CW's Crisis on Infinite Earths episode 1 spoiler review (Supergirl S05 EP09)

I'm a bit late to getting these reviews up, but wow am I absolutely blown away by the CW's big crossover this year. Emphasis on BIG, because Crisis on Infinite Earths is definitely the most ambitious thing the CW has gone for so far, and so far it is paying off in a big way. I am absolutely loving everything they're doing, especially the third episode but I'll get to that review eventually. First I'll be talking about the first episode of the Crisis crossover, the Supergirl episode, which in my opinion is the weakest of the three episodes but it is always good for the episodes to get better as they go! So here is my review of the first episode of Crisis on Infinite Earths!
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We started with an awesome array of cameos from other DC universes that were then consumed by the red anti matter wave we've been anticipating all this season. What seemed to be the Michael Keaton Batman universe was wiped, along with the Adam West Batman universe, Earth-X, and the Titans universe! It was a really great way to show the multiverse being wiped without it being completely random earths, seeing so many other universes acknowledged was really fun! Even if we were watching worlds be destroyed...it didn't end there though, as the people on Supergirl's earth realized the wave was sweeping the universe just in time for Kara to warn Clark and Lois who have been on Argo caring for their newborn baby! With the antimatter wave approaching, Clark and Lois send their baby away in a pod while the wave wipes out Argo completely, including Kara's mother and the remnants of the Kryptonian race housed there. After this, Lyla as the Harbinger is seen rounding up the heroes for this Crisis. She saved Clark and Lois from the destruction of Argo, and brings Barry, Oliver and his daughter, Batwoman, and Atom and White Canary to the DEO in preparation for the antimatter wave coming for Supergirl's world. The Monitor arrives as well, giving everyone the run down of the antimatter wave, and explains that the giant pillar that emerges in the city is meant to keep the antimatter wave at bay, though the Anti-Monitor's shadow demons would come to disable the machine. It was a lot of exposition to take in, though after the very tense and emotional destruction of Argo city having a bit of a sit and listen session was a good break.

As they wait for the antimatter wave to come, Clark worries about his son who has gone missing after the pod took an uncharted course, but is consoled by Kara. Martian Manhunter and Brainy work on trying to find out how they can save the people of earth should the antimatter wave still come through, deciding on the aliens of earth pooling their spaceships to help everyone. Barry and Oliver have a moment together with Barry telling Oliver that he has to die in Crisis, to which Oliver confronts the Monitor and confirms that he made a deal last year to trade his life for Barry's. The Monitor tells him though that the deal was to save Barry's life last year, not this year. The wave then comes to Supergirl's earth, and Oliver and the heroes stationed there fight off the Dementor-esque creatures that come after the tower. Elsewhere on another earth, Lois, Brainy, and White Canary find Clark's baby on the earth where the year is 2046 and Oliver is a very broken, old, beaten version of himself.

Back on Supergirl's earth, Martian Manhunter resides to helping the population escape to earth 1, while the remaining six superheroes fight off the shadow demons who eventually incapacitate the tower. Monitor transports them all away, telling them to save their strength, but is disrupted by Oliver who continues to fight up until the destruction of the earth. It turns out that this saved the lives of billions more, but it costs Oliver his life in the process. Monitor returns with him to earth 1 where Oliver lays bleeding and bruised, and says his goodbyes to Barry, Mia, and Kara before passing away. Monitor affirms that Oliver wasn't meant to die yet, and in the moment Nash appears as Pariah announcing that he had freed the Anti-Monitor by mistake and was now a Pariah, bearing witness to Anti-Monitor's deeds.

That was the conclusion of the first episode, and already I could tell things were going big this year! Supergirl's earth was destroyed, placing them on earth 1, and Oliver died! I was a bit shaken by his death and not in a totally good way; I felt like it was way too soon, like if Iron Man died at the beginning of Infinity War, but with the later episodes his death in this episode isn't so bad. The episodes definitely got bigger and more intense after this one, but this one was already quite game shaking, and was a good foundation for so far the best crossover the CW has done!