If there’s ever been a case study in poor mentoring, it’s the Green Lantern duo on HBO’s Lanterns. Hal Jordan’s treatment of John Stewart raises serious eyebrows about the super-powered organization’s Human Resources department. From constant belittling to withholding crucial information, Hal seems committed to making John’s introduction to the Green Lantern Corps as miserable as possible. Tasked with menial and hazardous assignments that stray far from his actual responsibilities, John is consistently given more grief than guidance. Despite his military background making him accustomed to chains of command, it’s clear that the abuse should not be tolerated. Complaint lines are open, even in superhero circles.
The maltreatment doesn’t stop there. Hal rudely awakens John by dousing him with cold water, demonstrating the non-stop barrage of indignities John faces. With no real instructions, John is left to learn to fly on his own. In a surprising turn, he summons an emerald bird that remains at his side despite removing the ring and traveling miles from its origins. Hal’s nonchalant response belies the significance of this achievement, hinting at its underlying importance.
John’s mission this week? Retrieve Hal’s physical Green Lantern from a location within his lavish mansion in Coast City, a fictional setting known to DC fans alongside Gotham and Metropolis. Hal’s peculiarities extend to housing a deadly extraterrestrial plant—deliberately leaving John to discover its vicious nature during feeding time. It seems that Hal’s ability to maintain his charmingly cantankerous persona knows no bounds.
John’s loyalty repeatedly gets tested. In a twist of fate, he’s ambushed by an extraterrestrial gang, identical to the aliens previously involved in a Nebraska football game incident. Their leader, portrayed by the ubiquitous Paul Ben-Victor, informs John they are in pursuit of a Manhunter. Predictably, John is clueless, highlighting the gap in Hal’s mentorship.
An education in terror follows. The aliens clarify that the Manhunters predate the Green Lanterns, notorious for their ruthless brand of “justice.” These synthetic beings, invincible in their duplicity, have decimated numerous alien races, including the leader’s own. To drive the point home, they subject John to a visceral mind implant, offering a firsthand view of their home planet’s annihilation—a visceral reminder of the stakes involved and the monster they face.
The aliens believe the Guardians of the Universe, the Green Lanterns’ bosses, secretly saved and hid the Manhunter that killed their people. Putting two and two together, John concludes that Abin Sur, the Green Lantern who died in a ship crash and passed on his ring, must have been transporting the Manhunter for safekeeping on Earth. Now it’s in Rushville, and it knows the aliens are onto it. Unless John and Hal find it and stop it, the aliens will blow half of Nebraska to kingdom come in order to kill it, lest it cause even more carnage itself. They tell John not to let Hal know about any of this, since it’s possible he’s in on it.
Considering the Hal we know, that’s unlikely. He spends the episode disrupting town meetings and generally making a nuisance of himself for Sheriff Kerry, for whom he has an obvious thing, even if it’s not quite obvious to Hal himself yet. He also becomes something of a grave-robber, hauling the alien corpses out of the morgue dicks-to-the-wind to test a theory. Sure enough, the “metal detectors” installed at the football stadium by Kerry’s father-in-law, William Macon, were designed to detect aliens, not metal. That’s how they ID’d their targets.
This makes Hal even more curious about William Macon himself. But when he walks onto the big man’s property demanding answers about this incredibly sophisticated technology (Hal says he’s never seen it anywhere else in the galaxy) and Macon’s mysterious benefactor, he gets shot through the shoulder for his efforts.
In the hospital, he and Kerry apologize to one another for stomping all over each other’s respective jurisdictions. Kerry reveals she’s originally from Gotham City (Kelly Macdonald is gonna have to explain that Midwestern accent, then)…and Hal wonders why he’s literally the only patient in a hospital brimming with brand-new equipment.
John returns to find his reluctant mentor banged up but out of the hospital. He delivers not only the ring-recharging Lantern that Hal asked for, but the uniform he expressly did not.
Surprisingly, considering their rapport, John immediately comes clean about his erstwhile alien abduction, how they’re searching for a Manhunter and believe it’s in Rushville. (I believe it’s Zoe, Macon’s incongruously cool and not-blonde wife; that would explain his defensiveness about aliens.) He also mentions that the aliens said his seemingly permanent bird construct was so sophisticated it was practically impossible…then crushes it into pixie dust in his hands. I guess he’s a guy who doesn’t get too attached.
Afterwards, Hal suits up (hooray!) and travels to a remote pocket-dimension prison. There, he finds Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen), the rogue Green Lantern who attempted a coup, killed a Guardian, and was taken down by Jordan himself. (Kerry tells Hal he talked about Sinestro in his sleep.) When he demands to hear everything Sinestro knows about Manhunters, the prisoner calls them the second-greatest threat Hal is facing…then asks about John Stewart.
As someone who’s read a fair number of Green Lantern comics, it’s difficult for me to say whether a great big introduction for SINESTRO!!! means anything to anyone not familiar with the character and mythos already. But his presentation as “Hannibal Lecktor” to Hal Jordan’s Will Graham in (appropriately) Michael Mann’s Manhunter — the imprisoned killer whose capture both made this lawman’s reputation and broke his spirit — creates an instantly recognizable and compelling dynamic regardless. It’s not terribly original (neither is the Spider-Man 2 powers-on-the-fritz flying attempt by John) but it gets the job done.
Meanwhile, the core cast continues to exude charisma from every pore. Does it help that Kyle Chandler, Aaron Pierre, Kelly Macdonald, and Poorna Jagannathan are all really, really, really, ridiculously good-looking? Yes, but they also all have an easy, convincing chemistry. This is true even of Chandler and Pierre as Jordan and Stewart, whose relationship feels like the former finding out just how far he can push things before the latter finally snaps. As always, I’m hoping a giant green fist is involved.
Sean T. Collins (@seantcollins.com on Bluesky and theseantcollins on Patreon) has written about television for The New York Times, Vulture, Rolling Stone, and elsewhere. He is the author of Pain Don’t Hurt: Meditations on Road House. He lives with his family on Long Island.