The Last Words Of Every Fallen Arrowverse Hero
The CW's Arrowverse has lived a long and successful life and is bound to be around for quite a few more years. Ever since the first 2012 episode of Arrow, plenty of heroes have come and gone to and from the Arrowverse, and sadly some have left feet-first. While superhero resurrections aren't exactly rare, you can't keep a cooperative superhero narrative going that includes around a half-dozen different hourlong TV shows without losing a good guy to the Grim Reaper every now and then.
In real life, we don't get Hollywood death scenes. We don't have dramatic scores playing as we go or necessarily get the chance to utter meaningful and poignant last words. But the world of television fantasy offers that opportunity for just about every good guy, and the Arrowverse is no exception. The final utterances of the Arrowverse's heroes often speak to the hero's gratitude, their love, or their hopes for those who come after them. Sometimes their goodbyes are defiant; occasionally they're cold, or even hopeless.
Whether they were superheroes, anti-heroes, reformed villains, or ex-heroes, here are the last words of every fallen hero in the CW's Arrowverse.
Martin Stein lived the adventure of a lifetime
Martin Stein (Victor Garber) begins his career as a recurring character on The Flash as one half of the conjoined hero Firestorm. He later becomes one of the founding members of the time-hopping Legends on DC's Legends of Tomorrow. It's as one of the Legends that Stein meets his end in the 2017 Arrowverse crossover "Crisis on Earth-X."
"Crisis on Earth-X" deals with an alternate Earth where the Nazis won World War II and have dominated the globe. While the Arrowverse heroes ultimately defeat the villains of Earth-X, Stein is forced to sacrifice himself before it's over. At the end "Crisis on Earth-X, Part 3" — the Flash installment of the crossover — the heroes are on Earth-X and Stein is shot by a Nazi soldier while attempting to open a breach gateway back to Earth-1. The story continues in the Legends installment, when Stein — though shot a second time — manages to open the breach, killing the Nazi attackers in the process.
Back on board the Waverider on Earth-1, the heroes learn the only thing keeping Stein alive is his psychic link to the other half of Firestorm, Jefferson Jackson (Franz Drameh). At the same time, the link is killing the younger hero. Stein chooses to take a formula that will sever the link, ultimately dooming himself but saving Jefferson. The last thing Stein says before fading away is, "Thank you, Jefferson, for the adventure of a lifetime. I hope your life is long and full of love. Just as mine has been."
There are no strings on Leonard Snart
Along with his partner in crime Mick Rory (Dominic Purcell), one of the most surprising additions to the original roster of DC's Legends of Tomorrow is Leonard Snart (Wentworth Miller), also known as Captain Cold. He starts off in the Arrowverse as one of Central City's most notorious thieves, in spite of being one of the Flash's (Grant Gustin) only recurring villains to employ cunning and technology rather than metahuman abilities. We see a more heroic side of Snart in Legends, but that's cut short in the first season when he dies in "Destiny."
When Snart and a small team of Legends free their friends from the captivity of the Time Masters, they also destroy the Oculus — a powerful device the Time Masters use to observe time and manipulate events to their liking. Ray Palmer (Brandon Routh) sets the device to self-destruct, but someone needs to stay behind to make sure no one activates the failsafe. Rory volunteers, but Snart knocks him out with his gun and Sara (Caity Lotz) gives Snart a kiss before leaving with the unconscious Mick. The Time Masters arrive just before the Oculus detonates, and — referring to how they had tried to use the Legends like puppets — Snart sneers his final words, "There are no strings on me," before the Oculus explodes, killing them all.
Leonard Snart doesn't leave the Arrowverse entirely, however. Different versions of the character pop up, including a version on Earth-X who wages an ongoing war on the Nazis.
The Flash of Earth-90 rides the lightning for the last time
Leading up to Crisis on Infinite Earths, Barry Allen and the rest of Team Flash are convinced their hero is going to have to die to stop the destruction of the multiverse. It turns out they're right, but the Barry Allen who has to die isn't the star of CW's The Flash. Instead, it's the Flash of Earth-90 (John Wesley Shipp) — from the alternate Earth where the Flash series of the '90s takes place – who makes the ultimate sacrifice.
