Crisis On Infinite Earths: Episode 1 Breakdown & Ending Explained

In this we’re discussing everything you need to know Supergirl Season 5 Episode 9 including all of the major moments in the first part of the mega-event. There’s a huge death, some nice little easter eggs and a lot of teases for what could be coming in the future.

There will be heavy spoilers here so if you haven’t had a chance to watch the episode yet and don’t want to know what happens then I highly recommend that you turn off now.

With that out the way I just wanna give a huge thank you for clicking this, now let’s get into our breakdown of Crisis On Infinite Earths Episode 1.

Crisis On Infinite Earths: Episode 1 Recap

In the beginning, there was only one, a single Infinitude that broke the darkness filling it with life…man I can’t do this as well as the narrator. Every existence has been multiplied by possibility across the multiverse and all realities. This is the multiverse that lead to the age of heroes which we see play out in an amazing montage that shows the Arrowverse character doing their thing whilst the Crisis slowly begins to invade their dimension.

It’s an awesome way to kick start the Crisis and I loved rewatching some of the major moments from across the series that reminded us of just how important it all was to save them.

The Red Skies spread across all universes and timeline throughout pretty much every single version of DC’s long and rich history on screen.

You can see a call back to the 1989 Tim Burton Batman Universe which has an appearance by Alexander Knox who played a reporter in the original film. The 1960s Adam West and Burt Ward version that features a cameo by the latter, Earth-X and even the DC Universe’s Titans one.

Unfortunately, all of these timelines and universes are plagued by the incoming destruction and it’s unclear whether these universes and realities will survive the red wash of death.

Will The Titans Return?

Now though these are seemingly destroyed, we do know at the very least that Titans will be returning for a third season so it’s highly unlikely that this destruction ripped them apart. I don’t wanna get too much into how this will be changed and retconned as details are exetremly scarce at the moment but yeah, don’t cancel your subscription to DC Universe just yet.

Though it was very sad seeing some of the best versions of Batman potentially destroyed, we haven’t got time to mourn them and we flash over to Supergirl on Earth 38 who’s planet is being ravaged by Spike who is afraid of something unbeknownst to the character.

Earthquakes are ripping across the entire world, tearing it apart and this is tracked to a huge force coming from space that is going to hit the extraterrestrial Argo City and mess up the happy life that Clark and Lois have created there with their son, Jonathan.

The Fall Of Argo City

Kara’s mother Alura also lives there and she manages to Alura the Kents to an escape pod which they use to send Baby Jonathan to Earth before disaster strikes. There are eerily similar circumstances to the destruction of Krypton and it’s kinda heartbreaking seeing Supergirl watch history repeating itself.

We then travel to Earth 1 and rejoin Oliver back on the island, reminding how much he lost over the years and how the island turned him into someone else. Though this is a Supergirl episode, there’s heavy focus given to Oli and his relationship with his daughter.

I bet Disney are fuming that they got in with the whole Hawkeye and his Daughter story before they did but yeah this kinda sets the tone for the finale of this entry which I’ll give my theories on in just a bit.

Crisis On Infinite Earths

Crisis really needed to open with weight to let us know that there would be consequences and they really hammer home how important it is to stop the incoming threat. They pulled together all of the stops for this and yeah, I was really into it.

Lyla who is now the Harbinger and she begins gathering various heroes together to unite and save the Multiverse.

Amongst the ranks are Oliver Queen, Barry Alan, Ray Palmer, Batwoman, Sara Lance and Clark and Lois who she saved on Earth 38. CW have really had to break out the checkbook for this….I mean, Lyla has really had to break out all the contacts that she has at her disposal and she transports them all to Earth 38.

At the request of The Monitor, they have been collected for a mission of the utmost importance. In National City is a Quantum Tower which is capable of stopping the Crisis. We also learn that during the explosion that tore across the Multiverse, Jonathan actually was transported to Earth 16 namely the Year 2046 which Sara, Brainy and Lois go to.

Earth 16

On that Earth, he was actually discovered by Oliver Queen that lived a vastly different life than the one from Earth 1. Sara was lost on The Gambit and it’s just interesting seeing another version of the character and the life that he could have had. He just can’t comprehend that Sara is alive out there on another universe and the portrayal is really sad, filled with guilt and regret.

Though the plot is seemingly portrayed as being the thing that we are all here for, deep down we know this series is more about wish fulfillment in which we learn what happened to some of the characters from other series that we love and also what could have been had things taken a different turn.

