Lanterns Episode 2 Breakdown: Manhunters, Sinestro and John's Living Bird Construct

Lanterns episode 2 is loaded with Easter eggs, and its biggest moments point straight at Green Lantern comic lore: the Manhunters, the massacre of sector 666 and, in the final scene, Sinestro himself. The episode returns to 2016, where Hal and John investigate what seems to be an alien invasion of Rushville and realize they could be at the center of a conspiracy involving Hal's predecessor.

All eight episodes are now out, and I've left in the theories that didn't come true, including William being the Black Hand and Zoe being Sinestro's daughter. Even where they missed, the comic history behind them helps flesh out what happens in the season.

John's bird construct shows a power Hal won't admit to

The episode opens with John napping until Hal wakes him with a bucket of water. Hal didn't even bother telling the Guardians about Rushville, which shows again that he's a renegade cop while John wants to follow the chain of command. Maybe Hal has a bigger reason than just being a bad lantern for not calling the Guardians yet. We had a theory that John Stewart Sr. might be connected to the lanterns, and a commenter also pointed out that Hal keeps calling John "Jr.," which I think highlights that Hal did know his dad.

Hal's flying lesson is basically handing John the ring and telling him to fly. John can't get off the ground, but his focus on flight manifests as a bird, and Hal is clearly taken aback when it's still there after John removes the ring. Hal dismisses it as a one time party trick and slams the ring on his car trunk for extra juice.

The reason Hal looks so shocked is that creating a living construct isn't something every Green Lantern can do. A construct is only as powerful as the willpower behind it and lasts only as long as that will fuels it. Something like a tank is intricate, but a living construct independent of its creator would require an immense amount of willpower, which John did almost instinctively. In the comics, Hal only gained this after a massive upgrade, and his version worked more as an illusion. Here, the bird flies around without John even looking at it.

I also feel this shows the difference between them. Hal is a pilot, so flying comes naturally. John is a soldier who has always faced problems head on and never been able to just take off and escape, so his thoughts of flight manifest as something realistic that actually flies.

Hal tests the metal detectors as his ring runs out of power

Hal sends John to his home in Coast City to retrieve his lantern, with a plane ticket already paid for, orders to feed Earl, and instructions to keep the bird alive. Hal is staying in room 16, which is an admitted stretch but could be a nod to Green Lantern issue 16, where John and Hal fight a corrupted Mogo. I normally avoid number references, but there's a Mogo reference later in the episode.

Back at the football field, Hal surveys the scoreboard, fence and blood John pointed out last week, which made me think he's double checking John's work. There's a darker undertone too, since this is where Hal's body will be found, in the same seat. He realizes the metal detectors don't go off when he walks through, even carrying his car grill. Then he finds Rushville empty, spots everyone's cars at a building opposite the police station, and his ring dies. I couldn't find the ring's voice in the credits, but it sounded a bit like James Ortiz, though that is just a guess.

The town meeting and a possible Legion nod

Hal crashes the town meeting, picks the most awkward seat possible and keeps pressing William's son on how his father identified the aliens. I love how brash Hal is, and how annoyed the sheriff gets. She may even be an alien disguised as a human, and I'm going to say it: Noah is an alien as well. The episode also kept calling the big bad "he," a screenwriting trick that made me wonder whether the alien would be revealed as a woman.

The meeting is at Legion Post 161. American Legion posts are in pretty much every town, but this may be a subtle reference to Legion, an insect race the Corps stopped that merged into a hive mind in a mechanical body. In Hal's pre Infinite Crisis origin, Legion killed the lanterns of sectors 2815, 2816 and 2817, and its yellow coloring left Abin Sur unable to harm it, forcing him to escape to Earth. That was retconned with Abin Sur's death instead caused by Atrocitus, who I think they're also teasing.

