JD reviewed the first half for Bureau 42 here. The second half actually has action, tragedy, status-quo changes, everything a major event is supposed to have.
Title: “Crisis on Earth X, Parts Three and Four”
Cast and Crew
Directors: Dermott Daniel Downs, Gregory Smith
Writers: Todd Helbing, Phil Klemmer, Keto Shimizu, Andrew Kreisberg, Marc Guggenheim
Grant Gustin as Barry Allen / The Flash
Candice Patton as Iris West
Victor Garber as Dr. Martin Stein
Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak / Jewish Prisoner
Caity Lotz as Sara Lance / White Canary
Chyler Leigh as Alex Danvers
Paul Blackthorne as Sturmbannführer
Franz Drameh as Jefferson Jackson / Firestorm
Jeremy Jordan as Winn Schott
Juliana Harkavy as Dinah Drake / Black Canary
Wentworth Miller as Leo Snart / Citizen Cold
Russell Tovey as Ray Terrill / The Ray
Brian Cook as Nazi
Frederick Schmidt as Metallo-X (voice)
Brett Alexander Davidson as Nazi Facility Guard (as Brett Davidson)
Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer / The Atom
Maisie Richardson-Sellers as Amaya Jiwe / Vixen
Amy Louise Pemberton as Gideon (voice)
Tala Ashe as Zari Tomaz
Nick Zano as Nate Heywood / Steel
Dominic Purcell as Mick Rory
Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen / Green Arrow / Dark Arrow
David Ramsey as John Diggle
Tom Cavanagh as Dr. Harry Wells / Eobard Thawne / Dark Flash
Chyler Leigh as Alex Danvers
Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow / Killer Frost
Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon / Vibe
Echo Kellum as Curtis Holt / Mr. Terrific
Melissa Benoist as Kara Danvers / Supergirl / Overgirl
Rick Gonzalez as Rene Ramirez / Wild Dog
Juliana Harkavy as Dinah Drake / Black Canary
Wentworth Miller as Leo Snart / Citizen Cold
Russell Tovey as Ray Terrill / The Ray
Christina Brucato as Lily Stein
Isabella Hofmann as Clarissa Stein
Charles Zuckermann as Nazi Commander
Adam Klassen as Nazi Navigator
Premise
The heroes find themselves trapped on Earth-X, and have to stop the most evil of heart transplants. Once free, the final battle happens on Earth 1, followed by some stirring emotional moments.
High Points
We see lasting changes for characters, and the emotional resonance hit pretty solidly (both the good and the sad.)
We see the level of battle that we expect from a show with this many heroes.
The “subtle” change to Snart for his doppelganger was entertaining.
Low Points
Eobard’s exit. I could not reconcile this decision with any form off sound reasoning, comic book or otherwise.
Per a guess from the comments earlier on this site, I was hoping that Lucifer was going to find a way to have a cameo, but the devil was not in the details.
The Scores:
Originality: 3/6 They weren’t as heavily telegraphed as they were for the first two parts, but we still don’t find anything groundbreaking.
Effects: 4/6 The effects budget was significantly stretched, and it showed with CGI people who looked as rubbery as the early aughts.
Acting: 6/6 They called for some strong performances from the cast, and the cast delivered.
Story: 3/6 The story isn’t bad, but many things happen purely because the characters need to be somewhere else after this story ends. Also, the pacing is a bit derailed with the sad character moments before the ultimate battle.
Emotional Response: 6/6 We laughed at the jokes, my wife wept at the appropriate points, they hit all the points.
Production: 5/6 They did a good job of having four different shows blend and mix, even getting better at having a reason that supporting characters weren’t present.
Overall: 5/6 In total, “Crisis on Earth X: Part Three and Part Four” receives 32/42
I actually found this one less entertaining than the first, likely because of the number of things that happen because the script says so. The Nazis, who have conquered a world, have as their invasion plan marching up to a line of metahumans???
However, they managed to get most of the CWDCTVU heroes together. Ridiculous as Thawne’s “escape” is, I did note that each doppelgänger’s fate reflected the hero and show’s tone. Overgirl died after her fight with Supergirl (nice echo of Superman II), but not because Supergirl killed her. Barry just let Thawne go rather than kill him, and Thawne left with a line that might as well have been, “We’ll meet again! Mwah ha ha!” Ollie, of course, shot first.
I’m glad Snart is back in some form, and I’m strangely okay with the fact that someone of significance doesn’t make it out of this episode alive. A battle on this scale had to cost at least one hero’s life.
I also wonder: they’ve just eliminated der fuhrer and the Kryptonian living weapon of Earth X, and saved their own world with the help of Earth-X heroes. Shouldn’t they, you know, take the time to say thank you by helping the Earth-X resistance a little at this point?
They did offer, there was that whole “You’ve got my number” scene.
Sure, but, “realistically,” it should have happened (I know, series television, crossover expense).
It’s like the Nazi invasion of Earth-Arrow. Yes, they had another plan, but surely the shock troops would have had heavy artillery.
The one guy firing off arrows next to two women who are using rapid fire machine guns looked ridiculous. Followed by a quick pause to say “We don’t kill!” before cutting back to machine gun Sarah.
I loved Good Snart.
Me too, but he walked away from his boyfriend, to go live in the world his boyfriend comes from. I feel like Ray should have stayed with him.
I feel that Ray staying would him would be the right thing, narrative- and reality-wise.
However, it was clearly not the right thing budget-wise.
You know, Thawne’s escape may not have been so dumb as it looked. At the time I wondered why he just buggered off instead of rejoining the fight but then I realized that Thawne values survival very highly. Why rejoin a fight that was probably lost anyway, and possibly force Barry into the obvious action as a result?
Of course, one thing that’s been consistent is that Barry is usually dumber than a sack of hammers. It’s amazing how many plot issues with Flash are “solved” by assuming that.
But why chase him down, if only to let him go when you catch him! It’s not like they don’t have a totally illegal meta-human-rights-violating holding cell to throw him in and forget him!