CW's Crisis on Infinite Earth episodes 4 and 5 finale spoiler review (Arrow S08 EP08/Legends of Tomorrow S05 EP01)
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I'll say it right now, but I think the ending of this crossover was a bit lackluster, especially compared to the hype and build up of the episodes preceding it. Episode 3 was nothing but pure awesomeness, and episode 4 to start off with felt a little bit like major filler despite what occurred in it being pretty major. We pick up with a backstory, flashback to the Monitor as a regular man trying to explore the dawn of time with the help of his wife which was an awesome was to humanize the character and follow up on his previous statements of having a family at one point. His presence at the dawn of time ends up corrupting it though and thus gives birth to the anti-matter universe and the Anti Monitor! Back in present day, the heroes have been trapped in the Vanishing Points for quite a while, and Barry has been missing after trying to enter the Speed Force. The group tries to build a machine to aid them, and I was a bit confused about what happened but I think it ended up bringing Barry back to them who claims that he left only a few seconds ago. Oliver as the Spectre appears to the group, and aids them in reversing what the Anti Monitor has done; Kara, Lex, and Ryan Choi are sent to stop the Monitor from ever traveling to the dawn of time while the others set out to take on the Anti Monitor...though are then attacked by the villain en route and separated throughout time in the Speed Force. Oliver tasks Barry with finding everyone before they fall out of the Speed Force into anti matter nothingness. Immediately, he runs into an amazing cameo that had me up on my feet with shock and excitement because he came face to face with Ezra Miller's Flash from the DCEU in a funny exchange! Definitely one of the best cameos of the whole crossover, and I hope it is mentioned somehow when we see Miller's Flash on the big screen next. They converse for a bit, but then Miller's Flash vanishes, and I'm not sure how he was there after the Multiverse was destroyed, or what the point of the exchange was but I'm glad it happened! Some of the places Barry found his teammates seemed meaningful to their characters, as Batwoman was learning that she has to trust people more, after seeing how distrustful Oliver was of Atom, but some seemed a bit random, like White Canary just being in the scene where the Arrow characters had her dead body, and Martian Manhunter was with Oliver and Kara when the two of them didn't like each other. I know Oliver said he separated himself into essences to help keep them tethered, and I figure it was supposed to be major points for his character and his relationships with others; but a lot of it seemed like filler as the episode killed time until the final battle. In the past, Lex reveals he gave himself super powers thanks to the book of destiny and tries to trick Monitor into letting him rule over the universe with the cosmic powers Monitor was supposed to inherit; though Kara manages to subdue Lex while Ryan convinces Monitor not to go back in time at all. This seemingly accomplishes what the team was trying to do, but they all suddenly find themselves in the anti matter universe facing Anti Monitor who claims that there is always a Monitor who creates the anti matter universe. The big battle with the Anti Monitor ends up being the main heroes fighting off a bunch of the Demetor-like creatures while Oliver/Spectre holds onto Anti Monitor with red energy swirling around them...not as epic as I would've liked. Oliver sacrifices himself to seemingly kill the Anti Monitor, and then births a new multiverse, ending episode 4 of the crossover.
Episode 5 picks up immediately after this, with Kara waking up in her home with seemingly none of the crossover having happened. She finds out that Lex Luthor is being given the Nobel Peace prize and is seen as a hero of the city, and shortly afterwards runs across Flash and finds out that they are living on the same earth and to the civilians it has always been that way! Martian Manhunter begins to reinstate the memories of all of their comrades, informing characters like Atom and Diggle about the Crisis that occurred, with the seven paragons being the only ones who recall what happened. The team, and characters in general spend a lot of time mourning Oliver while getting accustomed to this new world, Earth-Prime, of which Black Lightning is also a part of. And just like in the comic books, every CW earth has been condensed down to one earth, making crossovers in the future much easier. Nash Wells also never became Pariah and is back to normal, though regretful after learning about what transpired because of him. Celebrations and mourning are cut short as they have to contend with a giant Beebo before finding out that the Anti Monitor is still very much alive and the villain launches one more attack on the heroes while select heores remain behind to beuild a machine to infinitely shrink the tyrant. Just like last episode, I found the ultimate battle a bit underwhelming, and honestly, it wasn't the biggest battle the Arrowverse has had! Crisis on Earth-X certainly had more heroes taking part in the final battle, and with Anti Monitor it seemed like they were just throwing things at his forcefield for most of the fight. Eventually the villain grows massive, which leaves Superman, Supergirl, and Martian Manhunter as the only heroes to fight him while the rest fight the Dementor-creatures, which I thought was a bit weird because then three heroes alone were able to basically take on the Anti Monitor. The machine is finished, and they infinitely shrink the Anti Monitor, basically killing him once and for all.
The reborn multiverse celebrates, giving us a ton of new cameos like the upcoming Stargirl tv show, Doom Patrol, Swamp Thing, and the Ryan Reynold's Green Lantern which was a massive surprise! A short scene between Lois and Clark also reveals that they have sons now, meaning multiple instead of one any longer! That'll definitely be interesting for the upcoming Superman tv show! The main heroes honor Green Arrow and Barry reveals that now that they're all on one earth they could use the secret STAR labs building as their headquarters and reveals a round table with a chair for each them; including Oliver. Barry, Kara, Kate, Black Lightning, White Canary, Superman, and Martian Manhunter each take their seats as the exterior of the building is revealed to be the Justice League headquarters from the animated series, effectively cementing the official beginning of the CW's Justice League team. The crossover then ends with a monkey being heard, and an empty cage is shown with the nameplate, "Gleek."
Crisis on Infinite Earths was definitely the most ambitious crossover ever, but with the final two episodes I feel like it did slow down and sputter a little bit. Both of the grand battles against the Anti Monitor didn't feel very grand, and episode 4 especially felt like a like of trotting around until the final confrontation. The second and third episodes of the crossover were definitely the best, with the third being the clear stand out. Pulling it off was still a grand journey though that the CW should be commended for, even if the landing wasn't hit as smoothly as I would've hoped. And while I would love to see live action Wonder Twins on the CW, I feel like the teaser of Gleek being the end of the Crisis crossover didn't match the scale or magnitude that Crisis was.
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