“Crisis on Infinite Earths”: Easter Eggs and References in Part Three

The third night of The CW’s five-part “Crisis on Infinite Earths” is in the books and while it left fans freaking out with a stunning cliffhanger that they will be talking about for the next month before the crossover returns for its final two parts in January, it also followed in the footsteps of the previous two nights of the event. By that we mean, tonight’s hour of “Crisis” was packed full of Easter eggs and references to every corner of the DC Universe be it comics, television, movies, and more.

Spoilers for tonight’s episode of The Flash, “Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 1,” below!

The episode saw Black Lightning officially join the Arrowverse as he was recruited to help the heroes fight the Anti-Monitor. It also saw the return of the Flash of Earth-90 (guest star John Wesley Shipp) and the arrival of Ryan Choi as part of the heroic effort as well. In the process, fans got some great nods and epic references woven through the episode’s heartbreaking and exciting moments. Too busy watching the action to catch all the Easter eggs? While with an event this big there are surely little treats that we missed, we’ve done our best to catch as many as we could, and we’ve listed them out here for you to enjoy. Read on for the Easter eggs and references we spotted tonight below and be sure to let us know any you spotted that we didn’t in the comments below.

Birds of Prey

The episode opened with a trip to Earth-203, where yet another corner of the multiverse was being destroyed. Fans briefly got to see Helena Kyle/Huntress (Ashley Scott), who was running across a rooftop just as red skies destroyed New Gotham. Helena then radioed in to a voice over the “comms” that was none other than Barbara Gordon/Oracle (Dina Meyer), before being destroyed in a wave of anti-matter.

For the uninitiated, Birds of Prey aired from 2002 to 2003 on The WB Network (The CW’s former name), and provided a pretty unique adaptation of the eponymous team. The series saw Huntress and Oracle trying to protect New Gotham City in Batman’s absence, only for them to run into a teenage runaway named Dinah Redmond Lance (Rachel Skarsten). Together, the trio came to terms with their relationship to superheroics, and fought against the vengeful Dr. Harleen Quinzel (Mia Sara).

Lucifer

Yes, Lucifer appears in “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” And yes, we mean Tom Ellis‘ Lucifer, the star of Netflix’s Lucifer appeared in tonight’s episode. His Earth is designated as Earth-666 — fitting — and it’s where Mia (Katherine McNamara) and Constantine (Matt Ryan) and Diggle (David Ramsey) go to try to get an assist in how to retrieve Oliver Queen’s (Stephen Amell) soul. Lucifer doesn’t give them a direct answer, but he does send them in the right direction: Oliver is in Purgatory and it looks like Lian Yu.

Ellis’ appearance tonight is a pretty big surprise for fans as, back in October, Ellis himself denied rumors that he would be appearing in the epic “Crisis” event, even going so far as to call it a “hard pass.”

“Right, OK, see… this is what happens. I go to Vancouver for the weekend to visit my friend for his birthday and now suddenly, I’m in a different show!” Ellis told ET’s Katie Krause, adding that an appearance by Lucifer Morningstar in “Crisis on Infinite Earths” was a “hard pass.”

Turns out it wasn’t such a hard pass after all.

Ryan Choi

Ryan Choi made his Arrowverse debut tonight as the Paragon of Humanity. It’s a name The Flash fans have heard before as the character was mentioned as a scientist in the future who engineered Barry Allen’s Flash ring and costume. In comics, Ryan was created by Gail Simone and Grant Morrison and first appeared in DCU: Brave New World #1. He’s the longtime protege of Ray Palmer and, after Palmer disappears, Ryan moves from Hong Kong to Ivy Town and takes over Ray’s place teaching at Ivy University. Once there, Ryan follows Ray’s clues and discovers a “bio-belt” and becomes the new Atom.

In the episode Choi isn’t the new Atom, but he’s definitely a big fan of Ray Palmer’s. He also requires a bit of convincing by Iris West-Allen (Candice Patton) to come be part of the team who attempts to save the Multiverse the scene also gives us another great Easter egg…

Simone

…and that’s baby Simone. Ryan tells Iris about his wife and baby daughter and the daughter’s name — Simone — is a direct reference to Gail Simone, one of the co-creators of Ryan Choi. Simone even had a great reaction to this little Easter egg tonight on Twitter.

Earth-90 Flash

Sure, we knew that John Wesley Shipp was returning to the Arrowverse once again as Barry Allen/The Flash from Earth-90, but we didn’t know how until tonight. While getting The Flash from the 1990 television series on screen one more time was a treat, it was a bittersweet one. It ends up being Earth-90 The Flash who dies in Crisis to save the Multiverse, with this version of Barry sacrificing himself instead of Earth-1’s Barry Allen.

Tina McGee

Another great Flash 1990 Easter egg from the episode came when Earth-90 Barry goes on that fateful run and we get a beautiful flashback to that 1990 television series and see him once again with Tina McGee (Amanda Pays), his love interest from that series. But it gets better: we find out in the episode that Barry actually married Tina in that reality, a twist that finally brings a beautiful bit of closure to that series nearly thirty years later.

The Death of the Flash

The Monitor said The Flash would die in Crisis. He never specified which Earth that Flash was from. Earth-90 Flash stepped up and stole Barry’s speed and took his place, running backwards in order to stop the anti-matter cannon and take away the Anti-Monitor’s massive weapon. He takes off running and, in a scene lifted directly from comics, Barry Allen, The Flash, sacrifices himself in Crisis. It just happens to be Barry Allen from Earth-90 and when that tragic moment came, the episode tonight gave fans an incredible callback to Crisis on Infinite Earths #8 with a striking visual of all that was left of The Flash: his symbol among all the debris of the anti-matter cannon he just destroyed.

Dark Knight Over Metropolis

Tonight’s episode saw a moving exchange between Supergirl/Kara Danvers (Melissa Benoist) and Batwoman/Kate Kane (Ruby Rose) and in that exchange, Kate reveals to Kara that she has the Kryptonite that belonged to Earth-99 Bruce Wayne. 

If the dialogue in the scene sounded familiar, it’s because it was nearly verbatim from Superman: Dark Knight Over Metropolis.

A different Jim Corrigan

Tonight’s episode introduced Jim Corrigan to the Arrowverse when Mia (Katherine McNamara), Diggle (David Ramsey), and Constantine (Matt Ryan) go to Purgatory to get Oliver’s soul. When Jim Corrigan approaches them there, Constantine notes that he knows a “different” Jim Corrigan. It’s a reference to NBC’s Constantine series which featured Jim Corrigan as a New Orleans homicide detective who was only recently introduced to the supernatural by Constantine.

Vanishing Point

At the very end of tonight’s installment of “Crisis” the Seven Paragons find themselves at something called the Vanishing Point and it’s a major callback to the very first season of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

The Vanishing Point is a place outside of time and space and it was utilized as the Time Masters as a base of operations. In the first season of Legends, it was the place where the Legends made their last stand against the Time Masters — who had been manipulating the timeline for Vandal Savage who they had aligned with — and ultimately were Leonard Snart sacrificed himself to destroy the Oculus,  a device that allowed the Time Masters to predict and manipulate timeline.

Seems fitting that the Vanishing Point would be where the Paragons ended up as their last sanctuary after the multiverse was destroyed.