This will be me discussing the first four episodes of HBO’s Lanterns and trying to figure out where I think things are going and how I feel about the show. I was originally going to recap every episode and just forgot to after the first. So this made the most sense.

I got off the bandwagon of “superhero” movies before a lot of my friends. I only saw the Avengers: Infinity War and End Game movies because a friend of mine bought a ticket. Aside from The Batman, I haven’t enjoyed a superhero movie in almost a decade. The last one I can think of somewhat liking was Thor: Ragnarok which a lot of people adored and I thought had great ideas and a great movie within but it was way too jokey.

But Lantern’s isn’t a movie. It’s a TV series. Have I been enjoying the TV series at all? Actually I have. I liked the first season of Peacemaker a lot while feeling season two was good and ended really poorly. I absolutely adored The Penguin. The Marvel shows not so much. I’m pretty much out on Marvel. It’s all too Disney now. I tried Winter Soldier and Captain Falcon and it had a few good scenes followed by too much winky wink. You know, wink to the audience. Finding out that She-Hulk was in 360 degree blue rooms instead of just shooting in an office really put a bad taste in my mouth.

So what got me to want to watch Lanterns? Well there’s another superhero show I watched and really enjoyed. It was Watchmen. I absolutely loved Watchmen. Damon Lindelof did Watchmen. I really need to watch Leftovers. Then there’s the cast. I’m in on Aaron Pierre after Rebel Ridge. Casting him as John Stewart was a perfect timing situation. Apparently James Gunn almost cast Aaron Pierre as Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 so maybe it wasn’t so much perfect timing of Rebel Ridge coming out to sell them on him but rather Rebel Ridge sold me on Pierre before this.

Kyle Chandler is one of the most underrated actors in Hollywood so him as Hal Jordan just made sense. But then you have the forever lovely Kelly Macdonald, one of the best TV actors in Garret Dillahunt, and Gravity Falls Dipper himself Jason Ritter in the cast. And then just toss in Laura Linney like it’s nothing? One of my favourite actors of the 1990s Laura Linney? Come on. Come on!

Am I into the Green Lantern comics? Not really. That’s what is funny about covering this in any angle. I know that a lot of people are trying to figure this show out based on their knowledge of the comic books and will be happy/disappointed based on how accurate to the comics they are instead of whether or not they tell a good story. That’s what happened with Watchmen. It was a sequel to the original comic books and offered new perspective to old ideas in it, particularly with a whole new explanation on the first masked hero in Hooded Justice. I thought it was genius. A lot of comic book fans hated it because it wasn’t accurate to the comic. Stupid.

So all of my thoughts and theories on the show are not based on the lore of the comic books (aside from what I’ve looked up or people have talked about like John Stewart in the comics not needing a physical ring and lantern, or who the Sinestro Corps are), which may lead me to incorrect theories or it might lead me to correct theories because I’m not distracted by pre-existing lore. Who knows. Let’s find out!

Lanterns is not about being Fearless. It’s about Trust.

One of the only things I knew about Green Lantern was that the ring was about Willpower. I did watch that Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern movie and it’s all about willpower. What the heck is willpower? Having willpower is about having control over your emotions. Essentially it’s about discipline over the self. You don’t allow your emotions to get the best of you.

Hal Jordan in Lanterns shows willpower pretty much every scene. Some might confuse his snappy remarks as not being in control of his emotions but almost every scene he’s in absolute control of how he wants to express himself, how he processes information, and how he relays it.

The fourth episode Weenie is the best encapsulation of Hal Jordan’s willpower. When Jordan finds out that John Stewart has been talking behind his back about trying to take the ring he doesn’t get in an argument with him. He doesn’t have some silly banter back and forth about the ring. He processes the betrayal and recognizes this is not the moment to lose his cool. Who does lose his cool? John Stewart in hearing his family home is about to get a sky laser with his parents inside. Hal knows what the situation actually is. It’s about trying to pit the two against each other to get what they want. The whole situation, as Hal figures out later, was a distraction.

