TL;DR – This is all preparation for the season finale next week, but still, it engages you at every level.

Disclosure – I paid for the HBO Max service used to view this series.

End Credit Scene – There is a making-of and trailer after the end credits.

Warning – Contains scenes which may cause distress.

Lanterns Review Introduction

Well, we are getting precariously close to the season/series finale next week, and I am surprised at myself that I am not quite ready to let all these characters go. Each week has been almost like a new tapestry being unveiled or a new part of a quilt being added, all building to the final picture. Today we dive deeper while muddling things around the edges in a fascinating way.

So, to set the scene, Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) dead, long live Hal Jordan, for John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) remembered a trick Hal showed him one time to etch 5% more power out of a ring. That 5% was just enough to summon the backup of Hal that Hal had stored there. Though it had not been activated in 10 years and his first sight is his dead body lying in a grave. It’s a lot to take in. John needs Hal’s voice to activate the safe he left behind, but Hal will only do it if John takes him to see Sheriff Kane (Kelly Macdonald). Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

Revealing Hal

Much like OutKast was for John, this is the episode that is designed to give us a foundation on Hal that contextualises, or at this point in the season, re-contextualises what we know about the character. Oddly, they waited for him to be dead to do this, but then that adds a level of tragedy to the proceedings. I did enjoy the many facets of Hal that we got to see this week, especially how Ring Hal is slightly different from Real Hal and how Kyle Chandler portrays those differences. His reveal at the end about what the title of the episode meant landed and felt that pain. In some respects, Hal is the last piece of the puzzle needed to get a handle on the season’s foundations, so it does make sense that you would make that land just before the season finale. It also made sense to bookend the episode on the one incident that defined what made the character who he was.

Creating an Alien World

While this was generally a solid episode, one thing I do want to champion is all the techniques they used to make that planet feel alien. A dry saltpan is the American version of the quarry, a perfect place to set an alien world. However, you could have just hit the saltpan, added the floating city in any of the wide shots and called it a day. However, they took time to make you feel as disoriented as John is in this situation. Being on an alien planet that you remember, when you have never left Earth before. Part of this comes from the colour correction that shifts things just enough to be unsettling; then there is the musical score that was wildly different from anything else that we have heard so far; and then the final accent of having all the voices echo in a way that is clearly not an echo. Even before the skeletons arrive, you are already uneasy because they put the work in.

Recommendation

In the end, do we recommend Lanterns? Yes, we do. Sometimes the penultimate episode can feel like a bit of a fizzle because all they are doing is setting up the finale. However, here I was captivated from start to finish because they did not waste any time. Every part of the show is helping to build this world. Have you seen Lanterns yet? Let us know what you thought in the comments below.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Bluesky at @Tldrmovrev, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Feel free to share this review on social media and check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Lanterns
Directed by – Alik Sakharov
Written by – Tom King & Damon Lindelof
Created by – Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, & Tom King
Based On – Green Lantern created by John Broome & Gil Kane
Production/Distribution Companies – DC Studios, Man Woman & Child Productions, Warner Bros. Television & HBO Max
Starring – Kyle Chandler, Aaron Pierre, Kelly Macdonald, & Ulrich Thomsen
With – Jason Ritter, Shea Pritchard, J. Alphonse Nicholson, Jared Grimes, Romeo Brown, Hannah Christine Shetler, & Jake B. Miller
And – Jade Ramirez, Cairo Cash Lee, & Henry Samiri