The Flash of Earth-90 first meets the Arrowverse heroes in the 2018 crossover Elseworlds when he's the only surviving hero from the Monitor's (LaMonica Garrett) assault on his Earth. He disappears early in Elseworlds, however, and we don't find out what happened to him until the Flash installment of Crisis, "Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Three." The Anti-Monitor has been keeping the Earth-90 Flash as a prisoner and a slave, forcing him to use his speed to power a treadmill which in turn powers the deadly antimatter wave.
Borrowing some of Earth-1 Flash's speed, the Earth-90 Flash runs in the opposite direction on the treadmill, reversing the course of the antimatter wave but killing himself in the process. Before making his final run, he tells his Earth-1 counterpart, "Keep riding the lightning, son. I know you'll make us all proud."
Malcolm Merlyn shows Digger what he means
Malcolm Merlyn is a villain for much of his time in the Arrowverse, but he has moments of heroism, particularly after the reveal that Oliver Queen's (Stephen Amell) sister Thea (Willa Holland) is his biological daughter. That's the main reason he helps Oliver in the Arrow season 5 finale "Lian Yu," and it's Thea's life that Merlyn dies to protect.
Malcolm is part of a team Oliver assembles to save friends and loved ones — including Thea — from Prometheus (Josh Segarra) who had kidnapped them and brought them to Lian Yu, the island where Oliver is stranded in the opening of the series. After Thea and the others are freed, Oliver orders Malcolm to escort them to a nearby plane. On the way there, Thea accidentally steps on a hidden landmine. Malcolm forces Thea off and steps on it, taking her place, and tells the others to get going. His last words to Thea are "You may not think of me as a father, Thea, but you'll always be my daughter."
Digger Harkness (Nick E. Tarabay), who turns on Team Arrow earlier, approaches Merlyn with Chase's troops backing him up. The turncoat doesn't know about the pressure mine and comments on Merlyn standing in the middle of the forest and waiting. He asks, "What kind of ass-backwards strategy is that?" Merlyn responds, "Let me show you." Moments later, Thea and the others hear the explosion, as presumably Merlyn takes his foot off the mine, killing himself, Harkness, and possibly Chase's henchmen.
Amanda Waller sticks to her guns
A lot of people would argue that using the word "hero" to describe Amanda Waller (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) might be a stretch. Even the cartoon versions of Waller are cold, calculating, and more than willing to cross just about any moral threshold for the greater good, and the Arrowverse version of the character is no different. Regardless of how you feel about her life, her death in Arrow's fourth season proves her commitment to her duty.
In "A.W.O.L.," the Shadowspire — former US Army special forces who go rogue — infiltrates A.R.G.U.S., led by Lieutenant Joyner (Erik Palladino). Joyner takes Waller, Lyla Michaels (Audrey Marie Michaels), and other A.R.G.U.S. agents hostage, threatening to murder them if Waller won't give up the access codes to the Rubicon — a protocol designed to stop any country from launching nuclear missiles. In spite of Joyner proving willing to pull the trigger by killing agents, Waller keeps her mouth shut. When Lyla warns Joyner killing agents won't sway her, Waller agrees and says what winds up being her last words: "Ms. Michaels is one of my most trusted agents. She knows better than anyone that I'm perfectly capable of watching you execute every person in this room, and I'll still never give you the Rubicon access codes."
Joyner asks Lyla if that's true, Lyla agrees, and Joyner shoots Waller in the head, killing her.
Gypsy said goodbye to Cisco years before her death
The events surrounding the death of Gypsy (Jessica Camacho) in season 6 of The Flash are unique in that they don't allow us to know the hero's last words.
Introduced in season 3, Gypsy is a Collector from Earth-19, where travel to parallel universes is banned. As a Collector, Gypsy is tasked with pursuing criminals who break that law, and she becomes a recurring Flash character and girlfriend to Team Flash's resident guy-in-the-chair Cisco (Carlos Valdes). Gypsy and Cisco eventually break up, and Gypsy's last appearance is in season 4's "Therefore She Is." She and Cisco share a tearful goodbye before the latter returns to Earth-1, and Gypsy's final words on the series are simply, "Bye, Cisco."
In season 6's "Kiss Kiss Breach Breach," Gypsy is vaporized on Earth-1 by her old enemy Echo, who we learn is an alternate universe version of Cisco. The murder takes place before the events of the episode, and Gypsy never shows up herself. Her father Breacher (Danny Trejo) and the other Collectors are initially fooled into thinking Cisco is the killer, but Cisco manages to uncover Echo's plot and avenge Gypsy's murder.
