(Images courtesy of Google)

This review is part of a 4 part collection to cover The CW's 2017 Arrowverse crossover event across all four of the DC Comics TV shows.

I have already reviewed Part 1 - Supergirl Episode which can be found by clicking the following link:

https://kasimmons8.wixsite.com/therealviewroom/single-post/2017/12/05/Review-Crisis-on-Earth-X---Part-1-Supergirl-Episode Now lets move on to part 2. Arrow's episode. At the end of part 1, viewers discovered that the masked villains for the crossover turn out to be Oliver (Stephen Amell) and Kara's (Melissa Benoist) Earth X doppelgangers but we also saw that they had teamed up with Earth 1's Eobard Thawne (Reverse Flash) with the face of Harrison wells (Tom Cavanagh). Not only that we were also left pondering over the identity of Earth X's Prometheus. It would have been quite a simple move for it to be an Earth X doppelganger of Adrian Chase (Josh Segarra) - also known as the man behind the Prometheus mask on Earth 1 in season 5 of Arrow. But of course that would be far too easy for the creators of Arrow. At the beginning of part 2 of the crossover the first scene shows Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) walking towards a meta vault at Star Labs to meet Oliver, Kara, Barry (Grant Gustin), Iris (Candice Patton) and Sara Lance (Caity Lotz) who are already waiting at the vault looking on at their captive. Then the Nazi vigilante can be seen removing his mask, only to then reveal....Have you guessed it? The face of Tommy Merlyn (Colin Donnell) . For those that aren't aware of who this character is, Tommy was the son of Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman) who turned out to be The Dark Archer before then progressing to becoming the new Ra's al Ghul, the top of the league of assassins. Tommy was also the best friend of Oliver Queen in season 1 of Arrow back in 2012. Fans watched the bromance between the two, following their fun times and also low moments together including both of them having romantic involvement with Dinah Laurel Lance - sister of Sara Lance, daughter of Quentin Lance and also known as the Black Canary. Unfortunately Tommy was killed off 4 years ago in the series and it has left Oliver feeling not only guilty for his death, but also heartbroken ever since. This was a very clever move to bring back the face of this much loved character. Not only is it nostalgia for us as viewers but also a real challenge for Amell's character Oliver to have to cope with. So we now get to see a more vulnerable Oliver Queen at the beginning of this episode a he struggles with coming to terms with facing his best friend once again.

While there is a seriousness to the stories within the crossover its quite nice to see light hearted and sarcastic comments coming from Mick Rory/Heatwave (Dominic Purcell) as the band of friends leave Oliver to talk to his long lost friend, they return the the main area of Star Labs to try to figure out why Nazi invaders from 1945 had indeed crashed Barry and Iris' wedding. Rory's response "crab legs, they were delicious". It seems that these days Rory is now becoming one of the more silly characters amongst the Legends alongside the nerdy Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh) and the fun loving Nate Heywood (Nick Zano). Which is quite a nice switch up compared to the more serious characters.

Soon enough after a little deliberation the team are brought to a realisation that the Nazis that had invaded the couple's special day were indeed from Earth X. Harry Wells from Earth 2 is the one to give the team a quick run down of the history of Earth X. While the screen shows a black and white montage of Hitler and the Nazis, Wells (Cavanagh) explains that yes there are 52 Earths but there's a 53rd Earth which "doesn't have a designation because it's a place so awful, so horrific, that no sane person ever travelled there". Earth X is "basically our Earth, same history, same timeline with one crucial and critical difference. The Nazis won the war". The team then have to process this information before working on a plan to face this threat.

