In the recap for the finale of ‘Crisis on Earth-X’, time is running out to save Supergirl while the heroes from Earth-One try to stop the Nazi invasion…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
The CW had never done a crossover quite as ambitious as ‘Crisis on Earth-X’, which took the four ‘Arrow-verse’ shows and essentially melded them all together for one gigantic, four hour epic with everybody teaming up to take on the Nazi invaders from Earth-X.
The crossover had a little bit of something for everybody with characters from each show playing a major part in how things turned out.
The premise of the crossover started by gathering everyone together for Barry Allen and Iris West’s wedding from ‘The Flash’.
The Nazi invaders came to take over Earth-One but perhaps more importantly was saving their general Overgirl by performing a heart transplant on the only donor that could save her life — Supergirl.
The leader of the Nazi insurgents was the Dark Archer — aka Oliver Queen’s doppelganger — and that left the real Ollie from ‘Arrow’ in charge to lead the resistance while dealing with his own personal drama thanks to a proposal rejection from his girlfriend Felicity Smoak.
And finally, it was the ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ who showed up just in the nick of time to save Supergirl while sadly sacrificing one of their own as Dr. Martin Stein gave his life to stop the Nazis from winning this war in a heartbreaking moment that saw a beloved character who started on ‘The Flash’ say goodbye one last time.
There’s no telling if another crossover will be quite as massive as what they managed to pull off for ‘Crisis on Earth-X’ but this felt less like four episodes of television and more akin to a great two-part movie that ended on a down note in the first half before the good guys one the day in the second half — but not without a personal loss of their own.
It was CW storytelling at its very best it was nice to see everybody played a major part in saving the world.
With that said, let’s recap ‘The Flash’ and ‘Legends of Tomorrow’ for the ‘Crisis on Earth-X’ parts 3 and 4…
Escape from Earth-X
Oliver, Barry and the rest of the gang shipped off to Earth-X are trapped in a concentration camp of sorts where they meet one of the Dark Archer’s generals — Quentin Lance, who is better known on this world as Sturmbannführer — and he’s planning to execute all of them to ensure they won’t stop the Fuhrer from completing his mission on Earth One.
While Sturmbannführer pauses for just a moment when looking at Sara Lance because she reminds him of the daughter he killed for being bisexual and then he proceeds with plans for the execution. Sadly, the heroes are all incapacitated by the collars around their necks that not only inhibit them from using their powers, but any act of aggression is met with a swift electroshock that renders them all barely conscious.
Thankfully, the team meets another person held captive named Ray Terrill — aka The Ray — who was captured by the Nazis and imprisoned for being gay. Thankfully, he has escape plans set up courtesy of his boyfriend Citizen Cold — the Earth-X version of Leonard Snart — who just so happens to be a hero on this world.
Citizen Cold frees the team from their Nazi shackles, which allows his boyfriend Ray to use his powers to light up the soldiers while the rest of the heroes get their abilities back as well. With a window open to escape, they flee the Nazi internment camp and return to the resistance base, which is the STAR Labs on Earth-X.
There the group meets the man in charge of leading the resistance — General Winn Schott — and he’s got plans to attack the main Nazi facility where they are housing the portal that connects Earth-X to the rest of the multi-verse. Because the Fuhrer (Dark Archer), Overgirl and the Reverse Flash are all over on Earth-One, he believes destroying the portal and trapping them on another world will allow the resistance to finally fight and take back Earth-X from the Nazis. Of course, Barry, Oliver and the rest of the heroes from Earth-One don’t particularly like that plan because that would trap them on Earth-X while leaving their home planet ripe for the taking from the Nazi invaders.
Alex tries to reason with Winn, hoping that she’ll form a connection with this Earth-X doppelganger just like her friend back home while Leo Snart shares a tender moment after being reunited with Ray, who we learn is actually from Earth-One originally. Winn agrees to give the heroes one hour to activate the portal to transport them back to their world but after that he’s unleashing his weapon of mass destruction to take out the entire facility.
That’s when Oliver hatches the plan that will allow them to gain entry into the Nazi facility without spilling a drop of blood, while also sparing their lives because the people they’re facing may be evil but they’re not stupid. It seems the Nazis have created some sort of dampening field around this main facility that takes away powers from meta-humans.
So Oliver decides to disguise himself as his doppelganger from Earth-X and when he shows up as the Fuhrer, the guards immediately let him inside.
Oliver does his best to play the part while dealing with Sturmbannführer, who opens the portal briefly to send through their Nazi Waverider, which is expected to be the final weapon used to take down Earth-One. Still, Sturmbannführer doesn’t quite believe that this is his Fuhrer and he tests Oliver by bringing out Felicity’s doppelganger from Earth-X and tells him that she’s a traitor who needs to be executed.
