Crisis on Infinite Earths Viewers React to The Flash Twist

Spoilers ahead for "Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Three." As promised way back in the pilot episode of The Flash, Barry Allen vanished in the Crisis on Infinite Earths, sacrificing himself to stop the Anti-Monitor and save the multiverse. To the surprise of fans, though, it was not the Barry they were expecting, and the Flash of Earth-90 (John Wesley Shipp) shuffled off this mortal coil, sacrificing himself to save not just the multiverse generally but Barry (Grant Gustin) personally. After a brief flashback to the love of his life, Tina McGee (Amanda Pays), Barry-90 vanished into nothingness, destroying the antimatter cannon and stopping the antimatter wave from destroying Earth-1.

And fans lost their minds. Both the sacrifice and the twist had an impact on Twitter.

The "Crisis" event brings together the heroes from multiple Earths to battle against the Anti-Monitor (LaMonica Garrett), a godlike villain who threatens to destroy all reality. In the comics, the story ended with the deaths of The Flash and Supergirl, and the destruction of DC's multiverse, leading to a single Earth with a complex history packed with hundreds of heroes.

The event is the most ambitious thing DC has ever attempted in live action, bringing together characters from all six of the current DC Comics adaptations on The CW (Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, and Black Lightning), along with characters and actors from Titans, the 1990 version of The Flash, the short-lived Birds of Prey, Smallville, Superman Returns, Tim Burton's Batman, and the iconic 1966 Batman series.

"Crisis on Infinite Earths" kicked off this week with last night's episode of Supergirl, runs through tonight's episode of Batwoman and tomorrow'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. And while Black Lightning's midseason finale -- which airs tonight after Batwoman -- is not technically part of "Crisis on Infinite Earths," there are red skies, and the episode's title is "Earth Crisis." So things are not too far removed.