In the aftermath of Oliver's Heroic Sacrifice, a brand-new Earth is born. However, everything is not so simple and the heroes must unite one last time to bring an end to the Anti-Monitor's threat once and for all.
Tropes:
- Abandoned Area: The Hall of Justice is derelict and in need of maintenance and repair. An obvious sign of neglect on the owner's part, since neither he nor any of his crew have used it for over three years.
- Adaptational Villainy: Sargon the Sorcerer, a superhero in the main DC universe, is a supervillain in the Arrowverse.
He was however, a villain during the Silver Age. - Ambiguous Situation: The fates of the pre-Crisis Earth-16, Earth-18, Earth-66, Earth-74, Earth-75, Earth-89, Earth-90, Earth-99, Earth-167, Earth-203 and Earth-666 are not shown or mentioned after The Multiverse reboot. For the matter, whether or not the post-crisis Earth-2 and Earth-19 retain any of their pre-Crisis denizens are not touched upon.
Word of God did reveal that Earth-167 did survive. They also implied that all the Cameo universes were restored in some form as DC wouldn't let them blow up all their previous franchises and properties without them restoring them later. - And I Must Scream: This is the fate of the Anti-Monitor. A shrink bomb that sends him shrinking indefinitely into the Microverse.
- And the Adventure Continues:
- The episode ends with the freshly started Justice League going after Gleek, a giggling creature that broke out from its confinement.
- This ending is also given to the Earth-96 Superman, the Paragon of Truth, who appears in his classic costume with the classic Superman theme playing at the end of Oliver's narration describing the new Multiverse.
- As You Know: Alex drops a lot of exposition to Supergirl.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever:
- An amorphous Beebo at the beginning, summoned by Sargon the Sorcerer.
- The Anti-Monitor at the end.
- Back from the Dead: Everyone who was destroyed by the antimatter is brought back to life, albeit with yet unseen differences due to it being a new multiverse. Also Sara Diggle who was Ret Goned because of Flashpoint.
- Bait-and-Switch: The attack by the giant Beebo is completely unrelated to the Crisis, unlike what everyone thought. It was just a construct by Sargon the Sorcerer.
- Barrier Warrior: The Anti-Monitor easily blocks the collective assault of the heroes with a barrier.
- Batman Grabs a Gun: While a number of the heroes adhere strictly to a no-killing policy, the Anti-Monitor is such a threat that they have no compunctions about dooming him to keep shrinking for all eternity.
- Big Damn Heroes: Jefferson shows up to help Mick and Killer Frost in the defense of STAR Labs against the Shadow Demons.
- Bittersweet Ending: The Multiverse is saved thanks to the actions of the Paragons and the other heroes of the new Earth-Prime. Although Oliver remains dead, the whole world learns of his heroic deeds and rightfully honor him. Lastly, all of this inspires Barry to form the Justice League of America.
- Blob Monster: The giant Beebo. When the heroes attempted to trip it the wire just went through its legs, and when Sargon is captured Beebo melts into a mass of (stinky) goo.
- Bookends:
- The Crisis began with the Monitor narrating the start of the Multiverse, the Age of Heroes, and the erasure of multiple alternate Earths. The Crisis ends with the same narration, this time from Oliver, as the multiverse is reborn.
- The Arrowverse's first large-scale crossover has a moment at the end with Oliver and Sara reminiscing about how the two of them are ultimately the reason so many of these heroes were able to come together and fight side-by-side. It only seems right that its final one ends with the two of them as well. Save for the last minute or so of exposition, the episode closes with Sara's final words to her friend.
- Brick Joke: Barry finally putting together a team to respond to greater threats like the Anti-Monitor. Just like Gideon said he would way back in Season 1's "The Trap".
- The Cameo:
- Several characters from different Earths briefly appear during the final montage, including the Titans (once again via archived footage), Swamp Thing, and the Doom Patrol. Even Stargirl (alongside the rest of the new Justice Society) appears prior to the debut of her own show.
- Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen returns for possibly the last time, narrating the ending montage.
- Continuity Nod:
- Barry mentions that Wally told him the story about when he, during his tenure with the Legends, helped them form a giant Beebo with the six Totems. Sara also considers the possibility if someone stole them, with Ava shooting it down by saying Behrad still has the Air Totem on the ship.
