Ryan Kirksey
The following recap contains spoilers for Lanterns S1E6 “Bad Optics” (written by Justin Britt-Gibson & Damon Lindelof and directed by Stephen Williams)
After last week’s episode of Lanterns (which, in a way, felt a bit like a season finale), it was clear that the show was going to move in a different direction after killing off Zoe/The Manhunter, Antaan, William Macon, and numerous residents of the town of Rushville. In fact, the show released a trailer for the last three episodes, signaling a move into the future as we explore the mystery of who killed Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) in 2026.
And while that pivot is compelling to me, as we discover what transpired between Hal and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre), and how Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) became Green Lantern, it is perhaps not as compelling as the cryptic way James Gunn (head of the DC Cinematic Universe) teased it on social media.
The blackest night is yet to come. Catch up on #Lanterns and stream new episodes Sundays on @HBOMax. pic.twitter.com/kjYO1vkL0u
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) September 17, 2026
We have already seen that the “blackest night” phrase is part of the Green Lantern oath they recite when they charge their ring, part of the self-authored eulogy Hal wrote in this episode, and part of the commitment to be the Green Lantern. But I’m guessing this also has a double meaning, hinting at one possible future of the DCU.
Blackest Night is a DC Comics run from 2009-2010 that focused on the Green Lantern Corps and something called the Blackest Night Prophecy. In this run, a villain named Nekron seeks to resurrect deceased superheroes in an effort to join his cause in eliminating all life and emotion from the universe. This prophecy had been long foretold, and the comic run explores how several superheroes (including past Green Lanterns) rise to become evil forces that the DC superhero roster has to battle.
Thinking about that potential future makes Hal Jordan’s death a little bit more interesting, doesn’t it?
But first, we have a smaller, earth-bound mystery to solve as Lanterns moves to 2026 in “Big Optics.” It appears this will be the central theme of the rest of the season, but might also set up some much larger paths for the DCU, if James Gunn chooses to lead us that way.
2026
When we meet John Stewart again in 2026, he is a very different man from the one who desperately wanted to become a Green Lantern 10+ years ago. John is now an architect working alongside his brother Marcus at Stewart Brothers, and their latest project is a little bit ironic. They are trying to convince leaders in Midway City* to fund 40 underground “arks.” These are massive panic buildings where people could shelter when the next superhero, alien, or otherwise catastrophic event comes to town. There is some obvious irony in John spending 2016 wanting to protect the world, then he and Hal destroy a part of it, and now he is making a living designing places where people can hide from it. If he and Marcus can sell Colonel Draycott on the idea, the city leaders say, they will have the opportunity to build just about anything they want.
(*Midway City is a fictional DC city often thought to be modeled after Chicago. It is commonly the home to Hawkman and Hawkgirl, among others.)
After the meeting, his mother Bernie tells him that Hal wants to apologize and has apparently been in contact with her, so John reluctantly heads back to Rushville. We quickly learn that Hal has spent the last decade paying for what happened there too, in a much more literal way. He served ten years in prison following the disaster and returned to the same town where almost everyone despises him. I mean, they hate him.
Their reunion takes place, and Hal talks about Guy Gardner taking over as Green Lantern, complete with a Lantern signal in Rushville that Hal jokes is basically stolen from the “bat guy” in Gotham. But the conversation turns when Hal blames John for what happened in 2016, John blames Hal, and neither seems particularly interested in forgiveness. John eventually punches Hal before leaving, which makes what happens next considerably more complicated.
That same night, John receives a call from Sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald) telling him that Hal Jordan is dead, bringing us back to the mystery that ended the pilot of Lanterns five episodes ago. John returns to Rushville, and we replay pieces of the premiere, including him checking Hal’s hand for the Green Lantern ring. “I just never thought he would actually die,” John tells Kane. Whatever anger John still carried toward Hal, there was apparently some part of him that thought Hal Jordan would simply always be there.
Kane begins telling John about some of the missing pieces of Hal’s life after prison. Hal returned to Rushville immediately and offered help to the people whose lives he helped destroy, even though almost nobody wanted anything to do with him. Kane found the effort endearing, and it is clear their relationship became more complicated after her marriage to Billy (Jason Ritter) fell apart. She gives John the address of Hal’s rented home, where John finds at least one familiar survivor from the past: Earl the plant. Considering the body count last episode, we should probably consider ourselves fortunate that Earl is alive.
Hal’s autopsy provides more information. Hal died from the gunshot wound to his head, and the medical examiner has sent samples to the FBI looking for additional DNA. That could become a problem for John, considering he punched Hal shortly before his death and the diner waitress saw them together.
Hal also had a key that leads John and Kane to a storage facility (The Fortress of Storage is a very DC name) containing Hal’s Green Lantern vault. Unfortunately, opening it requires a live voice from Hal Jordan, which becomes difficult when the person whose voice you need is currently lying in a morgue. Meanwhile, John’s brother has secured the meeting with Colonel Draycott, and his father’s assisted living facility is calling about problems there, but John is already being pulled further into Rushville and is trying to balance everything.
