Lanterns Episode 8 Finale Review: A New Brightest Day

This article contains spoilers for Lanterns season 1 episode 8.

Fan expectation was at an all-time high leading up to the finale of Lanterns, and not just because it is a Damon Lindelof show. Lanterns has been an oddity in superhero media, a mix of grounded detective fiction, strong character work, and bits of Silver Age comic book sci-fi around the edges. The mystery surrounding the identity of the Manhunter and the death of Hal Jordan, to say nothing of the vast mythology of the Green Lanterncomics, have led viewers to fill Reddit with all sorts of hopes and theories: Would Hal become the evil Parallax? Would Sinestro forge his yellow ring and start his Corps? Would Mogo finally arrive to send his regrets for the funeral?

None of that would come to pass. The final episode takes no wild turn to adapt the comics, few world-building indulgences to set up Guy Gardner’s return in Mister Miracle or John Stewart’s return in Man of Tomorrow. Instead, the Lanterns finale stays firmly within the tone of the previous episodes, finishing the story it’s been telling about the weight of familial expectations, finding forgiveness after tragedy, and understanding the necessity of fear. Also, way more high school and college football than you would expect.

Staying the course means that the finale cannot simply pick up where the last episode left off, with John clocking a cloaked Sinestro on some mystery planet. Instead, we once again survey the devastation of Rushville in 2016, before jumping to 2026 to show Hal’s life after prison. Chandler’s charm offensive as Hal has been the chief pleasure of the show, and a big part of why it’s resonated so much online. So it’s interesting to watch him exercise slightly different muscles as the chastised, post-prison Hal, something we only saw in glimpses during his previous conversation with John.

The scene in which Kerry declares her love for Hal amidst a restaurant full of angry neighbors highlights Chandler’s skill in the part. It could have been disastrous to make a character defined by his brashness sit there with a hangdog expression while someone else defends him. But Chandler seamlessly shifts from being properly embarrassed to returning the twinkle in Hal’s eye as he looks at Kerry with admiration. With that shift, we realize that this is still the same charming Hal Jordan we knew, but he’s finally matured, someone who has actually learned how to be afraid and got through it.

Which is, of course, the show’s primary theme. The series has been reminding us implicitly and explicitly that fearlessness equals brokenness, an (ironically) brave take on superheroes in general, let alone a superhero property built on the concept of rejecting fear. Yet, creators Lindelof, Chris Mundy, and Tom King—all of whom share a writing credit on the finale, directed by Alik Sakharov—manage to hone tie the theme so tightly to John’s development that it manages to feel like a proper superhero origin story, even if the episode puts more weight on a high school football game than it does space battles.

Yes, Noah Macon, the main player in those football games, is a Manhunter, one who threatens to someday become president and control America’s nuclear arsenal. And Noah did free Sinestro from his sciencell and bring him to the yellow planet (which, it turns out, is just Antaan’s unnamed home planet, not Qward) to forge a lantern and ring. Sinestro does try to manipulate John and the Hal-o-Gram by extolling the virtues of fear, and the lantern that he creates does have cracks of yellow in it, indicting the presence of fear.

But when John leaves the planet with Sinestro’s lantern to return to Rushville and face down Noah, the two don’t have a big sci-fi fight. Instead, they have a long, tearful conversation. In a car. Outside of a high school football field.

The fact that I—who has not only been reading Green Lantern comics for decades, but also regularly chose to stay home and read those comics as a teen instead of going with my family to University of Michigan football games—am not bothered in the least by this decision is a testament to Lanterns‘ quality. Shea Pritchard acquits himself well as Noah tries to maintain his composure while admitting that his Manhunter programming fills him with murderous thoughts, despite his basic human desires. But the scene truly works because of Aaron Pierre and the mature John Stewart the show has been constructing.

Make no mistake: John Stewart saves the day in that final scene. But he does so by relating to Noah, telling the boy that he understands carrying cosmic pressure since childhood. The 2016 story had tasked Pierre with playing a John Stewart who cannot have feelings, who must relate his thoughts only through quick glances and occasional lapses in body language. Up until this point, the 2026 story has asked Pierre to go too big, playing a John who embraces his feelings in rejection of his destiny as a GL.

During John’s conversations with Noah and Kerry, especially when confronting the latter about killing Hal, Pierre blends both versions of his character. This John feels things: fear over what Noah might become, anger at Kerry for murdering Hal, and deep compassion for the impossible situation they’re all in. He feels a need to protect the planet against what Noah may become, and he feels the sting of Kerry’s implication that John may very well accept Noah’s plea to kill him. Yet, he does not allow those feelings to control him, resulting in declarations that feel as heroic as anything John Stewart does in the comics, creating gigantic constructs to punch monstrous aliens or moving planets with his ring, but also feels true to his character.

That strong character work pays off in the series’ final scenes, scenes that could otherwise go disastrously wrong. The moment in which John reunites with his family, or when the Hal-o-Gram finally says, “I love you,” could be cheap and cloying. But we accept them because John has reached a point where he accepts them, he knows how to handle those relationships in a healthy manner.

The character work also makes the episode’s lone concession to universe-building work as the culmination of John’s story, not just the usual superhero adaptation promise of future adventure. Like most fans, I would have loved to see John put on his costume and fly away at the end, if not some sort of indication that Brainiac is coming. But the bit of him telling off Guy Gardner is enough, especially since we get John forming his own oath and explicitly being his own type of GL.

Any dangling questions we may have about how, exactly, that will work in future DCU projects fades away in the light of Lanterns‘ strong storytelling, both on a thematic and character level. Was Lanterns the Green Lantern adaptation that everyone wanted? No, not exactly. It did not satisfy the desire for space opera and weird aliens. Was Lanterns a great story, full of compelling characters and thought-provoking ideas, executed at the highest level of craft? Absolutely. And for these eight episodes, that was more than enough.

Green Lantern Illuminations

• Allow me to express my condolences to fans of Kyle Rayner. Not only is he the one main human Green Lantern to not appear in the series, but John basically gets to have his position: a different type of GL, one without connection to the Corps, and who understands fear. Then again, given how Tom King wrote Kyle in Omega Men, maybe it’s good that he doesn’t show up here…
• That said, John’s position as a different type of Lantern does have its roots in the comics. He’s been evolved to Guardian status since the days of his solo series Mosiac, and the recent Green Lantern run by Geoffrey Thorne and then Green Lantern: War Journal by Phillip Kennedy Johnson have only built upon that. True, he was part of the Corps in those stories, but Pierre’s version feels at least parallel.
• John and Guy’s new status quo surprises long-time readers because it’s the exact opposite of their usual dynamic. Generally, John goes off into space while Guy stays on Earth, mostly because of his association with Justice League International. Given how much JLI influenced James Gunn’s take on nothing just the Justice Gang, but the entire DCU, it will be interesting to see what he does with a Guy Gardner who can’t come to Earth without risking a tussle with John.
• The end of Lanterns means the end of these illuminations. But if you’d like more of my comic book thoughts, check out Den of Geek‘s weekly comics newsletter!

  All of Lanterns is now streaming on HBO Max.