As more Earths fall, the heroes search for the remaining Paragons and make some very difficult choices.

There’s a really interesting, and valid, criticism of Crisis that states the issue the story has is that each episode has to be an episode of its core show. So the Black Lightning episode pushes those plots along, the Supergirl one pushes those along and so on. It’s not a deal breaker, but there is the slightest sense of each cast being rested a little bit as the focus shifts.

Team Flash are front and centre this time and, as usual, that’s good news. Ralph, Ray and Iris track down the Paragon of Humanity who’s only Doctor Ryan Choi! Easily the most fun incarnation of the Atom, Ryan is a lovely, kind-hearted and funny character who is clearly being set up to take over from Ray. His appearance here, and the fact it’s Iris that gets him onboard is both impressive and perfectly embodies that problem I mentioned. This is The Flash episode so it has to do Flash stuff.

That being said, it does pretty great Flash stuff. We get the origin of Harbinger, the return of John Wesley Shipp and the answer to the biggest question at the heart of The Flash: How does Barry disappear in the Crisis? We find out here, as he plans to sacrifice his life to destroy the Anti-Monitor’s antimatter cannon. This gives Gustin a chance to remind us just what a fundamentally good man Barry is, and John Wesley Shipp one last chance to revisit his incarnation of the character. He of course makes the sacrifice. That was to be expected. The brief flashback to his own series, as well as the Birds of Prey cameo at the top of the episode, are both unexpected and deeply moving. More heroes fall. But the end, it stops.

Or does it?

In amongst the wonderful cameos (Lucifer!) and in jokes there’s a beautiful sucker punch of an ending here. The way the characters put it together a second too late, the way Pariah is thinking way ahead of them, it’s all gripping, clever, subtle stuff. Plus that reassuring wink Clark gives before everyone is wiped out says it all; Superman trusts his friends. We should too.

Verdict: Clever, vast and a touch formulaic this is still immense fun. It’s going to be a looong wait for the next part. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart