This episode is the third of the four-part Crisis on Earth-X Crossover event between Supergirl (2015), The Flash (2014), Arrow, and Legends of Tomorrow. The episodes in chronological order are "Crisis on Earth-X, Part 1", "Crisis on Earth-X, Part 2", "Crisis on Earth-X, Part 3", and "Crisis on Earth-X, Part 4".
Things are not looking good, with most of the heroes imprisoned, and any efforts to rescue them are for naught. Those trapped on Earth-X may have found salvation in the Freedom Fighters, and the organisation's champion, the Ray.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Heroism: Twofold with Citizen Cold, as a heroic rebel compared to his criminal mastermind of a counterpart on Earth-1, and also uses the identity of his Flashpoint counterpart, a Fake Ultimate Hero and ultimately still a villain.
- Air-Vent Passageway: The vents at S.T.A.R. Labs are so big that Felicity and Iris can crouch inside it.
- And I Must Scream: Kara is Strapped to an Operating Table while slowly being robbed of her powers via a red sun lamp, and worse, Thawne tells her that he will be keeping her awake during the whole operation.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Apart for her general contempt for Kara's do-goodiness, Overgirl scoffs at her being unable to even get a date at a wedding.
- Big Damn Heroes: Snart saves the heroes from being executed at the last possible moment, since he waited for a good Pun opportunity.
- Brig Ball Bouncing: While imprisoned in the pipeline, Harry can be seen playing with a ball in his cell, driving his neighbor Cisco nuts and causing them to bicker as usual, much to Dinah's irritation
- Brought Down to Normal:
- Red sun radiation is used to remove Kara's powers so she can be operated on.
- The Power Nullifier collars neutralize the powers of Barry, Jax and Martin.
- Chewing the Scenery: Paul Blackthorne makes Benoist and Amell look downright calm with his over-the-top performance of Earth-X Lance.
- Come with Me If You Want to Live: Iris tells Kara this after saving her.
- Concealment Equals Cover: A wooden box is sufficient to protect Arrow and Citizen Cold from a mounted machine gun.
- Continuity Nod:
- Harry playing with a ball while imprisoned in the Pipeline. He is most likely in Mark Mardon's cell, and he's using the same ball that Mark was playing with in a Freeze-Frame Bonus during "Rogue Air".
- Rip Hunter once said he saw men of steel die and dark knights fall. Eobard Thawne reveals he's well acquainted with Superman, and even fought him.
- Barry quotes an advice given to him by Earth-1 Snart in "Infantino Street", and even mimics Snart's manner of speaking. Leo Snart dismisses it as stupid.
- Darkest Hour: This is where the heroes are at their lowest in the miniseries. Most of the fight-capable heroes are taken prisoner (either in the Pipeline or on Earth-X, both sets powerless), and the efforts of the "civilians" who tried to help their friends were ultimately proved fruitless (with the only consolation was sending an SOS to the Waverider). The party that was trapped in Earth-X do find themselves new allies in the Freedom Fighters, only to learn that their Rebel Leader is more than willing to destroy their only way back to Earth-1 if it means ending the war. Near the end of the episode the heroes on Earth-X fight a seemingly endless battle, except that time is not on their side, 'cause the Rebel Leader has sent a human nuke to blow up the place. And the last scene depicts Martin Stein, shot and lying on a pool of his own blood...
- Disappointed by the Motive: Or rather, shocked. Kara is absolutely baffled by the lengths Overgirl is willing to go merely to save her own life.
- "Eureka!" Moment: When Oliver-X tells Thawne that his men have combed all of S.T.A.R. Labs, wondering where the intruders have gone, Thawne realizes that there's one place he knows for sure they haven't looked: the Time Vault.
- Evil Counterpart:
- Quentin Lance is a concentration camp commandant.
- One of the Nazi weapons is an evil Waverider, the Der Wellenreiter. Its portals are even red instead of blue.
