Crisis On Infinite Earths: Episode 2 Breakdown ...

Crisis On Infinite Earths: Episode 2 Breakdown & Ending Explained | Batwoman Episode 9 Cameos & Easter Eggs

crisis on infinite earths tom welling smallville cameo


With the second episode of Crisis On Infinite Earths now out for release it’s time to dive into the latest entry and break down everything that you need to know about the DC Crossover.

This episode focuses on the Aftermath of yesterdays huge death and also throws some amazing cameos our way that come with a couple of curveballs.

Obviously 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 2.

Crisis On Infinite Earths Episode 1 Recap


Ok so just a quick catch up on everything that’s happened so far. There’s a wave of destruction ripping across the multiverse that so far has destroyed Earth X, The Batman 1989 Universe, Batman 66 and the Titans Spin-Off.

Earth 38 too came under siege but after a bold sacrifice from Olive Queen of Earth 1, the heroes were able to evacuate most of the reality and live to fight another day. However, the events are playing out a lot more subverted than what was initially predicted and with one of their greatest heroes down, the united front is really going to struggle going forward.

Crisis On Infinite Earths Episode 2 Breakdown


The opener of The Batwoman episode centres around the titular character, Sara Lance and Supergirl mourning the loss of Arrow. This isn’t a time for standstill though and we all know deep down every actor is eyeing up what the CW shows will be called. The Flasherverse….? Yeah maybe not.

We then jump to Earth 74 where the Harbinger walks onto the Waverider which is hilariously voiced by Leonard Snart. Here she comes face to face with Rory who has been living on the abandoned ship since the retirement of the other heroes of that reality.

She manages to recruit him and take the Waverider as well as it will be needed for what’s to come.

The Paragons


The ship is paramount for what lies ahead and in order to make it through the next fight, they will need to use the tech onboard the vessel much to the dismay of Sara Lance who made a promise to never use it in a crossover again. However, desperate times call for desperate measures and with Oliver’s death being ahead of schedule, The Monitor has realised that not all he has foreseen will happen as was preordained.

The Monitor has gone back to the Book Of Destiny and this has told him that seven heroes are needed for the upcoming battle. These are known as Paragons.

The team already has The Paragon of Hope, Supergirl and The Paragon Of Destiny, Sara Lance but the other two are a mystery.

All that The Monitor can gather from the book is that there is a Batman from the future out there who is the Paragon of Courage and a Kryptonian who has lost more than more people can bear. He will stand as the Paragon of Truth and it’s of the utmost importance that they manage to track him down.

A Much Better Episode


Now unlike yesterdays episode, I felt like this entry was a lot more balanced and they weren’t rushing through the entire thing as fast as they could, allowing the show to breathe a lot more makes the moments have a lot more weight to them and this definitely feels like a step in the right direction over yesterday’s slightly rushed episode.

Just watching the heroes sharing a drink, planning out their next move and Sara mourning the loss of her Earth really puts some actual character development into the show and makes it easier to engage with.

Iris has a really sweet exchange with Barry and this kinda gives us hope that because the Monitor was wrong about the death of Arrow, he could be wrong about the fate of The Flash. Barry, well versed in the darker side of the world, reveals that he knows about The Lazarus pit and how it can bring the dead back to the land of the living. Barry wasn’t to use the restorative powers of the pit to bring Oli back and change his fate.

I kinda feel like Oli’s death yesterday felt a bit underwhelming and I do think that now they’ve mentioned it it will be how the character is revived and that his eventual death will be more inline with the one that The Monitor saw, which may be good for The DC Universe but it’s gonna be bad for Barry as things will be playing out as predicted.

Mia wants to bring Oliver back no matter what but as we know, when it comes to Lazarus Pits, they come with a cost. With the help of Constantine, they manage to locate one but saving Oliver’s soul is another matter entirely.

I Must Kill Superman


As if matters couldn’t get worse, we learn that The Monitor saved Lex Luthor as he is apparently vital for the task ahead.

Kara naturally is pretty upset that there’s billions upon billions dead yet Lex Luthor is still alive. Hey, at least he didn’t save the Kevin Spacey version.

On the Waverider, Lex steals the book of Destiny and uses it to try and kill Superman. However, yep, you guessed it, it was all part of the plan, my man The Monitor is playing 3-dimensional chess and knowing what kind of person Lex was like, he revived him in order to carry out this one task.

kevin conroy crisis on infinite earths

Kevin Conroy


Kate provides some comfort for Kara, letting her know that the future of the multiverse is more important and together she and Supergirl travel to Earth 99 to bring The Batman Paragon in who is revealed to be played by none other than Kevin Conroy. This was pretty much the one cameo out of the entire series that I was looking forward to the most and it definitely didn’t disappoint. Anything Kevin Conroy does just feels like The Dark Knight as he was always meant to be and even as a twisted, darker and perhaps evil Batman, he relishes the role that he was born to play.

I genuinely got goosebumps hearing his voice echo throughout the halls of Wayne Manor and the actor just oozes presence, pretty much stealing the scene every time he’s on-screen.

Being Batman has taken a huge toll on his body and because of this Bruce now lives life assisted by an exoskeleton. We also learn that on Earth 99 Kate died five years earlier and naturally Bruce is very wary about seeing her once more.

Smallville


Across the Multiverse, Lois and Clark of Earth 38 are trying to find a version of Superman that can help them in the coming onslaught. However, Lex Luthor is too travelling from universe to universe, killing every Superman across the vastness of all realities. There’s a nice little nod to the Death Of Superman graphic novel and yeah, this lets you know that time isn’t on our heroes’ side.

