Warning: This review contains full spoilers for Lanterns Episode 3!
Lanterns sure does seem to enjoy hitting viewers with a big, last-minute twist and then immediately pivoting elsewhere in the following episode. The pilot culminated with a jump ahead to 2026 and the reveal that Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) has seemingly been murdered. Episode 2 avoided returning to the 2026 timeline at all, instead ending with circa-2016 Hal travelling to Oa and meeting with an incarcerated Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen). And now our follow-up to that pivotal meeting is another jump backward, this time to the ’80s and ’90s for an installment that goes into great detail about John Stewart’s peculiar origin story. That approach might almost be frustrating if not for the fact that the execution remains so strong. It turns out that this “mere” flashback episode is the best chapter of Lanterns to date.
Through its complex but easy-to-follow nonlinear narrative, Episode 3 fills in a great many blanks about John’s childhood, his relationship with his parents, his doomed military career, and his recruitment into the Green Lantern Corps. It’s interesting how little the series is actually drawing from the comics here. Trace elements remain, like John’s mother being a formative influence and the Guardians keeping a watchful eye on him from afar, but for the most part, the show invents this origin story from whole cloth. It’s a risk, but a very successful one.
Personally, I’ve about had my fill of superhero origin stories that center around a character grieving the loss of a parent figure and using that as propellant to become the hero they’re destined to be. It’s such a common trope in this genre, to the point where even Hal has a variation on that backstory. As such, I greatly appreciate how Lanterns tries to do something very different with John. He’s not a plucky orphan. He’s a kid whose parents are very much present and active in his upbringing, arguably to his detriment.
There’s a very fun balance to the way John Sr. (J. Alphonse Nicholson) and Bernadette (Nicole Ari Parker) are depicted here. On one hand, they’re shown to be strong, powerful role models for the impressionable young John Jr. (Cairo Cash Lee). Bernadette in particular serves as an eloquent voice for the show’s racial themes, reminding both father and son repeatedly that they have to fight to be heard in a universe that doesn’t value them. In a way, the show seems to be offering a more nuanced take on this well-meaning but very hamfisted scene from the Neal Adams/Denny O’Neil Green Lantern run:
On the other hand, these people are f***ing crazy. How do you justify repeatedly shooting apples off your son’s head or dumping him to fend for himself on the bad side of Chicago Midway City? They’re so wrapped up in the notion of their baby boy becoming a trailblazing superhero that they upend his life and raise him like a super-soldier in the making. Their singleminded obsession doesn’t just border on child abuse, it is abuse, and it extends to their other sons as well. It’s fascinating to watch two characters who are simultaneously so strong and committed and yet so fundamentally cruel. Again, it’s such a refreshing change from the normal superhero tropes.
Both Nicholson and Parker are excellent throughout the episode, allowing us to see these characters as both human beings struggling to overcome adversity and oppressive tyrants in John’s life. Parker especially gives us a very nuanced look into Bernadette’s worldview and motivations. And. unsurprisingly, Aaron Pierre is a joy to watch in the later scenes focused on adult John. As I’ve said before, it’s easy for a character this stoic and reserved to result in a boring performane, but Pierre is great at conveying all the emotional turmoil John silently wrestles with in his military career, his schooling, and his big interview.
What We Thought of Lanterns Episode 2
“Lanterns continues to impress in its sophomore episode, proving that Kyle Chandler’s Hal and Aaron Pierre’s John are just as entertaining apart as they are together. Hal’s chaotic but surprisingly fruitful detective work is a treat to watch, as is John’s side quest back in Coast City. This episode makes terrific use of Kelly Macdonald’s Sheriff Kerry as the third wheel in their investigation, and it manages to reveal just enough about the true scope of the show’s central murder mystery to keep things interesting. ” -Jesse Schedeen, 08/23/2026
Click here to read our full review.
On that note, this is where we also become acquainted with Laura Linney’s character, one of the Guardians of Oa in human form. While a part of me wishes the series didn’t always have to do this thing where it disguises its aliens as humans, Linney does an admirable job of playing a character who looks ordinary but is distinctly alien all the same. As with the John/Antaan (Paul Ben-Victor) scenes in Episode 2, the careful, purposeful dialogue choices open up a world of opportunity here.
In the end, what we’re left with is a very clever, cohesive, and satisfying account of how an ordinary boy becomes groomed for the most important gig in the universe. In a more just world, John Stewart Jr. would have been left free to pursue his art and live life on his own terms. But with parents like these, you really have to take the cards you’re dealt.
A few Easter eggs worth mentioning from this episode:
John’s assassination target, Gray Wolf, is a minor character from DC’s Batman Incorporated comics. It’s always amusing to see the random bits of comic lore these DCU projects will mine. There’s a Janus Cosmetics poster in the background of the abandoned mall, referencing the company at the heart of the upcoming Clayface movie. It’s another fun Batman-adjacent tidbit, and it does raise the question of whether Clayface is also taking place in the DCU’s past (maybe to better justify the fact that Batman doesn’t show up?). It appears that John’s childhood room has a sketch of Kilowog on the wall, which is probably the closest we’ll get to seeing that particular Lantern in the show. It’s interesting how much the average Earthling seems to know about the Green Lanterns in this universe. I guess it all speaks to the idea that metahumans are not a recent phenomenon in this world.