Robin's last words, as usual, are holy
The Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover includes a host of epic cameos, including appearances of actors from films and TV shows based on DC Comics that took place before CW's Arrowverse existed. Unfortunately, a lot of those cameos include the deaths of those beloved characters courtesy of the Anti-Monitor's antimatter wave. One of the first famous victims of the deadly wave is the Boy Wonder himself — Robin (Burt Ward) of Earth-66, where the Batman TV series of the '60s takes place.
The aged Robin's appearance is part of a series of cameos showing the progress of the antimatter wave in the opening of "Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part One." The older Dick Grayson is out walking his dog when he sees the approach of the antimatter wave. It doesn't look like he's done any crimefighting for a while, but apparently his penchant for starting off his exclamations with "holy" hasn't rusted over. His final words are the prophetic cry "Holy crimson skies of death!" before Earth-66 falls victim to the Anti-Monitor's scheme.
While we never see him return, it's a safe bet our old chum was brought back to the land of the living when the new multiverse is born at the end of "Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Four."
Red Daughter understands the truth before the end
Often discussed on Supergirl, Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer) finally appears in the flesh in the show's fourth season. A clone of Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) — first called Snowbird and later named Red Daughter — is a big part of Luthor's plans to redeem himself in the eyes of the world. He fools Red Daughter and the military of the fictional nation of Kaznia into thinking he's helping them invade the United States, when in fact he plans to turn on the Kaznians at the last minute in order to be branded a hero. At first, Red Daughter is utterly devoted to Lex, but in the season 4 finale she sacrifices herself to save Supergirl.
Once Lex finally turns of Red Daughter, he imprisons her and uses her to power a weapon he means to use to destroy Argo City — the last piece of Krypton to survive its destruction — because he knows Superman (Tyler Hoechlin) is there. Red Daughter escapes and is just barely in time to stop Lex from killing Supergirl. She gets between Kara and Lex when the latter fires a fatal Kryptonite blast. Red Daughter is hit by the blast, and soon dies of Kryptonite poisoning. Before dying, she tells Supergirl, "You were right. My Alex was nothing like your Alex. Protect your people as I protected mine."
Nora West-Allen accepts the consequences
In the final moments of The Flash's fourth season, Nora West-Allen (Jessica Parker Kennedy) — visiting the present day from the future — reveals herself to her parents. While Barry and Iris (Candice Patton) are initially shocked by her appearance, by the end of season 5 they come to truly see the young speedster as their daughter, which makes it all the more devastating in the season 5 finale when time itself rips her away from them.
After the other heroes learn Nora has been traveling to and from the future to get guidance from the imprisoned Reverse-Flash (Tom Cavanagh), they realize the villain has been manipulating her to escape. They travel to the future to stop Reverse-Flash and at first they seem to be defeating the villain, but because the timeline has been changed, Nora begins suffering its effects. Reverse-Flash tells the heroes she'll cease to exist if she doesn't enter his "Negative Speed Force," but she refuses — not wanting the negative emotions necessary to access it. Reverse-Flash escapes and Nora tells her parents "Sometimes all you can do is live with the consequences." She embraces them, telling them "it's okay" several times and finally "thank you for everything." Glowing bits and pieces of Nora float away until she disappears completely.
Laurel Lance needs the Canaries to carry on
Laurel Lance (Kate Cassidy) doesn't start off as one of the members of Team Arrow. In the beginning of Arrow she's Oliver Queen's ex-lover who learned of his affair with her younger sister when both were presumed dead after the sinking of Queen's Gambit. Oliver comes back home and Laurel eventually learns of his crimefighting alter ego. Not long after the death of her sister, Laurel becomes part of Team Arrow as Black Canary. While Laurel and the rest of Team Arrow try to stop the mystical villain Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough) from escaping prison, Darhk stabs Laurel with one of Oliver's arrows. In season 4's "Eleven-Fifty-Nine," Laurel comes out of surgery and at first seems to be fine, but dies in her hospital bed.
