Arrow Confirms Earth-2 Is Gone

Arrow‘s Season 8 premiere last week ended in a shocking way. While Oliver, Laurel, and Diggle watched in horror, the Starling City police station and everyone in it began to vanish as they were hit by a mysterious energy that literally evaporated them. Oliver and company managed to escape thanks to a breach device before they suffered the same fate, but what had transpired was pretty clear. Earth-2 became the first major casualty of the coming crisis for the Arrowverse, but fans still had hope. Maybe it was just Starling City. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as it looked. Maybe it wasn’t even Earth-2. However, in tonight’s “Welcome to Hong Kong”, Arrow confirmed the sad truth that Earth-2 is, in fact, gone.

Spoilers for tonight’s episode of Arrow, “Welcome to Hong Kong”, below.

Tonight’s episode kicks off with Oliver — as well as Diggle and Laurel — back on Earth-1, albeit in Hong Kong. Oliver and Diggle both realize the reality of what happened on Earth-2, but Laurel isn’t quite on the same page with them. She wants to get back home to her life and her city, to be there for the people she loves and demands the breach device to make that happen. However when she goes to use it, nothing happens. It doesn’t even light up as it appears that the device was damaged in their escape. Laurel angrily storms off and we soon learn that she went to track down someone she knew from her time with Caden James who had once said he could help her get back to Earth-2.

Laurel, with Lyla Michaels as support, confronts the acquaintance and demands that he fix the device. He does so, but despite the device lighting up and being functional again when Laurel hits the button to open a breach to Earth-2 nothing happens. and the acquaintance soon learns why. He looks at his computer monitor and reveals that while he can locate various other Earths in the Multiverse, but where Earth-2 once was has gone dark, no signs of life. It’s no longer there.

This reveal confirms for Laurel that her world is, in fact, gone, but it also confirms it for fans as well. Despite the events of last week’s Arrow, some fans were still hoping that because Earth-2 wasn’t directly named and because we didn’t see anything other than Starling City get hit that, perhaps, it wasn’t quite as bad as a full-scale destruction. Now we know for sure: RIP Earth-2.

Of course, we still don’t know if everyone from Earth-2 died with their world. Laurel, obviously, survived, but there still could be a chance that Earth-2’s Harrison Wells and his daughter, Jesse Quick, may have survived. Perhaps they were off world at the time of the destruction — Jesse has been known to visit Earth-3, after all. Sure, it seems like a long shot, but we’re gonna keep the faith even if we know that the loss of Earth-2 is just the first fans will have to process this season. All Earths in the Multiverse are in danger and if “Crisis on Infinite Earths” goes anything like the comic book series it’s inspired by did, we will be making many more hard farewells before it’s through.

Arrow airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on The CW.