This culminates on Earth 167 in Smallville in which we see the return of Tom Welling as Superman. Iris, Lois and Clark approach him, admiring the red and black table cloth that he’s wearing and bring him a warning that Lex is coming to kill him. There’s lip service paid to Lex Luthor being President on this world which was a big prediction that was made in the Smallville series and before they can provide Clark with any extra information they are transported away by Lex.

He reveals he’s here to kill him and has Kryptonite but this doesn’t affect the ex-Man Of Steel as he gave up his powers when settling down to have a family. He’s still stronger than Lex who decides to leave after realising that Kent has taken all the fun out of it.

It doesn’t look like this Superman is interested in fighting anymore and thus, the group are gonna have to find another version of the character who’s not interested in being a farmer.

crisis on infinite earths tom welling smallville cameo

All Welling Good


Now I was excited about this cameo and it was still a fun little callback but yeah, I think Wellings return got overshadowed quite a bit by Conroy who we discover caused a reign of Terror on his Earth after he finally snapped and decided to start killing his rogue’s gallery.

I guess the Joker finally got him to snap and he may have been the one involved in Kate’s death as Batman states he’s become a monster. We see a bloodied Joker card, Wilted plant, cracked Glasses from Superman who it seems crippled him and a snowglobe minus the figure from Mr. Freeze. Batman has been a Badman but Kate has an opportunity for him to write his wrongs and save the universe.

Superman Returns


Lois, Clark and Iris go to Earth 96 and run into Clark Kent of The Superman Returns timeline. On this Earth, Clark has been promoted to Editor In Chief of The Daily Planet and it’s revealed that he is the one who has faced a great deal of loss in wake of an attack by the Joker who gassed the Newspaper offices during an attack.

This caused the death of Lois, Jimmy and Perry and Clark decides to join them in their plan to save the multiverse. There’s also lip service paid to Jason White who was Superman’s son in this universe. Clark dons the Superman costume from Kingdom Come, ready to join them and just as it looks like things are gonna be ok, Lex shows up and manipulates Superman into going head to head with the version from Earth 38.

It’s a really great fight that spans the skies of Metropolis and felt like one of the high points in the crossover so far. It’s a little TV-ish effects-wise but hey they still did a pretty good job.

Superman realising he can’t kill the Earth 38 version decides to go for the ones that Clark loves and this forces Iris and Lois to steal the book of Destiny from Lex, using the emotion of love and all that Superman has lost in order to bring him back to the light.

This works and he joins them, also dropping a line about going nuts and fighting himself which yeah, nice little callback to the good old days of Superman.

The Lazarus Pit


On Earth 18, the group have managed to find a Lazarus Pit which is revealed to be under guard by Jonah Hex. Wanna know how he got those scars, well this episode will tell you and both Sara and Mia fight him, cutting his face in the process.

With Hex out the way, they put Oliver in the pit who comes back to life. I guess this is comics and people can’t stay dead forever but I was kinda expecting him to be dead for at least like, one whole episode, you know, make us feel the hole he’s left, make us want to be on their side when they revive him because yeah, again I think they kinda handled his passing in the wrong way.

Just my opinion but yeah I feel like it could have been pulled off better.

Oliver as expected comes back mad and they tranquilise him. However, with the Anti-Matter that exists in the Multiverse, Constantine can’t conjure up enough magic to save his soul and they go ahead with an uncertain future.

Batman Vs Batwoman


Batman goes full Batman V Superman, drops the line ‘life only makes sense if you force it to’ and he reveals that he killed Superman. Supergirl attempts to take him down but Bruce still keeps Kryptonite on him which depowers her.

Bruce tries to reason with Kate that the world isn’t worth saving and the two fight with Bruce being electrocuted in the struggle, telling Kate that there is no hope in his dying breath.

This death is similar to the Joker’s one in Batman Beyond and yeah, it’s nice that they at least reflected on this in some ways.

On the Waverider the group reunite and they recap the events of the episodes, slightly worse than me…maybe about the same level…ok better and they do a trail run to track down the remaining Paragons.

Ray’s machine reveals that Kate is actually the real Paragon of Courage and that her actions against evil Bruce have enabled her to become the true symbol that they need.

Episode 2 Ending Explained


Kara bonds with Kate and reveals that after everything is over, she will use the Book Of Destiny to restore Earth 38. This is said to be extremely dangerous but yeah let’s face it they are definitely going to be doing this especially because she needs somewhere to live going forward.

I think this is the way that they will also bring back the Titan’s universe as that is scheduled for Season 3 and with it being wiped out we need a method to retcon it.

Kate is of course cautious over this and it looks like down the line she may even be going head to head with Supergirl as it’s revealed that she took the Kryptonite from Bad Boy Bruce and now has it as a contingency plan should things come to it.

Still Kara is now the Paragon of hope and I’m hopeful that she will be ok.

So yeah, the team is looking like it’s coming together nicely, be a shame if someone showed up and ruined….oh. So for the finale the Anti-Monitor summons Harbinger and the two come face to face ending the episode.

Played by the same actor as The Monitor he is an evil opposite to the character, wishing to wipe out the universe whilst The Monitor wishes to save it.

The Spectre?


Going forward I think the fact that Constantine was unable to bring Oliver’s soul back adds a lot more weight to the Spectre theory that we dropped yesterday as Oliver’s body is pretty much just a vessel now. One that will make a great host for The Spectre which The Monitor can potentially call upon to inhabit.

In the original Graphic Novel, the Spectre was the one that united the heroes together after they initially defeated The Anti-Monitor and he decided to travel back in time to stop the Multiverse from ever being created.

I can definitely see this being a big part of the show and who knows, this plan may start to fall in place tomorrow.

Your Thoughts

Now obviously I’d love to hear your thoughts on the cross over and what you wanna see in the next episode. Comment below and let me know!

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