The season one finale of Warner Bros. Discovery’s DC Universe series Lanterns aired its concluding episode this week, bringing the Rushville murder mystery to a close while firmly establishing Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart as the incoming Green Lantern. Delivered through a blend of grounded small-town investigation and cosmic sci-fi elements, Episode 8 resolves the central question of who killed Hal Jordan without fully opening the show to the wider universe that fans had speculated about throughout its run.
The finale arrives at a moment when expectations for the series have been running high. Following Episode 7, which transported John Stewart and a digital echo of Hal Jordan—known as the “Halogram”—to a war-ravaged alien world and reintroduced Sinestro to the story, viewers wondered whether the show was poised to escalate into grand cosmic spectacle. Instead, the season closes by returning to its roots as a character-driven murder mystery, resolving most of its lingering questions in a deliberately contained fashion.
A Return to Roots Over Cosmic Spectacle
The episode opens with a quiet flashback to 2016 before following Hal’s life immediately after his release from prison, signaling early on that this remains fundamentally a small-town murder mystery at its core. Even when the narrative shifts toward Sinestro and the group of allies they’ve assembled, the iconic Green Lantern villain functions more as an instrument of exposition than a true supervillain mastermind.
Those early scenes resolve several of the show’s ongoing mysteries in what amounts to a fairly tidy package. Viewers learn that Noah (Shea Pritchard) is indeed some form of Manhunter, having been responsible for breaking Sinestro out of Spazkaban with the singular purpose of forging a Lantern he could use to overthrow the Guardians. The reveal lands as one of those twists audiences may have anticipated well before it arrived on screen.
Just because we can predict a plot twist ahead of time, that doesn’t automatically invalidate the story. Sometimes you just have to let these things play out as they should.
Lanterns reviewer
The Killer Revealed and Performances That Carry the Finale
The later revelation that Kerry (Kelly Macdonald) is Hal’s actual killer follows a similar logic. Rather than some elaborate conspiracy involving doppelganger constructs or Manhunter-based resurrection, the murder ultimately boils down to a momentary burst of passion. Kerry has been deceiving both Hal and John from the very first episode, though her motives stem not from malice but from a desire to protect the two alien beings she loves. Her tearful confession to John provides one of the season’s most emotionally resonant moments.
Pierre receives an abundance of substantial material in the finale, charting John’s journey from quiet uncertainty and dread regarding the revelations about Noah toward becoming a man at peace with his place in the cosmos. Throughout, he relies on subtle facial expressions and body language to convey more than dialogue alone could manage—a skill that proves essential for what could have been an underwritten role in less capable hands.
The emotional centerpiece of the episode is its resolution of the season-long tension between John and Hal, culminating in a symbolic passing of the torch. The Halogram is able to express emotions the real Hal would never have acknowledged, allowing viewers to appreciate a bond that grounds the entire series. When Hal responds with “I love you too, Junior,” it teeters on sentimentality, but Kyle Chandler’s committed performance makes the moment land effectively.
A Clear Path Toward John Stewart’s DCU Future
The season concludes as a mostly cohesive and satisfying account of how John Stewart finally embraces his destiny as Earth’s Green Lantern. The show does acknowledge room for improvement, particularly in exploring how John has learned to embrace fear rather than push it away; his arc throughout the season has focused more on overcoming his conditioning than fully confronting the emotion itself. Still, the final scenes do an effective job of setting him up for larger responsibilities within the DCU.
One lingering disappointment is that the finale finds no way to keep Chandler’s presence in the story, whether by preserving the Halogram or somehow resurrecting the real Hal—something Sinestro appears to believe remains possible. A second season would likely struggle without that critical dynamic between Hal and John, though that concern belongs to a future chapter rather than this one.
For now, Lanterns Season 1 has accomplished its primary objective: establishing a compelling new hero for the DCU while delivering an emotionally resonant farewell. Whether or not the series receives a second season, it has proven that John Stewart is finally ready to fly.
1 comment