Lanterns Season 1, Episode 6 Review & Recap

And as it stands, it sounds like Episode 5 was originally intended to be Episode 7, so there was certainly some experimentation going on with the season’s structure. It’s just a difficult adjustment going from the spectacle and drama of Episode 5 to this quieter, more somber murder mystery in Episode 6. It’s like riding a rollercoaster that peaks midway through.

The real problem with the 10-year jump forward, though, is that we lose out on the show’s biggest selling point. Hal being dead means we don’t get that all-important dynamic between the two Green Lanterns. Episode 6 only really has the one scene between them in the diner, taking place hours before Hal is mysteriously killed. It’s a great scene, mind you, with Chandler delivering some of his best work on the series to date and really conveying the decade of emotional and physical hardship Hal has endured since the two last met. We even see him show genuine fear at the thought of John revealing that they met, which opens up all sorts of burning questions. Sadly, it’s just not enough.

This episode tries to make up for the lack of Hal by establishing friction between John and various other characters. His relationships with his various family members have clearly frayed over the course of 10 years, and the episode is pretty elegant at conveying all that backstory without becoming overly expository. There’s also the idea that John is wading into dangerous waters by returning to Rushville and implicating himself in Hal’s murder. This is becoming a portrait of a man trying to prevent his carefully constructed, post-superhero life from falling apart.

But try as it might, Episode 6 doesn’t fully hook me in that regard. Particuarly when it comes to the subplot involving the waitress Maggie (Hannah Christine Shetler) blackmailing John, it just feels like writers Justin Britt-Gibson and Damon Lindelof are adding character drama for the sake of it. I want the series to focus on the more pressing matters – the identity of Hal’s killer, the whereabouts of Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen), the question of how and why John finally embraces his destiny as the Green Lantern. Placing so much emphasis on John’s legal troubles and efforts to salvage his architecture firm just comes across as a narrative diversion.