Oliver is laid to rest, but heroes never really die. The Monitor sends Kate and Kara to retrieve the Paragon of Courage from one Earth, and Lois, Clark and Iris the Paragon of Truth from another. Oh and Lex pays a visit to Smallville. In every sense.

In a series whose soundtrack is so full of delightful little callbacks (the Batman 1989 theme! the Superman theme!) it seems a shame that Save Me by Remy Zero wasn’t playing somewhere in the Smallville sequence. Nonetheless, it was just delightful to see Tom Welling and Erica Durance’s Lane-Kents again. Especially as, so far, they remain resolutely unmurdered…

On a wider, less nostalgic note, the episode was a remarkably clever binary dance. Seeing Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne, in the flesh, at last was cleverly cut with both the Kingdom Come style exoskeleton he’s wearing and the reveal that this Bruce is absolutely not a good man. That was a fantastically handled reveal that managed to play up Kate’s inexperience without making her look bad and re-centre Kara as the Paragon of Hope without being chintzy. Nicely done all around. Plus Conroy sells the transformation perfectly, shifting from the grizzled old veteran Bruce we’ve been conditioned to expect into something far more desperate and disturbing. As a step in Batwoman’s journey especially, this makes perfect sense. She learns what not to do, who not to be in the same scene as Kara is reminded of who she is. Nicely done, writer’s room.

But the episode flies, in every sense, with the Paragon of Truth. Brandon Routh has been so good as the big bouncy science Labrador that is Ray Palmer that you forget just how good he was as Clark Kent. The movie? Maybe not so much, but the years have been kind to Routh and cruel to this version of the character. This Clark has lost everything, and somehow, grey at the temples and all, is still as open and friendly as he ever was. The scenes he shares with Tyler Hoechlin’s incarnation are especially good fun, especially the fight. Because they do, of course, fight. Superman punching Superman on the Daily Planet globe is a thing that happens.

The reason is Lex Luthor, Supergirl’s version, and the Book of Destiny. Lex is very much a C plot here, travelling the multiverse killing Supermen(mans? men) because if they manage to reset the world, then maybe it’ll reset without him. It’s a fun premise but one that does get a little lost in the churn. Still, any episode where Smallville Clark gets to punch a Luthor in the face is always good value.

Verdict: Normally this is the point where the CW crossover drops to second gear. Here it instead steps across to character studies in the face of the apocalypse and the end result is one of the strongest episodes of any of the shows to date. Plus the running gag about Ray and Clark looking identical is great. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart

After their terrible losses, our heroes regroup to begin the task of recovering the Paragons who represent the last hope of standing against the Anti-Monitor, leading to some encounters with familiar and not so familiar faces.

With events ending on a variety of dark notes in episode 1, you might think this instalment would try to perk things up a little. But whereas there are moments of levity scattered throughout, this is mainly a fairly dark journey for our various heroes.

Mia is not ready to let go of her father yet and neither is Barry. Between them, and with some help from a certain trenchcoated practitioner of the mystical arts and the reluctant assistance of Sarah, they formulate a plan to scour the various realities for a fairly extreme solution. The dynamic between Sarah and Mia is fascinating to watch – we know they’re actually quite similar, and that if they could set aside certain differences they’d be a great team, but will they be able to do that, given what’s at stake?

Clark and Lois are on the search for a Paragon, a version of Clark who has lost almost everything, and this quest is on somewhat of an urgent timetable given the interference of one Lex Luthor. These parts of the episode provide some of the lighter moments, as we get to enjoy cameos from various people and plenty of little references along the way as well. I defy anyone to not crack a smile at the quiet contentment of Tom Welling’s Clark, or the earnestness of Brandon Routh’s take on the character which proves that we were genuinely robbed by his shortened tenure in the cape and that he hasn’t missed a beat in the 13 year gap.

Kate and Kara meanwhile, have to go in search of another Paragon, this one requiring them to journey to the Gotham City of Earth 99 for a couple of very surprising encounters. This is perhaps the darkest part of the episode, as Kate is confronted by a familiar face on an unrecognisable soul. The way this whole angle plays out is perhaps the corniest part of the episode, designed a little clumsily to play to the mysterious aloofness of The Monitor. But it’s a resolution which feels earned given the work that the Batwoman show has already done, and both Ruby Rose and Melissa Benoist sell the hell out of it, while Kevin Conroy gets to have a bundle of fun in a rare on-screen turn as Bruce Wayne himself.

It largely doesn’t surprise – these crossover episodes perhaps struggle a little to generate the all-encompassing dramatic feel they’re going for as we all know that their various respective TV shows will continue as before once the event is over. That said, it brings a real heart to its drama that isn’t just the nostalgia ducts pumping as you go ‘hey, I remember that guy! I get that reference!’, and given how easily both writers and cast could have phoned this one in, that’s really good to see.

Verdict: Packing in a cinematic level of action, drama and heart on a TV budget is no mean feat. This really does put the Warner Bros/DC cinematic shared universe attempts to shame. 9/10

Greg D. Smith