them all that the Crisis has begun. They are needed now.
INTRODUCTIONS
Alex is preparing her DOE team when Harbinger arrives with Oliver, Mia, Batwoman, Superman and Lois. Kal tells Kara that they sent Jonathan out in an escape pod. She asks about her mother, but there was nothing they could do to save her.
Batwoman has no idea what’s going on, where she is and why. She actually punches Harbinger for kidnapping her. Kara explains that she’s there because they need her. And she trusts everyone in the room with her life. That’s good enough for Batwoman. She removes her mask and wig and asks everyone to call her Kate.
Mia introduces herself. J’onn didn’t know that Oliver had a daughter. Mia says he gets that a lot. Alex looks at Harbinger and tells her to start talking.
WHAT IS THE CRISIS?
Harbinger explains that the wave of antimatter is sweeping across the universe, destroying everything in its path. Oliver says he saw the antimatter wave destroy Earth-2. Everyone was brought to Earth-38 because that’s where the Monitor wants them to make their stand. If they can’t stop the antimatter wave in this universe, it will move on to the next universe, and the next, and the next. It will continue until it has obliterated every Earth and everything in existence.
Oliver asks for Barry and the Legends. Harbinger sent them on reconnaissance. She leaves to check on them. Lois is worried about Jonathan. They don’t know where he landed. Kara asks Brainy to find him. The building starts to shake and the heroes see a tower emerges from the ground. Barry and the Legends appear with Harbinger.
THE TOWER
This tower is a quantum tower and it’s the only thing that can save the people of Earth-38. The Monitor placed quantum towers on key earths as the last line of defense. The tower generates a quantum flux field that reverses the exogenic state of the antimatter wave and dissipates the antimatter energy. This explanation comes to you courtesy of Brainiac-5 and Ray Palmer
Ray loves Kate’s Batwoman suit and offers to upgrade it. Kate doesn’t like him touching her and says it depends on how attached he is to his hand.
The tower can save Earth-38, but it’s not that easy. They have to protect the tower from the Anti-Monitor and his forces. His army will come to thwart any efforts to stop the antimatter.
SAVE BABY JONATHAN
Brainy gets an alert that Jonathan’s pod was sucked into a wormhole. He’s headed for Star City on Earth-16 in 2046. Clark wants to go after him, but Oliver stops him. They need him to help protect the tower. Lois offers to go. Sara and Brainy decide to go with her.
Alex leaves to call the president to coordinate an evacuation in case the tower fails. J’onn is going to ask every alien in National City who has a ship to help. Brainy isn’t sure that they will, considering how the aliens were treated last year. Brainy gives J’onn the keys to his ship.
J’onn checks in with Alex. She’s worried. Even if they get enough ships, they can’t just fly into space. The antimatter will destroy them. And they can’t open a breach big enough to send everyone to another earth. Who can build one big enough? Lena Luthor (Katie McGrath). Alex doesn’t like the idea, especially after she just tried to control everyone’s mind with Myriad. J’onn says they don’t have any other options.
FAMILY TIES
Clark and Kara mourn Argo City together. He says he failed because he couldn’t save them. Jonathan and Lois are out there where he can’t protect them. He thinks he deserves this because he wanted a normal life. Kara remains hopeful that they will save the people of the planet. They make their parents proud by fighting for what’s right. And they have to keep fighting.
Oliver gives Mia her own Green Arrow supersuit. She says she can’t wear it, but Oliver says there should always be at least one Green Arrow. Mia says if he’s not going to wear the suit then no one should, but Oliver says Mia earned it.
NEW DEAL
Oliver makes fun of Barry. The fastest man alive shows up late for Crisis. He confirms that he was doing reconnaissance on the towers. Barry tells him about the headline about his disappearance. He says The Monitor told him that he’s supposed to die. Oliver doesn’t accept that and demands to talk to the Monitor immediately.
Mar Novu transports Oliver to his realm. Oliver reminds him of their deal that he’s the one who will die. Novu says that was a different deal. Barry and Kara survived to keep the cosmic balance. He spared their lives so they could save their world last year.
Oliver tells him to stop playing games. He wants to know why the Anti-Monitor is doing this and how can he stop it. Novu says not knowing what he’s fighting will prepare him for every possibility. This threat brings with it the annihilation of everything and all reality. He asks if Oliver comprehends the scope of the danger they all face.
FRENEMIES
Alex visits Lena. She fills her in about what’s going on. She apologizes for keeping Lena in the dark about Kara’s alter ego. Alex admits that everyone but Lena was in on it. They didn’t do it to hurt her though. They are trying to evacuate the planet, but Lena is the only person that can help them. Lena says she can never trust Alex and they are no longer friends, but she will help.
They don’t have much time to work. Alex reminds Lena what they’re up against. Lena is trying to get the energy levels right so the ships don’t disintegrate when they go through. Alex suggests she use an inverse variable to help calculate the differential. Lena likes the idea and reconfigures her numbers.
EARTH-16 – STAR CITY – 2046
Brainy tracked Jonathan to the Green Arrow’s bunker. The Green Arrow appears and defends the bunker against Sara. Lois hears Jonathan crying and goes to find him. The fight ends and Oliver is shocked to see Sara. On his world, she’s dead and has been since The Gambit sunk. Lois found Jonathan and thanks Oliver for helping him.
This Oliver knows nothing about parallel earths. He’s a broken man, especially about Sara. He feels guilty about taking her on the Gambit. Sara says in her world, that trip set off a whole series of events. They both become heroes. She says none of it would have happened if she never got on that boat. It was destiny.