Shortly before seizing from an embolism, Laurel tells Oliver, "I know that I am not the love of your life, but you will always be the love of mine." He asks her why she's saying this and she answers, "Because tonight, it was just a reminder that anything can happen, which is why I need you to promise me something." We never actually hear Laurel's last words, but after her death Oliver tells Team Arrow that Laurel asked him to make sure she wouldn't be the last Canary of Star City.
While Kate Cassidy eventually returns to Arrow, and her new character's name is Laurel Lance, it would eventually prove to be the Laurel of Earth-2.
The Batman of Earth-99 sees no hope
In the Batwoman installment of Crisis on Infinite Earths, we meet a version of Batman very different from what we're used to. Kevin Conroy — known best for voicing the Dark Knight in animated televisions shows, films, and video games — plays a version of Batman gone bad. Batwoman (Ruby Rose) and Supergirl travel to Earth-99 believing that world's Batman to be one of the eight paragons necessary to defeat the Anti-Monitor. Instead of a superhero, they find an old, bitter version of Bruce Wayne who murdered — among others — the Earth-99 Superman.
Forced to wear an exoskeleton in order to move, Conroy's Wayne is a dark fusion of the Batman from the 1996 comic book miniseries Kingdom Come and that of the game-changing 1986 graphic novel Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. He actually quotes Dark Knight Returns directly, telling Batwoman and Supergirl, "My parents taught me a very different lesson — that life only makes sense if you force it to."
The Batman of Earth-99 doesn't really care to be recruited to save the multiverse. He tells the heroes, "Yes, let it end. Let it all end. This world's not worth saving in any universe." He attacks the heroes shortly afterward and electrocutes himself when his exoskeleton strikes an electrical panel. He dies whispering to Batwoman, "Kate, listen to me — there is no hope."
Zoe Ramirez's last words are for her father
In the last couple of seasons of the series, rather than flashbacks to Oliver Queen's past, Arrow gave flash-forwards to the Star City of 2040. In the future, children of Arrow's heroes lead a team of vigilantes called the Canaries. Among them is Zoe Ramirez (Andrea Sixtos), daughter of Rene Ramirez (Rick Gonzalez) — formerly Team Arrow's Wild Dog, and Star City's Mayor in 2040. In season 8's "Leap of Faith," during a battle between the Canaries and the Deathstroke Gang, Zoe is murdered by John Diggle, Jr (Charlie Barnett).
Zoe's last thoughts are of her father. Dying in Mia's (Katherine McNamara) arms, she says, "Just tell him that I'm sorry about everything. That I love him."
Thankfully, Zoe's death doesn't stick. Shortly after her passing, the surviving Canaries are sent to the past to join Team Arrow. After their work in the present with Team Arrow as well as the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, everything leading up to Zoe's death is wiped from existence. In Arrow's penultimate episode "Green Arrow & the Canaries," we see Zoe is alive and well, though no longer a Canary.
The Birds of Prey of Earth-203 die without answers
The Flash installment of Crisis on Infinite Earths opens with another alternate Earth getting wiped out by the antimatter wave, and it's another world recognizable to fans of DC's TV adaptations. On Earth-203, Huntress (Ashley Scott) of the 2002-03 series Birds of Prey races across the rooftops of New Gotham, eventually stopping to contact Oracle (Dina Meyer), urging an evacuation.
But as we know, there's no time to evacuate and nowhere to go. Oracle tells her teammate she's sending all relevant data about the wave, but the connection starts breaking up. The last thing we hear Huntress yell is her desperate call to her friend, "Oracle? Oracle, please answer me!" Oracle's final transmission is simply "Sending all relevant data!" Then Huntress, Oracle, and all of Earth-203 is consumed by the wave.
While we don't get proof of it at the conclusion to Crisis, it seems like there's a pretty good chance this isn't the end of the Birds of Prey. It's likely Earth-203 and its heroes were restored along with the rest of the new multiverse.
Quentin Lance is thankful at the end
Quentin Lance (Paul Blackthorne) had plenty of reason to despise Oliver Queen and his vigilante alter ego for most of his time on Arrow. Before the events of the series, Queen cheated on one of Lance's daughters with another — an affair which in part, Quentin believed, led to one of his daughters' deaths. Along with watching Oliver work outside the same law Quentin is sworn to uphold, he's forced to endure even more loss during the series. But in "Life Sentence," the season 6 finale, he seems to find some peace with Oliver before his passing.
