Arrow‘s season 8 premiere, “Starling City,” wasted no time in getting the lead-up to “Crisis on Infinite Earths” off the ground. As we know, the incoming crossover will see the entire DC multiverse under threat and yesterday’s season opener just wiped out a world that’s very familiar to fans of the Arrowverse: Earth-2.
During the episode, Oliver, Diggle and Laurel fought Earth-2’s Tommy Merlyn, who was the Dark Archer in this reality instead of his father. They managed to foil this Earth’s version of The Undertaking, as well as retrieving Dwarf Star particles for the Monitor, but tragically, a wave of anti-matter soon arrived to kill everyone on Earth-2. And as far as we know, Laurel is the only survivor of this universe.
What’s so shocking about this is that Earth-2 has always been a prominent part of The Flash. Back in season 2, for example, we met Barry and Iris’ doppelgängers, but now they’re dead. Hal, Diana, Bruce and the other Justice League members that this Barry knew are also all dead. Most importantly, however, longtime Team Flash allies Harry Wells and Jesse Quick are probably dead, too.
Harry and Jesse were both known to have returned to Earth-2 the last time we saw them back in season 4. As things stand, then, we can conclude that neither survived the anti-matter wave. This just goes to show how serious the Crisis is, as its first victims include these two popular characters who’ve been important supporting players for years. And the deaths will only get more significant from here on out.
Of course, The Flash could bring them back later down the line, explaining that they got out just in time. With Harry’s smarts and Jesse’s speed, for instance, it’s not out of the question that they saw the wave coming and managed to hop to another world. But until that happens, we have to assume they didn’t make it.