Hal's empty mansion, the Mogo password and Earl

Hal's Coast City home is a giant mansion with the key in a fake rock, and his joke about a smiley face or a frown could be a subtle reference to Red Lantern Zilius Zox and his Green Lantern counterpart Galius Zed. He got the house for free after saving a rich guy's kid, and his photos with the Pope, George W. Bush and the cast of Harry Potter explain why he asked the alien suspect about Hogwarts last episode.

Hal barely stays there, with just a mattress and that unhung picture, and no photos of family or friends. That fits the line last episode about Hal being lonely. In the 60 Minutes segment he said losing a parent is the worst thing that can happen, and I think he's shut himself off since. John holds Hal's suit up in the mirror almost in awe, a parallel to young John seeing Hal on TV. Having a physical suit is a change from the comics, where it's manifested by the ring, and that's probably why Hal has three versions of the same suit, because washing them isn't going to be easy and I doubt he's doing it regularly.

The lantern sits in a pocket dimension, unlocked with the phrase "Mogo doesn't socialize." Mogo first appeared in Green Lantern 188, titled Mogo Doesn't Socialize, by Alan Moore. He can't attend meetings because he's a sentient planet whose gravity would rip apart anything close, and that issue is where John reveals his identity after becoming Green Lantern, so the password feels fitting. The bird flies in first, almost as if it's leading the way, which makes sense since a construct would be drawn to the battery.

Then we meet Earl, an alien plant who seems vicious but just chows down. John's line about hamburgers nods to his dad taking him for a burger last week, and I love John connecting with Earl since both are neglected by Hal. Earl is also a super deep cut reference to Itty, a little starfish alien sidekick Hal took everywhere until it randomly died.

Hal gets shot confronting the rancher

Hal finds the dead bodies in his car do set off the detectors and spots a small camera in the corner. The sheriff warns him it's a very bad idea to confront William, then goes with him anyway. William says the detectors were a gift from his mysterious boss, protected by an NDA, and Hal asks if the boss is real or "some Keyser Söze situation," a reference to The Usual Suspects, where Kevin Spacey's Roger Kint is revealed to be Keyser Söze. Hal claims his ring can stop a bullet, but it's dead, and he gets shot. I know these are the bad guys, but Hal did kind of deserve that one. A sign over the property reads "Study the past," playing into William's obsession with history and colonization.

The Manhunters: Guardian androids turned killers

John is kidnapped, and their boss is shocked the bird is John's. He announces, "No, I tied you up to ask about manhunters." I do think it might be a misdirect, and I wonder if the surviving one just wants to lie low. John deduces they're aliens from one slip, the word proximity. Their leader wants to recruit him, saying one of the most dangerous beings to ever exist knows it's been found. He describes synthetic beings who took the form of any species, carried out brutal justice, and how one stayed behind and orchestrated a holocaust on their home planet. Then they stab John with a gun flooding his brain with what I'm assuming are images of that genocide.

In the comics, the Manhunters were the Guardians' first attempt at a galactic space corps, androids sworn to the oath "No evil escapes the Manhunters." A rogue Guardian named Krona altered their programming until they concluded the only way to stop crime was to kill all organic life, changing the oath to no man escapes the Manhunters. Their attempt to take the Central Power Battery left them powerless, but they regrouped, vowed revenge on the Green Lantern Corps and hid on Earth in the Middle Ages, which I always thought Justice League's line about there being no lanterns there referenced. The Manhunter began as a Jack Kirby character, Mark Shaw, in 1975's First Issue Special 5, before Justice League 140, which was Mark Shaw's return as the Manhunter, and 141, which revealed the Guardian origin.

Sector 666 and my Red Lantern theory

I think the gun might be one of the Manhunters' original stun guns, since the ring can project information into minds. Its light is orange, which in the comics often corresponds to greed on the emotional spectrum. I'm not sure how greed fits, but I couldn't help reaching.