Shortly after discovering just who these soldiers are we are taken back to the meta vault at Star Labs where Earth X Tommy is being held. He explains to Oliver that even on his earth they are still best friends and would die for him. Oliver displays more emotion when telling this version of his best friend that he felt like he was "losing a limb" when he lost him. The Earth X Prometheus can relate to Oliver as their friendship is just the same as what he's always known. Due to their realtionship before Tommy's death, Oliver still tries his hardest to bring his "brother" back. He tells him that there is still some good in him despite who he is or where he's from. To which we then see a very nervous vigilante expressing how his Führer would react if he helped our Earth 1 heroes. Oliver continues to try his hardest to win back the friendship that he had lost many years ago. As the scene develops Merlyn completely reverses his behaviour almost in like a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde fashion to call Oliver "a special kind of idiot" followed by then calling him "pathetic" before then going on to say what the plan is for detroying Earth 1 as we know it. I must comment on how well Amell adjusted to film this scene. There is a close up of his face just as Merlyn turns on his character and you can see the sheer emotion in his face and water beginning to fill his eyes. Unfortunately though this is all we see of Colin Donnell back in Tommy's shoes as the character then kills himself ingesting a posion while in the vault right in front of a pleading Mr Queen on the other side of the transparent door. I really feel the team behind Arrow could have utilised Donnell's character a lot more over the crossover episodes as it could have led to a bigger build up of emotional conflict or even a one on one altercation for him and Oliver. Is this really the last time we will see Tommy Merlyn in Arrow? Fingers crossed he casually pops up again in the future. All this is before the title credits. What a way to open the episode!

Building on the bond between Tommy and Oliver, viewers are taken back to our main villains where Oliver of Earth X has just realised that his best friend is no longer here. We can still see the raw emotion and vulnerability even with the Nazi version of Mr Queen when it comes to his best friend. This quickly leads to an altercation between the Dark Arrow and Reverse flash after the Earth 1 Eobard Thawne tells an emotional Oliver to watch his tone when speaking to him after Thawne calls Merlyn "soft" and he is told by his leader "keep your focus where it belongs and get to work on locating that prism!" In usual reverse flash style, viewers then see the vibrating hand threat. Nazi Oliver may be at the top of the ranks but it is clear that Thawne isn't happy taking his orders. At the end of the scene with help from a little suspense music and the exit of Eobard from the screen, Kara and Oliver share a kiss. Showing us that on their Earth they are indeed more than just villains working alongside each other in order to put their plan in motion. We later learn that they are actually married. Somewhat of an interesting twist which Kara (from our universe) calls "gross" later on.

After a brief video chat between Felicity (Rickards) and Curtis Holt (Echo Kellum) to discuss technicalities, once more the on again, off again relationship between Oliver and Felicity is back in play. He is clearly still trying to convince his rather blunt partner into marriage. As usual, Felicity tries to avoid the conversation by mentioning that they need to deal with the invasion first. This next part is where Rickard's character surprised me a little. Ever since she and Oliver broke off their engagement the first time around she became a bit of a....well....a bitch to him to be perfectly honest. I actually liked Felicity up until this point and I think that was the point when a lot of Arrow fans also completely changed their view on her character too. She was a lovely, perky and very intelligent woman who brought a lot humour into the show. Then she turned into "The mega bitch" (in the words of Rik Mayall's Drop Dead Fred), with her snide, sarcastic and rude comments heading straight for Oliver. Most of them being about his innocent son William as the Green Arrow had not long discovered that he was a father to a young boy. Anyway back on topic. Viewers then see something that they haven't seen from her character for quite some time. Genuine compassion and empathy. She sits willingly on a step next to her partner to explain why she's not interested in marriage and that his recent proposal was "so sweet". She desperately tries to explain to Oliver that she loves him and always will but it's clearly not enough for Ollie as he wants to "move forward".

Once again the show brings Jax (Franz Drameh) and Stein (Victor Garbor) to centre stage to further discuss their separation of Firestorm. After holding it back for a long time, Jax spills out his feelings about the whole idea. He explains to Martin that he thought he had made his peace with it, but he can't handle it. With an outburst he says to Stein "it requires me to give up you Grey!" Grey being Jax's nickname for Martin Stein. The intensity behind the pair's emotions really does pull the viewers in and with Jax saying he's not ready to give up his father figure (Stein), it's definitely something a lot of viewers can relate to.

