Crisis on Earth-X, Part 4 [Legends of Tomorrow S03E08]: Epic

DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Season 3, Episode 8: Crisis on Earth-X, Part 4

"Epic" is honestly the only word I can find for this episode. There's very few moments in live-action superhero history that I can compare to this episode when a 20-strong army of superheroes (and Mick) walk down in a power-walk down the city. Hell, the only times I've felt this moment of epicness can be counted on one hand -- that long shot around the city of the Avengers fighting against the Chitauri in Avengers; the DC Trinity standing together as the music builds up in Batman v. Superman; Flash, Firestorm and Green Arrow facing off against Reverse-Flash at the climax of Flash's first season; and the two sides of the Marvel Civil War slow-walking towards each other in Civil War.

Where last year's Invasion crossover event perhaps fails is the lack of a strong emotional core (the Arrow episode was pretty emotional, but it didn't actually tie into the Dominator plot that well), the lack of stakes and the general confuddled ways that the three parts actually work to become a proper crossover, with each director trying to force their episode to adhere to how their series work. I still enjoy Invasion for what it is, but compared to Crisis on Earth-X... Crisis just blows Invasion out of the water in terms of just sheer epicness and how well put-together the whole affair is. Yes, I'm a little pissed off that some of my favourite faces from CW (Elongated Man, Martian Manhunter, Speedy, John Diggle and Kid Flash being the outstanding ones) sat out this huge event, but hey. 

It's just so well done. Sure, not all characters get as much scenes as they should, and there were some that I wished was focused on a bit more as opposed to the Oliver/Felicity or Alex-moving-on storylines, but in a rarity for CW, the acting isn't needlessly overwrought so the shipping plots don't actually distract as much as they do. 

And while some people may complain about the usage of Nazis as the villains and not giving them as much gravitas as a war movie might give the Nazis... I feel that they managed to do a more 'fun' version while still keeping the fascism and assholishness of the Nazis intact. I also loved that we kept the focus on Fuhrer Oliver and Overgirl's motivations for each other -- Overgirl's god complex and Oliver's love for his wife are both neat attempts at showing how both our Oliver and Kara's worst qualities are when magnified, and seeing Oliver's motivations rooted in that love as opposed to a general mwa-ha-ha I'm evil definitely makes him compelling. Eobard Thawne is the odd link in this, where he just feels like that super-competent second-in-command character to the evil rulers that are Dark Arrow and Overgirl, and I really would've liked a brief scene that tells us that it's Thawne that is responsible for directing the Earth-X Nazis to Earth-1 as part of his revenge... but it's a small complaint, because Tom Cavanagh is so damn charismatic. 

I've rambled on a bit more than I should, but I really would like to point out just how strong that moment was when Martin Stein dies. I don't cry over fictional characters that often, but Stein's death, and Jax's blubbering reaction as Stein gives that final speech... that made my eyes tear up. It's just so damn well done, and so damn well built up over the past season and throughout the crossover event, to see it actually happen... 

The brief montage of scenes showing how everyone reacts -- Sara kisses Stein's head, Barry and Iris hug in silence, Cisco and Caitlin stand together in silence, Ray looks on a photo of him and Stein in the wild West, and Jax shows up in front of Clarissa and Lily with nothing to say but "I'm sorry, I can't save him" as the family breaks down... it's a huge, huge emotional moment that lasts pretty long to have its impact punch you in the heart, but doesn't take up too long. There's a brief transition period of Oliver and Sara talking as we then build up to the huge superhero action showdown, but I do feel that Stein's death was a high point for not only Legends of Tomorrow, Crisis on Earth-X and Victor Garber, but for the Arrowverse in general. "Thank you, Jefferson. For the adventure of a lifetime."

