SPOILER Dies in Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 2

The first night of The CW’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” saw some major losses for the heroes of the Arrowverse. Not only did Supergirl lose what was left of her home world, Krypton and her mother Alura for a second time, but despite their best efforts the heroes also lost Earth-38 as well. Their heroic efforts did save the lives of billions of souls from that doomed world, though even that was not without a heavy, deeply personal cost. With the heroes still reeling from these tragedies, tonight’s episode of “Crisis” saw them trying to forge on to save what’s left of the multiverse, but it also saw more death — one that may come as a bit of a shock for fans.

Spoilers for tonight’s episode of Batwoman, “Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part 2,” below.

With Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) having died at a time and in a manner that was not what The Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) had foresaw in the first hour of the crossover, the heroes find themselves needing to locate seven Paragons, heroes from the multiverse that will help them in their fight from here. They already have two with Supergirl/Kara Danvers (Melissa Benoist) as the paragon of Hope and White Canary/Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) as the paragon of Destiny. Iris (Candice Patton,) Lois (Elizabeth Tulloch,) and Earth-38 Clark (Tyler Hoechlin) head off to find a version of Superman/Clark Kent who has lost more than any man should while Supergirl and Batwoman/Kate Kane (Ruby Rose) head off to find a version of Bruce Wayne that will lead them to the paragon of Courage.

Well, the Bruce Wayne they find isn’t exactly what they expect. Played by Kevin Conroy, the Bruce they find is not only confined to an exoskeleton, but he is an evil, villainous version. On his world, Kate died five years ago, and he murdered a number of his enemies. He also murdered his world’s Superman. When Kara discovers this, she tells Kate and it prompts this dark Bruce to attack Kara with Kryptonite. Kate steps up and defends Kara and while there is a fight, this older Bruce is no match. He is killed in the struggle. Kate and Kara return to where the other heroes are waiting and Kate reveals that this Bruce is indeed dead, but he was the paragon of nothing. It turns out the trip wasn’t in vain, though. Kate is the paragon of Courage. Facing off with the evil Bruce is what led her to that role.

It’s a stunning turn that the Arrowverse would kill off Conroy’s Batman, but the character’s darker turn is one that Conroy himself teased in an interview last month with Entertainment Weekly.

“In this, I explore a lot of [the] dark corners of Bruce Wayne,” Conroy explained. “But they’re different than the ones I explored on Batman Beyond.”

He also at the time explained that playing this version of Bruce Wayne — which was live action as opposed to the voice work he usually does — was a bit of a challenge.

“It threw me at first,” Conroy said. “I never approached the character from that physicalized aspect. I always just inhabited him with my voice. When you do that in a recording studio, it’s a very intimate experience and you’re sort of living in your imagination. You do it with your eyes closed and you’re in this other world, and you have Mark Hamill feeding you all the energy you [need], and the other actors because we always recorded together in the booths. To actually be on set, in the physical world, and to be walking as the character and inhabiting the character in three dimensions, it was a real transition for me. It did take a while to get used to, I have to admit. I was surprised because I know the character so well.”

Were you surprised by the death of Bruce Wayne in tonight’s hour of “Crisis on Infinite Earths”? Let us know in the comments below.

“Crisis on Infinite Earths” kicks off on Sunday, December 8 on Supergirl, runs through a Monday episode of Batwoman and that Tuesday’s episode of The Flash. That will be the midseason cliffhanger, as the shows go on hiatus for the holidays and return on January 14 to finish out the event with the midseason premiere of Arrow and a “special episode” of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, which launches as a midseason series this year and so will not have an episode on the air before the Crisis.