‘Lanterns’: Unpacking That Shocking Premiere Ending

The highly anticipated next step in the DCU is here with HBO’s Lanterns. The series follows Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, and his trainee John Stewart as they unravel an intergalactic mystery plaguing a small Nebraska town.

This article will contain spoilers for the ending of the premiere episode of Lanterns.

After a cryptic message from a younger Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) telling John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) that it is hailing in Rushville, Nebraska, present day Hal and John are dispatched to the scene of a shooting at a football game wherein Hal can tell something isn’t quite right with the situation. He informs the local sheriff Kerry (Kelly Macdonald) that he has a gut feeling that the victims are aliens. Kerry brushes such a claim off and informs the Green Lanterns to stay in their lane.

This obedience doesn’t last long as when the two men spot a suspicious looking man on the field they accidentally cause him to flee the scene. A chase ensues between the man and the Lantern duo, with Hal eventually catching up to the crook by splitting off from the chase. The man is then apprehended and taken to the county jail. 

After a bar fight and other endeavors on the elusive Macon family ranch, Hal Jordan gets the opportunity to interrogate the alleged criminal. During the interrogation Hal quizzes him on all sorts of things like football records and general team information, cracks start forming however when the suspect is shown to lack any larger knowledge of pop culture— with the nail in the coffin being that he is from Nebraska and has no real opinion about President Obama (It’s still 2016 in universe). Once he realizes the jig is up, the suspect reveals that he is indeed an extraterrestrial. 

He provides a foreboding warning to Hal and threatens to activate a nuclear device embedded in his skeleton unless he is let go. After Hal roughs him up a little bit, he makes good on his promise. In the corner of the room his body beeps as it prepares to detonate, luckily Hal has the Green Lantern ring and is able to mostly contain the explosion in a force field bubble with only a small portion of the building being destroyed instead of the whole town. 

The episode then skips ahead ten years to 2026 as we follow John driving through a now seemingly annihilated Rushville covered in snow. John makes his way to the football field which is still standing to meet Kelly once more. There a shocking twist is discovered. Sitting in the stands of the stadium is Hal Jordan, his body frozen by the cold, with a bullet wound to the head. Hal Jordan is dead, and his Green Lantern power ring is missing from his hand.

It’s unclear right now how the rest of this future timeline will shake out, but fans should enjoy Hal’s company while they still can…

Lanterns was created by Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King. The series stars Kyle Chandler, Aaron Pierre, Kelly Macdonald, Garrett Dillahunt, and more. The first episode is now streaming on HBO Max.

Thanks for reading this explanation of the ending to the premiere episode of Lanterns. If you liked this article, make sure to check out more Lanterns coverage here at Feature First.