‘The Flash’ came to a conclusion for season 5 on Tuesday night with one team member being lost with the epic ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ crossover being teased…
‘The Flash’ season 5 came to a close on Tuesday night with a tragic ending for one character while also setting up the epic ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ crossover that’s coming later this year.
A season long battle to stop a meta-human killing machine named Cicada finally concluded with the villain being defeated but the true purpose of why this big bad was so important only came to light in the past two weeks.
Cicada’s primary weapon was a dagger forged in dark matter that is able to dampen the powers of any meta-human. That dagger was later used in a plot to send out a virus that would blanket the entire world in order to kill every meta-human on Earth. At the same time, Eobard Thawne aka the Reverse Flash had been ‘coaching’ Nora West-Allen — Barry and Iris’ daughter from the future — from a prison cell in an attempt to help her stop Cicada, who was blamed for the disappearance of The Flash in the past.
Nora never got to know her father because of his disappearance so Thawne was assisting her in stopping Cicada before Barry was taken out of action.
In reality, however, Thawne’s plan was all based around assisting Nora and Team Flash eliminating Cicada’s dagger in the past, thus eliminating the possibility that it survived into the future. It turns out Cicada’s power-dampening dagger was being used to stop Thawne from using his speed, which allow the authorities to keep him locked up for years leading to his planned execution.
Despite discovering Thawne’s true plan, Team Flash was still forced to destroy the dagger in the past in order to stop Cicada, which then allowed the Reverse Flash to return to full strength. Thankfully, Barry and the rest of the team arrived in the future to stop him before he could escape.
A fight ensued but in the end, Thawne was able to get away after realizing that the timeline had been reset, which ultimately led to Nora being blinked out of existence. Barry and Iris had an emotional goodbye with their daughter from the future as she disappeared from their arms and ceased to exist.
After returning home to present day, Team Flash starts to put the pieces back together as Cisco decided to take his meta-human cure so he would no longer have any powers. Caitlin discovered a suit made for her as Killer Frost. Ralph went back to his detective business where he began an investigation into a woman named ‘Dearbon’, which could be a hint that his comic book significant other Sue Dearbon (later known as Sue Dibny) may be joining the series in season 6. Joe West was promoted to captain of the Central City Police while Barry and Iris received a video message left behind for them from Nora before this final adventure began.
After Barry and Iris said goodbye to Nora one last time in the time chamber inside STAR Labs, they leave but fail to see the newspaper from the future that changes in the wake of the timeline shift.
Back in ‘The Flash’ season one, Thawne revealed a newspaper from the future dated in 2024 that said ‘The Flash Vanishes, Missing in Crisis’ and that story was what led Nora back in time in an attempt to save her father. Now that the timeline has been reset, the newspaper headline remained the same but the date changed to 2019.
That headline now teases the upcoming ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ crossover that will spread across all of the CW superhero series later this year. The event series was set up during the previous crossover titled ‘Elseworlds’ and now we know more information about what lies ahead.
The comic book event ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ sought to wipe the slate clean in the DC Universe by condensing down the multi-verse and eliminating multiple origin stories and convoluted crossovers that had made following the comics for a new reader nearly impossible because of all the different backstories for the characters. The event series ended with two major characters dying — Supergirl and The Flash — in an effort to save the world.
From the sound of things, the ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ crossover on the CW will also shake up the foundation of all the series currently airing on the network. ‘Arrow’ will wrap up with a shortened final season coming later this year, which has led many to speculate that Oliver Queen will be the one to sacrifice himself to safe the world thus ending his story and bringing that show to a conclusion.
It seems entirely possible that more characters from the many DC series on the CW will also perish as part of this massive crossover event.
Stay tuned for more details on ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ as the CW series get back into production later this year.
