Lanterns Episode 5 Trailer: Zoe Confirmed as the Manhunter as Rushville Erupts Into War

The Lanterns episode 5 trailer has just released, and it looks like the 48 hour countdown from earlier in the season is about to end dramatically. The tagline for this one is "things are about to get explosive," and that plays out across nearly every shot. I want to go through this frame by frame and lay out my theories on what is happening and how it connects to everything else we have seen so far.

Episode 5 Signals the End of the 2016 Timeline

This trailer feels like the climax of the story set in 2016. We know from episode 1 that there is also a storyline set in 2026, and I do wonder if this will be the last time we visit the 2016 timeline. Industry reporting and people who have seen the episodes early have indicated that the 2016 storyline will wrap up in episode 5, so this most likely closes out that arc.

A lot of the 2016 material actually feels like a framing device to explain exactly why Hal sat dead in the football bleachers in 2026. We know from the showers that Guy Gardner has his ring, but I do wonder if things go so badly at Rushville that it ends up being taken from him. The Guardians have been wanting to fire Hal for a while, so that thought went through my mind.

Episode 5 is written by Justin Britt Gibson and Damon Lindelof and sits at the midpoint of the season. It is probably going to destroy Hal and Jon's partnership, resolve the Manhunter threat, and most likely destroy Rushville itself, leading into what we saw play out in 2026.

Rushville Prepares for War as the Rancher's Forces Close In

We see people arming up as a tannoy sounds out to the residents, telling them "this is not a drill." It sounds like something they have been prepared for a while. The Manhunter has been helping the town and healing everyone from all their issues, something we saw at the hospital where all the equipment had been packed up. Now the battle has spilled into public and it is going down right on the streets. Rushville is no longer the quiet town we have watched the Lanterns move through. It is a place ready for war, and I wonder if these residents are willing to fight to the death for everything the Manhunter has given them.

The other side of this fight is most likely the rancher, and I believe his forces are laced throughout the teaser. At six seconds a man gets out of a car surrounded by other men, which I think is at the rancher's property, with one of his guys going in to try to make a deal or maybe even secure the Manhunter. It could also be a distraction, sent in to either make them lower their guard or catch them by surprise. We know from episode 1 that the rancher's forces can detonate an explosive built inside them, and I think that could be the attack carried out here. At 36 seconds there is an explosion on what looks like the same road, which could be a carryover from that scene.

Hal's Car Crash Confirms Zoe Is the Manhunter

We then cut to the aftermath of episode 4. Hal approaches the crashed car and apologises to Jon, even rubbing it in by calling him "Junior." It is condescending and a reminder of the power imbalance between them, and I do not think Hal is actually sorry at all. I wonder if this is even a way to draw the Manhunter out, since we see Zoe at this spot at the 34 second mark. I think she may have arrived to save Jon as he is burning up in the car, though it explodes as well.

Jon is later seen out and about in a hospital gown, and at 35 seconds there is a shot that looks like a badly damaged eye with the skin around it cut and burned. I think this is Jon having been burned in the wreck and Zoe arriving to revive him. We know from the hospital that this character can heal people, and I think she saves Jon from the wreckage. There is also a strange bloody eye drop shown on it, which might be the Manhunter's medicine or something along those lines.

I also have a theory that is a bit out there: that Zoe might even save Hal down the line and be the character that brings him back from the dead. But what this shot really does, for me, is confirm that Zoe is indeed the Manhunter. She definitely survived the laser attack, and that makes it 100 percent her as far as I am concerned. I threw out a lot of different theories on this earlier today, but this shot confirms it.

Jon Turns on His Mentor as a Local Officer Faces Off With Hal

I can see Hal crashing the car as a way to potentially draw Zoe out. Hal's entire character is someone who acts first and thinks about the repercussions later, and he definitely feels justified in doing this, even though it is clear no one is really on his side. Jon later says, "I'm mad as hell and I plan on doing something about it," finally showing some real emotion and anger toward Hal. It looks like the two of them are going to face off in this episode, because Hal basically ruined his life.

Jon was raised to be fearless, whether that is from the apple on his head being used as target practice or his time in the Marines. He has basically lived his whole life taking orders, being told what to do, and being screwed over because of it, and he spent this season doing Jordan's tests. It looks like he is finally standing up to his mentor.

There is someone else standing up to Hal too. We see the officer stopping him in the road, and it looks like it is about to be a standoff between them. It could show that she is on the side of the Manhunter. If the whole town is in on it, it makes sense that she would be too, since why would you keep the cop out of it. She sussed out the alien threat pretty quickly and was also very cagey about the hospital. I think in this moment Hal is basically going to say something like, "I know you're in on the Manhunters, you think I'm stupid," and the officer will tell him to stop and just walk away. We have already seen more of this scene in the weeks ahead trailer, where she tells him, "The best thing you can do for all of us is just go." Hal gets past her anyway, since she is a cop with a gun and he has a Green Lantern ring.

The Diner Battle Leaves Rushville in Ruins

Hal enters what looks like a diner. There is someone dead on the ground, and we cut to a bloody foot alongside a crying woman and girl. Jon walks through the devastation before stopping at the officer, and we see Hal, bloody and beaten up, say, "Was it worth it?" I think this is Hal after Jon fights him. At 35 seconds there is a shot where Jon appears to throw Hal into a wall, breaking what looks like a partition or archway.

We then get a shot of Jon punching through a glass window and grabbing a guy around the neck, along with a car racing by firing at someone, which Hal blasts with his ring. The water tower is also brought down. The trailer closes with what I am guessing is Jon in the aftermath of everything having gone wrong, saying something like, "We did it. We saved the city." I do feel like he has won, but it is also like they had to destroy an entire town to do it.

The Rancher, Another Local Man, and a Possible Red Lantern Corps Reveal

We have seen from mid-season trailers that the Manhunters fire lasers from the sky, from their satellites, and this happens before the water tower is destroyed, since we can see it standing in the background. We also get another local man in a standoff with the rancher, where the lasers light up over his body. We have seen what these do to a cow, so I think he is in serious trouble. It also makes it look like he could be a Manhunter as well, and I think the episode might play with that identity and even reveal there is more than one Manhunter. I also think the rancher's group could be revealed to be the Red Lantern Corps, with Atrocitus possibly being the character behind it.

What I like about this trailer is that it is not really a teaser about who the Manhunter is. Instead, it feels more about the showdown between Jon and Hal, with the town caught in the crossfire. Jon's own motivations are going to be questioned too, since he slept with Zoe twice, suspected her nature, and did not immediately tell Hal. On top of that you have Hal crashing the car, which for all intents and purposes could have killed Jon. That is definitely attempted murder, and I think it will make things worse if Zoe has to save him, driving a wedge between the pair as Jon has to decide whether to save her or stick with the mission.

As someone who was pretty lukewarm on the opening of the season, the show has really ramped things up week to week, and I am genuinely enjoying it now. This looks like it is going to be the biggest episode of the season by far. After four episodes of interrogation rooms, bar fights, ring training exercises and talking, it is going to be good to see the ring actually being used for what it was meant for.

Who do you think the Manhunter really turns out to be, and is there more than one?