Lanterns S1E8 Recap: “Dirt and Stars” — I Choose This Fight

The following recap contains spoilers for Lanterns S1E8 “Dirt and Stars” (written by Chris Mundy & Damon Lindelof & Tom King and directed by Alik Sakharov) Alright, wow. That was a lot. About two hours later, I am still trying to process all that just happened in the roughly 54-minute finale of the first season of Lanterns . I’m not sure if my initial thoughts on this episode will remain my official thoughts forever (or will even be the same when we talk about it on the TV Obsessive podcast we will record on Friday), but right now I’m struggling with this finale. I appreciate the idea of having a superhero story that doesn’t culminate in a crash-bam-pow CGI battle between the good guy and bad guy like the MCU is so fond of these days. But considering the nature of this show, I didn’t expect that anyway, so I shouldn’t give that a ton of credit. Mostly, I feel like Episode 7 and this show at large was a slow, methodical, and enjoyable walk for the first seven episodes, taking us in and out of interesting paths that help give us the full picture of where we are going on our walk. But then the finale, “Dirt and Stars,” forced us into an all-out sprint to make sure we “undangle*” all the threads at the end and set up John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) as one of the faces of the new DCU. (*This was Damon Lindelof’s word he used in the post-episode commentary when he cited that the writers’ room wanted to make sure they took care of any dangling threads from the show before the first season ended. PTSD from Lost discourse, Damon?) Let’s do a bullet-point recap of all the things we learned in this eighth episode: Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and Sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald) developed a romantic relationship after she picked him up from prison in 2026 Someone firebombs Hal’s house, which causes him to be knocked unconscious Noah (Shea Pritchard) rescues him and gives him new skin Noah is a Manhunter! John and Halogram have tied up Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen) Noah broke Sinestro out of prison and had him make a new version of the Lantern Noah wants to change who he is and asks John to kill him Sheriff Kane knew Noah was a Manhunter Hal found out Noah was a Manhunter and confronted Kane Kane got angry and shot Hal John calls Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) and tells him he is going to be the Green Lantern of Earth John creates a new oath, one that allows him to use his fear as a powerful weapon. We will get into all these things, but this is a lot for one episode, and there is so much dialogue exposition that surrounds it; my head was spinning. I suppose it centered around two central ideas: what is Noah’s story, and who killed Hal? I’m glad those two ideas are put to bed, but it seems like it was a chaotic time trying to get them there. Let’s look a little deeper into the details of this Season 1 finale and see where everyone lands and what might come next for these characters and this show. 2016 Ten years in the past, we return to the immediate aftermath of the battle in Rushville, but this time we follow Sheriff Kerry Kane instead of John. She finds Hal at the motel and asks him whether it was worth it, echoing the same question Hal asked John after everything went wrong. Hal can already predict what will come next. The Guardians are going to let him be convicted of reckless endangerment and destruction of property, which conveniently solves their problem of wanting John to replace him anyway. It’s interesting because we met Hal as an arrogant veteran who treated John like an unwanted replacement, but almost everything since Rushville has stripped something away from him. His career is effectively over, his reputation will be destroyed (in Rushville and everywhere else), and John wants nothing to do with him. What Hal does find, however, is Kerry cares for him, and that relationship becomes much more important 10 years later when we next see these two. 2026 Kerry is waiting when Hal gets out of prison, and the two return to Rushville together. They also begin their romantic relationship somewhere shortly after this, giving us context for all those voicemails John discovered earlier in the season. Hal has lost almost everything, and the people of Rushville certainly haven’t forgiven him. They openly glare at him (and burn obscenities into his yard) anytime he is in town. When the two go to dinner, the entire restaurant stares at him until Kerry finally stands up and asks everyone to give him a second chance. Photograph by John Johnson/HBO Max It doesn’t work. Someone firebombs Hal’s house, forcing him to scramble to save himself and Earl. Hal escapes but passes out, and when he wakes up, Noah is standing over him. His burns are gone, and everything appears to be just like new. This is very reminiscent of Kerry and John’s stories when they had near-death experiences earlier in the season. Noah has somehow given him new skin. And that finally gives us one important piece of information: Noah is a Manhunter. This completely changes our understanding of Noah, who has mostly existed on the edges of the story despite being connected to nearly everything happening in Rushville. Suddenly, Noah isn’t just Kerry’s son or the football star whose game Hal attended before his death. He is potentially the most dangerous person left in this story, and becomes a natural enemy to Hal, despite the two never having had conflict before. Meanwhile, John has Sinestro tied up and finally starts getting answers from him. Noah was the person who broke Sinestro out of prison, and Sinestro says Noah has become incredibly powerful. More importantly, Noah needed something from him. Sinestro forged him a new Lantern out of the destruction