An explosive Lanterns still stays stubbornly grounded in character

Thomsen (as he showed with Banshee’s icily human crime lord Kai Proctor) is exquisitely measured in his villainy. After teasing that the Manhunter hiding in Rushville is “the second greatest threat” Hal’s currently facing, Sinestro makes Hal admit that John is the first, Hal finally saying out loud that he knows full well that the younger, more straitlaced Stewart is his replacement. Sinestro sees easily through Hal’s attempts at bluster, as Hal calls him “Johnny Tryhard” and pronounces him “boring.”

Sinestro, imprisoned for betraying his oath by taking the Guardians’ quest for order to its predictably fascistic extremes, rebuts Hal’s defensive claim that he, unlike his mentor, isn’t evil. Thomsen’s offhand answer, “I was never anything but myself” is yet another telling ding in the all-knowing Guardians’ reputation, and Chandler makes Hal’s growing unease register on his inadequately shielded expression.

The episode, apart from John and Hal’s abortive raid on Macon’s compound (they’re overcome by some high-tech blackout weapons that negate Hal’s ring), is all hushed conversations like this. Linney’s Guardian manipulates John (much more bluntly than the subtle Sinestro), by revealing that Hal had “violated his oath” by visiting his disgraced mentor and then insulting John and his parents until John takes the bait. (“I did not realize your father’s weakness runs within you,” is especially cold.)

John initially bucks at the Guardians’ unanimous decision that Hal’s actions have “accelerated the inevitable,” and that John should now simply take the ring from him. Another bluntly wielded revelation that Hal told the Guardians John, “lacks creativity” and  “is too weak to bear the massive power of the ring” seemingly does the trick, as a visibly pissed off John tells his visitor Hal “didn’t do shit to earn it” and was merely keeping it warm until he showed up.

John’s words are echoed back at just the wrong time later when, after they track down the supposed owner of a killer satellite that zaps Zoe’s pickup truck to smithereens (we’ll get there), John’s words are played back in incriminating snippets. On their way (driving) to their target’s high-tech slaughterhouse headquarters (never a good sign), John and Hal had bonded, sincerely, it seems, about the risks and sacrifices they’ve both endured in their careers doing what they thought was right. Hal, trying to console the stoic John about Zoe’s sudden demise, notes somberly, “People dying is part of the job…Avoid real relationships from here on out. Keep people at a distance for their own safety. Lonely fuckin’ job…”

And so when Hal brushes off John’s recorded betrayal by nimbly trapping a deceptive interviewee (Jason Manuel Olazábal as Hector Hammond) with Homicide-level interrogation techniques (and a little 24-style threatening), we’re primed to accept this more softened Hal. Until their drive back to Rushville turns out to have been an expert gambit by Hal to get John to confess not just that he’s been tasked to take the ring (which, John notes, he did not do at the ranch when he had the chance) but also that he thinks Zoe is alive—and the Manhunter.

Both Chandler and Pierre are exceptional here, each laying down a card at a time until Hal’s revealed to be holding the kicker. After getting John to call Antaan and the alien hit squad for a meet-up, Hal accepts John’s apology for the things he’d said. Then grinning, “And I’m sorry about the rental,” Hal pulls the series’ second dive out of a moving car and, with no ring to save him, passenger John is left to smash into a waiting telephone pole.

This, then, is the nature of Lanterns’ action. The laser beam effectively seems to kill off a major character, but the fireworks (and Hal’s resulting green protective bubble over the motel) are subservient to the Hal and John dynamic. (“Where’d it come from?,” Hal barks, emerging from his room, and when John replies with coordinates, Hal’s snapped, “Just fuckin’ point!,” sees him fly off and retrieve the destroyed satellite.) The raid on Macon’s compound has John’s nifty digger and some so-so CGI weaponry, but it’s the wary camaraderie between Chandler and Pierre that we care about. The car crash finale gag could come out of a Smokey And The Bandit movie (Hal’s shit-eating grin and all), but the wounds on both sides lingering after Hal and John’s confrontation echo louder than the smash.

As Morrison complained, this approach does seem antithetical to the Green Lantern vibe. But it is a considered choice to ground (in all senses) this latest outpost in the suddenly shaky James Gunn DCU in character over spectacle, and with such strong performers (Kerry Macdonald making a co-equal third in the series’ leading trio), the incongruity is working. It might not be what people expected, but Lanterns continues to be its own, admirably singular thing.

Stray observations

• • *Grant Morrison being the greatest comics writer alive today, and no, I will not be taking any questions. 
• • Thomson makes Sinestro’s manipulation of the insecure Hal look so easy. His initial pitch to just murder Stewart rebuffed (as he no doubt anticipated), he dangles just enough insider Manhunter knowledge to convince Hal that he’s necessary—and that Hal can use his triumph to kill John’s favor with their bosses instead.
• • Manhunters have a crystal heart which is the only thing that they can’t disguise. Let the disemboweling knives be sharpened.
• • Hal, swooping in to ruin John’s water tower surveillance, puts on his best flyboy front as he excuses his absence by telling John he was “getting laid in space.”
• • Hal ensures John won’t accept a ring-aided ride by offering up the choice, “Well, I can either carry you like a baby or you can hop on, pretend I’m a horse.”
• • Not enough is made of Aaron Pierre’s cagy work as John navigates not just the cosmic elements of his predicament, but also his confident code-switching in an all-white American small town. The gun shop scene, where John plasters on a bulletproof friendliness in the face of some locals’ hostility, not only sees him get the sniper scope he wanted (he leaves the rifle he was forced to buy with a roll of cash on the counter), but also a dodgy sandwich for his troubles.
• • Explaining the shape-shifting Manhunters to Kerry, John says, “they’re not aliens, they’re something else.” For those needing a refresher, Jarrod Jones has you covered.
• • As with the current comics iteration of John Stewart, John’s digging machine is carefully thought-out, designed, and executed to the smallest green rivet. Lacks imagination, indeed.
• • I will note the change from the comics where the ring can only be used by the one its chosen, although the fact that the Guardians have deemed John worthy does make it plausible that Hal’s ring would work for him, too. Still, it’s a lot more loosey-goosey here than in established lore.
• • Plus, the militia’s “darkness guns” nullifying Hal’s ring seems to indicate that the whole “weakness to yellow” thing is out the window.
• • Kerry makes the save when John and Hal are captured, defying her father-in-law and irrevocably throwing her lot in with the interloping heroes. A fact she uses to cow the glib Hal into silence once she drops them sheepishly back at their motel.
• • So Zoe’s the Manhunter, right? Can’t say I would be shocked–the law of extraneous characters aside, she tells John she healed William, which he had previously attributed to his “benefactor.” And here’s to Poorna Jagannathan getting more to do. 
• • Okay, first, props to Garrett Dillahunt’s workout regimen. But did anyone else get a William Fichtner in Go vibe from his startling one-upmanship in demanding John draw him in his office (and in the nude)?
• • The sterile, cow-dismembering laser room in Hammond’s slaughterhouse is very Severance. As Hal notes about the ambience, “Jazz… that can’t be good.”