Batwoman just broke the Arrowverse with a huge plot hole

In a world where superheroes fight crime and Sherloque Wells thinks he can pull off that hat, anything is truly possible, but the Arrowverse still needs to maintain some degree of internal logic. Without that, none of these shows would work, regardless of how ambitious they might be.

However, as the Arrowverse continues to grow outwards, things are becoming more and complicated. Across multiple shows and almost a decade's worth of spandex shenanigans, it was only a matter of time before the occasional plot hole cropped up.

Crisis on Infinite Earths tried to simplify things recently by combining the entire multiverse into just one Earth, bringing all of our heroes together into a loose team... Almost like a Justice League, if you will.

Unfortunately, this cosmic event also introduced one of the biggest Arrowverse plot holes yet, and not even the combined might of our heroes will be enough to defeat it.

It all started innocently enough when a number of doppelgängers showed up on Supergirl post-Crisis. In 'The Bottle Episode', Kara learned that an alien-friendly establishment called Al's Bar was now overrun with refugees from the worlds that died in the crossover.

It's not long before multiple Brainiacs appear at the DEO, and in the following episode, an alternate version of Winn Schott becomes the new Toyman, prompting future Winn to travel back in time to stop him.

Doppelgängers are nothing new in these shows. Ever since the multiverse was introduced in The Flash season two, alternate versions of multiple characters have appeared time and time again across the multiverse, most significantly in the form of Harrison Wells and his many counterparts.

However, a new double who recently appeared on Batwoman contradicts everything we know about how these doppelgängers work while also causing trouble for Kate herself too.

At the end of Batwoman's tenth episode, 'How Queer Everything Is Today', Kate encountered a new version of her sister Beth who never became the villain known as Alice. It seems that this alternate sibling was somehow left stranded on Earth Prime when the multiverse merged into one at the end of Crisis.

In theory, this should have been good news for Kate, enabling her to finally connect with at least one version of her sister who doesn't want her dead. However, any chance for them to bond was quickly overshadowed by Beth's intense migraines, which Alice also suffered at the exact same time.

In the following episode, it's revealed that this new universe can't contain two doppelgängers for long, and if one doesn't leave, then their cells will physically break apart, soon resulting in death.

The impact of this storyline changed Kate's relationship with Alice forever, but it also changed our understanding of the Arrowverse as well, contradicting everything fans knew up until that point.

If alternate doubles can't exist in the same universe, why is this the first time this issue has been raised? At a stretch, it could be argued that this new wrinkle was only introduced post-Crisis, but that wouldn't explain why two versions of Winn had no problem existing together in Supergirl's most recent episodes.

This isn't the first time plot holes have threatened the internal logic of this universe either. For example, we've been wondering for some time now where the time wraiths might be.

A few years back, these ghoulish creatures fought hard to protect the time stream from Barry's meddling, yet they were nowhere to be seen in Crisis when the Anti-Monitor visited the dawn of creation. Hell, the Legends of Tomorrow crew meddle with time on the daily too, but that doesn't seem to matter anymore.

What we do know is that the true "fallout" of Crisis hasn't been made clear just yet. There's still plenty to learn about this bold new Arrowverse, and as long as the plot holes are kept to a minimum, these shows should be able to avoid another "Crisis" for now.

Batwoman airs on Sundays at 8/7c on The CW in the US. E4 will air the show in the UK.

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David Opie

After teaching in England and South Korea, David turned to writing in Germany, where he covered everything from superhero movies to the Berlin Film Festival. 

In 2019, David moved to London to join Digital Spy, where he could indulge his love of comics, horror and LGBTQ+ storytelling as Deputy TV Editor, and later, as Acting TV Editor.

David has spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and in 2020, he created the Rainbow Crew interview series, which celebrates LGBTQ+ talent on both sides of the camera via video content and longform reads.

Beyond that, David has interviewed all your faves, including Henry Cavill, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Colman, Patrick Stewart, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Dornan, Regina King, and more — not to mention countless Drag Race legends. 

As a freelance entertainment journalist, David has bylines across a range of publications including Empire Online, Radio Times, INTO, Highsnobiety, Den of Geek, The Digital Fix and Sight & Sound. 

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