A lot happens in \u201cLights Out.\u201d In fact, I\u2019d say there\u2019s a whole lot of action in this fifth episode. There\u2019s a car explosion, a water tower explosion, an entire town explosion, multiple gunfights, a fistfight, a gory burn ward scene, and a couple of disembowelings. More to the point of the Lanterns of it all, Hal flies, manifests multiple force bubbles and shields, hurls an exploding alien up in a green whirlwind, and even tosses a few old fashioned force blasts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Lanterns steadfastly deemphasizes all that so we can ponder the characters\u2019 pain, doubts, and divided loyalties. In the four preceding episodes, the creative team\u2019s choice<\/a> in this superhero story was clear, and even as both the Manhunter story and John and Hal\u2019s central conflict come to a violent head, there\u2019s no exhilaration, no triumph. Just sad people making inevitable but heartbreaking choices and striding off to cope with the fallout.\u00a0<\/p>\n At first we get Kerry\u2019s backstory, and the answers to just how she wound up Rushville\u2019s doggedly dedicated sheriff. Sporting the bangs Hal joked about, 2007 Kerry is the daughter of a crook from Gotham City. On the run, she stalls out at the diner where two goons track her down, helpfully explaining that her dead old man turned informant, and that their boss (oh, the Gotham possibilities there) demand they take her down, too. Enter Zoe, snapping one goon\u2019s neck before effectively threatening the other to lie that Kerry\u2019s dead (Kerry cuts off her own pinkie for proof) or she\u2019ll kill his family.\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s a History Of Violence vibe to the opening scene, except that the killer hiding in small town America is an alien murderbot who collects favors as part of some greater plan. The stunned Kerry takes everything in stride, promising to protect Zoe like Zoe protected her. Poorna Jagannathan, freed from Zoe\u2019s indifferent roleplaying, conveys the utter calm of complete control as she tells her new recruit, \u201cNow let\u2019s grow you a new pinkie.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cLights Out\u201d sees everyone\u2019s loyalties tested to breaking point and beyond. Hal, having trapped John in that unfortunate rental car, reveals the plotting behind the rascal act, telling his wincing trainee that he\u2019s been outplayed. Hal will let Antaan\u2019s aliens battle it out with the wrongly-IDed William Macon while he whisks Zoe back to the Guardians\u2019 planet Oa, where he\u2019ll make those blue turncoats restore his place and his honor. All their masks stripped away, the uneasy banter turns blunt. \u201cYou\u2019re never gonna replace me, junior.\u201d \u201cFuck you, piece of shit.\u201d<\/p>\n When John, burnt to gory near-death after Hal leaves and the car explodes, is not so much rescued by the impassively watching Zoe as recruited, just like Kerry was. Healed with a sci-fi Manhunter nanobot hand-wave (gross as it is in practice), John gets Zoe to confess that she killed Abin Sur when the Green Lantern helped her escape the Guardians\u2019 extermination of her kind, explaining only, \u201cYou can\u2019t escape your true nature.\u201d Zoe\u2019s plan, like Hal\u2019s, hinges on using the coming bloodshed to fool the Guardians. Hal dies bravely fighting Antaan in her plan, clearing the way for John to claim the ring he\u2019s been training his whole life for.<\/p>\n Hal, confronted by a pissed off Kerry as Rushville\u2019s citizenry heed the long-awaited sirens and prepare for war against an alien threat, rebuffs Kerry\u2019s certainty that Zoe will destroy the town if Hal doesn\u2019t just leave. \u201cShe\u2019s a war criminal!,\u201d Hal barks, \u201cShe\u2019s not even human!\u201d Kerry, as unmoved by Hal\u2019s stubbornness as she is by his offhand xenophobic tack, only replies, \u201cThen everything that happens next is on you. Are you willing to accept those consequences when they come?\u201d<\/p>\n Hal lies to Antaan at the diner (after nonchalantly force-bubbling away the aliens\u2019 many bullets) that Macon\u2019s the Manhunter, forcing a showdown. (Antaan\u2019s men employ the series\u2019 third \u201cjump out of a moving car\u201d maneuver to blow up Macon\u2019s weapon storehouse.) Meanwhile, Hal literally flips his ring-sporting middle finger at the sky, daring Zoe to face him, and is somehow shocked when Zoe does just what Kerry warned she\u2019d do, raining death from above on the panicked townspeople. With his desperate rescue actions draining his ring (why, Lanterns, is Hal\u2019s ring always at 5 percent at pivotal moments, I ask you?), he\u2019s ambushed by a furious John at the motel, their resulting fight seeing the much younger, stronger John leave his battered mentor in the rubble of the Zoe-lasered building.