So far, the new fall season has proven to be quite mentally taxing on both Oliver Queen and Barry Allen. But whereas the Green Arrow has become somewhat accepting of his fated death in “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” the Flash is really struggling with it in an emotional sense. Still, he’s willing to make the ultimate sacrifice so that his loved ones don’t perish.
Though last night’s episode, “A Flash of the Lightning,” was far from the greatest thing I’ve seen from this series, it did deliver on paying homage to Crisis on Infinite Earths #8, the very comic book with which it shared its name. And it all came about after Jay Garrick and Joan Williams allowed Barry to see billions of possible futures created by the coming Crisis.
Long story short, there’s only one possible way for the Scarlet Speedster to avoid his own universe being swallowed up by antimatter just as Earth-2 had during last night’s season premiere of Arrow – and it’s all tied to his own death. As you can see in the side-by-side comparison circulating on Twitter (found below), the Flash’s onscreen demise looks to be very similar to that of what went down in the source material.
#theflash #barryallen #CrisisOnInfiniteEarths pic.twitter.com/DxcAHRv7eO
— BLACK SUMMER BARBIE 💜🍷💋💪❤️ (@JacksonBrittsny) October 16, 2019
Even with this comic book accuracy left intact, I’m not entirely convinced that Barry’s death will prove permanent. After all, The Flash isn’t scheduled for a truncated season similar to that of Arrow‘s, nor is the network looking to pull the plug on the show anytime soon. That said, my gut tells me Barry will ultimately make it out of the crossover alive.
Still, I think it’s highly possible that Barry will “die” on December 10th, albeit temporarily. This would provide for a fine winter cliffhanger, before the story resumes in January for the final two chapters of “Crisis.” In my view, at least, killing off Earth-90’s Flash would fulfill the prophecy just as well, but seeing Grant Gustin’s iteration of the icon disintegrating would probably resonate with modern viewers even more.
The Flash airs on Tuesday nights on The CW.