Willpower, however, isn’t talked about as much as being fearless. Fearless because fear, as I know from my little knowledge of Green Lantern, is what powers the yellow lanterns. The yellow lantern is the Sinestro Corps. Sinestro right now is just imprisoned for killing a guardian. A large part of willpower is not allowing your fears to control your actions. The yellow is clearly a counter to this.

It might be a good time now to realize the show isn’t called Green Lanterns. It’s called Lanterns.

Guardians of a Lie

The show is presented like a detective show. The original mystery was about the town. Then it’s about who the Manhunter is. It’s more than that though. We’re four episodes in and we now realize that absolutely everyone is lying to each other. Nobody is telling the truth. But some lies are bigger than others, and it’s going to be about figuring that out.

The end of episode four had Hal Jordan running the rental car into a telephone post with John still in the car. We will get the fallout of that in episode five. He did it after pointing out that it wasn’t John Stewart wanting the ring that made him realize he couldn’t trust him. It was him not saying that Zoe was his suspicion on who the Manhunter was when Hal straight up asked him. John gave the weakest lie that it must be Will Macon. That’s where Hal put it all together. He was willing to trust a man who wants to literally replace him and yet John couldn’t trust Hal with the theory that Zoe was the Manhunter.

John Stewart is an incredible character. It’s not just he’s been built to be Green Lantern his whole life. He’s also been lied to his whole life. And continues to be lied to. And has to trust those lies in order to get what he wants.

The Lantern Guardians want to replace Hal Jordan because he can’t be controlled. He can’t be trusted if he can’t be controlled. Fear could take over him if he is not controlled. John, on the other hand, they do believe can be controlled. He’s been controlled ever since the day his mother decided he could one day become the Green Lantern unlike his father. Their goal was to ensure he lives fearless. Unfortunately, the literal parental abuse they inflicted upon him to grow him to be who he is today has actually filled him with a great amount of fear. The fear of not becoming the Green Lantern did not break him. It just led him to be an architect, which was what the Guardians wanted for him. No, it was the moment Hal Jordan was willing to let a laser take out his parents. John isn’t ready for that, which is why Hal remarked the heroes journey of losing parents before becoming what you need to be.

We need to get back to the loose ends. Why is it that Hal Jordan is “breaking protocol” by meeting Sinestro, but Sinestro up in a space prison knows who John Stewart is? Why would Sinestro suggest to kill John Stewart? Why was both the Guardians and John’s mother so insistent on him taking the ring as soon as possible? Why did the decoy lie to say the Manhunter was Will Macon? Did Zoe say anything else to John Stewart when fucking him to make him feel like he needed to protect her? If Hal was convinced by Sinestro to bring the Manhunter to the guardians, why is he willing to bring the aliens who plan to destroy Rushville into town?

All of these are built on lies. Or maybe in the case of Hal it’s not lies but Hal masking his true intentions. What it all comes down to for me is that absolutely everyone in the universe is trying to keep these two men apart. Make them fight each other. The reality, and I’m sure the next four episodes will explain this, is that Hal and John need each other to survive this. They don’t trust each other right now. They’ll need to trust each other to survive. If, of course, Hal survives. The end of episode one was made to look like he doesn’t.

Predicting Where It Goes

Episode one established Rushville. Episode two (literally called trust fall) uncovers the Manhunter and Hal deciding to meet Sinestro. Episode three is about John Stewart’s background (why do people hate flashback episodes so much? This was a great episode. As I said on Twitter, people are more focused on dissecting “the way television works” than actually watching the show.), how he was raised, why he doesn’t like Hal, and why he has good reason not to. Episode four is about making their dislike for each other personal. Hal was fine treating the Guardians trying to replace him as an issue with the Guardians and not John. John hiding the Manhunter theory on Zoe changed that. John didn’t like Hal for causing his dishonourable discharge and being a general jackass to him, but he’s now run him into a telephone pole. And unlike the ejection from a car in the pilot episode? John doesn’t have the ring to wrap himself in bubble wrap.

