Here's How Batwoman's World Has Changed Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths

The Arrowverse began to settle into its new normal tonight with Batwoman airing its first post-"Crisis on Infinite Earths" episode. Thanks to the conclusion of The CW's five-part crossover event, fans knew going in that things would be a little different for the Arrowverse's heroes. The last hour of "Crisis" revealed that Supergirl's Earth-38 was now part of a newly-established Earth-Prime along with Black Lightning's world. For those two characters, the changes to reality are no doubt pretty significant, but the impacts on everyone else remained to be seen. Tonight, though, we're getting a first look at just how different the reality of Earth-Prime is - and that means some curious twists for Batwoman.

Spoilers for tonight's episode of Batwoman, "How Queer Everything is Today!" below.

The changes to Batwoman's Gotham and larger world are sprinkled throughout the entirety of the episode, which makes a great deal of sense considering that the new world of Earth-Prime is in nearly every way the same world Gotham's heroine last saw in "Crisis". The differences though are telling. First up is in the opening when Vesper Fairchild mentions the death of Oliver Queen in her broadcast. Honoring Oliver and his sacrifice was a key piece of how "Crisis" established Earth-Prime so that mention firmly establishes that we are indeed in a brave new world.

We also get a reminder shortly thereafter that Kate Kane/Batwoman is the Paragon of Courage. Kate (Ruby Rose) talks about it with Luke Fox (Camrus Johnson) in the context that she doesn't feel particularly like a paragon if she's hiding her truth - specifically that she's a lesbian - from the people of Gotham. It's also revealed that she's at least told Luke about "Crisis," though he seems to have some doubts about what she's saying.

The big moments that reflect that Batwoman is now part of a post-"Crisis" world complete with some shifts and changes comes toward the end of the episode. After realizing the importance of Batwoman being out to the people of Gotham, the heroine's sexuality is revealed to the world in a cover story in Catco magazine - written by one Kara Danvers! While it had been revealed in the "Crisis on Earth-X" crossover that every Earth had its own Kara Danvers, she's not someone we ever saw and it was established in in the final hour of "Crisis" that the Kara we know from Earth-38 is now the Kara of Earth-Prime. It looks like that translates to Kara still working for Catco and still writing up major stories. It also makes a great deal of sense that Batwoman would choose to talk to Kara for such an important reveal. The pair have been established as friends not to mention that they know each other's heroic identities.

Those things all clearly establish that Earth-Prime is a little different from Earth-1, but the biggest way Batwoman's world has changed since "Crisis" comes at the end of the episode. It's Kate's birthday and after talking to her still-imprisoned father on the phone, Kate walks into her office and finds what appears to be Alice, just with a different hair color. Kate freaks out and attacks her trying to find out how she escaped from Crows custody, but that's when Batwoman breaks out its biggest surprise thus far. It's not Alice (Rachel Skarsten) standing in front of Kate. It's Beth Kane, a living, breathing, non-crazy Beth who is herself a little confused, having come home from studying abroad to discover that her previous lodging had been turned into a boys' dorm. The moment serves as a clever callback to a moment earlier in the episode when Mary (Nicole Kang) thought she saw Alice at Gotham University only for Sophie (Meagan Tandy) to end up in a boy's dorm.

The takeaway? It would seem that the biggest change in Batwoman's post-"Crisis" world is that not everyone from Earth-38 (or another reality) was seamlessly integrated into the new Earth-Prime and it's sure to be a revelation that will have major impact on the series going forward.

What did you think about tonight's first, post-"Crisis" episode of Batwoman? Let us know in the comments below.