In placing the mythos and characters of the Green Lantern comics into the framework of a TV-MA HBO drama series, Lanterns mutes the primary colors for murkier shades of gray. Hal Jordan isn’t the nicest guy, John Stewart isn’t quite as noble as he might be. Even the villains—in this case William Macon, the alien Antaan, and, we we learned last week, the Manhunter Zoe Macon—seem somewhat sympathetic. Or, I should say, seemed. Because episode five, which wraps up the 2016 plot, strips away much of the ambiguity from its heroes and villains and shows us both in their purest forms.
I had more or less assumed the Manhunter at the center of plot would fulfill the role of the refugee war criminal in fiction we’ve seen before. They had done terrible, arguably unforgivable things in their past, but after years of living among humans in Rushville, NE, they learn kindness and love, leading to a moral dilemma for the heroes. But, not so. While Zoe Macon (Poorna Jagannathan) has lived as a wife, mother, grandmother, and, we learn, benefactor for the town, keeping them safe and healthy, she isn’t benevolent in the least. Zoe is a loan shark, providing enough prosperity and health to keep the Rushville citizens under her thumb.
Kerry Kane (Kelly MacDonald) is an early example. The episode’s flashback opening shows her on the run from the Gotham City mob for the sins of her father. Zoe saves her from certain death in exchange for her unwavering loyalty in hiding her. As the episode unfolds, we find out that she has done this for roughly every person in the community, even giving a dying William Macon a clean bill of health. He is willing to die for her because of this. Which he does as Antaan cuts his heart out to test of William was the Manhunter.
Zoe, we learn, doesn’t care at all about these people beyond what they can do for her. She has no problem using her satellite laser to destroy swaths of the town and kill who knows how many people in a bid to draw Hal Jordan out. She means for him to use up his ring’s power so she can more easily kill him. If she can, she can escape and Antaan and his group can destroy the town. We see almost no regret on her face, even when talking to her own grandson. Zoe even allows John to burn nearly to death just so she can, she thinks, get him under her complete thrall as well.
The Manhunters might be able to impersonate anyone or any thing, but they cannot change their programming. The Guardians made them perfect killing machines. But their bigger crime was making them amoral.
Contrast this with the heroism that comes through both Hal and John in the course of events. Yes, they do not like each other even a little. Yes, they’ll beat the crap out of each other to make sure the other doesn’t get the ring. But, Hal, selfish and arrogant as he is, is not a morally gray figure. In fact, he’s righteous to a fault. His biggest downfall is thinking he above all else can save the day. Hal may have passed his prime, but he’s still the Goddamn Green Lantern.
Likewise, this episode proves that John was and is the best choice to wear the ring. He proves this by not succumbing to Zoe, but also not cowing to the Guardians. John Stewart is nobody’s puppet, and turning down the chance to finally fulfill his life’s work, not just follow orders blindly, is what true heroism looks like.
And, not for nothing, but Hal never wanted to kill John, nor John Hal. While beating seven bells out of each other, Hal still manages to protect John along with himself when Zoe zaps the motel. John uses an incapacitated Hal as bait to draw out Zoe, but he would never have let her kill him. My favorite moment comes when Zoe suggests John ran away to save himself and Hal responds “if there’s one thing I know about that kid, he’s no coward.” This level of respect transcends the fight for the ring.
Episode five of Lanterns solidifies why I love the series, but why I love Hal Jordan and John Stewart as characters even more. I can’t wait to see more of Aaron Pierre in the DCU going forward and it makes me wish we’d gotten a Kyle Chandler Hal Jordan movie or something prior to this.