Lanterns Episode 5 Breakdown: Zoe's Plan, Hal's Fall and John's Choice

Lanterns episode 5 is what I'd call the biggest episode of the season. Industry insiders who've seen the rest of the series have said that the 2016 storyline wraps up here, and I definitely feel like it brings an end to this chapter. Zoe, now revealed as the Manhunter, puts her plans in motion while John and Hal desperately try to stop an all out alien war in Rushville and also try to stop each other from claiming the title of Green Lantern.

Though the war in Rushville is the centerpiece, I think at its heart this is a war between John, Hal and Zoe. At its cold, cold heart. It's a nonstop roller coaster that answers almost all our questions about Rushville and brings John face to face with his destiny. I've also kept in the theories this episode proved wrong, because the comics background behind them still helps explain what happens.

Carrie's 2007 flashback nods to Batwoman, but I think it's a homage

We open in 2007, which breaks the show's 10 year timeline jumps. I was expecting decade long intervals, and because of the mention of 1986 I thought we'd head there at some point. Instead, a young Kate Kane is racing toward Rushville when her car gives out, and she has bangs, something Hal mentioned last week after seeing an old photo of her. With her name being Kane and hints at a secret past in Gotham, we've talked about whether she's part of the Kane family. In the comics, Kate Kane wears a long red wig as Batwoman to hide her distinctive short red hair with bangs.

There's also a great shot of Carrie driving into Rushville under a red sky at night. I know it's technically orange, but to me it symbolizes that whatever she's running from, she's driving into something much worse.

What we hear from the thugs who follow her makes me think she isn't a version of Batwoman. They call her a thief like her father, who could have been somebody if he'd kept his mouth shut. In the comics, Kate's dad was a military man who became her guy in the chair. She mentioned a Bob at the police station in episode 1, which was most likely Barbara Gordon, so she was probably on the phone with Commissioner Gordon. If so, she's on the run from criminals, not the law, and I feel like her dad might have been an undercover cop for the GCPD or even a snitch. That would tie nicely with the Matt Reeves Batman universe, where GCPD corruption was the focus, and the boss could be Carmine Falcone, though we don't know if the universes connect. Kelly Macdonald, who plays Carrie, said in a recent interview that she watched The Penguin religiously to nail the accent. In the end I think the Kane name is intentional, but she's just a random person swept up in Gotham's corruption, and the name could also honor Batman co creator Bob Kane and Hal Jordan co creator Gil Kane.

The diner scene shows how Zoe buys Rushville's loyalty

Carrie pushes her car to the diner outside Rushville, and I wonder if Zoe hangs out there to man the gates, spotting threats before they enter. She's even in the same booth she was in when she ran into John. Two goons sit beside Carrie and point out she never changed her Gotham plates. I think it's a lot like the robbery scene from A History of Violence, and like the characters there, it goes wrong for the baddies. Zoe snaps one man's neck, pins the other, learns he was sent to bring back Carrie's pinky as proof, and lets Carrie cut it off herself. Zoe tells him to deliver it or she'll kill him and his family.

The diner worker just asks what to do with the bodies, and Zoe tells him to call Betsy for a table for one, which shows the town has a whole protocol for working with her. Zoe says someone gave her a chance when she needed it most, obviously Abin Sur, who brought her to Earth. In return for protection, Carrie must help protect Zoe when people come looking. Honestly, I think I would have done the same as Carrie, and it all plays into the theme of manipulation shared by the Guardians, John's parents, Sinestro and Hal. It also busts our theory that Zoe was Sinestro's daughter. I still stand by our evidence, but we were wrong.

Hal leaves John in the wreck as the town arms itself

Back in 2016, Hal apologizes for trying to kill John but says he has to take him off the game board, calling him Junior in a condescending way. His real plan is to use the alien hunter and his crew as cover, grab Zoe and take her to Oa. It looks like Sinestro planting fear in him has worked, which is his first step toward losing the ring. Still, I don't think Hal was trying to kill John, because lanterns don't kill people and the Guardians would fire him.

In Rushville, alarms sound and the whole town is locked and loaded, building off the town hall in episode 2, where they were clearly discussing defense. At the ranch, Zoe tells Noah that many people he knows will die, possibly including her, and that he must remember everything she's told him.

That gave me a theory. She survived a laser blast but dies from a head shot, which I'm not sure makes sense, and with all the healing and the idea of consciousness backed up in the ring, I wonder if Noah is being briefed on how to revive her. He barely reacts to her warning, and as a robot I think there must be a duplicate somewhere.

Zoe lets John burn, then offers him a deal

John's car catches fire and Zoe stands there cold blooded while he screams, so he'll owe her. It's even more twisted given he genuinely had feelings for her, and John showing emotion suggests he may not be truly fearless. Meanwhile Hal sparks the ring with his pocket knife to activate the sentry protocol and has the hologram hunt Zoe using the picture John drew of her. I find that ironic. I guess Hal's bitterness has something to do with Sinestro; he has an empty mansion with nothing but suits and a power battery, so losing the ring means losing himself.

