Warning: This review contains full spoilers for Lanterns Season 1, Episode 5!
Lanterns is clearly a show intended to downplay some of the more ostentatious trappings of the source material, both for practical, budgetary reasons and out of a desire to tell a very specific kind of sci-fi detective story. This is not a series where Kyle Chandler’s Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart are pulling out their rings and going hogwild with the energy constructs every few minutes. At most, you have to assume the people in charge are saving those flashier, more expensive scenes for a very specific time and place. Well, Episode 5 is that place, and it’s a wild ride.
As Laura Linney’s Lianna describes it, “Lights Out” is a real “shitstorm” moment for the series. This is the episode where the 2016 storyline reaches its grand climax and everything goes to hell for Hal and John. There’s plenty of action to go around this week, which should assuage some of the complaints about the series holding back on Green Lantern constructs and general superheroics. Granted, Hal still doesn’t get overly creative with his ring-slinging (it’s mostly shields and generic energy blasts here), but the larger scale of Episode 5 is definitely appreciated.
More than the epic shootouts and battle scenes, however, it’s really the tension and character conflicts that fuel “Lights Out.” After weeks of watching Hal and John slowly come to terms with one another, it’s quite a change to see that relationship fall apart and watch as the two characters find themselves on opposite sides of the battle currently tearing Rushville apart. John chose to put his faith in Hal, just as Hal himself decided that John is a pawn worth sacrificing in his bid to remain Green Lantern of Sector 2814.
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