Of course, Oliver can’t kill her and when he tries to turn the gun on Sturmbannführer, there are no bullets.
Oliver quickly switches into action mode, takes out Sturmbannführer and some of the Nazi guards while turning off the dampener, which allows the rest of his super friends to invade the building and fight off the soldiers inside until they can gain control of the portal. Unfortunately, General Schott decides that time is running short so he unleashes his weapon early — and that weapon is the Red Tornado sent on a suicide mission to destroy this Nazi base and the portal that will close off this world forever.
Barry and Ray decide to race off to stop the Red Tornado, while Oliver, Alex, Sara, Citizen Cold and Firestorm battle the Nazi forces inside the facility.
While Firestorm is a force of nature, the key to getting the portal activated will take efforts from both Jefferson and Dr. Stein so they separate in order to compete two tasks at once. Jefferson hot wires the panel that will power the switch to turn on the portal and Dr. Stein races to turn on the machine that will allow them to return home. Sadly while Dr. Stein is running for the switch, a Nazi guard cuts him down with a hail of gunfire.
Despite being shot, Dr. Stein reaches the lever that turns on the portal while Jefferson looks on in horror at his friend dying right in front of his eyes. Jefferson decides to join with Dr. Stein again as Firestorm in hopes that will help keep him alive until they can return home.
Legend Has It
Cisco, Harry, Caitlin, several of the Legends and part of Team Arrow are all being held captive in the pipeline, which is typically reserved for evil meta-humans but the Nazis have turned the tables and trapped the heroes there for safe keeping. That allows Eobard Thawne to prepare his operating table to remove Kara’s heart for a transplant that will save Overgirl, who is dying from over exposure to Earth’s yellow sun.
Of course, Thawne has to taunt Supergirl — even noting how he ran into her cousin Superman in the future and while the Man of Steel was fast, Reverse Flash was still faster.
Kara’s only hope is the new dynamic due of the Arrow-verse as Iris and Felicity have hidden out in the air ducts playing ‘Die Hard’ while trying to figure out a way to save everybody. They eventually take out a pair of Nazi guards and attempt to open up the pipeline to free Cisco and the rest of the gang, but there’s not enough power to open the main gate. Felicity decides to call backup by placing an emergency signal to the Legends of Tomorrow to return from whatever time they’re in currently and to hurry back to STAR Labs to hopefully save the day.
With time running out, Felicity shuts down the power in STAR Labs, which forces Thawne to forgo his operation on Supergirl. Sadly, Metallo discovers the girls and brings them back to the Fuhrer as prisoners.
Thawne threatens to cut down Felicity if she doesn’t turn back on the power and Kara wakes up from her surgery slumber just long enough to tell her to do what he says because she won’t let anybody die to save her. Felicity finally gives up the code to turn back on the lights and Thawne is ready to proceed with his surgery.
Just when he’s about to slice into Kara’s chest cavity, his scalpel stops short of her skin and he can’t go any further. That’s when we see Ray Palmer aka the Atom is holding the knife from harming Supergirl. He quickly reanimates himself into full size, blasts Thawne and the Dark Archer as they make a run to escape after the Legends show up just in time.
At that same moment, the heroes from Earth-One return through the portal from Earth-X while Ray, Felicity and Iris open up the pipeline to free their friends from captivity.
Everybody teams up to take out Metallo — blowing him into a million pieces — but the Dark Archer takes Felicity hostage until Oliver shows up holding a weakened Overgirl with a knife to her throat as well. It’s an old fashioned standoff until the Reverse Flash speeds in and snatches his cohorts and runs back to safety as STAR Labs has been returned to its rightful owners.
Death in the Family
While everyone has returned home, Jefferson separates from Dr. Stein and Caitlin soon discovers that they’re both dying. It seems Dr. Stein is too far gone to save but his connection to Jefferson is keeping him alive while simultaneously killing him at the same time.
That’s when Dr. Stein decides to make the ultimate sacrifice — he tells Jefferson to give him the formula that Cisco and Harry came up with that would allow them to separate from each other once and for all, essentially destroying the Firestorm matrix all together. Jefferson tries to argue but Dr. Stein refuses to allow him to die.
Stein asks Jefferson to tell his family that he loved them very much and he drinks the potion, which almost immediately separates them for good and that leaves the doctor quickly fading from his injuries. A few moments later, Dr. Stein dies as Jefferson mourns the loss of his friend and father figure.
While the entire team is stunned at the loss of Dr. Stein, they still have a problem because Overgirl is not only dying but if she is meets her demise, her body won’t just fade away. Instead all that radiation that she’s absorbed will turn her into some sort of supernova, which will destroy the Earth and everyone on it.
