Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Superman and Lois season 2, Legends of Tomorrow season 7, and Batwoman season 3.
Three Batwoman each revealed a surprise villain in their closing moments. The three storylines were completely unconnected, yet the similarities in the plot points were undeniable. This is somewhat unexpected given how the three shows differ drastically in tone and subject matter, despite being part of the same shared reality.
The Arrowverse may be the single largest shared continuity in the history of television. Originally limited to every live-action property based on DC Comics, in film or on television, was a part of the Arrowverse. This included the DCEU, as Ezra Miller's Flash briefly met Grant Gustin's Flash as part of the event.
The Crisis ended with a new multiverse being forged, with all of the superhero shows on the CW now set on a single world, Earth-Prime. It was expected that this would make crossover events more frequent, but shooting restrictions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic made the Arrowverse series more fragmented and distinct than ever before. This makes it somewhat ironic that three of the Arrowverse series should have similar but unrelated plot twists arise within the same week.
Superman and Lois' "Doomsday" Was A Different Classic Superman Villain
The season premiere of Superman and Lois season 2 setup the arrival of Doomsday, the villain who famously faced the Man of Steel in the classic comic book storyline The Death of Superman and killed him in the DCEU. The first three episodes of the season found Clark Kent experiencing intense pain and visions of wide-spread destruction, which coincided with a series of earthquakes centered around the Shuster Mines. These were shown to be connected to a mysterious figure in a containment suit, who was digging his way out of the depths of the mines. Fans immediately presumed that the figure was Doomsday, based on the design of the containment suit and the fact that Doomsday escaped from an underground prison in the same manner in his first comic book appearance.
Superman and Steel faced the monster in the penultimate segment of Superman and Lois season 2, episode 3, "The Thing in the Mines," only to discover it was somehow immune to Steel's anti-Kryptonian weaponry. Another surprise came when Superman finally cracked the creature's helmet, only to find himself staring at his own craggy-faced doppelganger. The creature was later described by Ret. General Sam Lane as "a bizarre version of Superman," confirming that the main villain of the new season was Bizarro Superman instead of Doomsday. The origins of Bizarro have yet to be explained, but he appears to be a doppelganger of Superman from another world, based upon his apparent knowledge of where the Fortress of Solitude was located.
Legends Of Tomorrow Brought Back The Original Reverse-Flash... As An Ally
Legends of Tomorrow season 7 found the team of time-traveling misfits left adrift and on the run, following the destruction of their time-ship, the Waverider, at the hands of a mysterious enemy. The mid-season finale confirmed this enemy to be a corrupted copy of the Waverider's artificial-intelligence, Gideon, who had become convinced that the Legends were a threat to the timeline and set about replacing them with robot duplicates. Legends of Tomorrow season 7, episode 10, "The Fixed Point," centered around the Legends' efforts to try and prevent the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and avert the start of World War I, as part of their plan to set a trap for the Evil Gideon. Unfortunately, their efforts to change the fixed point in time were continually thwarted by someone with the power to stop time. Eventually, the Legends figured out a way around this, revealing their unseen enemy to be a time remnant of the Reverse-Flash.
Played by Matt Letscher, this Eobard Thawne led the Legion of Doom against the Legends in an effort to recover the reality-altering Spear of Destiny. He was apparently erased from reality in the Legends of Tomorrow season 2 finale, but "The Fixed Point" revealed that he had been spared and reeducated by the Time Wraiths that policed the Speed Force. Empowered with a device that kept him anchored to a single day but allowed him to stop time, this reformed Thawne had become the guardian of June 28, 1914 and tasked with preventing anyone from changing that pivotal day. Thankfully, Thawne was persuaded that the danger posed by Evil Gideon was greater than any damage the Legends might do to the timeline and agreed to help them in setting their trap.
Batwoman Season 3 Gave Poison Ivy A Happy Ending, Before Revealing The True Big Bad
Batwoman season 3 centered around the hunt for a number of trophies Batman collected from his villains, which had made their way into the Gotham underground after being stolen by Black Mask. This search set up the introduction of the Arrowverse Poison Ivy, who was revealed to have been put into a state of torpor and buried in the Batcave ten years earlier. It was presumed that Poison Ivy would become the chief villain of Batwoman season 3, based upon the build-up to her reawakening and her imprinting her personality and powers onto Dr. Mary Hamilton, who acted as her parasitic proxy. However, Poison Ivy's plans to destroy the Gotham City dam were thwarted and the villain was captured in Batwoman season 3, episode 10, "Toxic."
Surprisingly, Batwoman and her allies decided that Poison Ivy had suffered enough over the past decade, and allowed her to leave Gotham City with the love of her life, Renee Montoya. This happy ending in Batwoman saw the two lovers flee to the island nation of Coryana, where plants were worshipped and there was no industry at all. Unfortunately, while Team Bat was occupied with saving the city from Poison Ivy and rescuing Dr. Mary Hamilton, another villain was preparing her own attack against Batwoman.
Jada Jet had been a continual presence throughout Batwoman season 3, having been introduced as Ryan Wilder's biological mother, who put her up for adoption in secret to hide the evidence of an affair from her husband. A powerful and ruthless business magnate, Jett barely ranked as more than a minor annoyance, even as she demanded Batwoman's help in curing her psychotic son, Marquis, who was established as the Joker to Ryan's Batwoman. When Batwoman prioritized saving the city from the original Poison Ivy over meeting Jada's latest demands, Jet called a press conference in the closing scenes of "Toxic," where she revealed the loss of the Bat-Trophies to the public and blamed Batwoman for a new generation of supervillains plaguing the Arrowverse. It remains to be seen if the smear campaign will work, but it is clear now that Jada Jet is the real big bad of Batwoman season 3.