Brainy interrupts says they need to go immediately or the extrapulator won’t have enough power to get them home. Sara tells Oliver that he’s a good man on every Earth. They leave through the breach.
SHADOW ARMY
The heroes go to the tower, but aren’t sure how to protect it from an army they know nothing about. Oliver tells everyone else to go inside. If they can fortify the tower in strategic positions, they can fight off any army. An earthquake happens, so Supergirl and Superman leave to check the damage.
Things are almost too quiet in the tower. Oliver gives some last instructions to Mia. He tells her that if anything happens to him, to find Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) and tell her how much he loves her. They see an army of wraith-like beings flying around the tower.
The heroes fight off the shadow army. Batwoman asks for an upgrade from Ray. He charges her Batarang with compressed light energy. Batwoman grabs the Batarang, jumps out to fight off the army, and throws the Batarang. It takes out several shadows. Mia gets the last one and they regroup with Superman, Supergirl and the Flash. More shadow are approaching.
EVACUATIONS
Nia Nal/Dreamer (Nicole Maines) is coordinating the evacuation with J’onn. There are several alien ships landing so people can board. Kelly Olsen (Azie Tesfai) is waiting when Dreamer approaches her. They are trying to save billions of people. J’onn is driving Brainy’s ship and they start loading people up.
Lena figures out the portal. They are ready to go to another Earth. Both breath a sigh of relief happy with the work they both contributed to. Lena tells her not to mistake it for friendship.
Alex and Lena join the coordinating team to get people on ships. Some debris begins to fall. Alex watches Kelly protect a couple from the debris with Guardian’s shield. She says James (Mehcad Brooks) left it for her.
LAST STAND
The antimatter is just outside the planet. The tower is powered down. Superman and Supergirl fly to the top to see what they can do to power it up. There are solar panels on top so they use their laser to charge them.
Supergirl and Superman use all of their energy and fall to the earth. The Flash catches them. Their efforts worked, but they just slowed down the wave. Ray says they have 14 minutes until the wave makes contact with the Earth. Oliver says they have to fight off the shadow demons until every last ship is through the portal.
The heroes fight off the shadow demons until the Monitor says the battle is lost. He transports them away one by one. Oliver won’t let the Monitor take him until the last ship has evacuated. He shoots the Monitor with an arrow, causing his suit to lose power.
Oliver gets thrown around by the shadow demons. He stands up one last time to fight, but he’s out of arrows. Oliver drops his bow and runs towards the demons. The ships fly through the portal just in time for the antimatter to destroy Earth-38.
EARTH – 1, STAR CITY
Oliver appears on a bed. The Monitor says he fought to his last breath. Of the 7.53 billion people, 3 billion made it to Earth-1. Oliver’s last stand saved at least a billion people. Nash appears. He says he freed the Anti-Monitor. He is now serving a penance forced to watch the consequences of his actions. Nash has become a Pariah
Sara, Lois with Jonathan, and Brainy arrive. Sara is shocked to see Oliver’s condition. Oliver speaks, telling Sara everything will be okay. It is his destiny. He tells Barry that he is the very best of them. Oliver gave it all up for Barry and Kara. Now they have to be the ones to save everyone now.
Oliver says to Mia to find her mother and William (Ben Lewis). And tell them he loves them. And he loves her and asks her to keep him in her heart. Oliver Queen dies.
The Monitor says this is not how he saw the Green Arrow die. Pariah says things are turning out differently than expected. Everything they know, everything there is and ever was, is doomed.
THOUGHTS
That was highly unexpected. We’ve been hearing the entire season of Arrow that Oliver is going to die, but I didn’t expect him to die this soon. There are like two, maybe three episodes left of the final Arrow season. I wonder what those episodes are going to be about.
It’s always fun to watch the heroes come together in the first episode, especially when there’s a newbie among the group. Kate fits right in. I hoped she’d have more interaction with Alex because they are petty much the same. Then again, it’s only the first part.
Holy Cameos Batman! The Arrowverse canon just got bigger! I love that there was footage of Robert Wuhl from the Tim Burton Batman movies! And the Titans are now a part of the Arrowverse even if they are on a streaming service. And yes, Burt Ward was the best part of this episode. I’m so glad he was a part of this crossover. This makes me excited for more cameos that I’ve heard are coming later. I’m sure at soem point all of the heroes everywhere will be fighting all at once. And it will be glorious!
Check out Geek Girl Authority’s Coverage of the Arrowverse Here
Here’s the synopsis for Part 2 of Crisis on Infinite Earths:
The group uses Ray’s invention to track new recruits to help save the universe. The Monitor sends Iris (guest star Candice Patton), Earth 38’s Clark Kent and Lois in search of a mysterious Kryptonian, while Kate and Kara head out to find Bruce Wayne (guest star Kevin Conroy). In addition, Mia challenges Sara, Rory (guest star Dominic Purcell) discovers a hidden talent, and Lex Luthor returns.
News Editor, Senior Contributor, and Press Editor. Coordinate breaking news, trailers and press releases. I also contribute reviews, recaps and interviews. Creator of the Indigenerd Wire, a column dedicated to the Indigenous creatives in pop culture.
GGA's resident Indigenerd, a little bit rez, a little bit classy...with a love for all things Star Wars, zombies, science fiction, and Indigenous. My ultimate goal is to start my own podcast.
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