The awkward encounters between Alex (Chyler Leigh) and Sara (Caity Lotz) appear again, following their one night stand in the previous episode.

Alex continues with her short and nervous answers when conversing with the captain of the wave rider before Sara leaves and Kara enters the room. Alex explains to her sister that what happened is "all kinds of wrong, waking up with a strange woman, in a strange bed" and its got her "spinning". This once more brings Alex to question her choice to leave former Fiancee Maggie Sawyer. Despite Kara/Supergirl (Benoist), trying her best to conceal her own emotions after finding out her partner has moved on to be with someone else, she is still very much focused on helping her sister to feel more at ease with her life choices. I previously said that I was pleasantly surprised to see a more compassionate side to Felicity when talking to Oliver about their relationship. Well unfortunately it's not long before we see the blunt and sarcastic version of Miss Smoak once more. This is when her and Iris are in the main area of Star Labs together as they are attempting to find the location of the Nazis. Iris politely asks Felicity "how long until you brainiacs actually find these Nazis?" An exhausted (clearly both physically and emotionally) Felicity responds with "oh, my answer hasn't changed in the two minutes since you last asked me". Then goes on again to complain to Iris (Patton) about her woes with Oliver over their relationship status.

Now the scene following Felicity complaining yet again, is unusual for Stephen Amell's Green Arrow. This is the scene leading up to our heroes' big encounter with the three main villains. Barry/The Flash and Kara/Supergirl arrive geared up and very promptly to the indicated location of the Nazis. What is amusing is that they are seen in awkward silence plus a little tune which Kara whistles as they wait around for someone else. Of course as predicted that someone else is The Green Arrow arriving a few seconds later speeding in on his signature motorcycle. As Oliver arrives he also adds the humour to the scene with his comment "just a quick reminder. Super speed. I don't have it." This is one of the very few times Oliver is seen as an amusing character as we are used to seeing him with a more brooding look on his face.

Let the battle commence! Our heroes come face to face with the enemy. Or in this case enemies that finally reveal themselves to the trio of heroes. Each character is seen briefly interacting with their evil counterpart using comments such as "this is sick!" from Oliver, a discussion between The Flash and Reverse Flash about the face that Eobard is wearing (that of earth 1 Harrison Wells) the face the evil speedster was wearing when Barry initially became The Flash, and Kara calling Overgirl "perverse". After a warning from Earth 1's Barry, Oliver and Kara to the dopplegangers demanding their departure from their Earth bring on the big battle scene. Heroes vs Dopplegangers! The Green Arrow is my favourite out of all of the characters as I love Amell's portrayal of the emerald archer, but I did wonder just how much he would be able to contribute to this scene. Especially as he had already stated that he was at a disadvantage without super speed. But his role was one that really surprised me in this encounter with the Nazi leaders and the Reverse Flash. He is seen aiming an arrow at overgirl to which she sniggers at him and says "and what do you think that's going to do? Bullets bounce off of me". This is the first time viewers see an arrow that can actually do some damage to a Kryptonian. Yes a Kryptonite arrow. Despite the Kryptonite weakening the evil version of Supergirl, it really doesn't affect her as much as you would expect it to. So much for that option. Still I wondered what else The Green Arrow could do in this situation. The doppelgangers then damage a scaffolded building in the background which causes the structure to fail and begin to collapse. Again I did wonder how useful the Green Arrow would be but he swung around hanging from his grappling hook style arrow from level to level looking rather like Marvel's Spiderman in order to keep the building upright. The only negative comment I have about this scene was that the CGI was a little hit and miss. After more technical talk from Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker), Alex (Leigh) and general chatter about their enemies, there's even more 'Olicity' drama (by this point its getting a little too much now) and a more humour from Mick Rory (Purcell).