Yes, the death itself could've been handled better. Having Stein gunned down by some random Nazi goon instead of, say, Quentin Lance-X or Dark Arrow or someone else is a strange choice in my opinion, and the death is perhaps a bit too telegraphed for my tastes. There's also the oddity of Stein getting shot, then merging with Jax and being able to kick Metallo's ass for a full one-third of the episode, but I can't really complain that much when the end result ends up in an emotional high note for the Arrowverse. Again, it's not often that I cry over a fictional character -- and one that I knew whose actor was exiting the show and is waving a death flag over his head -- but god damn if Victor Garber and Franz Drameh didn't make that death scene work amazingly well. Having Stein make the choice to die alone as opposed to dragging his son-figure with him, and wanting to make the choice to end his own life with the serum is an amazingly well-acted scene.

"You were my son. How could a father do anything less?"

But outside of that moment of somber silence for Martin Stein, the episode's pretty amazing. The first five minutes or so of the episode wraps up the Earth-X plotlines. Team Arrow takes out the rest of the Nazi troops guarding the gateway between Earth-1 and Earth-X, Flash and Ray take down Red Tornado (which happens in this episode as opposed to the end of last episode, sorry for my mistake) with a freaking awesome combination move, and Firestorm is temporarily saved.

And we return to STAR labs just as Eobard Thawne is about to cut into Kara's heart (while she's awake, and with Iris and Felicity watching because Eobard is laughably eeeeevil) under red sunlight... only for the motherfucking Atom to pull a big badass moment of awesome arrival, where he's shrunken and preventing the scalpel from cutting into Kara, and then single-handedly takes out Eobard and Evil Oliver temporarily. Yes, it's telegraphed that the Legends team would show up with Felicity and Iris sending a distress call last episode, and their absence was oddly set up in the first place... but I don't care. It's the most badass that the Atom has been in a while. He even gets to swat some random dude by enlarging his arm! He gets taken out with a well-placed arrow from Dark Arrow a while later, but eh. Meanwhile, Commander Steel, Vixen and Zari break out the members of Team Flash and Team Arrow that are trapped in the Pipeline with a gloriously cheesy "we're Legends" line.

There's a bit of a regrouping being done with our heroes trapped in Earth-X returning, with Dark Arrow and Reverse-Flash making their move (leaving a depowered Overgirl behind, perhaps the most egregious example of character-as-plot-device in the crossover)... Dark Arrow takes out the Atom, and is about to put an arrow through the depowered Supergirl, with Felicity giving a badass speech in front of him (it's futile, of course, but still pretty badass) until the real Oliver Queen shows up, threatening to kill Overgirl, allowing the two to have a pretty cool standoff. Not sure why Reverse-Flash speeds away with the two of them as opposed to breaking Oliver and Felicity's necks... but eh. 

But Metallo! Awesome, CGI Metallo, with his Kryptonite heart beams, and Cisco laughing at Dinah's joke about the Terminator, and the pretty badass arrival of Firestorm, the Ray and the Flash who just lob all their superpowers onto Metallo... and then the B-team joins in and just unleashes all their beam powers. Heat Wave shoots fire, Killer Frost and Captain Cold shoots ice, Black Canary sonic-screams, Vibe shoots his vibe blasts, Flash lobs a thunderbolt (Barry's so in the background because he's moving at super-speed and I love it), Ray and Firestorm rain down destruction from above, Zari shoots wind tornadoes... Vixen just... has the animal aura roaring around her... yeah, that's weird. But Metallo gets taken down by a combination beam attack and that's hella badass.

After this standoff everyone gets on the Waverider, and the Legends team put Firestorm on the medical bay, leading up to Stein's death, which we've already covered. I did feel it's a great scene that happens throughout this that Barry and Iris' relationship is just so stable and non-volatile, unlike Oliver and Felicity's. They're basically like the Clark and Lois of the Arrowverse, yeah? We also get a pretty neat sisterhood scene for Kara and Alex. We also get a very cool scene between Heat Wave and Earth-X Captain Cold, even if that mostly amounts to Mick  being a bit of a dick... it's appropriate.

