Lanterns Season Finale Breakdown: Hal Jordan's Death, John Stewart's New Oath and How Hal Could Return

For as good as Lanterns has been, that makes it all the more shocking how disappointing this season finale is. Do I want to say it was actually bad? I kind of do. Between the treatment of Hal Jordan, a rewritten oath for John Stewart and a season two setup that keeps us on Earth, there is a lot to complain about. I also have a theory about how Hal will return, and I still think he is going to, especially now that he is so popular.

A lot of people have attacked this show for reasons that were not good, and ending up vindicating them makes how bad this finale is even more frustrating. As I put it: "I have defended this show's treatment of Hal Jordan for seven episodes, but this week, I was appalled."

Tom King strikes again, but James Gunn shares the blame for the Lanterns finale

I would like to say Tom King strikes again. For those who do not read comics, maybe now you will start to understand the complex reputation he has in comic book circles. This is pretty par for the course with him. His setups are so good, though. Someone should let him set up a story and then take it away. He ended Supergirl really well, but then they still messed up the movie, so I do not think it is just Tom King's fault. I think it is pretty clear some other writers on the show are to blame here as well.

James Gunn is the head of this, and the buck stops there. This is a man who got the job and won over a lot of fans by emphasising that he is a fan himself. So how could a fan approve this? I am a new Green Lantern fan and I am upset, not just at how lackluster the finale is, but at changes to the Green Lantern mythology that do not need to be made. If you are going to make these changes, you have got to make a better case for them.

The few positives: Hal's boots, John's first flight and a correct guess about Noah

Let me start with the few positive things. Boots on Hal: I think that would have inspired a lot of fan art, though I do not know if people will be interested in making it or looking at it after tonight's episode. The whole thing seems so rushed. If you need an extra episode, please take it. Then John finally flew. I do not think it looked quite as good as Hal's takeoffs, but it was literally John's first time, and it did resemble Hal looking around the town.

Here is what I thought would have been a nice touch: if the last thing the hologram did before he finally ran out of power was teach John how to fly, since John had been asking him to throughout the entire season. Oh well, he didn't. There was the exchange of I love you, but the episode still disappointed me. Golf clap to those of us who correctly guessed Noah was a baby manhunter, although they did nothing with that boy. We also guessed the sheriff killed Hal. She did look guilty, and Hal's gut was right yet again. It is undefeated. She killed him in the stupidest, most incompetent way possible, though. I couldn't believe it.

The season two setup locks John Stewart on Earth

I think the most frustrating thing about the finale is the season two it sets up. I had expected Lanterns to level up, especially with how well the show has been received. I guess they wrote this before they knew that would happen, but never lock yourself in like this. John decides to be the off the books lantern just for Earth, telling Guy Gardner he can have the rest of sector 2814. So I am thinking, great, we are never going to space, or at least not for another season.

For all the complaints about Marvel's Disney Plus shows, at least most of them feel bigger, and other shows elsewhere feel bigger too. Why does Lanterns feel like it is headed towards being just one of those many, many Prime Video shows? To be fair, those shows do extremely well in the Nielsen charts. But if you want Reacher, just go watch Reacher. "Why does this have to be DC's version of Reacher?" I am very upset about it.

Is Hal Jordan dead? The knockoff lantern Sinestro forged holds the key

For a moment I thought Hal might be dead dead. However, I think he will come back, and I think they planted the seeds for that here, but too subtly. They needed a stronger tease so people did not leave the season feeling so disappointed. I believe the key to bringing Hal back is the knockoff lantern that Noah forced Sinestro to forge. This weird lantern not only has yellow cracks in it, as John points out, but when he activates it, it very clearly has yellow swirling inside.

I am not happy about Sinestro either. How does he not have agency? How is he not a major player in this whole scenario? Maybe not a pawn, but he should be one of the key pieces on the board considering how important he is in the comics. It is very out of character for him and very disappointing for me. How could James Gunn not reach for his red pen, or green pen in this case? And how does Laura Linney's character not show up again? Does this show not even have Laura Linney money? Everyone has Laura Linney money. She can't come back and film one more scene?

John Stewart's new oath says he chooses the ring, not the other way round

Now to this insanity: the writers decided to create a new oath for John Stewart. Why do you want fans not to like John Stewart? I am not even a major Green Lantern fan. I am new to the party and I am upset, so I can only imagine how upset some of you are. The biggest change between the two oaths is that now it states John chooses the ring. It does not choose him.

I get what you are trying to say, but if you do not like Green Lantern mythology, do not work on this character. Writers bring a lot of themselves to projects, and that can give them great nuance and depth, but it is a balancing act. That happens with a lot of adaptations, but do not do it so much that the result is no longer recognisable to the original fandom.

Why couldn't Hal's old ring just choose John? You bring it back to life and it says, I choose you, John, because Hal's love is baked into me. I think that would have worked. There was also the idea a number of people had that, because John could do these neat tricks without even wearing the ring, he was a living Green Lantern battery. That was a great idea. There were options here, and they chose something that should not have even been an option.

My theory: Parallax is being born inside the knockoff lantern

I think we are still getting the yellow lantern corps, but it is too early. Instead we are witnessing the birth of Parallax itself, the fear parasite. I thought Parallax was lying in wait, but I think it has only now entered the chat. Think about it: this lantern was forged on a planet of fear. Coincidentally, Zoe the Manhunter had nothing to do with that planet; she just liked to come there to see the mess she had made, which is ridiculous. Sinestro is also already preaching the power of fear, so it makes sense that when he forged this knockoff lantern, Parallax was either created or able to enter it.

