The Flash Review: Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Three
Let’s just get it out there: The Flash Season 6 Episode 9, “Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Three” is a messy and overstuffed hour, bursting at the seems with heroes, doppelgängers, sidekicks and mortal enemies.
It’s got roughly five stories going on and once, and it spends maybe five minutes on plots that could power entire episodes on any of these respective series.
It’s also a wonderful testament to the universe this network has spent so long building.
Are there things I would change? Do differently? Replace with other stories or characters? Of course.
But, at the end of the day, these five episodes serve as the culmination of the hundreds of hours of narrative and characters and relationships that have come before them, and a reminder of precisely why we all love these series in the first place.
“Crisis on Infinite Earths” is a bonkers insane story that literally throws everything but the kitchen sink at these characters, in order to break the universe and build it back up again.
It’s got convenient plot twists and lots of pointless technobabble, true. But it’s also got a huge heart, and a deep understanding of why we want to watch these superhero stories at all.
And that’s hope. Its love and courage and care for one another, and all the very human things that come with that. These are thing episode excels at, even if we can’t always count on the plot to not have a few holes in it.
It’s apparent in every frame that the folks involved in making this crossover — in making these shows — love this content as much as we do. (I mean there’s even a blink-and-you’ll miss it tiny Watchmen sign.) And as a result, it’s easy to forgive the crossover’s missteps.
It’s swinging for the fences, in the best way possible. And while not everything lands — because how could it? — it’s still deeply satisfying.
This installment is full of fun guest stars, cameos and callbacks, as Birds of Prey’s Huntress disintegrates in the episode’s opening moments, Constantine, Mia and John go looking for Oliver’s soul with an assist from Lucifer’s titular devil, and Black Lightning himself officially joins the Arrowverse.
The Flash himself does indeed vanish, as was prophesied so long ago when The Flash first started. Of course, it’s not our Flash, but rather Earth-90’s Barry Allen, original Flash himself, John Wesley Shipp.
Is this a cop-out we’ve all been predicting for years? Heck, yeah it is. Does the whole anti-matter canon/treadmill combo make very little sense? Pretty much.
But does any of that matter? Not really. Because Shipp and The Flash star Grant Gustin sell the moment of Earth-90 Flash’s sacrifice perfectly.
“Let me do this. Let me save you all,” is a gut-punch of a line to go out on, and it honestly feels like — much the same way it did with Smallville on “Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Two” — this is The CW Arrowverse giving Shipp’s Original Recipe Flash the opportunity to conclude his story in an organic and meaningful way.
“Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Three” also does a great job continuing to build up the organic friendship between Kara Zor-El and Kate Kane, which hopefully indicates that it’s the relationship between these two women that will form the center of the new “post-Crisis” Arrowverse, much as Barry and Oliver’s defined the pre-Crisis version.
The revelation that Kate kept Dark Bruce Wayne’s Kryptonite, but that Kara trusts her enough to keep it, and to have courage she’ll never need to use it was beautifully done, as was Kate’s insistence to Kara that they can’t risk using the Book of Destiny to save all the Earths.
It’s been strangely lovely to watch Ruby Rose’s Kate really come into her own on this crossover, and in a way I hope that Batwoman will be able to continue/flesh out even further once that show comes back next year.
This is the Batwoman we’ve all been all been hoping to see since that show started, and she’s one that’s more than a balance to Alice there.
Elsewhere, the quest to restore Oliver’s soul hits a snag when he’s basically changed into Spectre, a heartbreaking but strangely fitting twist which perfectly fulfills the “I must become something else” mantra Oliver’s voiceover has been promising for years on Arrow.
It also fixes the problem of bringing back Ollie too neatly, gives star Stephen Amell an out from the Arrowverse and opens the door to a huge battle sequence to end this particular story.
(Spectre, for those who don’t know is a vaguely sort of godlike being with all kinds of wild abilities, and is likely the only being left that might have some chance of taking down the Anti-Monitor.)
The first three parts of “Crisis on Infinite Earths” end with a massive cliffhanger: All the Earths are gone, Oliver’s soul has vanished, and only six beings remain to fix the damage – Sara Lance, Kate Kane, Kara Zor-El, Barry Allen, Lex Luthor and a new character by the name of Ryan Choi, played by Supernatural’s Osric Chau.
Though he’s destined to become the next Atom — if you believe the comics — when Ray Palmer departs Legends of Tomorrow next season, here he’s just a scientist who’s very, very human, and whose role in the rest of the crossover is unknown as yet. But he clearly has a part to play.
So, Happy Holidays from The Flash, everybody, which has given us a cliffhanger in our stocking, and one which we’ll likely be obsessing over until the series returns in January.
It’s impossible to imagine that most of these huge twists will last beyond “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” but even if they don’t, these installments are an achievement in and unto themselves.
With nods to DC properties both classic and new, shocking twists, and the sort of emotional character work that these shows have always excelled at, the whole of “Crisis” certainly outweighs the sum of its parts.
Could we all nitpick it to death. Sure. But I really don’t want to. I want to bask in this, and enjoy it all.
Did anyone ever think we’d see anything like this on TV? Ever? Let alone on The CW? We truly live in amazing times.
Stray Thoughts and Observations
- I’m so happy we’ve moved away from trying to force episode of the crossovers to adhere to the format/story/style of the show its taking place on. Sure, this third hour featured several The Flash characters who had been previously absent from things and featured the sacrifice of Earth-90’s Flash, but it still felt like part of a larger whole.
- The erasure of so many key characters — at this point 90% of the cast of Black Lightning doesn’t exist anymore, to name just one example — pretty much guarantees some of the events of this crossover will be undone. But at this point, I”m more interested in what the multiverse will look like afterward. Will all Earths return? Just some? Which ones?
- I’m honestly furious that Lex Luther replaced (killed?) Kingdom Come Superman in the Vanishing Point. I needed to see more of Brandon Routh in the cape!
- It’s not clear to me that this was the best vehicle to introduce Jefferson Pierce to the Arrowverse, but Cress Williams and Grant Gustin were incredible together, so okay.
- The part where Mia chokes out “Dad, I love –” before Oliver vanishes/becomes Spectre just broke my heart. Katherine McNama is honestly earning that spin-off series every day.
- The inclusion of the John Williams Superman theme KILLS ME.
- The Original Team Flash hug!
- It’s such a long time till January, y’all.
What did you think of this episode of The Flash? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and be sure to catch up with our review of “Crisis On Infinite Earths: Part Two.”
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The Flash airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.
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Lacy Baugher
Lacy is a pop culture enthusiast and television critic who loves period dramas, epic fantasy, space adventures, and the female characters everyone says you're supposed to hate. Ninth Doctor enthusiast, Aziraphale girlie, and cat lady, she's a member of the Television Critics Association and Rotten Tomatoes-approved. Find her at LacyMB on all platforms.