Then, well, Stein dies, we get that very well-done somber montage. We get a bit of a face-off as the Waverider crew groups together and Earth-X Oliver tries to make a negotiation... and it's just like something out of a comic book to see that scene with so many superheroes in costume standing together. (I am so glad Caitlin and Zari got brand-new costumes in this event) Oliver straight-up tells Fuhrer Oliver that he's never going to abandon Supergirl, and I thank the CW writers for not adding a "as you did Tommy" and pointing out the comparison to our face.

The Nazi Waverider and troops just shooting and killing random people was a bit odd and perhaps a bit more low-stakes compared to Invasion where they were targeting moments in time and the president, but it doesn't make Sara's call of "for the Professor" and the slow walk of all the superheroes down the street any less fucking badass. 

And then we have the whole scene, a full 15 minutes of non-stop superhero action as we move from one hero to another as the two sides face off against each other. There's just something cool as we jump from one superhero to the next. Commander Steel steels up with bullets bouncing off of him and whacks fools in the face! Wild Dog saves a random kid from Nazi troopers! Heat Wave burns up a trooper only for goody-two-shoes Citizen Cold to be angry that he's killing people without due process! (They're Nazis, Leo, don't worry about it) Sara and Alex kung fu kicking people! Felicity, Cisco and Harry commanding the Waverider and chasing down Nazi Waverider throughout skyscrapers! Mr. Terrific throws a T-Sphere with the Atom riding on it! That cool 'everything stops' moment as we see the Flash and Reverse-Flash fight each other faster than everyone else can move! Green Arrow and Dark Arrow fighting in hand-to-hand above a car! Supergirl swooping up in front of Evil Waverider and demanding Overgirl to come out with a Superman II reference! Killer Frost creates ice slides to lead Zari and Vixen on board the evil Waverider! Cisco helping them out with a last-minute portal, as good Waverider blows up the bad! The montage of the three main villains fighting the three main heroes! (Flash and Reverse-Flash zooming up a building and jumping off to punch each other is awesome as all hell)

If that sounds like just a list of descriptions of the awesome moments, because it is. The whole final fight is just a barrage of action moments that are just dang fun. Sure, some of the heroes like the Ray and Alex and Wild Dog end up getting shunted into the background, but it's still badass as all hell, with the objective of 'blow up evil Waverider' taking up a chunk of the motivations of our heroes for this leg of the fight. 

The weakest part of the climax is, undoubtedly, Barry refusing to kill Eobard and... letting him go instead of putting him in the pipeline? I am very glad that Barry Allen is above killing, but there's a significant difference from not descending into full-on Punisher/BvS!Batman anti-hero mode, and to be a dumb idiot. I'm sure that scene could've been done a bit better. Showing Barry hesitating and for Reverse-Flash to get the drop on him, or for them to force Reverse-Flash to time-jump away or something... I dunno. Supergirl and Overgirl's fight being interrupted with Overgirl going supernova is perhaps also somewhat anti-climactic (I'd love Supergirl actually beating Overgirl down before the supernova happens) but it's still badass for Supergirl to fly up and toss Overgirl into space, before she falls down and gets captured by Steel. Oh, and Oliver one-shot-kills a grief-stricken Dark Arrow as he's about to kill him, which is wholly badass. 

And then there's the ending. The Ray returns to Earth-X... but Citizen Cold, surprisingly, sticks around. It's definitely something I don't expect, for the simple reason that like Victor Garber, Wentworth Miller has noted how he's exiting the Arrowverse... but if we get more Captain Cold I'm definitely happy.

And we get the very somber eulogy at Stein's funeral, which whiplashes back from the cool action showdown to another sad-yet-uplifting moment. Hell, even Mick cries! We get Clarissa and several other important characters to Stein's life throw the dirt into Stein's grave. Sara thanks Stein for believing in her. Caitlin tells Stein to say hello to Ronnie. Barry thanks Stein for sacrificing his life for everyone. It's a far greater acknowledgement of death than most superhero movies and TV shows tend to do, and it's definitely well done.