The question then becomes whether Sinestro intentionally put Parallax in there as a trap to infest whoever uses the lantern, though how helpful would that be against a manhunter, which is a machine? Or was it an accident, robbing Sinestro of even more agency? We will find out, but that is what I think is going on.

So how does this bring Hal back? Sinestro already told the hologram he could make him a real boy. The hologram passed on that offer, but it lets us know a way exists. The thinking is that John overwrites Hal's ring when he claims it as his own. But maybe he doesn't, or in the process he uploads the hologram to the knockoff lantern with Parallax inside. That matters because Parallax would want to combine with the hologram code to escape the lantern and be operational. The hologram had a life outside the lantern; it could complete tasks and interact. That code is already written, so Parallax could infect the hologram and leave. I think it is a good theory, and I would even be happy with it.

Hal Jordan's murder by the sheriff felt out of character for both of them

They better bring Hal back, because he is an incredibly popular character. Kyle Chandler, we love you. This finale seemed to just throw Hal away, which I found so sad and insulting. I was worried his murder would not live up to the hype after that first episode, but I didn't think it would actually be bad. Hal finds out Noah is a manhunter when someone in town torches Hal's home and Noah saves him. What a coincidence that both Hal and John get their skin burned off and the manhunter replaces it. That machine can do anything, including create baby manhunters. They say there are no other manhunters, but they fixed a lot of people in town. Why did it have to be fire again?

When Hal moved back to Rushville from prison, my gut told me it was a mistake. Forcing people to look day after day at the person held responsible for the death of their loved ones is a really cruel thing to do. Kelly Macdonald is a very charismatic actress, but I don't think anybody would be worth staying in that town for. And the sheriff is a horrible sheriff, not even including the murder.

Hal follows Noah and sees him planning something with Sinestro. Instead of reporting it to anyone, when Superman already exists, or turning on that Green Lantern signal for the gym teacher with the gold tooth, Hal tells the sheriff they need to leave town, maybe even the planet. Since when does Hal Jordan run from a fight? He is hysterical. She refuses, and no mother is going to turn on their child. What annoyed me is that she doesn't deliberately choose to kill Hal. Instead, she is hysterical and accidentally shoots him in the head. What kind of sheriff has such poor gun training? I think she shot him with her eyes closed.

Because it is so out of character for both of them, I wondered if they are both afraid. Maybe it is Parallax. If so, I wish they had made it clearer: water brought back from the fear planet, a glint of yellow in their eyes, or the yellow in the flowers she brings Hal when he gets out of prison.

Nobody pays for Hal's death, and that felt cruel

Then it gets worse. Noah asks John to kill him, like he did his grandmother, and John's new theory is that Zoe wanted to be killed so people would stop coming to town and not find out about Noah. Couldn't she just shapeshift into somebody else? We never saw her do it. John instead takes a chance that Noah can overcome his programming, as John feels he did. The sheriff plans to turn herself in after the game, and John says he doesn't think that is what Hal would want. I think he would. Even if not, fans want justice. Nobody paying makes it seem like nobody cares. "Everyone gets a happy ending here except Hal."

Hal wanted to live. He was building a life with the sheriff, and when it was threatened, protecting it mattered more to him than saving everyone else. If John gets to choose the ring, Hal should get to choose life or death. It felt like everyone got to keep walking while Hal was forced to stop and fade away. They claimed to love him, but when you really love someone, you fight to hold on to them. To his credit John didn't overwrite the ring right away, but it just felt like in the end he did let him go. I don't know. It felt like the whole season everyone was waiting for Hal to leave, and when he did, they were relieved. I think leaving that taste for probably a year is a really big mistake.

Man of Tomorrow and more friction with Guy Gardner

This ending sets up that you can have multiple Green Lanterns in the same sector, so why not three? It has been confirmed both Aaron Pierre and Nathan Fillion will appear in James Gunn's Man of Tomorrow. But Brainiac is a space problem, which is Guy's jurisdiction, so why would John be involved? I don't like more friction between another pair of lanterns. Guy is pretty easy to win over, as the end of the new Superman movie showed, and I enjoyed their scenes together. Between John's treatment of Guy, the rewritten oath and changing how the ring works, this is not going to do Aaron Pierre's John Stewart any favours with the fandom.

John's family reunion and a yellow palette that raises questions

I don't understand how John reunited with his whole family, or how he could compare the sheriff to the woman who prepared him for his future. She was honest with him, to a point, and readied him for the choices in front of him. The sheriff gave Noah zero guidance; perhaps all of this could have been avoided if she had prepared him for what he was. I was insulted on that character's behalf. And after the family spent the last two episodes scattered and unhappy, they are suddenly under one roof with no lingering resentment.

Did you notice the scene's palette is yellow? Is John now a mixture of fear and willpower with a green and yellow lantern, or is he being manipulated? I wish they made it clearer. The same palette appears when he gives 300k to the waitress with a note about her dad, which went nowhere. Why is the football field so important? I think they can only afford so many locations. Noah delayed the hat ceremony so college coaches could see his teammates, which is not what this show is about. For a finale, the amount of talking instead of showing was surprising. We couldn't even see Noah break Sinestro out of jail.

Would I come back for Lanterns season two?

I relished revisiting episodes one through seven as I covered them, but I don't think I could sit through this finale a second time. If they cancelled the show, right now I don't think I would feel bad, but if they bring it back I would certainly watch it, while managing my expectations like crazy. I'm glad Tom King has left the writing team, but Damon Lindelof has too, and he wrote that beautiful line, I hope I mattered. They are bringing in new writers and keeping some former ones. I'm concerned it will become just a Prime Video show, and that is not where we were told we were going.

Does this finale change how you feel about Lanterns and its characters?