\u00a0<\/p>\n The betrayals in \u201cLights Out\u201d are as inevitable as they are crushing. Hal, spitting blood, gets a patient villain speech from the arriving Zoe about John\u2019s supposed double cross, only for Hal to begrudgingly admit, \u201cIf there\u2019s one thing I know about that kid, he ain\u2019t no coward.\u201d Realizing that she\u2019s been lured into the open dawning, Zoe turns to where she knows the Marine sniper would be and smiles just as John shoots, his last words a tender, \u201cSee you, Zoe.\u201d John returns and, finally, wrenches the ring from Hal\u2019s finger, the defeated Hal\u2019s parting malediction, \u201cThey replaced me. They\u2019ll replace you\u201d echoing through the smoke.\u00a0<\/p>\n And so Lanterns\u2019 two main 2016 narratives are done (possible future twists notwithstanding). The Manhunters have been extinguished from the universe and John Stewart is the new Green Lantern. Everybody played out their parts more or less as expected, with the aging Hal\u2019s grasping desperation to stay relevant giving way to a younger, arguably more deserving hero. The bad guy is dead, leaving John to take up his mantle. Only he doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Aaron Pierre has had to contain so much as John, and \u201cLights Out\u201d should be the actor\u2019s coming out party as much as the victorious John\u2019s. But as John walks, barefoot, bloodied (and no doubt aching from the sucker-punch nut shot Hal gave him) into the bar where Laura Linney\u2019s Guardian (apparently named Lianna?) eagerly waits for news, actor and character still withhold so much. Pouring himself his first-ever drink, John tosses a bloody backpack on the bar and matter-of-factly tells the obviously disappointed Guardian that he\u2019s left Hal alive\u2014and that he\u2019s not their man.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the bag is Zoe\u2019s now-crystallized heart, which John rightly calls the Guardian\u2019s \u201csins and consequences,\u201d while he carefully removes the all-consuming symbol of a lifetime of plans and dreams and says, just as simply, \u201cYou know, I spent a lot of my life wondering what it would feel like to wear this\u2014pride, gratitude, power. But then when I put it on I just felt empty.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Empty. That\u2019s how Lanterns wanted its characters to feel\u2014and us, too. It\u2019s a maddening mission statement <\/a>for a genre exercise where gratification and punch-heavy superhuman problem-solving are the lifeblood, and I can\u2019t help but respect it\u2014even as \u201cLights Out\u201d leaves a certain unsatisfying aftertaste. When John tells the disbelieving Guardian that Hal \u201cbetrayed everything to keep this ring\u2014his code, the oath, even himself, and it broke him. Probably doesn\u2019t even remember why he wanted the damn thing,\u201d the glittering magic ring takes on a decidedly Gollum feel.\u00a0<\/p>\n We know now why Guy Gardner\u2019s got the ring in 2026, and why John drives his flashy SUV to a barely rebuilt Rushville to meet the still dogged sheriff Kerry and find Hal\u2019s dead body in those high school bleachers. With three episodes left (and John\u2019s leaked return\u2014presumably wearing a ring\u2014in next year\u2019s Man Of Tomorrow), there\u2019s still another bend ahead, and it\u2019s just as bold (and frustrating) to put the series\u2019 seeming climax little more than halfway through. There\u2019s a cost to superheroing\u2014even the dauntless Superman with his much-derided alter ego disguise acknowledges that. But Lanterns has been all cost and no benefit, to the extent that John makes the only truly heroic move a principled person could make. He gives it away.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Stray observations<\/p>\n \u2022 On the phone to his parents (\u201cWait, am I on speaker?,\u201d he asks, amusingly), John notes that he doesn\u2019t think Hal knew the car would blow up with him in it\u2014but he can\u2019t be sure. (Either way, it\u2019s a deeply irresponsible dick move, Hal.)
