{"id":642229,"date":"2026-08-17T18:31:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T18:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/642229\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T18:31:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T18:31:14","slug":"lanterns-is-here-and-sets-the-stage-masterfully","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/642229\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Lanterns’ Is Here and Sets the Stage Masterfully"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shooting at children, adultery, attempted murder, killer militias, exploding police stations\u2014welcome to the world of DC Studios\u2019 Lanterns<\/a>. Yes, the highly anticipated show from Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King is finally here, and the first episode had a little bit of everything<\/a>, and a lot of Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) going back and forth<\/a>. Here\u2019s a rundown of the pilot episode.<\/p>\n

\"Io9<\/p>\n

Things start in 1996 with a bunch of kids watching the first-ever interview with Hal Jordan. Up until now, he\u2019s just been the Green Lantern. We learn he\u2019s been around for several decades. He\u2019s a pilot. His father (another pilot) died when he was 8, and he\u2019s Earth\u2019s only Green Lantern. There\u2019s also the key piece of information that, to become Green Lantern, he was only asked one question: \u201cAre you afraid?\u201d It\u2019s the same question a young John Stewart\u2019s dad (J. Alphonse Nicholson) asks him as he points a pistol at him and shoots an apple off his head. Talk about a way to start a show and set the tone. As that apple explodes and young John stands there, completely unaffected, you realize this kid is different. And something is very off.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 20 years later, in 2016. Hal picks up John, whom he has been training for two months. Hal\u2019s late, has been missing for two weeks, and starts pushing John to be mad about it. John is, but he\u2019s too focused to admit it. Hal explains that he was off-planet settling a dispute, but John has no context for this because they haven\u2019t gone off-planet yet for training. They haven\u2019t even done anything with the ring yet. Hal uses this as a teaching exercise and jumps out of the car, forcing John to use the ring to save his life.<\/p>\n

\"Lanterns\u00a9 Warner Bros. <\/p>\n

On the way back to Hal, John is visited by\u2026 Hal. \u201cAm I dead?\u201d He\u2019s a backup of Hal\u2019s consciousness from the ring, who has arrived to give himself a message: \u201cThere\u2019s hail in Rushville, Nebraska.\u201d This is a different Hal, by the way. He\u2019s a bit less rigid. A bit kinder. A lot has happened in the 10 years since current Hal backed himself up as this version.<\/p>\n

After a quick stop for tacos and photos with adoring fans, John gives Hal his message, and he quickly flies off, leaving John with the check and a long trip from California to Nebraska. Once there, John meets the town\u2019s sheriff, Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald), who makes it clear she is not happy that Hal, and now John, is there. Hal likes that about her.<\/p>\n

There has been a shooting at a high school football game that Hal thinks was committed by aliens, but Kane isn\u2019t so sure. John is curious why and how Hal even knows about Rushville, Nebraska, but he\u2019s not saying. Soon, a man who stands out for a few reasons makes a run for it, and John and Kane run him down and arrest him. Hal wants to interrogate him, but Kane says no.<\/p>\n

At a local bar, we learn a ton about the history of this world, and why Hal was so interested in Nebraska. Hal explains that he was woken up in the middle of the night by a green bubble that asked him, \u201cAre you afraid?\u201d When he said no, he was rocked across the country to Nebraska. To a spaceship crash. A pink, bald alien by the name of Abin Sur had crashed his ship, and the ring transferred to Hal. But Hal doesn\u2019t think Earth was ever supposed to have a Lantern, so he has always been suspicious about this area. Why and how did Abin Sur crash here?<\/p>\n

\"Lanterns\u00a9 Warner Bros. <\/p>\n

As this is happening, the same song has been playing over and over at the bar, and the patrons are pissed. Hal did it on purpose to start a fight and get sent to jail, which happens. As he\u2019s getting the crap beat out of him, John strikes up a flirty conversation with a nearby patron named Zoe (Poorna Jagannathan). After some back and forth, they end up sleeping together in Zoe\u2019s truck.<\/p>\n

John goes to pick Hal up from jail and learns he has to be arraigned. Kane isn\u2019t messing around. In front of the judge, Hal digs himself deeper and deeper until a lawyer named Billy Macon (Jason Ritter) shows up and takes care of it. All the lawyer wants in return is for him to meet his father. Oh, and Billy is Kane\u2019s husband.<\/p>\n

Hal and John head to Billy\u2019s father\u2019s ranch, which is set up like a militia base. Men are standing everywhere with guns. It\u2019s got huge gates. People are training on a shooting range. This is not a normal place. There, they meet William Macon (Garret Dillahunt), who runs the ranch. He\u2019s a powerful man, and Kane warns Hal that he doesn\u2019t want to be in his debt. But, as powerful as he is, he reveals that he himself has a boss. Someone he can\u2019t talk about. Oh, and his wife is Zoe, the woman John slept with the night before. Uh oh.<\/p>\n

William explains he wants to align with Hal simply to protect his home from aliens. It\u2019s a pretty xenophobic point of view, but Hal lets him have it just to get what info he can. On the way out, William tells Hal he\u2019ll make sure he can talk to the suspect from the football game, and heavily implies he knows John slept with Zoe.<\/p>\n

\"Lanterns\u00a9 Warner Bros. <\/p>\n

The next morning, Hal and John show up at the sheriff\u2019s office to interview the suspect. Kane remains skeptical that he\u2019s an alien, but allows Hal to interrogate him anyway. Then, in what is by far the best moment of an already great episode, Hal and the suspect go back and forth, with Hal eventually cornering him on a few specific points about humanity. It\u2019s super fun as the tension rises and eventually the suspect cracks. Yes, he\u2019s an alien. Yes, he\u2019s got a secret mission. No, he won\u2019t tell Hal about it. And at the last minute, he blows himself up. Luckily, Hal is able to contain some of it with the ring, but the impact tremor shakes the town.<\/p>\n

As the episode comes to a close, we fast-forward 10 years. It\u2019s 2026. John has a goatee now, so you know he\u2019s older, and he\u2019s back at the football field from a decade ago. It\u2019s night, and it\u2019s snowing, but it certainly appears like parts of Rushville have been somehow destroyed. Kane waits for him at the field, and it\u2019s clear the two have mutual respect and friendship. Together they walk up in the stands to find Hal Jordan, frozen, and probably dead. He\u2019s not wearing his ring. Someone else is the Green Lantern, but it\u2019s not John Stewart.<\/p>\n

The pilot episode of Lanterns really does a great job of setting up the story to come. There\u2019s some kind of alien plot that has links back to the origins of Hal\u2019s run as Green Lantern. John has been chosen to train under Hal, even though that\u2019s not usually a thing. And, whatever the case, we learn that 10 years later, none of it worked out. How will the rest of the season work out? We\u2019ll find out soon.<\/p>\n

What did you think of the first episode of Lanterns?<\/p>\n

\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shooting at children, adultery, attempted murder, killer militias, exploding police stations\u2014welcome to the world of DC Studios\u2019 Lanterns.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[265],"tags":[10150,1981,18,117,19,17,39351,107611,128],"class_list":["post-642229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-aaron-pierre","tag-dc-studios","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kyle-chandler","tag-lanterns","tag-tv"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117112282049750808","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}