SPOILERS AHEAD! BEWARE!
The world is burning, WarnerMount is going to happen,and everything is shit. I’ll be back with some WarnerMount analysis tomorrow, but for this moment, I’m just going to talk about something I enjoy: Lanterns.
With two episodes to go, Lanterns has stolen the hearts of Threads, anyway, and apparently other viewers, as it is the only original program on Nielsen’s Top Ten Acquired ratings (a metric that measures shows that have aired elsewhere or something – anyway The Big Bang Theory is #1) .
While the “Not my Hal!” faction has been loud, the “We love this mystery!” faction has been even louder, with each episode inspiring countless takes and theories on social media. This is what happens when you release a tv show one episode a week – interest builds and anticipation tingles.
As I first noted, the show is anchored by the two leads, who are just perfect casting, perfect chemistry, and excellent writing. But showrunners Damon Lindelof, Tom King and Chris Mundy have moved beyond the original True Detective vibes and assembled a fairly dazzling synthesis of “HBO Prestige,” and DC Comics deep lore – Sinestro! Racism in America! Hector Hammond! Living up to parental expectations! Manhunters!
The show’s structure is a big swing that connects: flashing backwards and forwards in time, and presenting a fifth episode that would be the show stopping finale on 99.9% of other shows. (Please let Geeta Vasant Patel direct a DCU movie – her handling of action was better than half the MCU movies, which isn’t saying much but there it is.)
And now we are getting super spoiler heavy, so if you haven’t watched turn away now.
Episode Six moves to the present, and contains a scene we saw the the end of Episode One: John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) and Sheriff Kane (Kelly MacDonald) finding the frozen body of Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) in the empty stands of the high school football field, shot through the head.
The scene is emblematic of how the show evokes other imagery: Chandler is best known for his role in Friday Night Lights, so one can’t help but feel the connection there. The previous five episodes have set up Hal’s life as a lonely, friendless one, and he dies alone. And mostly unmourned, we learn, as the rest of the episode follows a funeral for Hal that draws only four people – one of them of great import, as I will relate presently. Hal is not just a selfish jerk he is also an old guy in a threadbare jacket who lives alone in a rented house. “I hope I mattered,” the last line from his eulogy, is a plea for recognition and companionship as much as anything else.
The scene is great but…I do have a nit or two to pick. First off, it is snowing when Hal’s body is found, and the rest of the episode TAKES PLACE IN SUMMER.
Is this a clue??????
OR just a continuity mistake? In a show that has been pretty tight about storytelling from jump, it’s a surprising lapse, but if they succumbed to the desire to make it a chilling, empty scene, I forgive them. Or maybe Rushville has really weird weather patterns in addition to a wacky welcome sign.
Second, the show alludes to Hal knowing the other superheroes of the DC universe, and hints that he was in the JLA. I feel like Batman and Superman and Wonder Woman would have been there to mourn a colleague – but that would have been way too complicated, I know. As a non-Green Lantern fan, this is just my own opinion, so what do you True Believers think?
This raises the biggest question of all: IS HAL JORDAN REALLY DEAD?
Given the success of the show, and the foundations of a Season Two being laid, it would be sad not to have Chandler back as he is perfect in every way, just like Rictus Erectus’s baby brother.
And of course, THIS IS A COMIC BOOK TV SHOW, and no comic book character ever, ever stays dead. Lanterns have died and come back in the comics countless times, including Hal Jordan, who was even The Spectre for a while.
A lot of fans are mad that Hal is dead, and DCU architect James Gunn has responded to one angered fan on social media, writing:
Hal’s the star of TV series & he’s in all the episodes so far. It’s more live action screen time than all the live action screen time he’s had combined throughout history. Kyle is amazing in the role. We more than respect him. We love him, despite his imperfections. Us knowing the time of his death, if that’s exactly what that is, is absolutely not the same thing as killing him off right away. Hal is a big reason why the show is so popular with fans & non fans alike; sorry if you don’t like it.
“if that’s exactly what that is,”
Well, it couldn’t be more plain could it? Thanks for spoiling everything, James Gunn!
Spoiler or reassurance, I do think Gunn is smart enough to know that NO COMIC BOOK CHARACTER EVER, EVER STAYS DEAD, and to know that we all know, so he’s just affirming what we feel in our hearts.
If Hal is dead, and the show is called Lanterns for Season Two, there are many Lanterns who could make the plural noun accurate, like Kyle, Jessica Cruz, Simon Baz, Killowog…lots of fodder.
Or it could be…Guy Gardner, that other funeral attendee.
When musing about the Superman movie last year,I wrote:
Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner is the greatest thing ever. Sometimes when you’re at the movies, something happens on screen that just jumps out and digs its way into your heart to connect with a thing that was always there waiting to be fulfilled. Suddenly the universe and your place in it make sense. I am by no means a Green Lantern fan or even comprehender, but that is how I felt every time Fillion opened his mouth. He joins JK Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson and RDJ as Tony Stark as the most perfect casting ever in a comic book movie.
And I feel the same way today. Fillion/Gardner is a perfect synthesis of comics and reality that somehow bridges all dimensions and probably has created a pocket universe all its own. As uninterested in Green Lantern as I have been my whole life, I knew Guy Gardner as only a joke or a threat, a character with a ludicrous haircut that only cheesy comics could conceive of. And yet somehow Nathan Fillion makes that haircut plausible.Understandable. Necessary.
While it does not appear that a hero history of Guy Gardner’s hair has been written, when he first appeared in the late 60s, drawn by Gil Kane, he had a “mop top” reminiscent of the Beatles. I believe it was Keith Giffen and Kevin Maguire in Justice League International who evolved it into the aggressive bowl cut he’s now known for, because….of course they did. They knew what they were doing. (A later story retconned the ‘do to an homage to a favorite TV character in response to bullying…an unnecessary detail in my opinion.) Fillion insisted on the coif for Superman and the rest is history.
Gardner’s appearance in Superman was bright and airy. In Lanterns the mood is much darker, and Gardner appears in this tense scene.
Now that you know I’m obsessed with Guy Gardner, I can totally geek out over this. Fillion’s Gardner lands different, flies different, moves different….and he even sits different. This pose is mostly reminiscent of the one adopted by your stubborn grandpa when he is telling you that’s how he feels and he stands by it. Guy even sits like a jerk.
But with the tenebrous lighting, the scene also recalls old paintings – people who posed for their portraits had to sit still for long periods and adapted a similarly rigid pose. I dunno if this was on purpose, but it resonated for me.
I am 99.99% certain that this is not a reference to pitcher Jim Bouton’s seminal baseball memoir Ball Four – in which the manager of the Seattle Pilots, Joe Schultz Jr. uses the epithet ”shitfuck” and its closely related variant “fuckshit” so much that Bouton calls him “Ol’ Shitfuck” – but that is my head canon and I AM STICKING TO IT.
Lanterns has two episodes to go, and lots of mysteries to resolve but perhaps the greatest of them all is this: I now have a head canon for Guy Gardner. Truly we live in a time where all boundaries have been broken, all things are possible.
