James Gunn’s DC Universe finally hands the ring to Green Lantern, and the premiere episode of Lanterns throwing us into a decades-spanning mystery. Between a beloved hero’s shocking fate and a rookie who’s still finding his footing, this first hour sets up a lot of questions I’m honestly not sure the show has fully earned yet. Here’s the full breakdown of what happens, plus my thoughts on whether this crime-drama spin on the DC mythos actually works.
A Decade of Heroism, Then a Rookie Enters the Picture
Lanterns Season 1 Episode 1 open in 1996, a full decade after Green Lantern first touched down on Earth back in 1986. By this point, Hal Jordan has already built a legacy, most notably stopping a meteor from wiping out Victoria Falls. In a live television interview, he opens up about his past as an Air Force veteran and former test pilot, and casually mentions he was the very first person entrusted with the ring.
Watching from home are two kids, one of whom is a young John Stewart. When his father gets home that night, he tests John’s nerve in a pretty unsettling way, setting an apple on his son’s head and shooting it off without so much as a flinch from the boy. That single scene tells you everything about how John was raised.
Jump forward to 2016, and John Stewart is now training directly under Hal Jordan. They’ve apparently been at this for about two months, and while the Guardians handpicked John for the job, Hal isn’t about to let him forget he’s still a rookie. To prove a point, Hal actually tosses his own ring onto the dashboard and jumps out of a moving car, sending John careening off a cliff edge. John survives by conjuring what he calls “bubble wrap” to cushion the fall, though we never actually see this happen on screen, which becomes a bigger issue later.
Understandably furious, John calls his dad to vent about Hal’s reckless test. His father, ever the disciplinarian, tells him to stick with it and trust the process. Things get stranger when John touches the ring and a digital backup of Hal’s consciousness materializes beside him, confused and disoriented about the fact that it’s suddenly 2016. This ghost-like version delivers a cryptic message: there’s hail in Nebraska. When it vanishes, John tracks down the real Hal Jordan, who’s busy soaking up his celebrity status at a taco stand. The moment Hal gets the message, he jets off immediately, leaving John to make his own way to Nebraska the long way around.
The Nebraska Crime Scene and a Very Suspicious “Alien”
By the time John arrives, Hal insists this whole detour is just part of his training. The crime scene itself, a football field crawling with emergency responders from two different counties, has apparently been active for six hours already. John is convinced they’re dealing with something extra-terrestrial, which would make it his and Hal’s jurisdiction, but the local sheriff, Kerry, isn’t buying it. Hal uses the moment to test John’s investigative instincts, and sure enough, there does seem to be something alien lurking nearby.
John’s inexperience shows when he gets too close to a suspicious guy in a short-sleeve shirt, triggering a chase that ends with John knocking the man out. The guy gets arrested on suspicion of involvement, and the two Lanterns head to a local bar afterward. This is where John finally presses Hal for real answers, questioning both his mentoring style and his actual credentials.
Hal eventually opens up about a bizarre encounter: a giant green bubble once encased him, a voice asked if he was afraid, and then he was transported to a spot not far from where they’re currently sitting, right there in Nebraska. He also reveals that his predecessor, Abin Sur, whom Hal affectionately (or maybe not so affectionately) nicknames “Pinko,” was the one who handed over the ring in the first place. Given everything happening now, Hal is convinced the crash isn’t a coincidence and that something bigger is coming.
Bail, Militia Ranches, and an Uncomfortable Family Connection
Determined to speak with the alien Kerry has in custody, Hal deliberately gets himself arrested. Unfortunately, Kerry keeps him separated from the prisoner and even has him hauled in front of a judge, where bail is set at a staggering $200,000. Before Hal can fully process the number, a lawyer named Billy Macon shows up and offers to cover it, and it’s only afterward that Hal learns Billy is actually Kerry’s brother. Following the money leads the two Lanterns straight to the Macon family ranch, where a small army of militia members is training under the family patriarch, Will.