Quentin's fate is sealed when he steps in front of a bullet meant for the Laurel Lance of Earth-2, fired by the villain Ricardo Diaz (Kirk Acevedo). He survives at first and is brought to the hospital. Before heading to surgery, he and Oliver have a frank discussion and Quentin reveals he knows Oliver has worked out a deal to turn himself over to the FBI in order to keep the rest of Team Arrow out of jail. Before leaving his bedside, Oliver tells Quentin that Lance has been his role model for fatherhood. Visibly touched by Queen's words, Quentin says, "Thanks Oliver. For everything." Sadly, Quentin doesn't survive his procedure.
The good news is that Quentin's death is undone by the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths. Quentin is still alive in the restored multiverse, where he steps down as Mayor of Star City, handing the reins to Rene Ramirez.
Ronnie Raymond had to try
While the conjoined hero lives on for a time in DC's Legends of Tomorrow, the man who first merges with Martin Stein to become Firestorm — Ronnie Raymond (Robbie Amell) — sacrifices himself to stop a singularity from killing millions, saving Central City but leaving Caitlin Snow (Danielle Panabaker) a widow.
Flash's first season ends with the cliffhanger of a singularity appearing over Central City. The season 2 premiere opens six months after the city is saved, with the revelation that Flash is now working alone. His friends keep nagging him about whether he intends to show up for the planned Flash Day celebration, and a flashback shows us why the Scarlet Speedster is desperate to keep his friends from danger — and feels unworthy to have a celebration named after him. Six months earlier, Flash's speed is able to stabilize the singularity, but not get rid of it. Professor Stein says they must merge the singularity's inner and outer event horizons, and the only way to do that is for Firestorm to fly into the eye of the singularity and then separate. Caitlin expresses her doubts and Ronnie says, "Cait, we have to try." They wind up being his final words.
Ronnie and Martin Stein merge to become Firestorm and, as planned, fly into the eye of the singularity. Giving Flash one last smile, they separate, causing a massive explosion. The singularity is eliminated and Flash carries Stein safely to the ground, but Ronnie is lost.
Rip Hunter wants to see his family
In the series premiere of DC's Legends of Tomorrow, it's Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) who brings the mismatched group of crooks and crimefighters together and goes on to lead them on their adventures through time, but he disappears after the second season — eventually returning in a recurring role. In real life, Darvill exited the series because of his commitments to the crime drama Broadchurch. But in Legends, Darvill's character gives up his life to give his friends a fighting chance.
In the season 3 finale, "The Good, the Bad and the Cuddly," Hunter detonates a time core to hurt the powerful time demon Mallus — giving the Legends the opportunity to escape. When Sara Lance figures out what he's doing, she calls him from the Waverider.
"It's all right, Sara," he tells her. "I should very much like to see my wife and son again. I will miss you, Captain Lance, you and the rest of the Legends. My one hope is that you all live up to that name." As Mallus approaches Hunter, the hero says, "Ironic, isn't it? A time demon who's run out of time." The time core detonates, killing Rip and hurting Mallus enough to let the Legends escape.
Green Arrow tells his friends to keep going
No hero in Crisis on Infinite Earths has a rougher time than Oliver Queen. At the end of the first chapter, he dies in a last stand against the Anti-Monitor's armies. He's resurrected in body, but not soul, in a Lazarus Pit — then killed again when the antimatter wave wipes out him along with the rest of the original multiverse.
And he still has one final death to suffer. In Purgatory, Queen is recruited by Jim Corrigan (Stephen Lobo) to be the new host for the Spectre — a powerful being who, in DC's comics, is literally the wrath of God. He uses his new powers to help Flash escape the Speed Force, and eventually to fight his final battle. As the Spectre, he's able to go toe-to-toe with the Anti-Monitor and help create the new multiverse. Sadly, he doesn't survive the battle for long. Dying, he tells Barry and Sara (Caity Lotz) that he's at peace, and that the new multiverse will need them. "So keep going," Oliver says. "Don't ever stop. This world, this new world, it needs both of you."
That isn't exactly the last thing we hear from Oliver. In the afterlife, reunited with Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards), he remembers the first time he saw her. She asks about it and he assures her it's a long story but adds, "Lucky for us, we have all the time in the world for me to tell it to you."