\n\u2022 There must be something about that gun shop. Just as he did when slyly smiling through a confrontation with irate townies last week,\u00a0 John loosens up while on the phone with Bernadette and John Sr., concluding with a righteously pissed, \u201cFirst, I\u2019m gonna take that ring clean off that motherfucker\u2019s finger.\u201d
\n\u2022 Halogram, reluctantly summoned for recon by Hal, irritates his present-day self by saying of John, \u201cI met him the other day\u2014I like him!\u201d
\n\u2022 Laura Linney continues to tickle me, as her Guardian, despite properly pronouncing the current situation in Rushville \u201ca shitstorm,\u201d takes a moment to ask John, \u201cWhere are your shoes?\u201d
\n\u2022 Zoe takes a moment before the shitstorm to comfort the frightened Noah, in her own way. \u201cA lot of people are going to die today. People you know, some you love,\u201d she says with unidentifiable warmth, before telling the boy, \u201cDon\u2019t forget everything I\u2019ve told you.\u201d I wonder what the star high school quarterback in 2026 truly thinks about John\u2019s return.\u00a0
\n\u2022 It\u2019s a wrap on Garrett Dillahunt as well, with Macon getting a noble death, nearly convincing the steely Antaan that he\u2019s the Manhunter before getting his (human) heart cut out. Antaan\u2013revealed to have been Zoe\u2019s mate! (in whatever form she took while infiltrating his planet)\u2014notes to the dying Macon, \u201cYou would never welcome death.\u201d
\n\u2022 Dillahunt and Jagannathan make the couple\u2019s final farewell (spoken in the alien language the grateful Macon has learned) complexly moving. Sure, she\u2019s a shape-shifting killbot who\u2019s leveraged curing Macon\u2019s cancer into a puppet master infiltration of Rushville, but damned if the actors don\u2019t sell the moment.\u00a0
\n\u2022 Still\u2014Zoe\u2019s plan is moving awfully slowly, isn\u2019t it? In 10 years, she\u2019s managed to, what, gain the conditional fealty of a Nebraska town of (as the opening flashback confirms) 1,001 people? I suppose when you\u2019re the sole survivor of a universe-spanning robot army<\/a>, you work with what you\u2019ve got.\u00a0
\n\u2022 Zoe tells John that she took the form she did (non-white, a woman) because, \u201cthe fastest way to understanding a civilization is to start from a disadvantage.\u201d Reaching out to John\u2019s own struggles<\/a>, she adds, \u201cAdversity makes you stronger in ways comfort never could. Prejudice, injustice, fear\u2014those aren\u2019t obstacles, they\u2019re the crucible that forges your greatest self.\u201d There\u2019s a touchy undercurrent of vindication for Macon\u2019s militia-minded preparedness against the encroach of \u201cothers\u201d I\u2019m not sure Lanterns\u2018 messaging fully grasps.\u00a0
\n\u2022 Much will be made about Hal\u2019s seeming acknowledgement of some sexual fluidity in response to Antaan\u2019s questioning. (Hal responds, \u201cWhen you\u2019ve experienced the pleasures of the galaxy like we have, it\u2019s less about preference and more about opportunity,\u201d to Antaan\u2019s surprise that he\u2019d supposedly been \u201ccoitious\u201d with Macon.) I mean, it feels like Hal\u2019s just running his scam, but he\u2019s admitted he does like to get wasted (and laid) on many, many planets.
\n\u2022 You just know that closing Bon Iver song was chosen because of the lyric, \u201cthere are things behind things behind things \/ And there are rings within rings within rings.\u201d A little on the nose, Lanterns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lot happens in \u201cLights Out.\u201d In fact, I\u2019d say there\u2019s a whole lot of action in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":894918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75],"class_list":["post-894917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/894918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}