- Speaking of which, Behrad has still replaced Zari as a Legend due to changes to the latter's timeline.
- Mick is now a publicly famous author after announcing he was Rebecca Silver at a convention.
- Creator Cameo: Veteran DC scribe (and the brains behind the original Crisis books) Marv Wolfman asking for an autograph from Flash and Supergirl after taking care of Weather Witch.
- Cosmic Retcon: Multitudes. Of those currently known:
- Lex Luthor is somehow a Villain with Good Publicity, even going so far as to be a beneficiary of the DEO. Given that he was part of recreating the universe, he probably did this on purpose.
- Lois and Clark apparently have two sons instead of just baby Jonathan.
- Weather Witch, normally a Flash villain, is now also a Supergirl villain, thanks to their universes getting merged.
- John and Lyla have their son John Jr. and daughter Sara, undoing the latter's Ret-Gone as a result of Flashpoint.
- There's a different President of the United States than either Earth-38's Plastino or the last President we saw for Earth-1 (Susan Brayden).
- The Arrow 2040 characters have returned to their own time.
- The Superman of Earth-96 has the traditional yellow Chest Insignia instead of the black one, suggesting that his Lois and their friends were either resurrected or their deaths never happened at all.
- Death Amnesia: With the exception of the Paragons and the people whose memories J'onn restores, nobody on Earth-Prime (and presumably the entire multiverse) remembers dying via antimatter wave.
- Demoted to Extra: Luthor doesn't participate in the final battle, only showing up for a single scene near the beginning. By comparison, while Ryan doesn't join the fight either, at least he helps build the bomb that defeats the Anti-Monitor.
- Denser and Wackier: Sara makes an offhand comment that wacky adventures like fighting a giant Beebo are normal for her and her friends, and are likely to become much more common in the new universe thanks to her role in creating it.
- Description Cut: When Sara tells Ava over comms that the Legends don't have to leave DC, Ava replied that there's already another Legend conveniently in Star City at the moment. We then cut to Mick at the book-signing of his new work.
- Dramatic Irony:
- Nia, attending Luthor's Nobel ceremony, gushes over how good it is to see the award going to someone who deserves it.
- Alex, talking to Kara about the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. "Kara, we're talking about Lex Luthor. He's the best guy."
- Due to the Dead: Multiple to Oliver.
- The battlecry "For Oliver!" as the heroes charge for the final battle.
- The President ends her broadcast telling people worldwide to pay their respects.
- Oliver's costume is on display at the Hall of Justice, with Kara igniting an arrow-shaped memorial torch in front of it.
- The round table Barry shows his comrades has chairs assigned by their respective symbols. An extra chair with arrowhead symbol sits between Barry and Sara's for their fallen comrade.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The New Earth-2 features the Stargirl cast months before the show's series premiere.
- Easily Forgiven: Averted, everybody is still rightfully pissed at Nash for causing the whole crisis.
- Empty Chair Memorial: A seat was made for the deceased Oliver in the Hall of Justice.
- Exposition Beam: J'onn J'onzz restores everyone's pre-Crisis memories by touching their foreheads.
- Filler Villain: Weather Witch and Sargon and his giant Beebo are only around for about a few minutes apiece and have no real impact on the main plot.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: The trio of Heat Wave, Killer Frost and Black Lightning defending STAR Labs.
- Five Stages of Grief: While John, Rene and Dinah are already accepting Oliver's death, Sara is still in denial, with John having to spell it out to her that he is gone. At that point, she starts moving forward.
- Foreshadowing: Ava being on the Waverider instead of the Time Bureau headquarters hints at the Bureau's fate in the following Legends episode.
- Genre Savvy: Kate almost immediately deduces that Mega-Beebo is meant to be a distraction. Mick just as quickly identifies what it's a distraction for — a bank robbery by its creator, Sargon the Sorcerer.
- Hannibal Lecture: The Anti-Monitor tries this on the heroes, followed swiftly by a Shut Up, Hannibal! by Sara.
- Hero of Another Story: Stargirl, Titans, Green Lantern, Swamp Thing, and Doom Patrol all appear in the closing montage.