The theory on Zoe being the Manhunter is something people have suggested since the first time she flirted with John in the bar, and I’ve heard people suggest she’s even someone else. The one that really gets me is the fact that the Guardians have constantly been moving not as heroes but villains in all of this. The fact Sinestro knew about John Stewart still very much bothers me.

I’ve heard the theory that the Manhunter’s are not the villains but the Guardians. Zoe might be a Manhunter, but the Manhunter’s are being hunted to extinction by the Guardians when they haven’t done wrong. Rushville is basically a dream utopia in many ways with a hospital with no patients, a cure for cancer, and basically teleporting cows to slaughter. Actually, that one I don’t know how that makes things better, but man that was a cool scene.

I rewatched the final scene of the pilot (I still love they called it pilot, so cheeky) when they flash forward to 2026. John Stewart now has a cool beard, but he isn’t flying. He’s driving in a quiet Rushville in the snow and goes by a wreckage. Sheriff Kerry Kane is still there (Kelly Macdonald isn’t allowed to die she’s too lovely) and brings him to a dead Hal Jordan sitting on the bleachers. He brushes the snow off his hand to check if he has the ring and he doesn’t. John is confused about this.

We do know due to that Superman movie that came out last year there’s a Guy Gardner who is now the Green Lantern and has Hal Jordan’s ring. He’s going to appear later on in the season. Why would John be looking for a ring when he knows Hal doesn’t have it anymore?

What I’m getting at is that the future doesn’t really give us the belief that John Stewart 10 years later is a Green Lantern. If that is Hal Jordan dead (and not say a projection from a Manhunter with a crystalized heart) then the last time John saw him? He was still the Green Lantern. Whatever happens in Rushville with the exploding terrorist aliens, the Manhunter, and the townsfolks being armed by Manhunter for an alien threat? It doesn’t feel like this ends with a passing of the torch (lantern lol) between Hal and John. It does however seem like John has some affection for Hal being frozen to that bleacher, so they might have figured out what was going on.

Where I personally hope it goes is likely different from what the show does. Just to give an example, I wanted Game of Thrones to end with the white walkers winning. I wanted the humans to be so embroiled in their greed and their pitiful rivalries that they ignored the true threat of the white walkers (who I thought were an analogy for global warming) and be completely wiped out. I thought that was the most powerful ending possible. Instead we got… whatever we got. Never finished that stupid final season.

Where I personally hope it goes is that the Guardians are currently being driven by fear. Literal yellow energy. Sinestro killing a Guardian, corrupted by yellow energy, actually passed that fear to the Guardians. Everything they are currently doing from trying to replace Hal Jordan with John Stewart is built on fear. They fear Hal will become Sinestro. In reality, they are becoming Sinestro. The reason Sinestro knows who John Stewart is because he knows the fear is in the Guardians now.

Hal Jordan is figuring it out. He figures out the Guardians are driven by fear, Sinestro is trying to drive him to it, and John Stewart is highly corruptible, regardless of his training, due to his love of his parents and his need for human connection.

“They are ruthless, Junior. They assimilate into communities by attaching to weak spots. It’s what their programmed to do.”

“So what you’re saying is they have no other choice?”

“They find a path to power every time, and if they identify a threat to that power, they’ll manipulate that threat into believing anything they want them to. Remind you anyone we know?”

This was Hal pointing out the weakness of John. He allowed himself to be corrupted by the Manhunter. They identified him as a threat immediately. That’s why Zoe met him at the bar. John even tried lying when he knew based on what Zoe told him.

I think Hal puts it all together, and he tries to push John away because John has allowed himself to get caught up in it. But at some point, Hal will realize he can’t solve this alone. He needs John, just as much as John needs Hal to break the people manipulating him and become his own man.