John’s curiosity about Guy Gardner eventually gets the better of him on the way to Kane’s house for dinner that night, so he activates the Green Lantern beacon in town. Billy Macon and several other Rushville residents arrive before Guy does, and they have not forgiven nor forgotten what the Green Lanterns did to their town. Billy threatens John if he doesn’t turn it off, and John responds by beating up Billy and four other men without the assistance of a ring. It is a nice reminder that becoming a Lantern was never what made John dangerous. But that act of aggression also gets him arrested.
His jail time allows for the opportunity for Guy Gardner to finally arrive. Nathan Fillion immediately injects a completely different energy into the episode, but his appearance also explains how we arrived at the DCU we already know. When John rejected the opportunity to become Green Lantern last episode, Guy (an “athletic director”) eventually got the job instead. Hal’s old ring was decommissioned and locked away on Oa, while Guy received one of his own. Guy also arrives with a rather significant piece of news that feels like it is probably being planted for later. Someone has broken Sinestro out of his galactic prison.
Should Sinestro be on our suspect list for who killed Hal? I feel it would be foolish to rule that out. I’m also adding Guy Gardner to the list, just because I don’t trust him or his motivations.
For the moment, John is more concerned about Hal. He asks Guy to retrieve Hal’s old uniform and ring so he can be buried as a Green Lantern. When Guy isn’t exactly thrilled with the request, John reminds him that Guy only got the job because John walked away from it. Something is interesting about John invoking his abandoned status as a Green Lantern now, especially because nearly everything he does in “Bad Optics” suggests he never really stopped thinking of himself as a good candidate.
Out of jail now, John discovers that the consequences of 2016 did not end when he left town. Maggie*, the waitress from the diner, shows up with an extremely specific request for $314,536.27, which is apparently what the damage John and Hal caused ten years ago is worth once interest is included. If John doesn’t pay, Maggie threatens to tell Kane that she saw him with Hal shortly before his death. It’s blackmail, obviously, but Maggie helps underline one of the more interesting ideas running through the episode. The people who actually lived there were left with destroyed homes, dead friends and family members, and a town that had become ground zero for massive destruction. Even Noah Macon (Shea Pritchard) spent years writing FEMA until the government finally showed up to help repair Rushville.
(*The official name for this character is Maggie Sawyer, and she is played by Hannah Christine Shetler. In the comics, Maggie Sawyer is a police officer/detective who often is a liaison between different superheroes and law enforcement agencies. She also has had a romantic relationship with Kate Kane/Batwoman, who, as we discussed last week, may or may not be related to Sheriff Kane.)
At Hal’s funeral, attended only by Kane, John, Guy Gardner, and Carol Ferris (Hal’s romantic flame from the comics, played by Amie MacKenzie), we see how much Hal was despised. Guy comes through with Hal’s old uniform and decommissioned ring, allowing Hal Jordan to be buried as a Green Lantern despite everything that happened after he stopped being one.
Carol asks John to deliver a eulogy that Hal wrote for himself. Even dead, what he wrote takes us directly back to the idea hanging over this episode and, potentially, the larger DCU.
“For even in the blackest of nights, I urge you to carry on. The world is counting on you. I’m counting on you.”
Those words hit differently after James Gunn’s tease this week, but they also say something much more immediate about Hal and John. Their final real conversation was filled with blame and anger and ended with John punching Hal in the face. Yet the Hal who prepared for his own death still believed someone needed to carry on. Whether those words were specifically intended for John or not, John is the person standing there hearing them. The moment Hal dies, it seems to make John question what should be next for him.
We see that most clearly when John’s two lives finally collide. Marcus has secured the meeting with Colonel Draycott that could change the future of Stewart Brothers, but John is too consumed with Rushville to participate. When Marcus and Draycott call, John introduces himself, but Draycott hangs up and costs them the deal. Marcus is furious, but in his anger he also manages to diagnose his brother. John has actually been stuck in Rushville for ten years. He may have left the town physically, but some part of John Stewart is still there.
This leads John back to Hal’s grave at night, where he starts digging. He opens the coffin, takes the decommissioned ring, and activates Hal’s consciousness stored inside it. Suddenly, Hal Jordan is standing in front of him. The “Halogram” (which has been adopted colloquially, and what I will probably call him moving forward) looks around and quickly realizes the present-day Hal Jordan is dead.
It’s a clever way for Lanterns to bring its two timelines together while keeping Kyle Chandler around for the final stretch. John now has what he needs to open Hal’s mysterious vault, but more importantly, he has to investigate Hal’s murder alongside a digital version of the partner he spent ten years trying to forget.
There is also something suspicious about all of this happening in the same episode where Hal asks the people he leaves behind to carry on through the “blackest of nights.” James Gunn could simply be having some fun with Green Lantern mythology, and there are more immediate mysteries for Lanterns to solve before we start worrying about Nekron and armies of resurrected superheroes. But Hal Jordan is dead, his ring has already brought a version of him back, Sinestro is suddenly free, and Gunn is publicly telling us that “the blackest night is yet to come.”
The last two episodes should be quite a wild ride. See you back here next week.
