Arrow 8x8 : Crisis On Infinite Earths : Part Four review


Be warned there will be *SPOILERS* involved in this review. With that being said let's get into it. 

DC's gigantic crossover finally returns and there is a lot of surprises in store.The fourth part of Crisis On Infinite Earths begins thousands of years in the past with the origin of how both The Monitor and the Anti-Monitor came to be. We see The Monitor (Mar Novu) conducting experiments with his wife whom he calls The Monitor. He is merely a time traveler while she is The Monitor. So what is his latest experiment?? to travel to the Dawn Of Time. Novu open a portal and ends up in the Temporal Zone where we always see The Waverider residing in. Communications get lost between Novu and his wife as he breaks the barrier between his universe and the Anti-Matter universe which in turn lets the Anti-Monitor out into the main universe. Back at the Vanishing Point we see our Paragons still stranded between space and time. Sara mentions how The Flash has been missing for months now, where has he gone?? the rest of the paragons pass time by doing various things like training (Kate) meditating (J'onn) and searching for hope lost (Kara) The Flash does return and cannot even believe he was gone for months. He said he left 2 seconds ago but it actually has been months. So where did Barry go?? he went into the Speedforce to see if it could be a way of escape but no luck in that either. The Paragons are seemingly stuck in the Vanishing Point. Lex and Ryan Choi attempt to come up with a way to send someone (Lex kindly volunteered by Kara) to use some sort of machinery to launch him into the speedforce but that doesn't work either. With no hope of ever getting out of the Vanishing Point things soon begin to look up as Oliver has fully become the Spectre now and goes to visit his friends using his essence to unlock Barry's full potential finally and also sending each Paragon to different points in the timeline. First up is Barry and he arrives at the place that he and Oliver met way back in season 2 of Arrow. It's a real bittersweet moment but it gets totally blown out of the water by what comes next..The Flash next shows up at Star Labs and is greeted by another Flash..It's none other than Ezra Miller's Flash who is completely blown away by what is going on. The two compare suits which was hilarious. Our Flash questions how Ezra Miller's version of The Flash ( He's not called The Flash yet it seems ) is even alive given that every Earth in the multiverse was destroyed in the last part. Ezra Miller's Flash ends up vanishing but not before he says that he told Victor this was possible. Seemingly pointing to time travel and other versions of Barry Allen / The Flash. This scene was such a surprise and has genuinely blown the entire DC TV Universe / Movie Universe completely open. Who knows what the future could hold going forward. 

Not every single hero was placed in a different time period however. Kara, Ryan Choi and Lex are tasked with going to Mar Novu's home planet of Maltus. There they are to intervene before Novu enter the portal at the beginning of the episode therefore letting the Anti-Matter universe into existence. Of course Lex double crosses Kara and goes off on his own to see Novu offering him all sorts of knowledge of the future in return for some of his soon to be cosmic power. It looks like Lex will get his way but Kara and Ryan Choi show up in the nick of time and stop Novu from entering the portal and stop Lex from living out his universe plan. The final number of Paragon's are next shown. Sidenote - whenever these scenes are on screen the screen shifts into a cinematic view and it's so good. A small detail for sure but it makes it all feel so much more epic and important which is good because it really is important. Sara, J'onn and Kate are all shown in different time periods with Sara mainly being the most important. The Flash shows up to each one of these time periods and gathers the Paragons in the Dawn Of Time where the Anti-Monitor awaits for the climactic battle for the universe. 
The episode draws to a close at the Dawn Of Time where our Paragons are guided by Oliver as the Spectre. He tells them to fan the flames that he creates as Shadow Demons rush towards them as the final battle for the universe gets underway. To be honest it's a little bit anti-climactic in a sense that it's just Shadow Demons fighting the Paragons and not the Anti-Monitor himself..but that's for the final part of Crisis (hint, hint) instead it's the Spectre who goes up against The Anti-Monitor as giant beams of anti-matter and energy surround them both. The Paragons watch on from below as Spectre and the Anti-Monitor do battle. They question how to help and with the remaining bit of the Book Of Destiny use it to focus on, Hope, Truth, Love, Justice and Destiny causing Spectre to get the better of the Anti-Monitor. A giant force of energy emits and all that remains is Oliver laying on the ground. But it's above him that is far more interesting. Flash rushes himself and Sara to Oliver's side as his life slowly slips away. He tells them to look up and they do seeing a new universe being formed right before their eyes. They both say their goodbye to Oliver who started this entire Arrowverse as his life ends in a giant sacrifice for a new universe to begin. Overall I would say this was a fitting end for Oliver Queen although I do wish more people were by his side as he died. The episode ends right there and then as a new universe is formed and every life is saved. So how was the episode as a whole? honestly it was really good. Ezra Miller showing up as Barry Allen obviously being the highlight but it was action / emotion packed also as we said goodbye to this universe's biggest hero in the Green Arrow Oliver Queen. One final part now remains and it still has a lot of questions to answer. Let's hope it delivers on that. 

★★★★

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