Lanterns Episode 5, tittled Lights Out is the best episode of this series so far for me, mainly because the fighting actually costs something instead of just being noise to survive, and I think the series did a great job at holding back because for the most part we got the childish fight between Hal and John, their attemps to infiltrate Macon compound but nothing this drastic so far. The attack on Rushville shows now the series keeps showing that the damage does not go away once the shooting stops. Byt the way you got to give it to Will dying is the clearest example of that he was loyal to the bone and for ever greatful to Zoe for what she did to him and everybody else on Rushville. He has been tied to Zoe for years, he knows exactly what she is and he still protects her the moment Antaan shows up. That choice gets him killed in a very gory way but it was the only way to verify he was not the Manhunter, and the episode lets it happen instead of pulling some last second save out of nowhere. His death also makes it harder to look at Zoe as some simple villain because Will knew she had used people and hidden what she really is. He still believed she had given him extra years of life and he was willing to die for her anyway, even knowing Zoe is not innocent, still everyone in town around her still made their own choice to protect her instead of just being tricked. Kerry and the rest of Rushville make the same kind of choice, protecting someone who has helped them, and that loyalty ends with a whole town full of people dying. The explosions and gunfire actually mean something here because the episode keeps putting the cost right in front of you, and by the time John is walking through the wreckage, there is no way to call any of this a clean win, this is a big big fuck up that is going to byte Hal in the ass.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26545992/
- Platform: HBO MAX
The Ring John Wanted Finally Feels Empty
The episode also has a lot of impact on John and Hal, because their fight over the ring finally turns everything they have been arguing about into a choice with tons of concecuences and one that none of them can avoid but only one of them is really guilty for. Hal has spent so much time refusing to accept that he can be replaced, while John has spent most of his life being told that becoming a Green Lantern is what he is supposed to do. When they finally fight, John is younger, stronger and beats Hal without even needing the ring, this is a clear example of what I have mention before about a Green Lantern been just another living being with no actual super powers, just a tool no different than Batman, I bet many though this would be peak moment for the series and honestly I never saw it comming neither. John finally gets the thing he has wanted for years, but the timing and everything going on around kills any satisfaction he could have gotten out of it. Rushville is wrecked, people are dead, Zoe is dead, and Hal is left badly hurt after refusing to hand over the ring. John puts it on after seeing all of that, so there is no way it can feel like some big reward, there was no honor into it and he basically beat up a guy and took it from him. I think that works much better than if he had just grabbed the ring and instantly felt complete or if in fact Hal had decided to give up and retired. He has spent his whole life picturing what this moment would feel like and when it actually happens, he just feels empty. Feeling empty after finally getting what he wanted and that tells you a lot about John. Beating Hal and taking the ring still does not tell him whether he actually wants to be part of what put him in this position in the first place, its just like when he decided to study art after the military and now he is starting to make his own choices once again.
John Killing Zoe Never Feels Right
The hardest choice in the episode is still John killing Zoe, thats the one I never saw it comming, and I like that it never feels ok, in fact it feels very guildty from John side, even after everything she has done for this town but he had no other choice after Hal started this war that included more than one side. Consider also that she saves John after he gets burned and uses her technology to fix his skin, so he is alive right now because she chose to help him, at the same time she is not helping him for some simple reason, she wants Hal dead and the ring on John, and from there she wants him telling the Guardians a version of events that keeps her secret safe, if you think about it there is a list of people who wants to manipulate John. That makes her kindness hard to separate from manipulation, John also finds out she killed Abin Sur even after he had helped her, which gives him one more reason to believe her need to survive will always come before anyone else. Shooting her right after she healed him still feels harsh, and that harshness is the kind of expirience that will make John grow because he had to take a hard decision, not easy one to take after he had a connection with Zoe. John is not killing some stranger who attacked him minutes earlier, he is killing someone close to him, the woman who saved his life and who he probably understands better than he wants to admit. The episode even lets Zoe know it is coming before John pulls the trigger, so it never plays like a cheap surprise, I just love that moment. Seeing how far she will go to protect herself is enough to explain why John decides she has to die, even though the choice leaves him shaken afterward. John then removes her heart to confirm what she really is and brings the crystallized heart to Lianna.
Hal Keeps the Ring, Rushville Pays
At this point its so hard to root for Hal in any possible way, what he did just because he was following his gut can not be look over and I think that is partly on purpose and partly because some of his choices are hard for anyone to accept. His fear of being replaced has clearly taken over too much of his thinking at this point and it demostrate how childish it is and how unprepared he was, like he really never though about it, he can not live for ever, someone has to replace him, although I understand he didnt want to be replace the way Guardians were forcing it. He uses Antaan and his people as cover, refuses to bring the Guardians into any of it and keeps pushing forward even after Kerry warns him that Zoe will attack the town to drain the ring. His solution puts everyone around him in danger, even though I get why he does not trust the Guardians when they are already planning to replace him without telling him. The car scene with John is where I decide he has to go and its just too much because he knew John was going to die if he was left there, that was a very bad crash. I do not really buy that Hal would leave John trapped in there without thinking about how badly that could go, even if he only wanted him out of the way for a minute. The episode later shows Hal still protecting John when the motel comes down on them, so I do not think the show wanted to fully paint him as someone who wanted John dead. I like that the episode does not erase what happens just because Hal had his reasons, he wanted to keep the ring, prove the Guardians still needed him, and handle Zoe on his own. Instead people die and John later tells Lianna that Hal betrayed his code, his oath and even himself just to hold onto the ring. Not that I want to give Lianna all the reasons to put down Hal or John to celebrate he was right about Hal, but people still end up dead because he would not let go of the ring.
John Finally Makes His Own Choice
I was expected that John was able to take back control of his life by turning down the exact thing he has spent his entire life training for, and that is what makes the ending work so well, the damn obsession with the ring. When he meets Lianna after everything is over, he does not act like putting on the ring fixed a thing, so he tells her wearing it made him feel empty, and that this was supposed to be the whole goal of his life up to this point. I like that because the episode feels more like a classic ending of a superhero story, it gives it more contrast and character to John, clearly separate him from the Guardians. Beating Hal in a fight or killing Zoe is not what matters here, what matters is John making a decision for himself after watching what holding onto the ring did to Hal and what blind loyalty did to so many people in Rushville. It also makes his earlier anger easier to understand, since he wanted the ring badly enough to fight Hal over it, but once he actually has it, he can finally judge what it cost him without seen the ring as a reward anymore. That is the part that puts Lanterns Episode 5, Lights Out above any of the previous ones, not because just the fight and shooting. The action is good, but none of it would work nearly as well if the fighting did not leave people dead, relationships wrecked, and most importantly John questioning the thing he thought he wanted most, and his mother too. I still have some issues with how Hal gets pushed into these choices and with a couple of decisions that feel too convenient, but John still leaves the ring behind after it made him feel empty instead of the reward he expected, I give this episode 8 out of 10.
#lanterns, #lightsout, #johnstewart, #haljordan, #zoe, #manhunter, #rushville, #ring, #guardians, #lyanna, #carrie, #will, #anton, #greenlantern, #dc, #dcu, #television, #episode, #review, #action, #consequences, #choice, #power, #fear, #hero
Rating: 80/100
Originally posted through scrobble.life/tv.
