Warning: spoilers for Lanterns Season 1, including the finale, follow.
What happens in Lanterns Episode 8, "Dirt and Stars"
The finale spends a lot of its time in the past, filling in the last months of Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler), from the day he walks out of prison to the night he dies.
In the present, John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) and the Halogram come back from Antaan's dead world with what they need to close the case. Most of what follows is conversation. By the end, the finale has answered who killed Hal, who freed Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen) and where Hal's portal came from, and John has decided what kind of Green Lantern he wants to be.
How Lanterns Episode 8 handles Hal Jordan's murder
Lanterns was announced as a True Detective-style mystery, and the finale plays like one, only with a much lighter plot.
The answer is meant to carry weight. The killer acts out of fear, and deciding what to do about it becomes John's first test as his own kind of Lantern. That's a good idea, and the execution lets it down. The killing makes little sense once you know what Hal was actually offering, and the person responsible is let off almost at once. The answer matters. Its consequences disappear almost immediately.
John Stewart finally becomes a Green Lantern
John's arc is the best thing in the finale. Eight episodes take him from a trainee who wouldn't say the oath to a Green Lantern who sets his own terms, and the way he gets there finally answers the ring's question about fear, the one that cost his father the job in 1986. Aaron Pierre has played that slow acceptance with real patience, and John's first flight feels like something he has worked for. Kyle Chandler's scenes with him are the best the two have shared all season.
John's biggest decision is another matter. It reverses what he did in Episode 5, and it's a huge risk. The finale does acknowledge the danger: almost everyone around him, the Halogram included, questions it, and John admits he may one day have to deal with the consequences himself. But he makes up his mind after one conversation in a truck. The idea is growth. The speed with which the episode earns it is the problem.
Scale and action in the Lanterns finale
For a superhero finale, remarkably little happens on screen. The closest thing to action is a house fire and an ambush, and the big scenes are conversations. Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), the only other working Lantern on screen, gets one short scene.
It's easy to assume the money ran out. Damon Lindelof says it was a choice: for a show that was always about two men, not having to stage "the big bombastic action set piece" was very liberating.
Either way, it's the wrong call for this ending. A show can have strong characters and real action at the same time. Arrow did it on a CW budget, finishing both of its first two seasons with its city under attack and its hero in the middle of the fight. Lanterns is on HBO, the home of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, and its finale gives you very little sense of how big the Green Lantern Corps is supposed to be.
Episode 5's attack on Rushville was the closest Lanterns came to feeling like a superhero show, and the finale had every reason to go bigger. It goes smaller instead.
Sinestro and the Guardians in the Lanterns finale
The finale finally says who broke Sinestro out of the Guardians' prison. It's the least convincing reveal of the season. The season did hint that someone in Rushville was hiding something, but nothing prepared us for that person reaching an off-world Guardian prison at all. The finale delivers the whole operation through dialogue instead of showing any of it.
Sinestro himself, built up all season as the big threat, ends up with very little to do. No Guardian appears in the finale, and their answer to John is left for later.
What the Lanterns finale leaves open
The finale does answer a lot, but much of it arrives as quick explanation, and the threads with the biggest consequences are left hanging: Sinestro's fate, the danger the season spent eight episodes building, the Guardians' response, whether Hal's killer will ever face consequences, and who set fire to Hal's house.
That's reasonable setup for a second season. HBO hasn't ordered one yet, though the writers have been working on it, and John's next confirmed appearance is in Man of Tomorrow, next year's Superman sequel. So the finale plays like a trailer for a season HBO is still deciding on. The Lanterns Mystery Board keeps track of everything still unanswered.
Is the Lanterns finale worth watching?
Watch it for closure on Hal Jordan's murder and John Stewart finally becoming a Green Lantern, not for a large-scale finale. The episode resolves the season's human story while postponing most of its cosmic story.
Why Lanterns Episode 8 is a 1.5
The 1.5 is for the people on screen and for the character writing. Pierre and Chandler give the season's central relationship a real ending, Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald) is as well played as she's been all season, and the music carries scenes the plot leaves flat. As character writing, Lanterns is good to the end. John's arc and the relationships around him are developed with real care.
As plotting, the end of the season is badly written. The finale asks us to accept an off-screen prison break, a murder committed against a man offering protection, and a life-or-death judgement made after one drive. All three sit at the centre of the plot. By the end, the episode has delivered answers without making them feel earned.
Lanterns Episode 8 verdict
"Dirt and Stars" gives John Stewart a good ending and gives the season very little of one. It has a real idea about fear and second chances, then rushes every decision that idea depends on. Sinestro is wasted, and the biggest threads are left for a season HBO hasn't ordered.
Who killed Hal Jordan in Lanterns?
Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald). After Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) gets out of prison, she stands by him, even when the town turns on them both. Then someone sets fire to his house, and Kerry's son, Noah Macon (Shea Pritchard), pulls him out and heals him. That's how Hal learns Noah is a Manhunter.