Their story sounds like the massacre of sector 666, revealed in 2008's Green Lantern issue 33. The Manhunters killed all sentient life in the sector, leaving five survivors, and the Guardians covered it up. The survivors became the Five Inversions, led by Atrocitus, whose rage manifested into a red lantern. He killed the rest and used their blood to create the red central power battery and rings. The crew has six members, so I'm thinking they might be his Red Lantern Corps, which could be why they want to recruit John. If, and it's a big if, that's true, I think it would test whether John's will can overcome the anger he clearly has for Hal.

They say a Green Lantern was sent to arrest the Manhunter, but they tracked its radiation to Rushville, believe the Lanterns are protecting it, and give John 48 hours before they blow up the town. The lantern they mean has to be Abin Sur, I think. After Infinite Crisis, Atrocitus instilled fear in Abin Sur, escaped and left him for dead on Earth, and Hal said his gut told him that crash was no accident.

Sinestro's name and a Gotham connection

In hospital, the sheriff asks Hal about Sinestro, saying he talks about him in his sleep, and finds online that he attempted a coup and killed a Guardian. I'm curious where she looked that up, and I've still got my suspicions about her. In the comics, Sinestro trained under Abin Sur, mentored Hal, and then ruled Korugar through fear before being banished. He became the first yellow lantern with help from Qward. I couldn't find an instance of him murdering a Guardian, so I'm interested to see how they change things. The snowflakes in Hal's room also looked a bit like the Sinestro Corps symbol, an admitted reach.

She also tells Hal that going rogue undermines her, and he apologizes. She's originally from Gotham, an obvious Batman nod, and her surname, Kane, connects to Batman co creator Bob Kane, Bruce's mother's family and Kate Kane. I don't think she'll be Batwoman. Hal also notices he's the only patient and the equipment looks brand new, so she may have more secrets.

Zoe at the diner and the Soranik Natu theory

John stops at a diner, and Zoe is already there with just a coffee, while the bird perches across from her. She tells John, "If you have to ask the question, then you already know the answer." To me, she's clearly playing John for information about the Lanterns.

My wilder theory was that Zoe could be Soranik Natu, Sinestro's daughter. The scene comes right after the first mention of Sinestro, and the diner is full of yellow, the color of fear: mustard bottles, a yellow chicken statue, even the wallpaper. In the comics, Soranik was hidden from Sinestro, became a neurosurgeon and later a Green Lantern, and Sinestro had secretly marked her with a transmitter. She later led the Sinestro Corps for a time. If she blamed Hal for her father, and Abin Sur was her uncle, it would explain her interest. That reveal never came.

John's will is strong even without a ring

John tells Hal the kidnappers suspect him and the Guardians, and Hal takes it as confirmation that a Manhunter killed Abin Sur. Hal asks why John made a bird, and John says it's just a bird as it turns to dust. I wonder if it comes from his past. In the comics, John's willpower lets him channel will without a ring, and in Phillip Kennedy Johnson's Green Lantern War Journal, he created a sentient construct of his late sister to watch over their mother. It's something Hal probably doesn't want John to know.

Sinestro's prison may point toward Blackest Night

Hal flies to a desolate planet and a prison of what the comics call sciencells. I don't think this is Oa, so the show could be pulling from comics where the Guardians used a prison planet with artificial time divisions. Sinestro says a surviving Manhunter would be the second biggest problem before asking about John Stewart.

I think he means the Blackest Night prophecy, a war of light that would awaken the primal darkness. Atrocitus told Abin Sur its source was on Earth, which led to his death, and gave Sinestro a prophecy that pushed him into tyranny. I'm working on the assumption our earlier theories are right, which they probably aren't, but it seems possibly a direction the show might take. This scene also seems pulled from Green Lantern issue 28.

My verdict on episode 2

Though I wasn't fully sold last week, I really enjoyed this one. I love the new factions, the pacing is kind of what I wanted, and as a comic book nerd I was surprised how many storylines they're stitching together. I'm a little disappointed we didn't get one 2026 scene, but I'm way more on board than I was.

Which of these episode 2 theories did you find most convincing?