- Whereas Kara has struggled with her humanity throughout Season 3 of her show, her Earth-X counterpart has outright abandoned it, seeing herself as being above humans.
- Evil Gloating: Overgirl does a lengthy session of this towards Supergirl, combined with a bit of "The Reason You Suck" Speech, calling her weak and pathetic for helping the humans instead of reigning over them.
- Firing Squad: Our heroes are led off to be shot by Kommandant Lance. The only one who's blindfolded is Oliver Queen as Lance can't stand to look someone who looks just like his Fuhrer in the eye when he's shot. Fortunately Captain Cold does a Big Damn Heroes, deliberately waiting till just before the command "Fire" to ice up their weapons with a Freeze Ray. "I hate fire!"
- The Heavy: Kommandant Lance seems to be the one in charge of all important operations on Earth-X while his superior officers are on Earth-1.
- Hope Spot: A couple of times with Iris and Felicity's situation in S.T.A.R. Labs.
- They manage to make it to the Pipeline entrance and even knock out a couple of Mooks in the process; then they learn that they can't open the blast doors.
- Just when it seems like their rescue of Supergirl has worked (they even tricked Thawne into believing they were in the Time Vault), Metallo shows up at the exit to stop them.
- Human Shield: Oliver uses one of the Nazi mooks as one when the other guards open fire, and then proceeds to Curb-Stomp Battle his way through the rest of them.
- Idiot Ball: Firestorm decides to split up to tackle two objectives. This not only disables the team's biggest stick, but Stein gets fatally shot.
- If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: Combined with Impostor-Exposing Test, Lance has the resident version of Felicity brought before Oliver and expects him to execute her.
- I Lied: Winn-X promises to give the Earth-1 heroes time to use the portal, but goes back on his word shortly after the launch of the Der Wellenreiter.
- If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: Lance-X gives his Fuhrer (actually Oliver) a little present, a Jewess who disobeyed concentration camp protocol and fed starving children with her own rations. It's a Secret Test of Character to see if Oliver is Oliver-X, and, of course, points out It Works Better with Bullets when Oliver fails the test and turns the gun on Lance-X.
- Implacable Man: Ray and Flash barely manage to slow Red Tornado down.
- Impostor-Exposing Test: Kommandant Lance had obviously anticipated Oliver attempting to impersonate his counterpart and had set up a test to verify his identity.
- Irrevocable Order: When Winn-X launches Red Tornado ahead of schedule, he insists that it's already been programmed and can't be recalled, not that he would even if it were within his power to do so.
- It Works Better with Bullets: Lance-X tests Oliver to see which Oliver he is by bringing him a Jewess to shoot, because his Fuhrer loves shooting random people. The gun he hands Oliver is unloaded.
- Kick the Dog: Felicity-X is sentenced to execution for trying to feed starving children in the concentration camp.
- Large Ham:
- Paul Blackthorne enjoys himself immensely as Kommandant Lance. Especially rolling his Rs.
- Similarly, Miller is back as Citizen Cold, and if anything, he's even hammier.
- Let's You and Him Fight: After General Schott decides to cut his deal with the Earth-1 heroes and send in a Freedom Fighter (Red Tornado-X) to set the portal ablaze, the Flash and the Ray decides to buy more time for their team by intercepting (and fighting) Tornado.
- Like a Son to Me: Stein takes a moment to tell Jax that, no matter the distance, he will always be the son he never had to him.
- Mad Doctor: Thawne is very eager about operating on Kara while she is fully awake. Felicity even explicitly compares him to Mengele.
- More Dakka: While the good guys fight Nazis in the hangar, the Krauts decide to stop using Hollywood Tactics and use actual tactics. Specifically, bringing heavy weapons to bear, which pins the good guys down. This also shows what happens when a single superpowered being (Firestorm) decides to split into two perfectly ordinary mortal humans in the middle of a firefight. Stein catches a bullet because of it.
