In the first recap for the Crisis on Earth-X crossover, Barry and Iris’ wedding is interrupted with invaders from another universe but they have very familiar faces…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
For the first time in the several years the ‘Arrow-verse’ has been dominating the CW’s television schedule, a true crossover was planned between the four shows — ‘Supergirl’, ‘Arrow’, ‘The Flash’ and ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ — and so far the gamble is paying off.
While there have been crossovers previously, this is the first time all four shows have been so integrated together to compile and tell one story. Thus far through the first two episodes, ‘Crisis on Earth-X’ is the best crossover yet.
As Barry and Iris are about to say their vows, the wedding is attacked by a swarming group of Nazis from a world known as Earth-X where Adolf Hitler developed the atomic bomb before the United States and he used it to strike a blow and win World War II.
Now Earth-X has been cast in darkness for more than 60 years with the ‘heroes’ now working for the Third Reich but now they’ve decided to journey to Earth-One. Of course the easiest excuse is that the armies of the Third Reich are trying to conquer another Earth, but as it turns out, they have much more nefarious plans in place that require their doppelgangers on this world and attacking the wedding was the perfect time to launch the offensive.
With that said, let’s find out what happened as we recap ‘Supergirl’ and ‘Arrow’ for ‘Crisis on Earth-X’ parts one and two!
Welcome to Hell
The crossover begins with a brief look at the bleak life on Earth-X where the Nazis defeated the Allied forces and they now rule the world. While there are still heroes left trying to stop the bad guys, they are severely outnumbered.
In fact, Guardian from Earth-X shows up and tries to stop the soldiers from the Third Reich, who are developing the technology to travel between parallel universes, but he’s quickly cut down by the Dark Archer
We soon get a glimpse of Overgirl as she arrives to begin staging the plans that will see the Third Reich crossover from Earth-X to Earth-One.
Wedding Crashers
The countdown has started for Barry Allen and Iris West’s wedding with invitations sent out all over the multi-verse to gather their friends and family for the occasion.
Of course that means Oliver Queen will be coming from Star City and the Legends of Tomorrow will be traveling forward in time to make it to the wedding. Meanwhile, Kara Danvers and her sister Alex would rather commiserate about their own shared suffering over failed relationships alongside a bucket of ice cream but a wedding might be the perfect time to shed a few tears for a good reason.
Of course, Kara decides to bring Alex as her plus one after the invite was addressed for her and Mon-El. Sadly, he’s married to another woman now and Kara is still trying to wrap her head around that one.
Thankfully everyone arrives on time for the day of the rehearsal dinner as Barry and Iris put the finishing touches on their wedding day.
Ahead of the dinner, Oliver chats with Barry while Felicity talks to the rest of the girls about another pending nuptial. It’s been two years since Oliver first proposed to Felicity but then she was shot the very next day and their plans literally fell apart. Since then, Oliver hasn’t broached the subject but seeing one of his best friends getting married has him thinking that maybe it’s time that he tied the knot…again.
Meanwhile, Alex meets Sara aka White Canary from the Legends and they start pounding booze as they are both trying to forget something or someone.
And finally, Cisco and Harry present a gift to Dr. Martin Stein and his Firestorm cohort Jefferson Jackson. They’ve managed to concoct a serum that will allow Stein and Jefferson’s DNA to finally separate so they can split apart and lead their own lives again. The formula will trick the Firestorm matrix into thinking it’s still attached yet they will be able move on from each other once and for all.
Of course, Stein is over the moon because he’s been ready to retire for quite some time so he can spend time with his wife, daughter and grandchild. Unfortunately, Jefferson isn’t nearly as excited because he’s kind of gotten used to this whole hero thing.
Side note — Victor Garba, who plays Dr. Martin Stein is leaving ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ so it makes sense that they are formulating an exit strategy.
Seeing the disappointment in Jefferson’s eyes leads Stein to try and create a new super formula that will give him powers of his own after Firestorm has been eradicated. Sadly, Stein’s idea of giving Jefferson the ability to climb walls like a spider without all the other powers that would make him Spider-Man doesn’t quite impressive his soon to be former partner.
Jefferson eventually comes clean that as much as he loves being a hero, he’s learned to look at Dr. Stein as a mentor and father figure and he’s sad that they will soon no longer be partners together.
As the dinner gets underway, Barry asks Kara to sing at the wedding while Alex and Sara get closer and closer. And finally, Oliver decides to pop the question and ask Felicity to marry him but she rejects him rather soundly — and loudly enough that everyone in the room hears her declining his proposal.
The next morning, Barry races to get Iris breakfast in bed along with a note that it’s bad luck for the groom to see the bride on their wedding day. Dr. Stein wakes up while Jefferson still looks upset about the pending breakup for Firestorm. And then there’s Kara waking up in bed next to Sara — it seems their drinking led to a one-night stand.
At the wedding, Alex attempts to gracefully avoid telling her sister about what happened but Sara isn’t nearly as worried about people knowing that they hooked up. Alex is ashamed but Kara reminds her that she’s a single woman and no one is going to judge her for a little pre-wedding sex romp.
Following Kara’s rendition of the song that Barry sang to Iris last season during the musical crossover episode of ‘The Flash’, it’s finally time for the happy couple to say their vows…and of course that’s when the Nazis arrive and shoot the pastor, thus interrupting the wedding.
