The final battle for the fate of the universe begins.

Crisis has swung for the fences from the moment it started and this episode is arguably the biggest example of that. It skirts over one or two things (Ollie becomes the Spectre pretty quickly) but what it focuses on is what the Paragons learn to focus on: the human cost of their task and the fact that very humanity is the one thing that the Anti-Monitor cannot legislate for.

This leads to a bunch of victory laps through some of the more famous moments of recent Arrowverse history. I especially enjoyed revisiting the Ollie and Kara dynamic from Invasion!, full of principled distrust and the arrogance that the next couple of seasons would beat out of Oliver. That being said, every callback has merit and, more importantly, emotional weight here. The strands of love and hate, of emotional connection in joy and victory that hold these characters together are stronger than anything their opponent could throw at them and that’s what comes through here. Even the Monitor gets some welcome emotional resonance and Marv Wolfman’s input on the script seems to have done a surprisingly brilliant job of humanising the figure. Best of all, this is one of the best performances Amell has ever given and him getting to deliver not one but two killer lines.

The first is when he briefs Barry to run into the Speed Force and begin searching for the others Amell’s kind, precise delivery on ‘Now run, Barry. RUN.’ Puts a heavyweight’s strength behind a line that is both mission statement and plea. Amell convincingly plays not-quite human anymore here in a really interesting way that honestly makes me hopeful the Spectre drops in from time to time in the future. He’s genuinely that good.

The second comes during the fight with the Anti-Monitor and it’s the final puzzle piece you need Grappling with the most powerful being in creation as a universe is reborn above them, Amell looks his opponent straight in the eyes and snarls ‘YOU HAVE FAILED… THIS… UNIVERSE’ and every jigsaw piece snaps into place. This was always going to be Ollie’s job, always going to be the last mission of Star City’s brutal humanist. The Hood, The Arrow, the Green Arrow, defending everyone from the future, ensuring there’s a future they can defend in turn.

Verdict: This is big, heady cosmic stuff and, perhaps an overt fondness for fights in a quarry aside, there is a LOT of fun to be had here. Especially as, epic as this conclusion is, the story is far from done… 9/10

Alasdair Stuart