- Hurl It into the Sun: Mick suggests doing this to the Anti-Monitor. Nash shoots it down by pointing out this would just blow up the sun and kill the whole solar system.
- I'm Standing Right Here: Kara momentarily takes offense at Sara assuming the giant Beebo is "alien".
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Despite Earths 1, 38, and BL becoming a Merged Reality, acquainted characters retain their connection.
- Despite the rebooted The Multiverse, Earth-9 and Earth-96 retain their essence.
- Much like the pre-Crisis Earth-167 Clark and Lois, the Earth-Prime versions have two children.
- Internal Reveal:
- J'onn projects to most of the people who appeared during Crisis the truth about what happened.
- The president announces the death of Oliver Queen (and Green Arrow by proxy) to the public.
- Irony: Nate, who's given a "hard pass" to crossovers, is one of the handful of Legends that are in the crossover.
- Is Nothing Sacred?: Barry asks Sargon this about using Beebo, and seems pretty pissed about it.
- It's a Long Story: Defied: Sara tries to use this after mentioning that a giant Beebo isn't that odd to her, only for Barry to pipe up:Barry: [in realization] That's right, Wally told us about the time you guys used those totems to turn yourselves into a giant Beebo to fight a time demon.
Sara: I guess it's not a long story. - It's Personal: Mick is pissed when the giant Beebo disrupts his autograph session.
- Karma Houdini: Unlike on Earth-38, where the public was aware of how evil Lex Luthor was, on Earth-Prime, he's seen as a selfless hero to the public despite very much still a villain in secret. Given he's one of the seven Paragons that helped form the new Multiverse, it's likely he did this himself.
- Kansas City Shuffle: "Beebo" is revealed to be one — a distraction to keep law enforcement and any superheros busy while Sargon the Sorcerer complete his bank robbery.
- Lampshade Hanging:
- Rene and John mention how they too had a "Rory" in their team, when sharing a drink with Mick.
- Since both Barry and his crew neglected the upkeep on the old STAR Labs hangar since the events of Invasion, it has shown signs of disrepair. Jefferson confuses it for a condemned building.
- Late to the Realization: It takes Barry and Kara a minute to realize something is wrong with the fact that they now apparently share an Earth.Kara: Wait, wait, what are you doing on my Earth?
Barry: [scoffs] Your Earth? This...[dawning realization] is my Earth...
Kara: ...I thought—
Barry: I thought...
[both look around in confusion] - Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- The President calling the Green Arrow the "first of our heroes". Because of heroes like Batman and Superman as well as the Justice Society, this line rides on a meta level, since he is the star of the show that started the entire Arrowverse.
- Oliver Queen's narration of The Multiverse's rebirth takes place before the scene of Barry forming the Justice League. It would be more fitting if it's the actual closing shot. However, taken another way, it's basically Oliver passing responsibility to his surviving friends in the League.
- They actually re-purpose the old STAR Labs set used as their HQ for the Dominator invasion. It's dirty and looks condemned and abandoned since apparently, no one has been using it after over three years.
- Logical Latecomer: Rene and Dinah, still not as experienced with crossovers compared to the rest, wonder if rampaging Beebos are natural for crossovers.
- Manly Tears: John Diggle breaks down crying over his twice-over failure to prevent Oliver from dying, feeling he wasn't able to protect his brother.
- Merged Reality: The new Earth the Paragons ended up creating has enough elements of Earth-1, Earth-38 and the Black Lightning Earth to effectively be an amalgamation of the three.
- Mood Whiplash: Acknowledged In-Universe: right as the group is coming to terms with the fact that Oliver died to save the multiverse, they are distracted by reports of a giant Beebo rampaging downtown. As Sara and Dinah point out, they do need the distraction.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Once Nash wakes up and J'onn gives him the memory of how he released the Anti-Monitor, he's clearly remorseful over his actions. In particular, he goes from being annoyed over being "lectured" by J'onn to almost falling backwards in horror, having to steady himself against his bed.Nash: God...I'm sorry...I'm so sorry...
- Mythology Gag:
- The synopsis is directly taken from a phrase stated by the Psycho-Pirate in the source material.
- This isn't the first time a weather-manipulator normally trading blows with the Flash suddenly became a Supergirl villain. The DC Animated Universe did it first, technically — in the DCAU, Weather Wizard is an enemy of Superman, even becoming leader of the Superman Revenge Squad — becoming a Gender Flip for both characters.
