Lights Out
The Lanterns find themselves battling each other, the Manhunter, the people of Rushville, Nebraska, and the aliens pursuing their mysterious target. By the end, Hal and John are left further apart than ever as the story jumps to a future where it appears Hal has been killed.
Warning: Spoilers below.
Owing the Manhunter
The episode starts with a flashback of a young Sheriff Kane leaving Gotham. She’s being chased by a group of unknown gangsters. It’s never specified, but I like to think they represent Rupert Thorne’s mob just to tie things back to the Batman comics a little more. They’re about to take Kane in when Zoe steps in and kills one of them. She offers to kill the other gangster as well, but points out that doing so won’t solve Kerry Kane’s problems.
Photograph by John Johnson/HBO Max
Kane cuts off her own finger as part of the deal, allowing the remaining gangster to take it back as proof that Kane is no longer a problem. He gets to live, she gets to start over, and now she’s in debt to the Manhunter. That seems to be a theme, since Zoe revealed in episode four that William Macon owes her too.
Hunting the Manhunter
The episode jumps back to 2016, picking up immediately after the crash at the end of episode four. Hal tells John he needs him “off the board” because the Manhunter has compromised him. While Hal plans to meet with the aliens hunting the Manhunter and figure out how to track down Zoe, John remains trapped in the wreckage for hours. Eventually, a fire breaks out. As the flames spread, John catches a glimpse of Zoe watching him from outside the vehicle before the screen cuts to black.
Photograph by John Johnson/HBO Max
John later wakes up in a hospital, looking like he could have stepped straight out of a Batman comic as Two-Face. Zoe then makes him an offer he can’t refuse: she’ll heal his injuries, but he’ll owe her a debt just like Sheriff Kane and William Macon already do.
That raises some interesting questions about what Zoe’s deal could mean for Hal and the aliens. More importantly, who started the fire? It doesn’t break out until long after Hal has left, which makes Zoe a possible suspect. Did she deliberately set the car ablaze to put John in a position where he would need her help, or is something else going on?
Attack on Rushville
Hal meets with the aliens and tries to explain away John’s absence. Instead of pointing them toward Zoe, he directs their attention to William Macon. It seems Hal understands that handing the Manhunter over to these aliens could be just as dangerous as letting Zoe remain free.
Before he can do much more, Zoe’s acolytes begin raining lasers down on Rushville, attacking the town from above. The aliens respond by blowing themselves up, and the protection Rushville once received is gone. The town’s residents are now caught in the middle of a battle that began on another planet.
Unfortunately, Hal’s negligence has left his ring dangerously low on power, meaning he can’t save everyone. That appears to have been part of Zoe’s plan all along. By forcing Hal into one crisis after another, she has essentially gotten him to drain the ring’s remaining energy.
Photograph by John Johnson/HBO Max
Meanwhile, Macon prepares for what appears to be the end. He thanks Zoe for saving his life all those years ago and giving him additional time on Earth, suggesting that he’s finally ready to accept his fate. Zoe also makes a point of finding her grandson, or at least her husband’s grandson, and tells him to remember everything she has taught him. That feels like the kind of setup that could make him important before the season is over.
Attacking the Compound
The aliens and Hal eventually converge on the Macon compound. The aliens find William Macon, who plays along like he's the Manhunter, matching Hal’s story from earlier even if it's now Zoe's idea for him to do so. Antaan, the leader of the attacking aliens, quickly realizes that Macon isn’t their target. Instead, he recognizes Macon as exactly what he was when the Manhunter was on his planet. Antaan kills Macon and removes his heart, confirming that he’s human. Now he knows he needs to find the real Manhunter.
Photograph by John Johnson/HBO Max
Elsewhere on the compound, Hal is trying to capture Zoe and bring her in. She sends her minions to take out the “water tower,” which allows the darkness that interferes with Green Lantern rings to spread. Having learned from the earlier ambush involving John, Hal grabs a pair of special goggles from one of Zoe’s followers so he can see through the darkness. He manages to handcuff Zoe to a helicopter, but Antaan realizes the Manhunter is hiding in the darkness and starts closing in.
Hal rushes outside and uses a giant green tornado construct to send Antaan flying away. He then races back to the helicopter, only to discover that Zoe has escaped and left her severed hand behind. With the situation spiraling out of control, Hal jumps into the helicopter and heads back to the hotel to recharge his ring.
Hal vs. John
At the motel, John attacks Hal, finally doing what the Guardians and Zoe have been trying to get him to do. He attempts to remove the ring from Hal’s finger, but there’s more to his anger than simply following their plans. During an earlier conversation with his parents, John talked about what Hal did to him, and even he seems to believe Hal wasn’t actually trying to kill him because there was no fire when Hal left him behind. Still, John is furious over the reckless and arrogant way Hal has been handling everything.
As the two Lanterns fight, Zoe’s lasers begin closing in on the motel. Hal responds by creating a shield that protects both of them from the attack.
Zoe arrives shortly afterward and finds Hal trapped beneath the rubble. As they discuss John, Hal makes an interesting observation: John isn’t a coward. If John really wanted him dead, Hal reasons, he would have killed him himself rather than leaving him behind for Zoe to finish off.
Photograph by John Johnson/HBO Max
When Zoe asks why Hal thinks John would leave him alive, Hal simply responds, “My gut? Bait!”
Zoe’s expression changes as she realizes he’s right. She turns around and sees John standing in the distance with a gun. Using his elite sniper training, John takes aim and finally takes out the Manhunter.
Rejecting the Ring
John returns and removes the ring from Hal’s finger. Hal asks him if it was worth it, but John doesn’t answer. Instead, he goes to meet with the Guardian who originally instructed him to take the ring.
John points out how Hal’s obsession with holding onto the ring ultimately left him a broken man. But when the Guardian gives John the opportunity to take it for himself, the experience feels empty. Rather than accepting the ring, he leaves it behind with the Guardian and walks away.
Both John and Hal have fallen from grace in different ways, but John’s decision suggests he may finally be ready to begin his own path toward redemption.
Final Thoughts
Now that the Manhunter has been defeated, it will be interesting to see what comes next for John and Hal. Hal is broken and no longer has the ring, but we already know from the 2026 timeline in episode one that neither of them has it when Sheriff Kane calls John back to Rushville. So what happens to it? Does Hal get the ring back sometime during the ten years between this attack and his apparent death? Could Guy Gardner, who DCU fans first saw as Green Lantern in Superman, end up with it? There are still plenty of unanswered questions following this fight.
The episode itself felt more like a penultimate episode than a midseason installment. I have to wonder if it was originally intended to air later in the season and was moved around during the final episode order. We’ve only had one scene set in 2026 so far, and it feels like the story is about to spend much more time in that timeline. Perhaps the original structure was more evenly divided between the two time periods before the episodes were rearranged or reworked.
Even so, this was a strong, action-heavy episode, and I’m hoping the next one slows things down for a more character-focused story.
Check out Lanterns streaming exclusively on HBO Max.
Article Written By: Jeremy Brown for Stelmach Brown Media 2026
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