And after that? Farewells and status quo changes. Alex and Sara have a moment, and Alex basically went through her 'move on from Maggie' funk with the whole character development she's gotten through the crossover. 

And the final scene, with Diggle flexing in the Arrowcave, missing out on the crossover, and Barry just zipping him all the way from Star City to Central City and Diggle throwing up off-screen... because apparently Diggle is able to marry people... and finally, Barry and Iris get married in a low-key ceremony in Central City's park by John Diggle, witnessed by Oliver and Felicity... I do think that it's perhaps more than a little rude that Felicity interrupts Barry and Iris's special day to say "I wanna get married to, please?" but eh, mostly I felt like 'yes, we don't have to go through more of this marry-no-marry shit in Arrow'.

So yeah, Crisis on Earth-X delivered everything I wanted from a superhero crossover. It ended with a major death, introduced several new characters, had many, many entertaining battles, had our different casts interact with each other, shook up the status quo of several of the involved titles, and ends with marriage. Either way, it's easily one of the best chunk of superhero storytelling I've seen, and yeah, I enjoyed this immensely. Could definitely be better, yes, I agree... but eh, that's going into nitpicky category. I just want to say how much I love this. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• The full roster of the good guys that join up this episode: Green Arrow, the Flash, Supergirl, White Canary, Firestorm, Vibe, Killer Frost, the Atom, Heat Wave, Vixen, Citizen Steel, Isis, the Ray,  Citizen Cold, Mr. Terrific, Wild Dog, Black Canary, Overwatch, Iris West, Alex Danvers and Harrison Wells. Plus Gideon.which 
• Susanna Thompson, the actress for Moira Queen, is the voice of the AI on the Nazi version of the Waverider.
• Martin Stein dying while telling his younger partner that he always thought of him as his son is similar to his comic-book counterpart's death during the Brightest Day saga, taking a blow meant for Ronnie and Jason Rusch (Jax's comic-book counterpart), except the 'son' in question is Ronnie instead of Jax.
• Zari finally wears a superhero outfit! Instead of a white one inspired by her comic-book alter-ego Isis,  her costume is black and gold, which is a reference to Black Adam, her comic-book husband; as well as her brother, who also wore a Black Adam inspired outfit. 
• Supergirl tells Overgirl "General, would you care to step outside?", a line that is lifted verbatim from Superman II, where Superman says it to General Zod.
• Harry Wells tells Supergirl to take the exploding Overgirl "up... up! And away!" is, of course, is the reference to the "up, up and away!" catchphrase that older Superman material likes to use.
• Citizen Steel calls himself a "Man of Steel" to Supergirl's Girl of Steel, which, of course, is a reference to Superman's epithet. 
• Overgirl burning up and having to be thrown into space is something that has happened in various DC comic arcs, perhaps most famously to Captain Marvel in Kingdom Come.
• Some neat call-backs to previous episodes: Heat Wave seeing Citizen Cold and whacking himself in the head, noting how he's seeing hallucinations again. Mick seeing hallucinations of Snart is a running plot point in season two of Legends of Tomorrow. Ray holds a photograph of him and Stein in the Wild West, which they went to in both season 1 and season 2 of Legends. The Atom expanding his arm into a larger size, a seldom-used power that he reveals he's able to do in season 1 of Legends of Tomorrow. Felicity and Ray also note of the time when they dated back in Arrow's third season.
• Ray's use of the word 'embiggens' is apparently a shout-out to a catchphrase of Marvel comics' second Captain Marvel, Kamala Khan. I don't know enough about Kamala to tell you if this is accurate.
• Leo Snart notes how the Mick Rory of Earth-X died saving people from a fire. In the comics, when Heat Wave retired from a life of crime, he worked as a firefighter.