Lanterns: Pilot

“It’s only one question: Are you afraid?”

A comic book show on HBO that is also a gritty mystery that directly cites True Detective as an inspiration? I’ve been waiting for this show for years.

Happily, it is more than meeting my expectations so far. It is definitely grounded, but that doesn’t mean that it completely strips away the more traditional comic book elements. The ring still gets plenty of use, which is really what I was most worried about when the first trailer dropped. This is a Green Lantern show, and we get to see the characters actually be Green Lanterns.

I grew up with the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited cartoons, so John Stewart has always been my Green Lantern. I was incredibly excited when Aaron Pierre was cast as him. Not only does he look like he was plucked straight out of those shows, but he was fabulous in Rebel Ridge.

He was fabulous here too. He’s more the straight man here, but there are still moments where he lets the stoic soldier act slip and he becomes very warm and charming. I wanted to keep watching him.

While I know of Kyle Chandler, I haven’t really seen anything that he’s been in. I liked him as Hal, though, even if Hal isn’t exactly a pleasant person in 2016. After twenty plus years of being a galactic superhero, I don’t know how pleasant I would be either.

Clearly something happened at some point between 2006 and 2016. Something traumatic. The Halogram acted like a completely different person, one that appeared genuinely confused over how his current self was treating John. He’s not wearing the suit anymore either, so whatever it is must have shaken his sense of being a hero and a symbol.

It was stressed multiple times that Hal doesn’t have anyone. He’s fearless not because he’s particularly brave, but because he doesn’t have anything to lose. Arguably, that’s not fearlessness at all. If anything, it’s apathy.

I don’t know if I can call John brave either, though. He’s more restrained than anything else. His father shot apples off his head when he was a child, and he didn’t even blink.

(Which, side note, can we take a moment and talk about that? It was framed like a punishment for watching TV, but only John was punished. His two brothers didn’t have to stand there. There were a lot of bullet holes on the side of the shed too! He even talked to Noah about it like it was a good part of his childhood and not incredibly messed up! Given the fact that his father is military, it feels like he was training John even back then to become the next Green Lantern.)

Anyways, John is very restrained when it comes to actually expressing his emotions. The only time we see him actually vent is when he’s on his phone with his father, and even then, he was told to calm down and to control himself.

Hal and John don’t like each other, even if John does genuinely respect him. It makes for a very tense relationship even if they are technically working together as partners. Or, well, trainer and trainee. It doesn’t help that Hal is obviously keeping secrets even if he is giving John honesty when cornered into it.

Our third major character is Sheriff Kerry Kane, who does not use her husband’s last name which may or may not be notable. I really, really liked her. She was tough without being rude, kind without being fawning. It was a very quick moment, but the way that she firmly shut down a reporter asking for a comment before pivoting to give their best to the reporter’s family was a deft way to handle things. It also made it clear that this truly was a small town with everything that such a thing implies.

Everyone knows everyone else very well. Everyone is married to everyone else. They’re not just neighbors. They’re family and friends. That makes the threat of outsiders, nevermind outsiders that are indistinguishable from human beings, all the more potent.

The events of 2016 are six years before Superman becomes a thing. The idea of aliens hiding among the general population doesn’t have that immediate positive association with it that it might when the most famous alien on Earth is the literal platonic ideal of a superhero. And since it’s football season, then we’re most likely before the election and everything involved culturally and politically with that.

Things are tense. And they were tense before four aliens were shot and a fifth one blew himself up.

(Racism, whether it’s the talks of aliens and colonization or the idea that John needs to act to a higher standard compared to Hal, is a rather strong thread woven throughout the episode, and I’m curious to see where the show goes with it.)

William Macon is a rather unsettling character. He was unflinchingly polite the entire time, and I just kept waiting for things to go wrong. He seems like the kind of man who firmly believes that he is on the side of angels, and those are always the scariest kinds. A man who believes himself to be righteous isn’t going to be easily persuaded otherwise.

I have no idea what’s going on with him and his wife, Zoe, either. I was shaking my head when John slept with her because it just seemed like an obvious honeypot or something like that. I had initially thought that she was another alien. The timing, though, means that the Macons were watching them even before Hal’s ill-conceived plan to get thrown in jail. At least it's out in the open and not some kind of secret that will be used as blackmail later on.

This episode really spent more time establishing our major players and the environment in which they’re operating than they were about giving any real hook into the mystery. Some people might be satisfied enough with just four bodies, but I had hoped for a little bit more in that department. I’m not given a good enough reason to care, and the speech about vengeance and being there for purposes of war was too vague too.

A shame, because that scene overall was excellent. If there’s one thing that I appreciated about the episode was how smart everyone was. Yes, they made mistakes, but everyone was intelligent and acted intelligently. Hal’s interrogation was great. The way that John cataloged the scene (and how that was shown to the audience) was great. The fact that both Hal and Kerry had already clocked the surviving alien was perfect.

Alright, let’s talk about the final timeskip to 2026. Kerry is still Sheriff, and likes John enough to greet him with a hug. Noah is now playing high school football, and is apparently a very good quarterback. And Hal is dead, found on the bleachers in the same location that he had sat 10 years ago and missing his Green Lantern ring. A ring that John doesn’t have either, judging by the look at his hands that we got.

I’m not surprised that they killed Hal. As soon as John was positioned as his successor, I assumed that there was going to be something to facilitate the transition. Death is the simplest and cleanest option. And Hal really was throwing up a few flags when he told John that the only way he was getting his ring was over his dead body. It also sets the stage for a fun mystery.

Whatever happened ten years ago, it obviously didn’t end cleanly. Kerry was the one who called John, which implies that either he or Hal (or hey, maybe both of them) are no longer associated with the Green Lantern Corps. And this place is only twenty miles away from where Abin Sur crashed and died, which is certainly one hell of a coincidence. Two Green Lanterns don’t just die in the same place for no reason.

Of course, this is all assuming that Hal is actually dead and that this isn’t a mimic or a body double. They wouldn’t do that. Right?

Random Thoughts

I love how Hal and John use the ring for completely different purposes. Hal makes money and a bottle opener, treating it almost like a party trick at times. John makes bubblewrap and uses it to light a cigarette without actually creating anything.

I’m curious how Guy Gardner fits into everything. When exactly did he get a ring? It isn’t Hal’s; John wouldn’t have checked his hands otherwise, right?

My screen was too dark for me to pick out any details, but what did John drive by in 2026? It looked like some kind of impact crater? Maybe some kind of crystal formation? I couldn’t tell.

Who do we think actually owns the ranch that the Macons are on? Would Lex Luthor be too obvious?

I was surprised that the episode was called “Pilot” instead of having an actual name.

Always love to see Garret Dillahunt in things.

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An Honest Fangirl loves video games, horror movies, and superheroes, and occasionally manages to put words together in a coherent and pleasing manner.