REVIEW: ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’ Part Three

The third part of the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event aired last night and left me in complete shock. In the previous episode, the heroes were dealing with the loss of Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell). Barry (Grant Gustin) and Kara (Melissa Benoist) take his death a lot more personal since Oliver died so that they wouldn’t have to. Deciding to not give up, the team obtains a Waverider from a different earth.

It’s there where The Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) instructs the team to look for two paragons, heroes of the purest will that will help them face this Crisis. Kate  (Ruby Rose) and Kara head to Earth-99 in search of an older Bruce Wayne (Kevin Conroy) while Iris (Candice Patton), Clark  (Tyler Hoechlin), and Lois (Elizabeth Tulloch) search for an alternate version of Superman (Brandon Routh) that fits that description. Meanwhile, Meanwhile, Mia (Katherine McNamara) tries to bring back her father with the help of Barry, Sarah (Caity Lotz), and Constantine (Matt Ryan).

In Crisis Part 3, The Monitor brings the rest of the heroes from Central City. After they’ve come together, The Monitor informs the group that four out of the seven paragons have been found. The remaining three paragons are Barry, J’onn (David Harewood) and Ryan Choi (Osric Chau). With Barry and J’onn already on the Waverider, Iris is instructed to go to Ivy Town to recruit Ryan and Ralph (Hartley Sawyer) decides to tag along. Diggle (David Ramsey) arrives at the Waverider and finds out that Oliver is dead.

Desperate to save Oliver, Diggle tags along with Mia and John to save Oliver’s soul from Purgatory. As this is going on, Barry decides to visit Pariah’s (Tom Cavanagh) dig site and learn whatever they can about the Anti-Monitor along with Cisco (Carlos Valdes) and Killer Frost (Danielle Panabaker). It’s there that they learn the truth about Anti-Monitor’s plan, along with some unexpected twists.

Kara and Kate continue to be a major highpoint for me in this crossover. In my review of Crisis Part Two, I spoke about how Kara started losing hope and how Kate brought her back from that darkness after their confrontation with Bruce on Earth-99. This episode sees them at odds with one another since Kara is desperate to save her earth and Argo City. Just when it looked like they were going to get into a physical fight, Kate manages to convince Kara that she must move forward.

Kate argues that there has to be another way to bring Earth-38 back without Kara compromising who she is. I’m excited that their friendship is being developed even more. With there being no sign of a Batman and Superman team up any time soon, Kara and Kate’s friendship has room to shine even more. With only two episodes left, I’m hoping that they get at least one more bonding scene together.

I wasn’t sure how the show would introduce Ryan Choi but making him a paragon was a great way to go. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the character, Ryan takes up the mantle of The Atom in the comics after Ray Palmer disappears. Ryan’s disbelief when he finds out that he’s a paragon is believable. It speaks to those who have never felt like they were worthy of being special. His inner struggle was something I could relate to. I’m hoping that this will be a recurring struggle in the next two parts of the crossover.

As with the previous two parts, this episode included several cameos that caught me by surprise. As soon as one particular and unexpected character showed up, I lost my mind. I was extremely excited to see that they are now a part of the Arrowverse.

Spoilers begin below

I was glad to see Team Flash getting some time to shine. Their trip to Pariah’s dig site was one of the main plot points of the episode, it wouldn’t have made sense for any other show other than The Flash to cover this. Nash Wells, who became Pariah after releasing the Anti-Monitor, was a recurring character for the first half of The Flash’s sixth season. Since he caused everything that happened, it was up to Barry and his team to find a way to stop it. I was fully expecting their trip to play out completely different, but I can understand why it played out the way it did.

Even though I understand it, I was still upset with how it was handled. In the Crisis comic miniseries, Barry Allen sacrifices himself to stop the Anti-Matter cannon. I was fully expecting Earth-1 Barry to die, but being swapped by Earth-90’s Flash took any away any real emotion. Earth-1 Barry is someone I’ve come to know since the start of the series in 2014 while I have no real attachment to Earth-90 ‘s Flash. This felt like a cheap way of avoiding having to find a way to bring Earth-1 back to life within the last two episodes of the crossover next month.

Overall, I really enjoyed Crisis Part 3. A lot happened in the last few minutes of the episode that set up how the last two parts of the crossover will play out. Although we have to wait until January, I’m looking forward to seeing how the team handles whatever comes next.

The first three parts of the crossover are available to watch on the CW app. The crossover will continue with Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow on January 14th, 2020. The Flash is on its midseason break but will be back in January 2020.