HBO’s ‘Lanterns’ Quietly Unleashes One of Hal Jordan’s Most Dangerous Foes

Green Lantern’s own funeral has become the stage for one of the most emotionally devastating reveals in HBO’s Lanterns, as episode 6 — set in the year 2026 — quietly introduces Carol Ferris, the woman who has haunted Hal Jordan’s legacy for nearly seven decades. When Rushville sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald) informs John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) that Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) was found dead in the very football stadium where the town’s chaos began, John abandons everything and races to Nebraska to arrange a proper burial. In doing so, the series surfaces a figure long relegated to the shadows of the Green Lantern mythos: the Star Sapphire, whose twisted love for Hal turned her into one of the Corps’ most dangerous enemies.

The weight of Hal’s death carries particular gravity given his isolation within the Green Lantern Corps. Stripped of his ring and imprisoned for the carnage he caused while trying to stop the Manhunter, Hal had no allies among his fellow Lanterns. John Stewart, who has grown close to him over the arc, becomes the closest thing to next of kin and pressures the current Green Lantern, Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), to retrieve Hal’s old uniform and ring so the fallen hero can be laid to rest with dignity. Yet the eulogy Hal wrote himself — one that assumed a gathering of Lanterns and dignitaries — is met with near-total silence, underscoring how the Corps abandoned him in life.

A Funeral That Reflects a Lifetime of Broken Bonds

As the episode unfolds, the sparse turnout becomes a quiet indictment of Hal’s tragic arc. Beyond Kerry, John, and Guy, the only notable guest is Carol Ferris, whose presence carries decades of unspoken history. Her arrival is layered with ambiguity: she implies she once dated Hal, though the show deliberately keeps their relationship vague. This restraint is telling, because the connection between Carol and Hal is one of the most enduring — and most painful — threads in DC Comics, spanning nearly 70 years of storytelling.

Image: DC Comics

“Carol and Hal fought and reconciled many times over the course of DC Comics history, with Carol losing her powers or gaining a way to maintain them without being controlled by her villainous Star Sapphire persona.”

Gamer24h Editorial

The show’s decision to surface Carol Ferris now is more than a plot convenience — it is a deliberate nod to the character’s complicated origins. Before Hal Jordan ever donned the Green Lantern ring, he was a test pilot working for Ferris Aircraft, a Coast City company founded by Carl Ferris. Hal worked directly alongside Carl’s daughter, Carol, who went on to run the company in her own right. Their romance began while Hal concealed his secret identity from her, but the relationship was doomed from the start, as Carol would soon wind up with secrets of her own.

Those secrets trace back to a schism on the planet Oa. While some blue aliens declared themselves the Guardians of the Universe — the entity portrayed by Laura Linney in Lanterns — another faction split off to become the all-female Zamarons. It was the Zamarons who abducted Carol and wielded a gem known as the Star Sapphire to grant her psychic powers, controlling her mind and compelling her to hunt Hal down purely to spite the Guardians. This is the same Star Sapphire that, in the comics, allows her to channel the power of love into devastating constructs — a force that has made her a recurring threat to both the Green Lantern Corps and Sinestro’s forces.

Looking Ahead

Whether Lanterns‘ version of Carol Ferris ever fully becomes the Star Sapphire remains unclear, but the show has clearly signaled its intent to explore the darker corners of Hal’s story. As the series moves forward, the unresolved nature of Carol and Hal’s relationship promises to complicate John Stewart’s mission to honor his fallen friend. The comics offer little comfort here: the two never achieve a happily ever after, with both characters pursuing relationships that ultimately fall apart. Carol’s love for Kyle Rayner and Hal’s infatuation with fellow pilot Jillian Pearlman — who also became a Star Sapphire — only deepen the tragedy.

Carol’s appearance at Hal’s funeral is therefore not a moment of closure, but the sad culmination of a lifetime of broken relationships that transformed a celebrated superhero into a pariah. As episode 6 sets the stage for what comes next, viewers are left to wonder how the Corps will respond to a hero they abandoned, and whether the ghosts of Hal’s past — including the woman who tried to kill him out of love — will continue to shape the fate of the Green Lanterns in the years to come.