- Mythology Gag: We finally see Leonard Snart in full comic book Captain Cold getup, namely, he now has the thin-slitted shades.
- Never Tell Me the Odds!: Despite being thoroughly told how outgunned they are, the heroes still attack the Nazi facility.
- Noodle Incident: How or why the Ray traveled from Earth-1 to Earth-X isn't explained here, though this gets covered later in Freedom Fighters: The Ray.
- No Sympathy: Played with. Earth-X Winn does not care about how destroying the breach will affect Earth-1 since he only fights to liberate Earth-X. He does, however, seem sincerely apologetic to Alex — it's just that his world is much more important to him.
- Offing the Offspring: Earth-X's Lance killed his version of Sara for being bisexual.
- Off-the-Shelf FX: Thawne's surgical saw is actually a handheld blender. Available at your local Wal-Mart for thirty bucks.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Conspicuously avoided by Ollie. While impersonating his counterpart, Ollie refuses Kommandant Lance's suggestion to delay the Der Wellenreiter, which wouldn't make much sense. It's likely this was another test by Quentin.
- Power Nullifier: The collar given to all the Earth-1 prisoners neutralize their powers, forbidding Flash to vibrate and speed up, or Jax and Stein to fuse as Firestorm. And, as we find out later, the Ray to activate his Flying Firepower. They also wonder why the Badass Normals are wearing them too, until it's revealed these double as Shock Collars.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Upon Citizen Cold freeing Ray from his bonds, Ray tells his new friends that they might want to close their eyes.
- Red Herring: The prism that the Nazis are searching Earth-1 for (and what the Earth-1 heroes believe to be they were making a nuke) was actually meant to power a red solar lamp needed for Overgirl's and Supergirl's operation. The Nazis already have another superweapon, anyway....
- Retirony: The fact that Stein was so happy about being able to go home to his wife, daughter, and grandchild practically put a bull's eye on him, narratively speaking, and he is fatally wounded for it.
- Shock Collar: The Power Nullifier collars double as these, and when the heroes try a last desperate stand before their execution, Lance-X activate every one, shocking the whole of them into submission.
- Shout-Out:
- When Iris and Felicity are trying to get to The Pipeline, through the over-sized air ducts, Felicity quips, "Lead on, McClane."
- Wells bouncing a ball off the walls of his cell while in nazi captivity is a direct reference to Steve McQueen doing the same.
- Shown Their Work: Jax asks Ray why he wears a pink triangle in the concentration camp. Ray responds, "Because I loved the wrong person." A lot of viewers might be unfamiliar with what this means, unless they're familiar with details from the Holocaust-a pink triangle was used for LGBT prisoners in Nazi concentration camps. While after they show Ray is with Snart they can infer this, a person aware will get it ahead of time.
- Skewed Priorities: Snart takes some extra time to save the heroes to deliver a good pun and comments on Flash's costume when they are under fire.
- The Social Darwinist: Overgirl thinks she has the right to rule over the humans and thinks that everything weak should be purged.
- Tempting Fate: Sara wondering why all of them are wearing power-dampers, when the Nazis only needed Barry, Martin and Jax to be in them. Shortly, when attempting to break out, they later learn that it's because they're Shock Collars as well.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: General Schott wants to protect his people, and has no problems denying people from other Earths the chance to return home for that.
- Wham Line:
- "I'm from Earth-1, too." from Ray Terrill, when he learns where his new friends came from.
- Kara says that her cousin will hunt Thawne if he hurts her. Which leads to this:Thawne: Your cousin, really. Fun tidbit, I fought your cousin once in the future. He is fast...I'm faster.
- Wham Shot:
- The Kommandant in charge of the concentration camps? He's Quentin Lance-X.
- And the Rebel Leader of the Freedom Fighters? It's Winn-X.
- And the Nazi superweapon? It's the Waverider-X.