It’s quite fascinating and though the CWish aesthetic does get in the way slightly of the fan service that we are here for, at least for the first episode I was really happy with how events were unfolding.

Batwoman Is Not Good

Except for Batwoman, yeah she sucks, sorry but yeah they cut around her fight scenes because she doesn’t seem like she can do them and also make her Queen of the SJW crowd. I can see why they call her Batwokeman now cos damn, just let her act like a normal person please…anyway I’m getting bogged down here in personal opinion when you just wanna know about the events.

Escape To The Multiverse

Lois, Brainy and Sara bring the baby home and J’onn calls out to all Aliens on Earth to ask for a literal lifeline and means of evacuation in case the Tower Defense game that they’re all playing fails.

There’s also lip service paid to the fact that they’re going to be bringing characters through the multiverse to safety and seeing if it’s possible. This was actually a big aesthetic of the Earth 2 and Future’s end storyline in which masses of people were displaced onto another Earth and they had to learn to co-exist. That’s not the main story in that arc but there’s lip service paid to it and I was happy seeing it play out here.

Before the heroes go to defend the Tower, Kara and Kal talk about the hope that they have to save the multiverse.

It’s nice seeing the two, who are pretty much symbols of hope themselves reminding themselves of all the good that there is in the universe and how it’s worth fighting for and how the spirit of Krypton will never die.

Hawkeye I mean Oliver passes the mantle to his daughter, it’s a real heart to heart moment that definitely feels like the right time to do it especially with how the episode concludes.

The Death Of Barry Allen?

We also learn from Barry that he is going to die during the Crisis as was pre-ordained. The newspaper that said Barry would disappear has pretty much haunted the character his entire life, popping up more times than Tom Cavanagh has as a different character and the Monitor confirmed that this was way things would be. Ollie surprised and angered by it calls out to the Monitor as it pretty much goes back on the deal that he made with the Monitor in ‘Elseworlds’ that said that both Kara and Barry would remain unharmed.

The Monitor sort of speaks in riddles and yeah, you get the feeling that he’s only telling people the things that they need to hear in order to give them motivation to do what must be done. So the things said to Barry could indeed be untrue but I wouldn’t want to bet on it just yet, however, I am now a lot more open-minded about The Flash’s fate.

The Monitor does say that tis deal was made for the last encounter but this is something bigger and more dangerous than they have ever faced before so yeah, the rules, promises, and deals are all out the window.

The Monitor also says he is purposely keeping secrets about the Anti-Monitor as it will cause Oli to prepare for every possibility.

Tower Defense

The Tower also looks exactly how it did in the original Crisis On Infinite Earth’s graphic novel and ey it’s a nice callback I appreciated. Comparing the two I think this episode does definitely capture the atmosphere and feel of it quite well, even from the wave wiping out worlds and other elements of it.

At the tower, Shadow Demons ravage the group and Oliver is mortally wounded in the skirmish who refuses to leave the planet whilst there are still people there to be evacuated. Even with the backup of Supergirl, Superman and The Flash the people of the world still need an escape plan quickly and the Aliens of the planet begin moving the population whilst a portal between realities is created.

With the battle lost due to overwhelming numbers The Monitor appears and pulls to characters together, including Oliver who stayed, knowing every moment was another life saved.

He tells the characters that Oliver wasn’t supposed to die in this way but his sacrifice saved billions. The Pariah appears who we learn freed the Anti-Monitor from his confinement and because of this he has been forced to watch the destruction of universes over and over. This follows the graphic novel storyline in which the character appeared just before the destruction of a world and here his appearance signals the death of one of the biggest heroes of The Arrowverses…well probably the biggest because it’s named after him.

Oliver dies after believing that he saved Kara and Barry but due to his sacrifice being so early, he may have doomed them to the fate that he tried to save them from.

Crisis On Infinite Episode 1 Ending

Oli dies and I kinda wish that they’d slowed down a bit for this moment as I didn’t feel the full impact of due to them kinda getting through it as quickly as possible. I have spoken to some people that said they teared up for it but for me personally, it just kinda went over me a bit, especially as it was something that’s been told would happen for a couple of months now.

However, I’m not actually 100% convinced that Oli is indeed dead and personally I think he will be returning as the Spectre from the DC universe. Many people have inhabited the role of the character in death and I do think the underwhelming ned here was put in place because it isn’t really the end for Green Arrow, he is just changing into a new form that will allow him to possess new powers and potentially even defeat the Anti-Monitor.

This is all just a fan theory at the moment but I can see it happening especially with the character’s design and the way that these stories tend to go.