The reveal is thematically relevant: Kerry kills out of fear, and deciding what to do with her becomes the first test for John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) as his own kind of Lantern. The execution is what fails. Hal is offering to take Kerry and Noah somewhere safe, not expose them, yet her panic jumps straight to murder. She shoots him in the bleachers where he's found frozen at the end of the first episode. She then spends the season investigating the death she caused, offers to confess, and is released from that responsibility because John decides Hal wouldn't have wanted it. The Halogram had already pointed at her in Episode 7.
Lanterns finale ending explained
Did Hal take his own life? No. The Halogram's theory in Episode 7 was wrong.
Noah. Years ago, Zoe Macon (Poorna Jagannathan) healed Kerry with Manhunter technology, and Kerry later found out she was pregnant even though she hadn't been with anyone. She has always known what Noah is. Noah has known too, and kept it from her.
The fire. Someone sets fire to Hal's house. Noah denies starting it, and the episode doesn't say who did. He pulls Hal out, heals him with Manhunter technology and asks him not to tell Kerry.
The portal. It was Zoe's. She used it to revisit the world she had destroyed. Noah kept using it, and Hal followed him through, found Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen) there and then hid the portal in his vault so nobody could use it again.
Who freed Sinestro. Noah did, so that Sinestro could forge him a lantern for his revenge on the Guardians. The season seeded that Noah was hiding something, but nothing specifically prepared us for a teenager reaching an off-world Guardian prison, freeing Sinestro and commissioning a new lantern. The finale delivers that entire operation through dialogue instead of dramatising any of it.
The lantern. Sinestro forged it from the fear that soaks Antaan's world. It's green with yellow streaks running through it, and yellow is the colour of fear in Green Lantern mythology. John uses it to recharge Hal's ring, and the finale doesn't explain what that mixed energy will do to him. Tom King has said John is "not 100% a Green Lantern anymore". Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) calls it an unsanctioned lantern.
Sinestro. John and the Halogram question him, learn the truth about Noah and leave him stranded on Antaan's world. Sinestro insists a Manhunter's nature always wins.
Noah's confession. Noah ambushes John when he gets back, takes the ring and claims he killed Hal. He didn't. He describes intrusive thoughts about taking power and asks John to kill him.
John's choice. John refuses. In Episode 5 he killed Zoe to stop a Manhunter. Here he lets the last Manhunter we know of go free. The finale does register the danger: Sinestro says a Manhunter's nature always wins, Noah asks to die, the Halogram is sceptical of the risk, and John tells Kerry that if Noah gives in to his worst instincts, the world will need someone who can stop him. He also tells her she raised Noah well. But John decides Noah can be trusted after one conversation in a truck.
The game. Noah's team wins, and he announces he's going to Nebraska.
The oath. John recites an oath of his own: "In brightest day, in darkest night, I'll embrace my fear, I'll do what's right. I choose this ring, I choose this fight, in service to this lantern's light." It finally answers the ring's question. John's father lost the job in 1986 by admitting he was afraid, and John takes it while admitting the same.
The Halogram. Charging the ring erases the Halogram, and Hal knows it. "My gut tells me you're gonna be better at this job than I ever was," he tells John. His last words are "I love you too, Junior."
Guy Gardner and the Guardians. John lights the beacon and tells Guy to think of him as an independent contractor: "No Guardians, no Corps. You take the stars; have fun. I'll take the dirt." Guy flies off to tell the Guardians.
Maggie. John leaves the blackmail money for Maggie (Hannah Christine Shetler) at the café, with a note.
The last scene. John visits his mother, then flies for the first time.
What's left open. Sinestro is stranded but alive. Noah is alive, and still a Manhunter. Kerry faces no consequences. The Guardians haven't answered John's unsanctioned lantern, and nobody has said what its fear energy will do to him. Nobody knows who set fire to Hal's house. HBO hasn't ordered a second season, and John's next confirmed appearance is in Man of Tomorrow.
Bright Bulbs
- John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) finally earning the ring, and setting his own terms for wearing it.
- The way John's arc answers the ring's question about fear.
- Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John's scenes together, the best they've shared.
- Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald), as well played as she's been all season.
- Music that gives a quiet hour more tension than its plot does.
Dull Bulbs
- Action that amounts to a house fire and one ambush.
- Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen), built up all season, given very little to do.
- No Guardian appearing in the finale, with their response to John left for later.
Shattered Bulbs
- A Green Lantern finale with no Corps-scale payoff.
- A murder answer that makes little sense, and whose consequences vanish almost at once.
- John reversing his Episode 5 decision before the finale has done enough to earn it.
- An answer to who freed Sinestro that's only ever talked about, never shown.
- Leaving the biggest threads open, so the last hour plays like a trailer for a season HBO hasn't ordered.
Cast
- Aaron Pierre as John Stewart
- Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan
- Kelly Macdonald as Kerry Kane
- Shea Pritchard as Noah Macon
- Ulrich Thomsen as Sinestro
- Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner
- Hannah Christine Shetler as Maggie
Related articles
- Lanterns Mystery Board: Every Unanswered QuestionA numbered tracker of every Lanterns mystery: what the Season 1 finale answered and what is still open. Spoilers throughout.
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