'Crisis on Infinite Earths' CW 2019: How Arrow May Have Set Up the Event

The 2018 Arrowverse crossover, “Elseworlds,” may have just ended, but we already know what to expect from next year’s event: “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” That “Crisis” has been hanging over the heads of the Arrowverse for some time now, but it appears the timeline for it has changed. What could have led to that? And how is Oliver Queen involved?

Spoilers for the Arrowverse crossover “Elseworlds” below.

The last scene of this year’s crossover sets up next year’s event. After the heroes stop John Deegan/Doctor Destiny, he becomes a patient at Arkham Asylum. In the cell next to his is Psycho-Pirate.

“Everything is as it should be,” Psycho-Pirate tells the doctor. “The stage is set. Worlds will live. Worlds will die. And the universe will never be the same.”

We then see the title card for next year’s crossover: “Crisis on Infinite Earths.”

In “Elseworlds, Part 2,” the Monitor warns Oliver, Barry, and Kara that “a crisis is imminent” and “someone far, far more powerful than myself” is coming. The Monitor is testing universes to find one strong enough to stand against this “someone” to save the multiverse. Is that someone the Anti-Monitor, the villain of this storyline in the comics?

In “Elseworlds, Part 3,” Barry and Kara are willing to sacrifice themselves to slow down the Earth’s rotation (and therefore everything else) long enough for the others to get the Book of Destiny away from John Deegan and fix everything.

Oliver tries to appeal to the Monitor to rewrite their destinies. He correctly figures out the Monitor is testing them to see if they’re “good enough.”

“My true self is filled with Darkness,” he tells the Monitor. “But Barry and Kara are different. They inspire hope … people because they are the best of us.”

Oliver sees them as the “best chance at stopping this crisis.”

“The universe is a complex piece of machinery, and balance must be maintained,” the Monitor warns. “One change requires another. How would you propose I keep the balance?”

We don’t see the deal Oliver makes with the Monitor, but we can infer what he offered in exchange for Barry and Kara’s lives. Here are four possibilities.

Oliver Offered Up His Own Life

Doesn’t this one seem a bit obvious? Oliver has been willing to give up his own life multiple times in the past.

Oliver may have proposed this deal, but would the Monitor have accepted it? Would his one death balance out the deaths of a metahuman and alien?

“Self-sacrifice alone will not see you through this trial,” the Monitor warns earlier in the episode. “Survival will only be found by knowing your true self.”

Oliver thinks his “true self is filled with darkness,” but we’ve seen that while he (and *Arrow) may be darker than the other heroes in the Arrowverse, that’s not true.

Even if the Monitor agreed to take Oliver’s life at some unknown point in time in exchange for Barry and Kara’s, there could be a second part to the deal, one we won’t find out until next year’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” It could be one of the other ones below.

Oliver Offered Up Earth-1 to Fight to Save the Multiverse

What if Oliver offered up Earth-1 and its heroes (and allies from other Earths, like Kara from Earth-38) for the fight in the “crisis”?

At the end of Part 3, Oliver proposes he and Barry toast, “to appreciating what you have, however long you might have it.”

That may sound like Oliver knows he doesn’t have long, but what if he knows that may be true for all of them? That could explain why he tells Barry, “I’m not as good as you think I am.” If he offered up all of them to fight in this crisis, knowing they may not all survive, he wouldn’t see himself as “good.”

In the comics storyline, both Barry and Kara die. That could still happen, and maybe Oliver knows it.

Oliver Proposed to Move up the Crisis

On The Flash, we’ve seen the 2024 headlines, “The Flash Missing, Vanishes in Crisis” and “Red Skies Vanish.” We’ve been assuming that the Arrowverse’s version of “Crisis on Infinite Earths” will be happening in 2024.

What if Oliver offered to change the timeline of the Crisis in exchange for saving Barry and Kara now?

Oliver Offered Up Star City

This one is unlikely, since it would only really affect Arrow, but what if the deal is the reason why Star City is so bleak in the flashforwards in Season 7? We still don’t know where Oliver is in the future. What if his deal and the subsequent crisis are involved, even tangentially?

The Arrowverse crossover, “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” will air in Fall 2019 on The CW.

Related video: Black Suit Superman Fights Arrowverse in “Elseworlds” Trailer