Towards the end of this Arrow episode, Oliver, Barry, Kara, Alex, Sara, Jax and Stein (ready as Firestorm) head to a known location of the Nazis whereabouts. The team arrive to be bombarded with gunfire from Nazi soldiers who are accompanied by Reverse Flash and Overgirl. Our heroes quickly realise that Earth X's Arrow is missing. It turns out he's heading to Star Labs to join Wells, Felicity, Iris, Caitlin and Rory. Killer Frost (Panabaker) and Heatwave (Purcell) are left to protect their friends and Star Laboratories. As battle continues for the rest of the team at the abandoned warehouse the camera pans into the Green Arrow as he lays almost lifeless on the ground as he watches on at his friend's efforts to stop the invaders. Which currently looks like its heading for a defeat for the team. We are then quickly taken back to Star Labs to see Heatwave and Killer Frost take on The Dark Arrow. This is the scene where Team Arrow step in. The Dark Arrow asks around "Anyone else, want to be a hero?" and with dramatic yet slightly cheesy music, in jumps the Black Canary (Juliana Harkavy), Wild Dog (Rick Gonzalez) and lastly Mr Terrific (Echo Kellum) with the well fitted one liner "they wanted to wait, but I didn't think we'd ever get a better entry line than that". Very typical for the character.

With a lot of back and forth between the two locations and two battle scenes there are plenty of punches thrown, loud explosions and kick ass stunts which many of the actors actually did themselves. After flooring all of the Nazi soldiers in the warehouse, The Green Arrow, Supergirl, The Flash, Firestorm, Alex and The White Canary are left to face with yet another challenge. In walks mean machine Metallo (Previously seen in the Supergirl series). With a green blast from his chest he knocks Supergirl to the ground while the others attacked once more by Overgirl and Reverse flash. The team are surrounded and taken captive. This is when we finally find out why our heroes are being targeted. The General/Overgirl is dying and needs a new heart. And where is that heart going to come from? Of course Supergirl.

While back at Star Labs everyone except Felicity and Iris are trapped within the meta vaults. During this scene the actors that are playing duplicate roles are really put to the test when taunting their better versions. Tom Cavanagh has been seen playing multiple roles before, so we are familiar with him doing so. Other than being way more cold hearted The Dark Arrow doesn't actually differ that much from Green Arrow. Whereas the biggest difference is that of Benoist as Overgirl. She is known for her nice approach to most things as Supergirl until she is pushed, that's when we start to see a different side to Kara. But Melissa is a total bad ass as the the Nazi villain within this crossover. Her voice is daunting and her mannerisms are more sinister. She for me is the star of the doppelgangers. She nailed it!

To round up the episode, the focus is on Star Labs once more. With a pep talk from Iris to Felicity about her relationship with Oliver yet again and Nazis covering all grounds of the building, the two ladies are left alone to not only save themselves but their friends too. The final scene pans out over the heroes once more but this time rising from the ground from an unconscious state. All are present except for Kara/Supergirl. And where are they? In a concentration camp on Earth X. Camera pans out and end of episode! And roll end credits. Tah Dah!

This episode was far stronger than Supergirls's in part 1. But like it was also a build up for this. I loved watching this but unfortunately there are a few negatives.

Firstly, the writers have played on the Oliver and Felicity relationship issues far too much. Not only has it been going on for a long time now in the Arrow series but it's beginning to get drab as part of the crossover too. Yes I understand it's an important backstory for the two characters but there really doesn't need to be so many scenes full of Felicity whining about her other half. Technically he has more right to complain than she does. She is causing her own drama and is really her own worst enemy. Which is a shame because Emily Bett Rickards is a talented actress and portrayed Felicity so well for the first few seasons, she even became a favourite character of mine. Not now. Secondly, this was Arrow's episode, why were Team Arrow only introduced at the end? This was a chance for them to shine as it was their show's turn to contribute to the crossover. Lastly, there really wasn't too much of The flash in this episode. There's more red/orange lightning streaks on screen compared to the amount of screen time Grant actually gets. Fingers Crossed we will see more of him in The Flash's episode of the cross over which is to follow this. So what will happen in part 3? Will the team be able to escape Earth X and return to earth? And will Iris and Felicity be able to free their friends?