Carrie confronts Hal and empties her gun at him for the satellites' benefit, revealing a kill order is going to every phone in town. She says she owes Zoe a miracle and is thinking of Noah. I wouldn't bet my house, but I'd bet my Green Lantern ring that Zoe helped Carrie get pregnant or created Noah outright, since we now know she can create human tissue. It also adds weight to the idea that Hal's body could be revived with the hologram recreating his consciousness, similar to Vision in WandaVision.

At the hospital, John tells Zoe he didn't report her because he doesn't trust the Guardians, and I think the season will ramp up to him questioning his orders. Zoe claims the Guardians built the Manhunters, found them too brutal and deactivated them, but she survived. In the comics, their stun guns overloaded after one tried to charge from the central power battery, and they were banished. I don't think Zoe is telling the full truth. She offers to heal John if he tells the Guardians Hal died heroically, a Faustian deal, and a tear falls from his eye.

Hal's alliance and an unexpected revelation about the Manhunter

Hal finds bodies in the streets and is ambushed at the diner. He lies that John is compromised and tells the alien leader that William is the Manhunter. The alien replies that intercourse is the Manhunter's most powerful tool of persuasion, which means Zoe was playing John the entire time. Hal, offended, insists he was the one involved. They agree to an alliance, with a warning that innocent people will die if he's lying. Hal looks at the ring afterward as if questioning himself, and I think he still wants to save people, though either way innocents die.

John's rebirth in the cocoon

John lies on the table in a shot I feel references Anakin becoming Darth Vader in Revenge of the Sith, and the lasers that sliced the cow are now blue to heal. Zoe says she chose her skin for power, because coming in as an outsider is the fastest way to take over a community, which calls back to Mrs. Stewart saying people don't see them because of their skin. It also explains why she picked John as the stronger path to power. She drips her blood into his eye and seals him in a cocoon, a symbol of transformation with a Jesus metaphor in there. His life flashes before his eyes inside a yellow light, the color of fear.

He emerges healed and confronts her about killing Abin Sur. She confesses she couldn't help it and nearly cries, suggesting she can't overcome her programming, which you can relate to John giving up being an artist. However, I 100% think she's still playing him. Androids don't cry.

William's death and the theories we got wrong

Zoe and William speak in an alien language, though thanks to everyone who spotted his pacemaker scar last week. After their goodbye, a fake cop blows up at the ranch, building off neutron bombs woven into skeletons, and another attacker destroys the weapons stockpile. William hides a gun, revealing color coded tapes, and aims the desk cube's lasers at the alien leader, who tests him with memories and a trick question about children. I love that the alien clearly fell in love with Zoe, which led to his people's genocide. He finally stabs William and rips out his heart, which doesn't crystallize.

So William is not in the Black Hand, and the alien crew are not Red Lanterns. In our defense, Tom King is in the writers' room, and I feel like the show used comic references deliberately to extend the theme that nothing is as it seems, which if true is genius.

Hal fights through the black smoke while John slips away

Zoe fires lasers on Rushville. John chokes out his guard and escapes in a car whose keys hold a rabbit's foot, which I think symbolizes a fear he can't identify. Calling his parents, I wonder if the Guardian is acting alone. Hal takes down a satellite, drops to 5% power, and helps a trapped woman, though after a weird cut I'm not sure she made it. He grabs Zoe, but she blows the water tower, which has been holding the black smoke all along. Hal takes a soldier's goggles, their green lens evoking his domino mask, and the fight reminded me of Aaron Pierre in Rebel Ridge. The goggles could also nod to the emerald sight discovered by Simon Baz. Hal sweeps the alien leader into a tornado construct, and Zoe escapes by cutting off her arm.

The ring turns John and Hal into their worst selves

At the motel, John pries the ring from Hal, who tries to strangle him, a near perfect parallel to Smeagol choking Deagol in Lord of the Rings. John never looks back as the laser crumbles the motel, and Hal's last power forms a bubble that saves them both. When Zoe arrives, she tells Hal that John "traded his life for yours," but Hal says his gut tells him it was bait. John's head shot builds off a comic panel with a construct sniper rifle. Zoe smiles, maybe knowing she can fake her death until Noah brings her back. I'm sticking with that theory.

John claims the ring and walks away from it

John hands a grieving girl her father's watch, then cuts out Zoe's heart, which crystallizes. I felt bad for him. He takes the ring, and the bird that appears seems like confirmation the Guardians are watching. Carrie's disgusted look suggests she thinks he killed Hal, and I wonder if she and Hal might get together. At the bar, the Guardian waiting for him says even the Guardians make mistakes. John says all he felt was empty and takes the ring off. Hal is Gollum, and John is Frodo realizing where the path leads. What a great episode of television. They laid everything on the table, which is super bold to do when we're just over halfway through the season.

Will Zoe find a way back for the final episodes?