By Dan Skip Allen

There have been two cliffhangers in the first two episodes of “Lanterns”. The first was Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler), appearing to be frozen to death on the bleachers of the football field where previously there were four Murders. This has shown a passing of time because it was in 2026. Whereas much of the story has taken place mostly in the past. The second was Jal Jordan visiting an intergalactic prison where Sinestro (Ullrich Thomsen) is being held, and he asks him about Manhunters. He gets an answer he’s not happy with.These two cliffhangers had asked a lot of questions of the viewers who are watching this show. Hopefully, episode three will give some answers instead of asking a lot of questions like the previous two episodes did.

Episode three focuses on two main topics. John Sewart (Aaron Pierre) and his original story. How he was chosen as a Green Lantern trainee and what it has to do with the story in the present timeline. Guardians are finally brought into the public eye, but they hide in the guise of humans. As portrayed by Laura Linney in this episode. They are more pleasing to look at than the blue skinned aliens with white hair and red cloaks. The backstory of Stewart’s character will prove to be a good building block for the series as a whole. His military work and family stuff are the reasons while he was an ideal candidate to potentially replace Hal Jordan in the future. Maybe sooner rather than later after the episode one cliffhanger. 

As the show continues to unfold before viewers’ eyes, the writers are trickling out bits and pieces of the comic book lore. As evident by the Guardians finally appearing in this episode. To the layman, this is probably the right thing to do. As someone who knows about all of the comic book lore, it seems to me like they are taking their sweet time with getting to the bottom of the stuff that we want to see. It was going to happen that a John Sewart centric story was going to need to be aired because of the unfamiliarity of this character. Hal Jordan has been around for decades in comics. The films and television shows have not gotten to John Sewart finally until now. It makes sense that they did an original episode in the larger scheme of things.

As a fan of Hal Jordan I’m a little upset that he’s not in episode three of “Lanterns”, but as I’ve watched the series progress I’ve noticed who the writers and showrunner was focusing the show on. I know fans of the character got a movie starring Ryan Reynolds, but that wasn’t as good as I’d liked it to be. The animated shows and movies were a bit of a satiating thing, but not enough. Hal Jordan needed more of a character arc than he’s gotten in season one of “Lanterns” so far. That’s a bit disappointing to me as a longtime fan of this character. 

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