Legends Of Tomorrow Reveals Arrowverse DEO’s Fate (What Happened Explained)

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Legends of Tomorrow’s season 6 premiere.

Legends of Tomorrow has always been the wildest Arrowverse series and traveling to various centuries in a time ship makes it impossible for the Legends to be grounded. Their constant adventures also means they are not always in sync with current events in the Arrowverse and the season 6 premiere, titled “Ground Control to Sara Lance,” proved that by revealing the DEO’s fate in the main timeline was previously unknown to the Legends.

The DEO (Department of Extranormal Operations) was once a staple of the Arrowverse. The agency was responsible for monitoring extraterrestrial activity and protecting Earth from any alien attacks or invasion. Outside of Supergirl, the department has been a part of (and mentioned in) a few episodes of The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow. In Supergirl season 5, the DEO was demolished by Rama Khan — an ancient alien and former leader of Leviathan, who were tasked with protecting Earth from humans — months after the events of “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” In Legends of Tomorrow’s season 6 premiere, Ava calls the DEO for help with saving Sara from an alien abduction. However, there’s no response and she is shocked to learn it was destroyed and never actually rebuilt after. 

Legends of Tomorrow may primarily exist outside of the timestream, but the show has always managed to reference events from the Arrowverse without missing a beat. And, because of the time travel nature of the show, Legends of Tomorrow can confirm the DEO’s fate in the future better than Supergirl can. It’s also possible the only reason the DEO was mentioned at all was to bring up Alex Danvers and Sara’s fling from a few years ago, thus making Ava momentarily jealous. It seems no one had Alex’s phone number to call her directly. All told, however, Arrowverse’s post-Crisis world is different than it once was and the DEO is very much a remnant from a previous time, one that — despite surviving a multiverse reboot, time travel changes, and more — no longer fits into the reimagined state of Earth-Prime.

Now that Alex Danvers and J’onn J’onzz no longer work at the agency and the superheroes took care of stopping the Anti-Monitor in “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” the DEO’s place in the Arrowverse has effectively become obsolete. The superheroes even managed to defeat the Dominators, alien creatures, during the “Invasion!” crossover without much assistance from the agency. In this vein, it makes sense that its headquarters were never rebuilt after its destruction. Who needs the DEO when the world’s got Supergirl, Superman, and a plethora of superheroes who have done a better job fighting (and working with) aliens?

The DEO wasn’t even able to detect the Dominators’ descent to Earth or Spooner’s abduction, so the agency’s destruction may have been for the best. What’s more, now that a member of the Legends, Gary Green, was revealed to be an alien bounty hunter, the DEO probably wouldn’t have been too helpful in finding him or Sara in deep space anyway. The department’s agents were only human, after all. It’s unclear if the Arrowverse will introduce a similar agency to take its place. But, with Supergirl ending and Legends of Tomorrow occupied with bigger problems at the moment, it’s doubtful it will be brought up again in future.  

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Mae Abdulbaki
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Mae Abdulbaki is a movie reviews editor with Screen Rant. She previously wrote about a variety of movies and TV shows for Inverse, CinemaBlend, Pajiba, and The Young Folks, where she wrote reviews, features, news pieces. Her other work can be found at The Mary Sue, Film School Rejects, UPROXX, Heroic Hollywood, Looper, The List, and Bam Smack Pow, among others. Mae has also appeared on television segments, podcasts, and panels to discuss all things entertainment.

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