‘Lanterns’ Season Finale Recap: Hal Jordan’s Killer Is Revealed

Well, folks, after seven fantastic weeks, it all comes down to this. In the Lanterns season finale, we learn what happened to Hal Jordan and have a clearer picture of the role John Stewart will play in the DC Universe going forward. 

The episode opens by taking us back to the immediate aftermath of the Rushville incident. Kerry finds Hal in the motel rubble, and he’s immediately remorseful for how badly things went south. Kerry feels bad for being right about what would happen if Hal didn’t leave Rushville.

After their conversation, we fast-forward to 2026, when Kerry waits for Hal with a case of beer as he’s released from prison. They go to a restaurant in Rushville, and the whole town stares daggers at Hal. Hal notes the effort it took for them to write “Leave town, asshole” in their own, uh, manure, on his front lawn. 

Hal doesn’t want Kerry’s standing in the town to be affected by their relationship, so she immediately clinks her glass and addresses the restaurant. She says that while Hal may not have earned their grace or forgiveness, he’s actively trying to fix what he broke and that he deserves peace. Honestly, seeing their relationship makes his death even more heartbreaking. 

As Hal gets ready to feed Earl the plant, a Molotov cocktail flies through his front window and sets his house on fire. He tries to escape before falling down a staircase and passing out. He awakes in a sketchy-looking room, and LO AND BEHOLD, NOAH IS A GODDAMN MANHUNTER. 

Noah heals Hal with Zoe’s machine, but tells him that he can’t reveal what happened to Kerry. Most of us saw this twist coming, given Zoe’s last words to Noah before she died. 

We then return to Antaan’s dead planet, where Sinestro tells John that Noah broke him out of prison. Sinestro also believes Noah killed Hal because he wouldn’t leave him alone. Sinestro forged a lantern for Noah, but the implication is that it could work as a yellow lantern, which…we will get to later this week. It also sounds like Sinestro is implying he can do some Black Lantern stuff with the ring by resurrecting Hal. 

Holo-Hal is trying to convince John to charge the ring because Noah has the capacity to kill him. John doesn’t want to because he doesn’t believe that, but also because he’s not ready to let Hal go. He doesn’t charge the ring, and as soon as he leaves the portal, Noah is waiting for him on the other side. Noah stomps John, takes the ring, and then forces John to drive him to his football game. On the drive there, John explains to Noah why he killed Zoe and why she wanted it to happen. 

Noah tells John that he wasn’t the one who set Hal’s house on fire, but he did save him from the fire. He says he killed Hal because he found Noah’s portal and learned he was working with Sinestro. 

John tries to talk no jutsu Noah into the car, relating his traumatic childhood and military experience to Noah’s programming as a manhunter. Noah admits he’s torn between wanting a normal life and knowing he could conquer the world with the ring and the lantern by his side. Noah ultimately leaves the ring in the car, but asks John to kill him. 

John calls out for holo-Hal on how he should play this, but he doesn’t show up. John tells Kerry how his mother raised him, and the insane things she did to protect him because she knew John was special. He tells Kerry that he knows Noah is a manhunter and has seemingly deduced that Kerry killed Hal to protect her son. 

We see a flashback to Hal talking to Kerry on the bleachers the night he died. Kerry reveals that after she went into Zoe’s machine to restore his finger, something happened and she wound up pregnant. Hal tries to hatch a plan to protect Noah and Kerry by taking them off planet, but she doesn’t want to hear it and shoots Hal in the head. 

John doesn’t turn in Kerry because he believes that’s not what Hal would want. John also lets Noah live because he believes that, with Kerry’s guidance, he can overcome his manhunter nature. He adds that if he succumbs to his dark thoughts, someone strong enough needs to stop him. 

John once again fires up the Green Lantern signal in Rushville, and Guy Gardner pulls up. He immediately clocks John’s ring, and John dares Guy to do something about it. John tells Guy that he can have the stars, but he’s the Green Lantern of Earth. He tells Guy to deliver a message to the Guardians, which essentially boils down to “I cleaned up your manhunter mess, so you best stay out of my way.” 

John Stewart: Rogue Lantern, let’s go!!!!!!!

Guy takes off to deliver John’s message to the Guardians, and Holo-Hal finally reappears. Holo-Hal asks John what his last words were before Kerry shot him. John tells him it was “I love you,” to which Holo-Hal replies, “I love you too, Junior,” before disappearing forever. This interaction was sweet, and it was nice seeing the two finally acknowledge the love and respect they have for each other. 

John comes up with his own personal oath, which goes hard. “In brightest day, in darkest night, I’ll embrace my fear, I’ll do what’s right, I choose this ring, I choose this fight. In service to this lantern’s light.” That word, “choose,” is notable because John is now the first person to choose the ring, rather than the other way around. This will piss off some purists, but over its eight episodes, Lanterns earned that moment, in my opinion. 

The final shot of John flying through the Green Lantern symbol is just so delightfully comic book-y, and I loved it. 

Lanterns was not at all what I thought a Green Lantern show would be. Instead of a straightforward adaptation of one of the characters’ famous comic book arcs, it did something better: it gave me a version of these characters I didn’t even know I wanted. 

The season finale left me thoroughly satisfied with how it resolved the season’s plotlines, while also leaving me excited to see what happens next with Guy and John. Also, I really, really need a prequel series because you can’t cast the definitive Hal Jordan and only give me eight episodes with him. 

So that does it for the Lanterns recap, folks! I’ll see you once more this Friday for an in-depth review of the season as a whole and to look at where we might possibly go next with these characters. 

SEE ALSO:

Lanterns Episode 7: Hal Jordan Confronts His Past And Future

Lanterns Episode 6 Recap: John Stewart Can’t Outrun the Past