TV REVIEWS: FTN Reviews Crisis On Earth-X Parts 3 & 4!

*sniff* I’m not crying…YOU ARE CRYING!!!! Because the ending two episodes of Crisis of Earth-X delivered a duo of very emotional, very powerful, and very heartbreaking episodes. But in doing so, it cemented itself as the best DCTV crossover so far. And that’s saying something.

Just to jump into the heart of the matter, I was very impressed by how they showed off Earth-X to its near full potential. From the concentration camps, to the resistance movements, to the long-awaited arrival of The Ray and Citizen Cold, it was good to see the full scope of how dark this world was, and how the Nazi’s brought the “past” into their present. Again, seeing characters like Stein, Felicity, Jax, and newcomer Ray Turill react to the situation added a lot of weight to things.

Another surprise was seeing the arrival of the Earth-X version of Wynn, who is understandably not caring too much about the Earth-1 team. As he noted so elegantly, “there are children dying for the same cause their grandfathers did.” It was understandable that he didn’t want to risk Overgirl, Dark Archer, and Reverse Flash returning…at all. Even if it cost the Earth-1 heroes everything.

Naturally, the team did have to get back, and it led to some pretty fun moments. Ollie impersonating his darker self, Citizen Cold convincing his boyfriend Ray to help the Earth-1 heroes, Felicity and Iris basically saving Kara and the day, it was great stuff.

Oh, before I go further, I’m sure it was a true joy for Wentworth Miller to have that scene with Russell Tovey (the Ray). For Wentworth recently came out as gay and talked about the persecution he suffered, I’m sure this was a nice reversal of that.

Moving onto the most heartbreaking moment of the crossover, Stein got shot, and he forced Jax to give him the formula to separate Firestorm in order to let Jax live and him to die. These two really nailed that death scene, showing just how far these two have come as partners, and as family, in their time on Flash and Legends of Tomorrow.

Through his death, we got to see just how much the Arrowverse was affected by his death. The Legends, Barry, Caitlin, all were rocked by it. And the scene with Jefferson and Stein’s family was heartbreaking to watch.

But, sadly, there were villains to catch. And that was another good thing that happened here, we got some serious closure on the unholy Trinity. Or…at least two of them. I liked how Overgirl’s need for a heart transplant was more than just vanity, but rather, if she didn’t get it…she would blow up! So it did add a little fun to the matter, all the while being incredibly satisfying to see her actually blow up. Come on, she deserved it. As did Dark Archer, who promptly died at Ollie’s hands. Sadly, Reverse Flash didn’t come off so well. Why in the WORLD did Barry let him go? He didn’t try and knock him out, hold him until they could put him in the pipeline…nothing! This is not going to end well, and Barry should’ve known that.

Back to the positive, seeing the entire Arrowverse team (more-or-less) team up for that epic wideshot was epic. And yes, even though other characters were on the Waverider or were otherwise incapacitated, it was still freaking epic. As was the use of the characters and their powers throughout the two episodes. There was some really cool action sequences here, including some surprising returns like the arrival of Red Tornado on Earth-X (and having to get taken down by Flash and Ray), Palmer taking down everyone in a couple of seconds…and a giant hand…, the takedown of Metallo, the DCTV Trinity vs. the Unholy Trinity, good stuff.

But, with the Nazi’s all dead, things had to return to normal, or as normal as things could be on this Earth. Seeing everyone say goodbye was sad, cause it’s really awesome seeing them all together. It’s necessary though, which…brings us to the weddings.

I laughed out loud when I saw that they were able to bring Diggle into the mix to marry both Barry and Iris AND Oliver and Felicity. I know that Olicity fans (and other fans) may not be happy with this, but it honestly was tactfully done.

Before I get into the bad things (yes, there was some of that too), I have to note ALL the references that were made in this crossover. There were three major Superman references in like 5 minutes, and then there was Terminator, a RWBY reference (which may not have been intentional…) and more. This is the fun of the DCTV universe, lots of fourth-wall breaking and fun.

Now…there was some downpoints. Aside from some CGI issues (which I’ll admit were a bit better than the first two episodes, Red Tornado looked epic for the record), the main issues I had were with Ray (The Ray) and certain other characters. This crossover was technically a pilot for The Ray’s upcoming CWSeed series. And though it set it up well, he himself didn’t have too many scenes. I would’ve like to know how he was born on Earth-1 yet somehow ended up on Earth-X. Also, that helmet? It didn’t look good at all.

Then, I’m still mad that certain other Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow characters didn’t get more spotlight. Yes, it’s hard to balance them, but there were notable absences at times. Like Dinah, Cisco, and more.

Finally, there were more logic issues than I would’ve wanted. Why did Citizen Cold stay on Earth-1 and send his love back to Earth-X? That doesn’t make sense. And again, why did Barry leave Reverse Flash to his own devices? Oh, and I like how Dark Archer told his ARMED NAZI’s to kill the Earth-1 heroes…only for them to WALK UP TO THEM and get disarmed. Really?

In the end though, Crisis On Earth-X was an amazing crossover, full of great character moments, lots of funny lines and references, and some great action. I almost pity the mid-season finales next week, cause they have a lot to live up to.