The Clock Tower: 'Crisis On Infinite Earths' Is Off To A Bonkers, Heart-Wrenching Start

(Welcome to The Clock Tower, where we'll break down the goings on of the The CW network's Arrowverse. We'll touch on things like themes, cultural impact, lead-ins to major events, ships, and more every week! Warning: this Clock Tower is filled with spoilers. Proceed at your own risk.)Welcome to the super-packed Crisis on Infinite Earths edition of The Clock Tower. We're going to break down the best moments, the most interesting tidbits, and all the cameos that brought a cheer. Just bear in mind, we've still got two more episodes to go before this little Crisis situation is complete. You won't see those until January 14 though, so let's break down what's been exceptional so far.

The story between Supergirl and Batwoman is, without question, my favorite part of Crisis on Infinite Earths so far. In the biggest crossover yet, one that's filled with awesome moment after awesome moment, these two heroes shine through in the brightest possible way. Kate Kane and Kara Danvers get the story between their two symbols that many of us have waited to see in live action our whole lives. Both heroes have fundamentally different ideals, methods and world views, but we saw them lay the foundation of their sisterhood as their portion of Crisis unfolded. The thing about that sisterhood is that it doesn't come without its tests. Having the two become best friends simply due to proximity and gender would have been exhausting and lazy. Instead, their partnership is met with two major trials. The first ends up being a murderous Bruce Wayne, who we'll discuss more a bit later. The second, and the infinitely more important, is the kryptonite that Kate steals from said murderous Bruce Wayne. Grief can be a hell of a drug. After watching over half of her earth be wiped from existence, Kara's ready to do whatever it takes to get them back. This includes driving herself mad with the Book of Destiny, all the other lives in the multiverse be damned. The two ladies have a brief but passionate argument, wherein Kate tells Kara that she'll stop her, Kara tells her she won't be able to, and it seems for a moment that the two heroes will have their war before their friendship is forged.Then they don't. Kara realizes that if Kate's standing in her way, it's for a reason. When Kate sees that she has that trust, she chooses to tell the Girl of Steel about the kryptonite, and hands it over. Instead of taking it, or blowing up, or running away, Kara tells her to keep it. It's a tried and true moment we've seen played out between folks wearing those two symbols for decades. And, let me tell you, it played like gangbusters. It was the perfect moment and I gobbled it up like an extra-large fry from Big Belly Burger. It's so easy to forget the small when you're telling a story of this magnitude. But all those big moments don't mean one single thing if you don't have small, meaningful beats in your story. This takes us to my favorite moment in all of Crisis on Infinite Earths, a story about gods and monsters and time travel and multiverses. The best moment in the crossover (so far) is Kara Danvers and Kate Kane sharing a beer. It's simple, it's small, and remembering it makes my heart swell. 

Crisis's biggest surprise so far was killing Oliver Queen right out the gate. It was clever, really. If there's no way to avoid everyone knowing what you're about to do, move up your timeline! The Green Arrow's sacrifice was heavy, but it was also extremely in character. Oh, and saved approximately one billion additional people. No big! As always, it was the interaction between Mia and Oliver that hit the hardest. He uses his dying breath to remind her to find William and Felicity, that he loves her, and to keep him in her heart. There's another small moment in this scene that really stands out, but it's not delivered by Oliver. Barry Allen has never met his niece, Mia Smoak. There's a brief introduction and then a lot of, well, trying to save the universe. After Oliver takes his last breath, you see Barry lay a hand on Mia's shoulder. It's not a focus. There's no "moment" where the two share devastated looks. It's simply a small comfort between two people who've just lost a family member. Whoever wrote it in should absolutely pat themselves on the back. 

This one's brief, but it can't not be acknowledged. Y'all, Kate Kane straight up killed Bruce Wayne and we're just not talking about it. We've all just... collectively rolled with it. There's no real narrative out here I just feel like a crazy person because yes it was an accident (and yes he deserved it) but she still pushed him away from Kara and he is still very dead!