Supergirl: Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part One

December 8, 2019 7:13 PM - Season 5, Episode 9

The Monitor sends Harbinger to gather the worlds' greatest heroes - Supergirl, The Flash, Green Arrow, Batwoman, White Canary, The Atom and Superman - in preparation for the impending Crisis. With their worlds in imminent danger, the superheroes suit up for battle while J'onn and Alex recruit Lena to help them find a way to save the people of Earth-38.

TV Line - 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' Part 1: EPs Talk [Spoiler]'s Shocking Sacrifice

Den of Geek recap - Supergirl does a phenomenal job setting the stakes as "Crisis On Infinite Earths" kicks off with "Part One."

Den of Geek - Ahead of The CW's Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover event, here's a handy Arrowverse cheat sheet.

posted by oh yeah! (12 comments total)

I was not expecting that to happen right off the bat. Do you think we get the Earth-16 2046 Oliver for the rest of Crisis or are we going to get a healing ray (or some-such) in the first few minutes of Part II?
posted by Ignorantsavage at 7:35 PM on December 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

I'm not normally one to say "I want to watch that again to catch what I missed" but this might be the exception--or at least the opening might be. I presume that's supposed to be Ace (or one of Ace's descendants) with Burt Ward's Dick Grayson. I hope we get a tiny bit more of Earth-66.

I'd be fine with Earth-16's Oliver (or another multiverse doppleganger) for a brief time during the Crisis, but I think we need an episode or two without Oliver, just to drive home the impact of his sacrifice, and to illustrate the hole he has left as the founding hero of the Arrowverse.
posted by sardonyx at 8:06 PM on December 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

I am very happy that Oliver called out the Monitor about reneging on the deal of Oliver's life for Barry's and Kara's continuing existence. I had exactly the same complaint that Oliver expressed (and I posted about it in one of these threads), and like Oliver, I feel that the Monitor cheated or was underhanded in his dealings with Oliver.
posted by sardonyx at 8:09 PM on December 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

I always thought that the deal was to save them from last year's threat. As far as Oliver's loss goes, I think it might have had more impact if John and crew had been there. Seeing him dead/near death this early is just crying out red herring.
posted by Ignorantsavage at 9:49 PM on December 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

Oliver's death felt pretty underwhelming/anticlimactic. I can see the EP's point about not drawing it out to happen in one of the last parts of the crossover, but Amell has gotten me pretty choked up at various scenes in this season of Arrow, whereas the actual death scene left me cold. Also, technically we still have the 'Arrow' part of Crisis coming up (though I imagine that this crossover event will be like Elseworlds in not really centering one any specific show in each part regardless of which production made the episode) and then there will be two post-Crisis Arrow episodes before its over for good.

The idea of evacuating billions of people from one planet to another in minutes is a pretty hard to accept as remotely possible, not to mention the logistics of how all those people are supposed to fit into an already-populated planet. Is there a National City in Earth-whichever-number-is-the-Flash+Arrrow+Legends Earth is? Will Supergirl have to have all new/different sets post-Crisis? (I don't really need an answer to the question, I assume some of this will be resolved in a later part, if the multiverse collapses into one, as I guess happened in the comics, I just want to get my confusion out into words before tonight's part.)
posted by oh yeah! at 4:31 PM on December 9, 2019 [3 favorites]

Den of Geek - Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 1 DC Easter Eggs Explained
posted by oh yeah! at 8:20 PM on December 9, 2019

Rolling Stone: Inside ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths,’ CW’s Mind-Bending DC Crossover Event
posted by plastic_animals at 10:18 AM on December 10, 2019

Wow, that was filled to the brim with... everything. I don't usually rewatch these shows but I may binge all five episodes after they all air.

I didn't catch all of them but the Earth numbers are based on the year the actor appeared in the role: Robert Wuhl (1989 Earth-89), Burt Ward (1966 Earth-66), old, sad, Oliver (2016 Earth-16), etc.

I am also curious as to how much more Oliver (and which one) we will see. He at least has to be around for the Arrow Crisis finale and the series finale, right?

It makes sense to me that they brought denizens of Earth-38 to Earth-1 as that bring aliens into the Flash, Batwoman and Arrow world. But, yes, will Supergirl get a reset and start from scratch? That would seem unlikely given that it is the highest-rated Arrowverse show.
posted by plastic_animals at 10:50 AM on December 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

Wow, I didn't expect that all of Earth 38 (I guess Jimmy and Cat are gone?) is kaboombah. Argo City, sure, but ... dang. I will tactfully not say how you can't haul 3 billion people out in five minutes because well, sci fi show. What the heck are they going to do about the Supergirl show now?!

Well, it's certainly unexpected to (most likely temporarily) kill Oliver in the first act. I assume we'll fish up some other versions from other universes to finish out though?
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:54 AM on December 11, 2019 [1 favorite]

I'm pretty confident Earth-38, and all the other Earths that got wiped out, will reappear at the end of Crisis. Earth-1 can't hold another 3 billion. And yeah they really hand-waved the logistics of shuttling 3 billion people through portals that Lena hasn't even tested yet. Also, if they bring the Earths back, that would mean Oliver's sacrifice was for nothing, unless somebody among those last billion he saved turns out to be a Paragon.

Also, this Crisis really puts Leviathan in a worse position than what I described previously. In all these literally millions of years they've been on Earth, they didn't develop any technology to detect this anti-matter wave? And wouldn't have any way to stop it? And now had to rely on the Monitor and these "quantum towers" that he apparently planted forever ago to save them? Did they make it out with the exodus?

Maybe the Monitor ran into them when he was installing the towers and was like "Listen, I don't care what you do on this Earth, but don't touch my tower and you'll be saved in 2019, just get on an alien ship when it comes knocking."
posted by numaner at 1:19 PM on December 11, 2019 [2 favorites]

waaaaaaait I forgot to point out that Earth-9 is DC Universe's Titans! I'm glad they're all in the same "universe".
posted by numaner at 2:37 PM on December 11, 2019

There were some things about this episode I liked (for example, the growing relationship between Batwoman and Supergirl). But that whole "we're going to rescue three billion people!" made it near-impossible for me to suspend my disbelief. I wish they'd gone for a more realistic number. It would have both made it easier to believe and made the stakes even higher.

As Harbinger went around to grab Our Heroes, I was very amused at the tonal shifts. Flash and Arrow were super-serious, Batwoman was sassy, and Sarah and Ray are hanging out in a bar playing trivia and getting screwed over by their own changes to the past. Totally on-brand!
posted by rednikki at 8:19 PM on December 14, 2019 [1 favorite]