Four episodes in, and Lanterns Season 1 Episode 4 finally starts answering the question the show has been circling since the premiere: who, or what, is actually pulling the strings in Rushville. Between a tense flashback with Sinestro, a break-in at William Macon’s compound, and a car bomb that changes everything, this is the episode where Hal Jordan and John Stewart stop dancing around each other and start actually working the case together. Here’s everything that happened, plus my take on where the show stands at the halfway point.
Sinestro’s Warning Sets the Tone
Lanterns Season 1 Episode 4 opens in 2016, with Hal Jordan confronting Sinestro about the Manhunters and about John Stewart. You can feel Hal wrestling with something ugly here, deep down, he knows Stewart is being groomed as his replacement, and it clearly doesn’t sit right with him. He calls Stewart boring, which, honestly, isn’t the worst read of the guy so far. Hal tries to strike a bargain with Sinestro, who suggests something colder than a simple trade: deliver the Manhunter to the Guardians, and disgrace John Stewart while he’s at it. It’s a short scene, but it plants the seed for the tension that runs through the rest of the hour.
Watching the Farm: John Finds the Guard Towers
Back in Rushville, John buys a scope and starts watching William Macon’s farm, where he spots a helicopter landing behind a ring of guard towers. That’s enough to convince him this place is hiding the Manhunter he’s after. He brings the Sheriff into the loop, and together they recap the investigation so far, landing on the theory that whoever is bankrolling Macon might be the real target.
A Guardian Visit and a Ring That Won’t Wait
Things get personal back at the motel, when a Guardian pays John a visit and tells him what Hal’s been up to, including his meeting with Sinestro, though she doesn’t know what was actually said. She delivers a bigger piece of news too: the Guardians have agreed that the next time John puts the ring on, he needs to recite the oath and become Green Lantern for real. When John hears that Hal’s been reporting he lacks creativity and isn’t ready, he growls back that the ring is his, and Hal is just keeping it warm.
That night, John gets his shot. He takes the ring, but he doesn’t say the oath. Instead, he manifests a digger, and he and Hal use it to break into Macon’s compound. Inside, they find a stash of guns and tech way too advanced to be Earth-made, and then everything goes sideways when Hal steps on a pressure plate and gets them both caught.
Caught by Macon (and That Very Strange Drawing)
In Macon’s office, things take a genuinely bizarre turn: he has John draw him naked. While that’s happening, William opens up a little about why he protects the Manhunter in the first place. Since his benefactor showed up, Rushville has thrived, crops grow, kids are healthy, nobody gets sick. In exchange for that prosperity, the town keeps the secret.
Sheriff Kane shows up (thanks to a call from Zoe) and hauls the pair out, reprimanding them but also revealing she’s close to identifying the benefactor after digging through Billy’s files. She tells them to lay low. Meanwhile, Bern calls John and tells him not to lose focus, and to try growing some compassion for Hal Jordan.
Zoe’s Confession, and Then the Car Explodes
Zoe shows up at the motel that night, and she and John sleep together again. Afterward, she tells him that William Macon owes her, when they first met, he was dying, and she saved his life. Now she’s trying to return the favor to John by convincing him to leave town. He refuses, obviously.
Then, as Zoe walks to her car, it explodes. Hal rushes out and spots a satellite nearby that turns out to be responsible. A little digging traces it to a company called Atlas Inc., run by a man named Hector Hammond, with no record of him existing before 1985. John isn’t buying it, though, he thinks it’s too easy, more of an invitation to draw them out than an actual lead.
Atlas Inc. and the Real Manhunter Reveal
They track Hector down at a slaughterhouse, where he’s been recording their private conversations back at the motel, including John’s talk about wanting to become a better Green Lantern. Hal cuts through the noise fast, correctly clocking Hector as a decoy for someone bigger. Under pressure, Hector blurts out the real answer: William Macon is the Manhunter.
On the drive back, Hal finally opens up about his conversation with Sinestro, reinforcing just how dangerous these Manhunters really are, they embed themselves in communities by finding the weak spots, then manipulate the people around them to hold onto power. Hal decides it’s time to bring in the alien hit squad. But there’s one more gut punch waiting: Hal has already figured out that Zoe is the Manhunter, and he’s furious that John lied to him and sat on it. The episode ends with Hal jumping out of the moving car and crashing it into a telephone pole.
Episode Review: A Solid Hour, One Very Weird Detour
Lanterns comes back this week with a genuinely solid episode, all things considered. That charcoal-drawing scene in Macon’s office is easily one of the strangest choices the show has made so far, it’s the kind of moment that makes you pause and go “wait, what?”, but outside of that oddity, this is the episode where the dynamic between Hal Jordan and John Stewart finally starts to click into place as the real engine of the show.
John still isn’t nearly as charismatic or fun to watch as Hal, and that gap is especially obvious in the back half of the episode, right when Hal starts letting his guard down a little. The show clearly wants us rooting for John Stewart, and it’s willing to knock Hal down a peg or two just to force that alignment. It’s a little heavy-handed, if I’m honest. This is a veteran Lantern who can’t manifest something as simple as a digger, yet he can conjure a perfectly rendered dollar bill without breaking a sweat, and he insists he didn’t do anything to earn his ring in the first place. You could argue Hal’s holding back on purpose to give John room to grow, but based on the writing and everything shown behind the scenes for this show, I doubt that’s actually the intention.
As for Zoe being the Manhunter, I called that one as early as episode one, and I’d guess a lot of viewers did too. It does put her early diner conversation about gender dynamics in a slightly odd light, since it’s hard to square that chat with what we now know she is. Still, William Macon’s reaction to her sleeping with John, plus her generally off demeanor throughout, made her an easy read, and the clues were sitting there from the very first episode if you were looking.
Overall, this is a strong chapter for Lanterns, and now that we’re past the halfway mark of the season, it’s genuinely anyone’s guess where the show takes Hal and John from here.
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