The whole town of Rushville has been manipulated by the Manhunter, and John Stewart is now included. John’s going to need to realize he needs the willpower to get over his problem with the lies and start seeing the truth. John isn’t just manipulated by the Manhunter but also the Guardian’s. Once Hal exposes this, with John’s help, I think it leads to John getting the Green Lantern power without needing a ring. Which I believe is accurate to the comics.

I am also hoping that the Hal Jordan we see dead at the end of the pilot isn’t Hal at all. It’s a holographic projection telling John that the issue with Sinestro and the Guardian’s isn’t over.

What do I think the show does? I have seen the theory that Zoe isn’t the Manhunter but actually part of Antaan’s alien crew. I don’t know. I don’t think the show, or Damon Lindelof who showed with Watchmen he likes strong black characters (please understand I’m not saying this like it’s a bad thing, I already said I loved Watchmen), wants John Stewart to just be this pawn of manipulation letting himself get fucked and screwed with by every woman in his life to finally break out of it because of big swingin’ dick bachelor Hal. There has to be a hero arc for John in this. So far he’s been more of a liability than a help.

I think the show wants us to think it’s John being manipulated when in reality it’s Hal. This plays into the theory of Zoe actually not being the Manhunter. Maybe the Guardian’s were correct that Hal is breaking protocol because he’s being slowly influenced by Sinestro. The big twist will be that when John opens up Hal’s coat in 2026, there will be a crystal heart. In the end the Manhunter was actually controlling him completely and that’s why he no longer has the ring.

It would take some huge leaps and really mess with what we’ve got from Hal Jordan being the one guy who can figure things out (he’s a master detective, specifically in figuring out when someone isn’t who they seem to be) but it allows John Stewart to leave this a hero. I feel like the show will want that more than John being just a guy who has to break the manipulation his life has endured.

This will still allow a situation where John becomes the Green Lantern without needing the ring, where his heart is his lantern.

Maybe that will be too much of a betrayal to people to see that Hal ended up fully manipulated by the Manhunter, but I feel like that gives us a road to John and answers the pilot’s final scene.

3,000 Words Later

Damn this show is good. I could be completely wrong. I could be right. I could be way off track. The comic book people might be laughing at me by my theories. I’m good with that. I’ve loved the way this show has respected the viewer and showed you perspective over and over. Characters will say things that don’t feel true, and nobody is there to immediately tell you that it’s a lie. You’re allowed to believe what you think in this world and it’s up to Hal and John to figure out what’s the truth. Isn’t it great to have a show we can discuss and agree or disagree on instead of something just fed to us so we never feel dumb? I’m okay with a show making me feel dumb because I didn’t get it. It makes me wants to figure out why.

I do still believe that the focus on fearless is to eventually instill the counter of fear, but that willpower to realize you’ve been manipulated and how to get through it will be important for Hal and John. I do think, if they play their cards right, they could absolutely launch this show into a movie with Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre being the Green Lantern’s going up against Sinestro, the Guardians, anyone. Lindelof has done a fantastic job.

I’ll end on one little thing.

I'll talk more about episode four of #Lanterns later but this episode especially I can't get over how much Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross changed music in film and TV.

— Aaron Wrotkowski (@aaron.wrotkowski.ca) 2026-09-07T03:24:47.660Z

I wonder if absolutely everyone in Hollywood is using the Nine Inch Nails Ghosts I-IV as temp music now so when someone like Stephanie Economou is tasked to do the music for Lanterns she goes right into making it sound like a Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross production. Trent and Atticus worked on Watchmen, so it’s pretty easy to suspect that Lindelof wanted that type of sound again.

It’s not just things they worked on though. The Social Network soundtrack, which pulled a lot from Ghosts I-IV, really changed movies and TV with the way it sounds. As a Nine Inch Nails fan for most of my life? I’m glad. I like the way things sound.

Anyway, looking forward to the final four.