Will explains he’s preparing for a war he believes is coming, and that the man locked up in Kerry’s jail is part of an advanced enemy team. He agrees to arrange a meeting with the prisoner, though what he wants in return is left hanging. Things get awkward fast when it’s revealed that John slept with a woman at the bar earlier that same night, a woman who turns out to be Will’s wife, Zoe. And Will, it seems, already knows.
Waylon Sanders and the Explosion That Changes Everything
The next morning, Kerry finally brings Hal and John in to meet the captured man, identified as Waylon Sanders, a licensed truck driver who’s apparently been operating under the radar for close to five years. X-rays show he’s completely human, with no physical signs of anything alien, though Hal points out that means very little given how many different species actually exist out there.
When Hal starts questioning him directly, he catches Waylon in a lie, and the conversation quickly spirals as Waylon starts talking about an incoming war before literally exploding. Hal manages to throw up a protective green bubble around him in time, saving everyone in the precinct except for one badly damaged wall. Nobody’s hurt, but it’s clear the stakes just escalated.
A Decade Later, and Hal Jordan Is Dead
Lanterns Season 1 Episode 1 closes with a massive time jump to 2026, and Nebraska looks nothing like it did before. John returns and reunites with Kerry, but the real gut-punch is finding Hal Jordan sitting in the stands, dead, blood dried across his forehead. His ring is nowhere to be found. It’s a brutal way to end a premiere, and it immediately reframes everything we just watched.
So, Is Lanterns Actually Any Good?
James Gunn’s DC Universe has had a rocky road so far, and coming off the disappointments of Supergirl and Peacemaker Season 2, Lanterns had a lot riding on it. What we get is an odd but interesting hybrid: Damon Lindelof’s signature mystery-box storytelling mixed with a slow-burn crime drama, all while trying to pick apart who Hal Jordan really is as a person.
Honestly, the show seems conflicted about how it wants us to feel about Hal. Kerry openly criticizes him later in the episode, accusing him of not caring about anyone. John questions whether he’s even being trained properly. Even the digital echo of Hal seems to interrogate the man Hal has become. By the end, you’re left with the impression that Hal might just be a reckless mess who probably shouldn’t have been trusted with the ring in the first place.
And yet, ironically, Hal is easily the most compelling part of the entire premiere. His charm, his history, and the mentor-student dynamic he shares with John give this episode its strongest moments, which makes it sting even more when he’s killed off by the end. That decision leaves the show leaning almost entirely on Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart, and right now, he’s got about as much charisma as a plank of wood.
There’s very little in this first hour to make me root for him beyond a few scattered pieces of backstory. If he’s meant to carry the mantle between Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan and Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner, he’s got serious work to do before this becomes a slog.
There’s also the matter of how the ring’s powers are handled, and this is where my eyebrow really went up. When John claims he conjured bubble wrap to survive the cliff fall, we’re conveniently never shown it happening on screen. We also never get to see Hal’s origin story with Abin Sur, which feels like a missed opportunity considering how central that relationship is to who Hal becomes. But the bigger head-scratcher is the jukebox scene.
Hal conjures a fake dollar bill so physically convincing it fools a jukebox into registering it as real currency and queuing up songs, music that keeps playing even after he removes the ring. So naturally, I have to ask: why didn’t he just conjure the $200,000 bail money himself? You’ve just shown us your infinite-money cheat code ten minutes earlier, Hal. Why not use it?
To be fair, there’s a real difference between counterfeiting bail money and fooling a jukebox, and I’ll admit I’m not deeply versed in the finer rules of Green Lantern lore, so this might be more of a nitpick than an actual plot hole. Still, it’s the kind of inconsistency that pulls you out of the story right when it’s trying to build tension.
As series premieres go, Lanterns does its job well enough. There’s enough mystery baked in to keep me curious about episode two, but killing off the most magnetic character in the very first hour is a massive risk. Whether John Stewart can actually shoulder the weight Hal leaves behind remains to be seen, and right now, that foundation feels pretty shaky.
Lanterns Season 1 Episode Guide | Lanterns Season 1 Episode 2
