Lanterns Episode 7 Explained: Hal Jordan's Tragic Family History, the Noah Theory and Sinestro's Return

Lanterns episode 7 has arrived and the plot thickens, with John Stewart and Hal's hologram investigating Hal Jordan's murder while everyone, including Hal himself, is a suspect. And, oh, Sinestro's back. I want to review this episode, discuss the ending and talk about what's coming next in the finale.

Before any of that, I owe an apology for my episode 6 review. Later in this piece I will also get into the portal Hal kept in his storage unit, and why I think Sinestro may know the truth about how Hal died.

My episode 6 review skipped Carol Ferris and Hal's funeral speech

First, let me start by saying I'm sorry. I am embarrassed that I rushed my episode 6 discussion. I'm currently out of my house because of some severe electrical damage, we've been staying with my mom, and we've got the baby. I will admit I've been all over the place, and last week's review was a little rushed.

I skipped over some great stuff, like the show including Carol Ferris, Hal's love interest from the comics. I loved that she came to his funeral, and I loved that they did that world building. I also loved that Hal had that pre-written speech and how he hoped that he mattered. That was all so good, and I brushed over it. I got a little too caught up in my clone Hal theory, which is looking like it's probably wrong.

Young Hal's baseball flashback mirrors the Guardians benching him for John Stewart

This episode opens with a flashback to Hal as a kid, and we get a brilliant parallel between him as a young boy playing baseball and modern day Hal being Green Lantern. Young Hal is apparently a really good pitcher. But when his coach tried to take him out of the game to give another kid a shot, Hal refused to let go of the ball. He refused to give up his position.

That perfectly mirrors adult Hal and how he feels when the coach, the Guardians, try to bench him and replace him with another player, John Stewart. In this scene we hear phrases like "Are you a team player?" That connects to Hal becoming a bit of a lone wolf despite being part of a galactic organization. The coach says the team ended up forfeiting the game because Hal would not let go of the ball and his position as pitcher.

What I think we can take that to mean for modern day Hal is that he was willing to forfeit the game against this Manhunter as well, as long as it meant proving he was still the best choice for Green Lantern. You could view it as Hal being willing to lose as long as he refuses to relent. That plays into how he became reckless and a lot of people got killed because he didn't give John the ball, so to speak. He didn't call the Guardians once the Manhunter was identified, and he didn't work with those other aliens to destroy her. Instead he wanted the accolades for bringing her in on his own.

I really liked seeing Hal have a problem as a kid with letting go of what he feels is rightfully his. Maybe it is rightfully his, but "sometimes you got to decide if you want to be right or if you want things to work out well." Sometimes you can't have both, and it can be exhausting.

Hal's dad teaches him it's okay to be afraid

I loved seeing Hal's dad take his side against the coach. They get in a fight, and now Hal and his dad both have black eyes. There are lots of parallels in this episode between Hal and his dad, such as them both having a fail safe.

We then hear Hal's dad tell him that it's okay to let go, and there's a great line where he tells Hal that it's also okay to be afraid. This is all really great stuff, and it helps set up a really sad reveal about how Hal's dad died, which I will come to below.

Hal's hologram can feel, and John's funeral lie backfires

I love the interactions between John and the hologram throughout this whole episode. I loved when the hologram says, "You dug me up." The show has established that the hologram fully integrates physically with our reality. As we see later, he even gets wet in the rain and can physically pull John out of the water. Now we also know he can feel things.

Hal asks John about his funeral, and John lies and makes it sound like there was a big turnout. It's hilarious, because John claims a certain guest was standing right there, and Hal points out that the guest is a planet and demands to know why John is lying to him.

I think the hologram is also a really interesting way of giving us prime Hal Jordan before life beat him down. We get to see him interact with John as a more encouraging version of himself, one who actually praises John when he sees his impressive ability to continue projecting things from the ring despite not having the ring on. I also love the line where Hal tells John that he is not his genie.

