Note: This story contains spoilers from “Lanterns” Episode 8.
“In brightest day, in darkest night, I’ll embrace my fear. I’ll do what’s right. I choose this ring. I choose this fight, in service to this lantern’s light.”
With these words, “Lanterns” concludes the same way it began: by carving its own path. As Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart finally takes up the power ring to become Earth’s (and only Earth’s) Green Lantern, he recites his own oath, eschewing the words typically uttered by Oa’s intergalactic law force — an iconic stanza most every DC fan knows by heart.
“What we see at the end is that John is not 100% a Green Lantern anymore. He has a Lantern that has a bit of yellow in it, has a bit of fear in it,” said series co-creator Tom King at a “Lanterns” press conference Friday. “It’s an unsanctioned Lantern, as Guy says. He’s not saying the same oath as every other Green Lantern because he’s not like every other Green Lantern.”
Changes like this characterized much of the DC show, which introduced Green Lanterns John Stewart and Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) to the James Gunn-helmed DCU. It was a show filled with big swings, including the death of Hal Jordan — who definitively was not resurrected at the end of the season — and an update to both Hal’s and John’s origins.
“John’s path was not the normal path,” showrunner and co-creator Chris Mundy said. “The ring didn’t choose him, He was interviewed. He was raised for it. He was having to choose this thing, then he decided not to do it, and then decided that he needed to do it on his own terms … We wanted (the oath) to be true to the original and respectful of the original … but we also wanted to tweak it to talk about the themes that we talked about, and fear.”
Across its first seven episodes, “Lanterns” consistently saw massive critical and audience acclaim, with significant viewership to match. Two months later, the show concluded not with an explosive finale, but an emotional, character-forward ending that closes the book on Hal’s story and prepares John for his big-screen debut.
“You can only do that in TV,” co-creator Damon Lindelof said. “So if you don’t have to do the big bombastic action set piece, you have to ask yourself, What is it in service of for a show that was always about these two guys? It was just very liberating to know that we could do something like this instead.”
That’s not to say the “Lanterns” finale doesn’t have any twists along the way. Partway through the episode, John learns that Noah Macon (Shea Pritchard), the son of Sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald), is actually a Manhunter — one of the deadly, shape-changing artificial beings that shaped the first half of the season. Soon after, he discovers that Kerry, despite dating Hal and alerting John to his death, was the one who killed the former Lantern.
Yet John, shown throughout “Lanterns” as a man who’s faced immeasurable pain and mental damage while being conditioned to become worthy of the ring, chooses to extend both an open hand rather than a closed fist. It’s the culmination of John’s arc to become less rigid and embrace nuance — embrace fear — to surpass the other Lanterns.
“John is able to engage with grace and empathy, able to access a perspective and an understanding of someone’s experience that he may not even personally be experiencing or sharing,” Pierre said. “I think maybe not having that experience with a lot of those qualities extended to him, empathy or understanding of consideration or thoughtfulness, he’s just one of these examples of he tries to put out there what he was always yearning for, in a way.”
Kerry’s decision proves to be permanent — at least for now — by the end of “Lanterns,” with Hal ending the season still in the ground. While there had been several hints both online and in the episode that Hal could come back (including Sinestro allegedly knowing a way to resurrect him), the series creators said it was important to them that they stick to their guns after the shocking decision made at the end of the first episode.
“We knew that we didn’t want it to be a fake-out, in order for all of the emotional progression to feel real and earned,” Lindelof said. “That we were sticking to that and there wasn’t going to be a rug-pull.”
This leads to the show’s grand finale: one last conversation between John and the Halogram (a version of Hal from 20 years in the past), as the latter prepares to fade from existence when the former recharges his ring. Here, two men who spent a season feuding, bickering and nearly killing each other (literally) reach a final understanding with one another. They even say they love each other!
“It’s a human experience,” Chandler said. “It was a purely honest, open moment for an actor to express themselves, and it was a joyous thing to be able to do on screen. And it was easy to do with Aaron because — although I really don’t like him very much — I knew I was getting paid.”
“Kyle believes he made me cry on that day,” Pierre added. “I think I made him cry.”
This lowkey finale is a fitting ending for a show filled with narrative swerves and bold choices. “Lanterns” likely wasn’t the show most fans of the long-running DC Comics franchise thought they were signing up for. But if there’s one thing a Green Lantern writer should be, it’s capable of overcoming the fear that comes with trying something new.
“In one way, you’re making up a story, but in another, you’re continuing a story, a story that’s been going on since (Jerry) Siegel and (Joe) Shuster (created Superman) in (1938) — two children of immigrants just lying on their floor, turning their fantasies into a cape. And you can draw a direct line between that and us 80-something years later,” King said. “You’re always standing on the shoulders of these giants, and so you constantly have to pay respect to them, and acknowledge them almost like they’re your ancestors. But part of that legacy for the people who have touched Lanterns, from (Gil) Kane to (Steve) Englehart to Alan Moore to Geoff Johns, is all those people brought something new. All of them brought something special. None of them were like, I just want to copy the person before me and reiterate it. So to honor that legacy, you have to honor that creativity and push the ball a little further.”
May the rest of the DCU push the ball so well.
“Lanterns” is now streaming on HBO Max. The series has not been officially renewed for Season 2.