Sadly, the Nazis have made it on board their own evil Waverider, which makes tracking them that much harder. The Dark Archer sends a message to the heroes — he’s willing to call a truce and leave this world alone in exchange for Supergirl so she can save the woman he loves.
Oliver quickly declines his offer and says no one else from his side is going to die today.
The entire team mounts up and prepares for one last battle against the Nazi invaders from Earth-X.
The Final Countdown
Oliver leads his band of brothers and sister into battle against the forces from Earth-X and of course we get one of those epic ‘Reservoir Dog’ style slo-mo group walking scenes as the heroes gather to face off with the bad guys.
A huge battle ensues but ultimately the fight comes down to just a few key matchups in order to save the day. Oliver ends up fighting his doppelganger the Dark Archer while Barry locks horns with the Reverse Flash yet again. In perhaps the best line of the entire series, Supergirl shows up to the evil Waverider, locks eyes with her doppelganger and utters the words ‘General, care to step outside?’ — an homage to ‘Superman 2’, which was just amazing.
Supergirl and Overgirl go to war while Cisco and Harry drive the Waverider to chase down the Nazi’s in the evil Waverider. Caitlin uses her icy powers to race up to the evil Waverider along with a couple of the Legends as they bust inside to take down the shields so Cisco can bring the ship down once and for all.
As the heroes gain the upper hand, Barry gets the better of Thawne but rather than killing him, he ultimately lets him go. Barry knows that killing Thawne probably won’t stop him anyways and he’d rather not have the stain of a murder on his soul. Thawne races away but not before telling Barry that they will cross paths again one day but he’s not sure what face he’ll be wearing.
On a side note, Tom Cavanagh absolutely kills it whenever he’s playing Eobard Thawne so my money is on allowing him to carry on that role whenever the Reverse Flash has to make an appearance from now on.
As for Supergirl, she defeats Overgirl but her doppelganger goes nuclear so she carries her far out of Earth’s atmosphere before dropping her in space where she explodes. Supergirl fall back down to Earth but thankfully Nate from the Legends is there to catch her.
And finally, the Dark Archer sees the love of his life dying in the sky and that distracts him long enough for Oliver to get the best of him in battle before shooting an arrow right through his heart. The Nazis have been defeated, Earth-One has been saved and the heroes win again.
Two Weddings and a Funeral
With the Nazi forces defeated, Ray prepares to return home but his boyfriend Leo Snart decides to stick around Earth-One a little while longer. This version of Leonard Snart is fantastic and sadly the character will be leaving at some point this season so getting him to stick around for even a little while longer is good news. My guess is Leonard is going to search for Ray’s family since his boyfriend does come from Earth-One.
It’s then time for everyone to gather to say a final goodbye to Dr. Martin Stein.
Jefferson has to go to tell Stein’s family, which is a heart wrenching scene ahead of the funeral where he speaks a few words about his fallen friend. All of the heroes who knew or loved Stein said goodbye in their own way — Caitlin asking Dr. Stein to say hello to Ronnie for her while Barry thanked him for getting him home again. Tears were shed and it was a sad day for all as the world said a fond farewell to Dr. Martin Stein.
Following the funeral, Kara and Alex prepare to return to their Earth. Alex shares one last goodbye with Sara, who has now become a friend in the wake of their one night stand. Kara opens the portal and they go back to their Earth while the Legends mount up to return to the Waverider leaving only Barry, Iris, Oliver and Felicity.
That’s when Barry and Iris decide to forgo another big wedding and instead just say their vows with a friend marrying them. Barry runs to Star City, picks up Diggle and returns with him because he was ordained in order to perform his sister’s wedding ceremony.
After Diggle vomits thanks to the motion sickness from running with Barry, he happily accepts the invitation to marry them. Barry and Iris say their vows — more tears were shed — but just before they kiss, Felicity interrupts and decides that she wants to marry Oliver right here and now. Last episode, Felicity declined Oliver’s marriage proposal because she believed that it was almost bad luck to get married after what happened the last time they got engaged (she was shot the next day).
But after nearly losing each other in separate universes, Felicity knows she doesn’t want to spend a day apart from Oliver from now until forever.
Diggle finishes up with a double ceremony as Barry and Iris kiss and so do Felicity and Oliver as the super friends wedding comes to a close.
All in all, an action packed and incredibly well executed crossover as ‘Crisis on Earth-X’ has set a new bar for whatever the writers might have in store for next season.
‘The Flash’ returns with one more episode before the midseason break next Tuesday night at 8pm ET on the CW.
https://youtu.be/r3cU7dMfwMo