- When discussing ways to deal with the Anti-Monitor, Mick suggests tossing him into the sun and blowing him up, which is how he was ultimately killed in the original comic. The idea doesn't fly as well here, largely because in the comic, the sun in question was in a completely different universe and could explode harmlessly.
- Ray and Ryan being Birds of a Feather as they brainstorm on a way to defeat the Anti-Monitor. The latter is a Legacy Character to the former.
- When the heroes are assembled for their memorial to Oliver, they're roughly arranged in a V-Formation Team Shot with the sun shining behind them, likely a reference to the intro of Justice League.
- Barry using the old STAR Labs facility from the Invasion! crossover as the meeting place, which resembles the Hall of Justice. After the heroes sit down at the new conference table, we hear what sounds like a monkey running around. We then see an empty cage, the name on the cage door being "Gleek". A variant of the 1970s Super Friends theme even plays underneath.
- The conference table has the respective logos of each member on the back of the chair. During the fight against Lexiac in Justice League Unlimited, that Flash commented "I've got a seat at the big conference table, I'm gonna paint my logo on it!"
- The table itself has a shield with a big star in it, calling back to the various Justice League logos used over the years, which often have a shield shape and a star somewhere (typically dotting the "i" in "Justice").
- In the montage showing the rebuilt multiverse, Earth-2 is the home of the Justice Society, from the upcoming series Stargirl. Its version of Wildcat is Yolanda Montez, who, in the comics, took the mantle of Wildcat in the pages of Crisis on Infinite Earths, in 1985.
- Not His Sled: For a moment there in the Final Battle, Kara looked like she was about to bum rush the Anti-Monitor, and the musical cue makes it sound like it might be a Heroic Sacrifice. Basically, a scene where it's like hitting two birds with one stone from the source material: Supergirl's death, and Earth-2 Kal-L delivering the finishing blow to the Anti-Monitor. But then Ray finally arrives with the shrink bomb and stops Kara in her tracks.
- Not Quite Dead: Oliver didn't quite destroy the Anti-Monitor, who shows up for one last battle.
- One to Million to One: The final battle barely began before the Shadow Demons merge and the Anti-Monitor appears in their mist.
- Or Was It a Dream?: Kara spends the first few moments of the episode confused if the events of Crisis were a dream or not. If Lex getting the Nobel Prize and running the DEO wasn't enough of a clue for Kara, J'onn spelling it out for her did the job.
- Public Secret Message: While Kara is clearly freaking out over seeing Lex show up to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, she locks eyes with him...who then winks. A second layer is revealed shortly after, with Alex mentioning to Kara that, despite not usually accepting his awards in person, Lex made a point to do so for this one...
- Regained Memories Sequence: J'onn returns several characters' memories of the original multiverse via Exposition Beam, causing them to remember the events of the Crisis from the previous episodes of the crossover.
- The Reveal: Quite a few at the end concerning the Multiverse, which as in the comic has been consolidated:
- Earth-1, Earth-38 and Black Lightning's Earth are merged together to become Earth-Prime, with The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, Black Lightning and the final two episodes of Arrow now taking place on the same Earth.
- Earth-2 is restored, now populated by the cast of the upcoming Stargirl series with her Justice Society of America (S.T.R.I.P.E., Wildcat, Sandman and Dr. Mid-Nite), though it's of course unclear whether it's a new Earth-2, or the same one we're familiar with.
- Earth-9 is restored, still home of the Titans.
- Earth-12 is home to the Green Lantern Corps, with footage used from the 2011 film.
- Earth-19 is restored, and is now home to Swamp Thing; the fact that the events of Swamp Thing were established without the changes local to the pre-Crisis Earth-19 suggests the Earth-19 we were familiar with is gone for good.
- Earth-21 is home to the Doom Patrol.
- Earth-96 is restored, with the yellow restored to Earth-96 Superman's crest. These are the Earths that are known, whether there are others remains to be seen.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: The Paragons are the only ones to remember the original Multiverse. Sadly, this throws our heroes for quite a loop at first, especially poor Kara.