Lanterns gets nonlinear storytelling right

I really like how this series does nonlinear storytelling, jumping back and forth in time to tell a story. Sometimes I don't like that in a show, because it can feel like they don't trust the audience to pay attention and stay invested, so they feel they have to skip to the end. But I really like how Lanterns has done it.

This episode is a great example. We are seeing one of the earliest moments of Hal's life, him as a boy with his dad, and that information is coming in at exactly the right time instead of opening the series with it. It hits so much harder having it now.

Is Noah a Manhunter, or the one who killed Hal?

There's a popular theory going around that Noah is actually a Manhunter, created by the Manhunter the town idolized. The same way she was able to grow back his mother's finger, people think she was also able to give his mother essentially a virgin birth. People are quoting a line from earlier in the season where Noah's mother says something to the effect of that Manhunter giving her a miracle in reference to Noah.

In this episode, Noah is idolized like the stereotypical, doesn't quite feel real, small town quarterback that everyone loves. I think they are laying that on thick, almost to the point it feels fake, intentionally, to show this town idolizes this kid similar to how they idolized that Manhunter. I don't know if that's because he is a Manhunter, but they are definitely doing something with his character given how much focus he gets here.

So he's either a Manhunter or he's the one who killed Hal, or maybe both. Maybe he killed Hal and his mother knows and is trying to cover it up to protect her son. But why would he kill Hal? Maybe Hal was onto him for being a Manhunter. Maybe Noah doesn't like Hal being in a relationship with his mother. We'll have to see, but I think next week's finale is definitely going to reveal all of that.

The portal in Hal's storage unit leads to a planet poisoned by fear

Next, John and Hal are both suspicious of Noah's mother, so they decide to go to Hal's safe in the storage unit by themselves. In there they find a point A to point B, Looney Tunes style hole. It goes from Earth to the planet that group of aliens came from, which was decimated by the Manhunter using fear. That fear is still in the air and still in the water, and John finds skulls of the people who inhabited the city in the sky.

Then we get a great section with John and Hal in a boat. The water, the rain and the fear get to John, and he has visions of his father and himself. Apparently John nearly shoots himself before the hologram, I should be clear, jumps in and stops him.

Did Hal Jordan take his own life?

That moment could be another hint meant to foreshadow that Hal killed himself. Maybe if he had had the ring, which the show made sure to show us he did not way back in episode 1, his hologram could have stopped him the same way it just stopped John.

We learn that Hal's dad took his own life, and that his grandfather did as well. Hal has a great line about being fearless because he's broken. It's the most vulnerable we've seen Hal in this series, and it really hits hard.

So do I think Hal killed himself? Maybe. But if he did, someone had to have tampered with the scene, because there's no gun. His body sitting in those bleachers has always felt a little staged to me, like he was put there after he was already dead. Maybe he had John come that night because he wanted a final moment with him, to tell him goodbye and somewhat try to make good. Maybe he did it in the privacy of his own home, and Noah's mother or someone else moved him to the bleachers to cover it up. I don't know, but it looks like we'll finally know the truth come Sunday.

Sinestro's return may tie the Manhunters to Hector Hammond

I think the man who knows that truth will likely be Sinestro, who has returned. We've talked before about the possibility of a clone Hal, with the real Hal being the one who broke Sinestro out of prison. If Sinestro is on the planet Hal had a portal to, that starts to make sense.

But I don't know that this portal was originally Hal's. From what I understand, this is Manhunter tech. We saw the same portal tech at the high tech slaughterhouse owned by Hector Hammond, which has all that Manhunter technology in it. So there could be a connection between the Manhunters, Sinestro and even Hector Hammond, and of course the Yellow Lanterns and the entity of fear itself, Parallax.

I am really excited for the finale, and I've really enjoyed covering this show. What do you think is going to happen: did Noah kill Hal, did Hal take his own life, or does Sinestro hold the answer?