Lanterns Season 1 Episode 5 Review: Ring Changes Hands

This Lanterns Season 1 Episode 5 review has to open with the ring changing hands, because “Lights Out” spends fifty-one minutes burning Rushville to the ground just to get there. Hal Jordan stops being Earth’s Green Lantern this episode. John Stewart takes over. Neither of those sentences means what you think they mean, and by the credits, the job is open again.

Hal Tries to Take John Off the Board

John’s the one who worked out that Zoe is the Manhunter, and he tells Hal as much while they’re driving, sort of. Hal doesn’t take it well, and crashes the rental into a telephone pole on purpose at the end of Episode 4 to trap John inside and keep him off the board. “Lights Out” picks up right there, with John still stuck in the wreck and Hal already gone to run his own play. It’s payback for John not laying the whole thing out sooner.

It doesn’t work. John can’t get out before the car catches fire, and Zoe stands there and watches him burn instead of pulling him free. That’s the version of Zoe this episode needed to show us. She’s spent years playing rescuer in Rushville, and the second John stops being useful to her, she lets him cook.

Zoe Buys John With a Drop of Blood

John wakes up in the hospital burned badly enough that Zoe has to offer a deal instead of walking away: she heals him, keeps him protected, and in exchange he lets Hal die and helps run interference on the Guardians. John takes the deal. A drop of Manhunter blood in the eye and some alien tech later, he’s back on his feet with zero visible damage, and zero intention of actually holding up his end once it stops working for him.

That’s the John Stewart problem this Lanterns Season 1 Episode 5 review keeps circling back to. He never once seems bound by an agreement unless it happens to line up with what he already wanted to do.

Antaan Arrives and Hal Uses Macon as Bait

While John is making his deal, Hal is off making his own with Antaan, the alien enforcer hunting the Manhunter. Hal convinces Antaan that William Macon is the one he’s after, which buys Hal time but also gets Macon’s compound wiped out for nothing. Antaan questions Macon, kills him, and carves his heart out to check if it crystallizes. It doesn’t. Wrong man, and Rushville pays for the misdirect anyway.

Zoe uses the chaos to start draining Hal’s ring, hammering the town with orbital strikes that force him to keep saving civilians instead of chasing her. Sheriff Kerry Kane, who owes Zoe her entire second life in Rushville, warned Hal this was coming and he burned through the ring’s charge anyway trying to be the hero in every direction at once.

The Motel Room Fight

Hal makes it back to the motel to recharge the ring and finds John waiting. What follows is the fight this whole season has been building toward, and it earns every bit of the buildup. John wins it. Not because he’s better, but because Hal is running on fumes and everything he’s done this episode has been in service of keeping the ring rather than protecting anyone in it. A last-second orbital strike stops John from finishing it clean, and Hal shields them both with whatever’s left in the ring. It might be the last time he ever gets to use it.

John Kills Zoe and Quits on the Spot

John leaves Hal in the rubble as bait, tracks down Zoe, and shoots her in the head before cutting out her crystallized heart as proof. He walks away from Rushville with the ring, the lantern, and everything the Guardians sent him there to get. Then he hands it all back.

Lianna wants to know if he took the oath. John doesn’t answer her with pride, he answers with “sins and consequences,” and tells her flat out that wearing the ring felt empty. Hal broke his own code to keep it and doesn’t seem to remember why he wanted it in the first place. John got what he trained his whole life for and walked away from it in the same conversation. Earth’s Green Lantern job is vacant again, three episodes before the season’s out.

TL;DR (For The Skippers)

Here’s the short version of this Lanterns Season 1 Episode 5 review, for anyone who just wants the beats:

• Hal crashes the rental on purpose to trap John and keep him out of the way while he hunts Zoe
• Zoe lets John burn instead of saving him, then offers to heal him in exchange for helping her against Hal and the Guardians
• Hal tricks Antaan into thinking William Macon is the Manhunter; Antaan kills Macon and rips his heart out to check, and it’s the wrong body
• Zoe drains Hal’s ring by hammering Rushville with orbital strikes while he’s stuck saving civilians
• Hal and John have the season’s big fight back at the motel, and John wins it before an orbital strike keeps him from finishing the job
• John hunts down Zoe, kills her, and cuts out her heart as proof for the Guardians
• John hands Lianna everything he was sent to get, then quits, telling her the ring felt empty the second he put it on

Why This Lanterns Season 1 Episode 5 Review Lands on Press X

“Lights Out” is the episode this show has been stalling toward since the pilot, and it doesn’t flinch once it gets there. Rushville actually pays for what it’s been hiding, Macon dies for a mistake that isn’t even his, and the ring changes hands twice in one episode without either owner coming out looking like a hero. John getting everything he wanted and immediately handing it back is the best character beat the show has landed all season, better than the Hector recording, better than the crash. Three episodes left, and the job everyone’s been fighting over is empty again.

Verdict: PRESS X