The season one finale of HBO Max's "Lanterns" identifies Hal Jordan's killer and the show's second Manhunter, and sends John Stewart off as an independent Green Lantern, while HBO has yet to announce a second season.
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| Aaron Pierre's John Stewart and Kyle Chandler's Hal Jordan in the "Lanterns" season one finale on HBO Max. |
Spoiler warning: this article discusses major plot points from the "Lanterns" season one finale, "Dirt and Stars."
The question that has driven "Lanterns" since its premiere, who killed Hal Jordan, has an answer. In the finale, which streamed Sunday, Oct. 4, the killer turns out to be Sheriff Kerry Kane, played by Kelly Macdonald. The episode also reveals that her son, Noah Macon, is the second Manhunter, and it ends with John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) claiming the Green Lantern role on his own terms.
Kerry's secret and Hal's last days
The episode opens by picking up where episode five left off. Kerry finds a defeated Hal (Kyle Chandler) in the rubble of Rushville's motel, and he is resigned to going to prison, which will let the Guardians of the Universe replace him as Earth's Green Lantern. The story then jumps ahead to 2026, when Hal is released after a 10-year sentence and Kerry is waiting with beer. The letters he wrote from prison appear to have affected her, and the two begin a romance.
Rushville is not welcoming. Many residents still blame Hal for the deaths caused by the town's destruction, and the finale suggests his actions also ended the decades of good health and prosperity the townspeople enjoyed under an arrangement with Zoe Macon, a Manhunter living in town. At a tense dinner, Zoe urges the other patrons to see that Hal is trying to make amends by helping the community. It doesn't work. Hal's rental home is later set on fire by arsonists.
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| A tense restaurant dinner scene from the "Lanterns" season one finale on HBO Max. |
Noah is revealed as a Manhunter
Hal wakes on the floor of a slaughterhouse holding Zoe's leftover Manhunter technology, which heals living tissue. Noah (Shea Pritchard), Zoe's grandson, has used it to repair Hal's burned body, just as Zoe once healed John after a car fire that Hal engineered. Noah tells Hal he is a Manhunter and asks him to keep it quiet, because Kerry believes her son doesn't know what he is.
Back in the present, John and the holographic version of Hal, called the "Halogram," confront Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen) on the planet Zoe destroyed. Sinestro says Noah broke him out of his prison on Oa so he could build a ring-charging lantern. The lantern contains traces of fear from the toxins still in the planet's air and water, shown as yellowish-gold streaks in the green. Sinestro offers to let John charge his depleted ring from it. The Halogram talks John out of it, and the two leave Sinestro stranded.
What Noah and Kerry each admit
Back on Earth, Noah ambushes John, takes the ring and lantern, and has John drive him to his final high school football game. Noah says he killed Hal, explaining that he feared Hal would tell Kerry about him. He also says he is struggling against his Manhunter programming. According to the reports, he considers two futures: a normal life with college football at the University of Nebraska, or one that uses his abilities to gain fame, political power and military strength. He chooses neither. He gives back the ring and lantern and asks John to kill him after the game.
John doesn't believe Noah's account is the whole story. He tells Kerry about his own difficult childhood and the fear his mother carried, and Kerry confesses. A flashback shows that Hal had confronted her at the football field, told her that Noah knew he was a Manhunter, and warned that Noah was planning revenge on the Guardians. Hal urged her to run. Kerry refused, drew her weapon in a panic and shot him as he told her he loved her. She regretted it immediately. She also admits she summoned John to Rushville to judge whether Noah was a monster.
John decides not to kill Noah, saying the teenager has shown he can fight his programming. Kerry offers to turn herself in, but John declines, citing what Hal would have wanted. John acknowledges the risk, telling Kerry that if Noah gives in to his worst instincts, the world will need someone to stop him. The family is last seen celebrating Noah's win and his commitment to Nebraska.
An independent Green Lantern
John then calls Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) to Rushville and shows him Hal's ring and an "unsanctioned" lantern. He tells Guy he will handle Earth while Guy looks after the stars, working as an "independent contractor" with no Guardians or Corps. Guy warns that the Guardians may send an army and flies off saying the matter isn't settled.
The Halogram, which had gone quiet while John worked things out, then returns. He voices doubt about the risk John is taking with Noah but says John will be a better Lantern than he was. John had hesitated to charge the new lantern because Sinestro said doing so would end the Halogram. The Halogram's last joke is to pretend he missed Hal's final words to Kerry. When John repeats "I love you," the Halogram answers, "I love you too, Junior," and winks goodbye. His advice that sums up the season is "Don't be afraid to be afraid."
After the ring is charged, John flies off to give a bag of money to Maggie, a waitress who lost her family in the Manhunter attack, and reunites with his family, including his estranged mother, Bernadette. He then recites a rewritten version of the Green Lantern oath that reflects his acceptance of fear.
What the creators said
At a virtual press conference for the finale, showrunner Chris Mundy said the writers never considered a more action-driven ending. Landing the emotional story between Hal and John, he said, was the goal, and a fight would have been distraction rather than emotion. Co-creator Damon Lindelof described episode five's "Battle of Rushville" as the series' version of the big action set piece. He said a two-hour movie would have to end in a large battle with only a brief coda, while the series could spend its last three episodes on the quieter part. Co-creator Tom King said avoiding clichés was a priority from the start.
The oath was decided late, while the writers were breaking the finale. Mundy said they were "crazily nervous" until writer Justin Britt-Gibson said they weren't rewriting it but remixing it. Lindelof said the change will likely divide fans. King argued that John's lantern, which carries traces of yellow and fear, means he is no longer reciting the same oath as other Green Lanterns.
The creators also addressed Hal's fate. Lindelof said that from the pilot, which ends with Hal dead, they did not want a fake-out, so there was no resurrection planned. Sinestro's offer to bring Hal back "for real" remains in the story, but the article describing the press event calls it a likely desperate gambit from a manipulative villain.
What happens next
HBO had not announced a second season of "Lanterns" as of the evening of Oct. 4, and the finale press event did not address the question. Mundy's season two writers room has reportedly been underway for several months, and he said in August that he planned to pitch the season to DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran. A recent report put the show's average audience at 19 million viewers per episode. How the pending Skydance acquisition of Warner Bros. Television, HBO and DC Studios might affect the show remains to be seen.
Pierre is set to appear as John Stewart in "Man of Tomorrow," Gunn's sequel to "Superman," which is reported to open July 9 next summer. Several threads are still open: Noah is alive, Sinestro's fate is undetermined, and the Guardians may respond to John's decision.