- Serious Business: Both Barry and Sara agree that using Beebo to do supervillain stuff is not ok.Barry: Come on, man. Beebo? Is nothing sacred?
Sara: You know, it's a smart move, distracting all the fuzz with giant fuzz, but someone should've told you. Beebo? He's off limits. - Shockwave Stomp: The Anti-Monitor knocks the collective heroes back with a giant shockwave before growing in size.
- Skewed Priorities:
- Ray takes the time to take a selfie with the giant, rampaging Beebo.
- Kara takes a moment to geek out about Kate joining the fight once she shows up before realizing they should focus.
- Sore Loser: Sara mentions being one, recalling how her sister always let her win back when they were kids.
- Spared by the Adaptation: In the comic books, only one Earth is the survivor in the Crisis on Infinite Earths, primarily based on Earth-1 while adding elements and characters from other Earths (like Earth-2). While it initially seems Earth-Prime is the only universe restored by the Cosmic Retcon, an ending montage shows that The Multiverse is resurrected, although there are changes from the old one.
- Status Quo Is God: Averted. The Multiverse does return from being destroyed, but some of the Earths are not exactly as they were before. In particular, Earth-1, Earth-38 and Black Lightning's Earth have merged into a single composite Earth, called Earth-Prime.
- Swiss-Cheese Security: Lampshaded by Rene after Sara, Barry and Kara, and Nash each infiltrate the Team Arrow bunker in succession.
- That's What I Would Do: Once the heroes realize "Beebo" is just a distraction, it's Mick — a former bank robber — who deduces the purpose of the diversion. He even quotes the trope nearly word for word.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Lex Luthor, in the new Earth-Prime. He even says the Trope almost word-for-word.
- We Need a Distraction: Sargon conjures a giant Beebo to rampage around town while he robs a jewelry store.
- Wham Line:
- Several would count for Kara in regards to Lex's new status, but the capper would be Alex offhandedly mentioning he's their boss.
- After Barry shows up to take out Weather Witch, Kara is still noticeably confused.Kara: Well, what's she doing on my Earth?
Barry: What?
Kara: Wait, wait, what are you doing on my Earth?
Barry: [scoffs] Your Earth? This...is my Earth...
- Wham Shot:
- Two In-Universe for Kara: Lex arriving to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, and seeing the DEO logo now saying "A LuthorCorp Subsidiary".
- The DEO gets an alert of someone attacking the city, which Kara races off to deal. We then cut to a vortex of lightning...being manipulated by Weather Witch. And then Barry shows up as backup for Kara, revealing that this is not an Earth-38 version of Weather Witch but the result of Earths 1 and 38 merging into an Earth-Prime.
- Later, it turns out Earth-38 wasn't the only Earth that merged with Earth-1. Right as Mick and Frost are about to face off with another Anti-Monitor ghost, a blast of lightning appears...Jefferson is there for the rescue!
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- In a Dramatic Irony sense, Alex is confused why Kara would call Lex a psychopath given how he and Lena both did so much for her.
- J'onn is practically snarling when confronting Nash at STAR Labs over his role in the Crisis, with Caitlin being more neutral after getting the memories from J'onn. However, to Nash's credit, once he gets reminded, he practically goes catatonic with grief and apologizes profusely.J'onn: You nearly damned us all to Hell, Nash Wells!
- Played for Laughs: After Sara informs Nate and Ava that she and Ray were busy "saving the multiverse", they both get incensed with the fact that she got roped into another crossover. Ava in particular accuses the others of kidnapping her.Nate: This is a classic crossover move. We tell 'em we're too busy, they commit a felony.
Ava: [nods in annoyed agreement]
- The World Is Always Doomed: Given a Lampshade Hanging.Jefferson: I mean, how often does the world almost come to an end? [chuckles]
[others give meaningful looks]
Jefferson: Oh, it's like that. - Written-In Absence: Sara had previously stated that she made an agreement so the Legends do not have to do another crossover. While some appear in this episode, others don't: Charlie, Constantine, Mona, Nora, and Behradnote are all absent in this episode.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: The Paragons saw the Anti-Monitor get killed in the last episode, so they have reason to believe it's all over. The threats they've tackled ever since (Weather Witch, Sargon the Sorceror) are minor in comparison...until a Shadow Demon attacks Barry and Sara.
