The Crisis is here. Earths X, 9, 66 and 89 have fallen. They will not be the last.

So we’re finally here, the moment Flash has been building to from the start. Crisis is nearly impossible to adapt but Robert Rovner and Marc Guggenheim (story), Derek Simon and Jay Faerber (teleplay) manage it through three key choices: pace, consequence and surprise.

Pace first. This thing does not stop. In the space of the first five minutes we get Earths 66, 89, X and 9 apparently destroyed and from there the entire episode is about evacuating Kara’s Earth before it’s too late. Heroes fall. Mistakes are made and the whole time the threat just keeps on coming. The pace is relentless, needs to be and does an extraordinary job of communicating the scope of the problem. The worlds are ending. How do you fight that if you’re really good with a bow? Or super fast? How do you fight that at all?

Along the way the show gets some smart stuff out of the fact this Earth has such a large and public extra-terrestrial immigrant community and some welcome additional character beats for Clark, Lois and Kara. There’s a moment between the two Kryptonians especially that’s just heartbreaking as, with her Earth hours from destruction, Kara still finds hope. Tyler Hoechlin and Melissa Benoist are effortlessly great in their roles and this episode gives them both a lot to do, ad is better for it.

Consequence next. Oliver’s farewell tour over in his show gives him time to meet and inspire his daughter and also, here, gives him a chance to get his feet under him. As the trip to Earth-16 shows, and as Sara so perfectly communicates, Oliver Queen is just a fundamentally good man. Here that fundamental goodness means he, one of the two least powered people on the field, is the last to leave.

It also costs him his life. Which brings us to surprise!

We know things are going sideways. We know the stakes are high from the start. I mean while it’s lovely seeing Alexander Knox (ALEXANDER KNOX, EVERYONE!), the reporter from the original Tim Burton Batman, and likewise Burt Ward, there’s a given factor of nostalgia there. But the Titans? They just got renewed! For them to be taken out means big things are definitely still coming.

Likewise Oliver, who dies here after taking on a horde of the Anti-Monitor’s forces alone, so the evacuation of Kara’s world can be completed. Will he back? In some form certainly. Are our heroes in trouble? Oh so much.

Verdict: With this as a set up I can’t wait for the next episode. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart