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| Lanterns Season 1 Episode 6 Recap and Review |
Lanterns Season 1 Episode 6 turns Rushville into a full-scale battleground while John Stewart finally makes his most dangerous move yet. As Hal Jordan, John Stewart and Zoe face off over the Manhunter threat, Kerry Kane’s troubled past comes back into play, an alien hit squad arrives with its own agenda, and the power struggle over the Green Lantern ring reaches a brutal turning point.
The episode opens in 2007, when Kerry first arrives in Rushville after escaping Gotham. Her car breaks down, forcing her to push it towards a diner while two men close in behind her. They have been tracking her since Gotham, partly because of her father’s history as an informant, and Kerry quickly realises that simply explaining herself is not going to make them disappear. She even admits that her father’s death did not exactly leave her sobbing into a box of tissues.
That changes when Zoe arrives and takes control of the situation. She deals with one of the men and captures the other, then convinces Kerry to make it look as though she has been killed.
The bizarre solution involves Kerry sacrificing her pinky, which is hardly the sort of favour one expects from a new acquaintance. Zoe makes the arrangement worthwhile by asking Kerry for protection in return. She knows that people will eventually come looking for her and wants Kerry to help when that happens.
Back in the present, John survives the crash with a collection of cuts and bruises and considerably less patience for Hal. He suspects Hal intends to claim responsibility for taking down Zoe, but Hal insists that Green Lanterns do not kill. The argument also exposes the growing tension between the two men. Hal reminds John that working behind his back does not exactly make him a likely successor, and the message lands with all the warmth of a slammed door.
Hal then uses a digital copy of himself created through the ring to maintain Sentry duty at the tower while he goes after Kerry. When he finds her, she immediately opens fire, explaining that she has little choice if she wants to survive. Zoe is watching from a distance, although she cannot hear their conversation. Meanwhile, a kill order against Hal is moving through Rushville, making the entire situation considerably more complicated than simply bringing Zoe in.
Kerry urges Hal to leave rather than approach Zoe, warning him that doing so could put everyone in danger. Hal refuses, because despite everything going sideways, he still sees himself as a hero trying to bring a dangerous enemy to justice.
Unfortunately, Rushville is already preparing for a much bigger confrontation. The town's alarms begin sounding as the various factions converge, and the episode starts moving from tense chase to outright chaos.
Zoe later finds John after the crash and takes him to hospital, where she uses her advanced technology to treat his injuries. John, barely able to speak, still finds enough energy to joke that he had better not emerge with an entirely different skin colour. It is a surprisingly silly moment considering he has just survived a rather spectacular accident.
Their conversation then reveals more about the Manhunters and the Guardians. Zoe explains that the Guardians originally created the Manhunters as instruments of justice, only for them to become excessively ruthless.
The Guardians eventually tried to shut them down, creating the conflict that now hangs over everything. Zoe also makes her intentions towards Hal clear: she plans to kill him, while John could potentially survive and inherit the ring.
Hal meanwhile visits the diner and approaches the alien hit squad with a proposal. Since they have the manpower and Hal has information about the situation, he suggests that working together could give them a better chance of capturing Zoe and returning her to the Guardians. Antaan, however, has his own suspicions about John.
He believes John may have been compromised through his relationship with Zoe, while Hal also reveals that Macon has ordered his elimination. Antaan is therefore willing to consider that John might already be under the Manhunter's influence.
As John obtains a new skin suit, Zoe drops another major revelation: she was responsible for Abin Sur's death. She explains that her connection with John comes from the fact that he genuinely seems capable of seeing her for who she is. Whether that connection is genuine or another layer of manipulation remains deliberately murky, which is probably for the best because trusting anyone in this episode is clearly a terrible hobby.
The alien forces then attack William Macon's compound. Antaan's team targets different parts of the property, creating multiple explosions and throwing the compound into confusion. Antaan confronts Macon directly, only for Macon to attempt a desperate bluff by claiming to be the Manhunter. The trick does not last long. Antaan works out that he is lying, knocks him down and removes his heart to confirm whether he is actually human.
John escapes from hospital and contacts his father, asking him to establish a connection with Lianna. His parents, however, are more interested in finding out where the ring has gone. John responds by breaking into a gun shop and taking a sniper rifle, openly admitting that he is angry and planning to take the Green Lantern ring from Hal.
While all of this is happening, Hal is doing everything possible to protect Rushville from Zoe's attacks. Her Manhunter lasers rain down on the area, forcing Hal to use his ring to shield civilians.
Zoe then brings down the water tower, releasing an unusual dark smoke that throws the area into further confusion. Hal creates a tornado with the ring and launches Antaan into the air, preventing him from taking others with him when he explodes. Hal survives but has drained much of the ring's power and retreats towards the motel to recharge.
That is exactly when John strikes. He ambushes Hal and tries to take the ring, leading to a vicious fight between the two Green Lanterns-in-waiting. John nearly chokes Hal to death, but Hal notices Zoe's incoming laser attack. He manages to reclaim the ring and creates a shield just in time to protect both men from the blast.
John disappears after the attack, but the real plan becomes clear when Zoe arrives to confront Hal. John has deliberately used her as bait. From a distance, he takes the shot, killing Zoe with a sniper rifle. He then retrieves her heart, which transforms into a strange crystal-like object, and places it inside his bag before returning to Hal.
With Hal badly injured, John finally removes the ring from his finger. Hal asks whether everything he has done was worth it, but John offers no answer. Instead, he walks away with the ring and lantern while Hal warns him that he will eventually be replaced too. It is not exactly the supportive workplace mentorship programme John was hoping for.
John eventually reaches the Guardian and presents the Manhunter's crystal heart as evidence of what he has accomplished. Yet when he tries to justify taking Hal's ring, his argument begins to collapse. He claims Hal broke his oath by refusing to surrender it, but John increasingly sounds as though he is trying to convince himself rather than the Guardian.
In the end, John admits that he no longer understands what he actually wants. He removes the ring and walks away, leaving the episode on a deliberately uncertain note. After spending the entire hour chasing power, revenge and answers, John Stewart ends up confronting the uncomfortable possibility that possessing the ring is not the same thing as being worthy of it.
Personally, Episode 6 works because it finally lets the complicated relationship between John and Hal explode rather than simply simmer in the background. John is angry, ambitious and increasingly reckless, but the episode does not make him feel like a straightforward villain either. Hal, meanwhile, gets to prove that beneath all the arrogance and questionable decision-making, he actually understands what being a Lantern is supposed to mean.
Zoe is probably the biggest wild card, because just when you think you understand her motives, another revelation arrives and kicks the chair out from underneath that theory. The Manhunter mythology also becomes much more interesting here, especially with the Guardians' role in creating them.
The episode is chaotic, occasionally gloriously ridiculous, and packed with enough betrayals to make trusting anyone in Rushville seem like a genuinely terrible life choice. The ending is the strongest part, though, because John walking away from the ring feels more meaningful than simply watching him claim it. What did you make of John's decision, and do you think he actually deserves the ring?