Soon enough a full on battle breaks out with Dark Archer firing down arrows at the crowd, Overgirl drawn into a one-on-one battle with Supergirl while Prometheus from Earth-X fights Sara and Alex with the rest of the Nazi soldiers firing weapons at Cisco, Caitlin, who then turns into Killer Frost, Mick, Kid Flash and the rest of the guests at the party. Barry races into action to stop some bullets while running his loved ones to safety.
Finally, Prometheus is defeated, Supergirl gets the upper hand on Overgirl and with the tide turning, the Dark Archer orders everyone to retreat. The battle may be over but the war has just begun.
Ghosts from the Past
Back at STAR Labs, the teams regroup while trying to figure out who they’ve just been fighting. That’s when Harry reveals that there is a 53rd Earth in the multi-verse — one so vile that no one ever travels there. It’s called Earth-X — and it’s the planet where Adolf Hitler built the atomic bomb before the U.S. and he used it to win World War II.
Meanwhile, Oliver goes to interrogate Prometheus from Earth-X, who was taken as a prisoner during the fight. When the masked man is finally revealed, Oliver is shocked to see the face of his best friend Tommy Merlyn, who died during ‘Arrow’ season one. Prometheus on ‘Arrow’ wasn’t the same person so of course, Oliver is stunned to see Tommy’s face after all these years.
For a moment it appears the two friends are reconnecting as Tommy tells him stories how children are forced to join the Nazi army and indoctrinated with the ideals of the Third Reich. Oliver promises to help him break free but that’s when Tommy finally reveals that he was just mocking the weakness in the Arrow from Earth-One. Tommy says that such weakness would never be tolerated on Earth-X.
That’s when Tommy produces a cyanide pill and takes it because he’d rather die that give up any information on his allies from Earth-X. Oliver is forced to watch his best friend die all over again, even if it really wasn’t the Tommy Merlyn he knew and loved.
Around this time, the rest of the team get an alert that there’s been a break in at a science lab in Central City by the villains from Earth-X.
Barry, Oliver and Kara race off to stop them but when they arrive, the team from Earth-X have already stolen the piece of technology they came to steal. That’s when they are confronted with the awful truth about the people they are fighting from Earth-X. Oliver and Kara come face to face with their doppelgangers — who are also married on Earth-X — while Barry faces a ghost from the past that he thought was dead when Eobard Thawne aka the Reverse Flash reveals himself as the third member of the Earth-X hierarchy.
Not only is Thawne wearing Harrison Wells’ face, but it seems that this isn’t some evil doppelganger from another universe. This is the same Eobard Thawne that killed Barry’s mother and has tortured him for years. While the character supposedly died during a stint on ‘Legends of Tomorrow’, it seems Thawne is basically unkillable thanks to all the time travel and changes to the past, present and future that keep allowing him to be resurrected.
Now he’s teamed up with the people from Earth-X and he intends on completing this mission.
A fight ensues including Oliver shooting Overgirl with a kryptonite arrow, but the Earth-X’ers are able to escape after nearly tearing down a building under construction, which forces the Flash, Supergirl and Arrow to race over to save innocent people from dying.
They manage to stop the building from collapsing, but the Dark Archer, Overgirl and the Reverse Flash escape with the piece of technology stolen from the lab.
The Heart of It All
As the team returns to STAR Labs, Harry figures out that the gang from Earth-X have stolen a very special prism from an optical lab that when tampered with can turn into a neutron bomb. They believe this is the weapon the Earth-X’ers will use to try and conquer Earth-One.
Meanwhile, Barry and Iris are trying to deal with the fact that Thawne has returned yet again while Caitlin and Felicity use the arrow that Oliver used to shoot Overgirl to get a sample of her blood in hopes of using it to track her location in the city. It turns out that Overgirl’s blood has been oversaturated with radiation from the sun, which will allow them to track down her location.
They finally get it pinpointed down to a warehouse in Central City so Oliver, Barry, Kara and the rest of the team including Firestorm, Alex Danvers and White Canary, mounts up for an attack. As for Wally, he’s been instructed to race Joe and the families to safety, which effectively eliminates them for the rest of the crossover.
With the majority of the heroes off to fight the Earth-X squad, it leaves STAR Labs unguarded and that’s when the Dark Archer shows up. He takes out the rest of Team Arrow, who came in from Star City to lend a hand. He also dispatches Mick Rory and Killer Frost when they team up to try and stop him as well.
Back at the warehouse, Barry, Kara and Oliver are holding their own against the forces from Earth-X but the tide turns when Metallo from Earth-X is revealed as a secret weapon and he quickly takes down the heroes one by one. Soon enough, Barry, Kara, Oliver and the rest of the gang are chained up while wearing some sort of power restricting collars while the forces from Earth-X reveal their true plans for this planet.
When Overgirl doubles over in pain, The Dark Archer explains to the heroes from Earth-One that she is dying — her heart has been weakened from absorbing too much radiation from the sun. So they are going to transform that prism they stole into a red sun to weaken Kara Danvers from Earth-One so they can cut out her heart and transplant it to Overgirl, thus saving her life.
Metallo then blasts everybody from Earth-One and a moment later they wake up chained together at an internment camp on Earth-X. The heroes have been transported to the alternate universe by Oliver in the High Castle and the rest of the Nazi gang.
With plans to cut out Supergirl’s heart, the heroes have to figure a way out of this rather quickly or not only will one of their friends be dead, but Earth-One may soon be under a Nazi regime with no one to stop them.
The second half of the two night crossover continues with ‘The Flash’ and ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ on the CW starting at 8pm ET on Tuesday night!