and fear energy from that planet*. (*Fear energy is something the evil Yellow Lantern Corps uses in the comics, so this device is now something we need to track across the DCU. It’s become a sort of Ark of the Covenant from Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark . Whoever possesses the weapon can use it for good or tremendous evil.) Sinestro believes fear, when properly harnessed, can become the most powerful force in the universe. The new Lantern can even charge John’s (Hal’s old) ring, although John initially refuses to use it. Sinestro also reveals that Hal discovered Noah’s portal before he died and hid it from him. John assumes Noah needed Sinestro because he wanted revenge against the Guardians, and since Sinestro is the only person who has killed one, he would make a pretty useful ally. Photograph by John Johnson/HBO Max John leaves Sinestro behind and returns through the portal, where Noah is already waiting. Noah beats John down, takes the ring, and makes him drive to the football game. And at least for a few minutes, Lanterns slows down again. John tells Noah what happened with Zoe and explains that she wanted John to stop her because she couldn’t stop herself. That resonates with Noah and gives him an idea. He has spent his life as a normal kid, but underneath that life is programming telling him to become something else. His future has apparently already been mapped out. Become a football star, become famous, make important connections, go to Washington, and perhaps even become president someday so he can be the most powerful person in the world, in service of Manhunters. This is also where Noah and John can relate to one another. John spent his childhood being molded into a future Green Lantern before he could understand what that meant. Noah was literally programmed for a purpose he never chose. The question for both becomes whether someone can reject what they were created to become. Noah initially claims that he killed Hal, but that’s a confession at this point, with no proof. More importantly, he asks John to kill him after the football game. He wants the same mercy John gave Zoe because he doesn’t trust himself to defeat his programming forever. Photograph by John Johnson/HBO Max During the game, John finds Kerry underneath the bleachers and finally puts it together that Kerry Kane knew Noah was a Manhunter all along. Kerry explains that when Zoe saved her years earlier, she somehow left part of herself inside Kerry. Kerry became pregnant, and Noah was the child who was born. She raised him as her son while living with the knowledge that he could eventually become a monster. Hal discovered the truth shortly before his death and confronted her. He believed Noah was planning something dangerous and wanted Kerry and Noah to leave with him. Kerry refused. Their argument escalated until Kerry shot Hal, immediately after he told her he loved her. So Noah didn’t kill Hal. He confessed because he was trying to protect his mother, John surmises. That may actually be the most important evidence John receives about what Noah really is. His programming might tell him one thing, but the kid Kerry raised loves his mother enough to take responsibility for murdering Hal Jordan. Kerry admits that part of the reason she brought John back to Rushville was that she needed someone to tell her whether she had spent eighteen years raising a monster. But they know this doesn’t mean Noah isn’t still dangerous. Letting him live might be a huge mistake. John believes being afraid of what he could become is evidence that Noah hasn’t become something truly awful or destructive yet. Nature versus nurture has been a theme of Lanterns all season, and the finale goes that direction as well. Programming matters, but it doesn’t have to be your destiny. Photograph by John Johnson/HBO Max Noah then gets something close to a storybook ending in his last championship game. He returns to the field for one final play, wins the game, and is greeted afterward by (real life) Nebraska coach Matt Rhule, who hands him a Cornhuskers hat. For at least this moment, Noah isn’t a Manhunter, a weapon, or some future political sleeper agent. He’s just a kid who is great at football. John still has one thing he still has to do. He activates the Green Lantern beacon, which brings Guy Gardner to Rushville. John tells Guy that Hal died a hero, which is all the Guardians need to know. Then he announces that he is taking the job after all, but not on their terms. John will protect Earth. Guy and the Corps can have everything else. “You take the stars. Have fun up there. I’ll take the dirt.” It’s a really great line and a pretty perfect explanation of what this version of John Stewart has become. The Guardians wanted him because they believed he would follow orders. His mother raised him to conquer fear. What John wanted rarely factored in until he made a decision for himself in Rushville in 2016. In the end, John becomes a Green Lantern by rejecting all of this stuff. He isn’t going to work for the Guardians, and he isn’t going to eliminate fear. He is going to do the job his way. Photograph by John Johnson/HBO Max Then Halogram finally returns. John asks what Hal would do about Noah, but Hal doesn’t give him another order. Instead, he tells John his gut says John will be better at this job than Hal ever was. He’s ready. It’s the approval John wanted from Hal all along. He is in control of his own destiny now, even to the point where he makes up his own oath for his ring and his lantern. “In brightest day, in darkest night, I’ll face my fears, I’ll do what’s right, I choose this ring, I choose this fight, in service to this lantern’s light.” That “choose” part is what matters the most, I think, and where we can be satisfied, at least where the episode finally lands. John spent his entire life being prepared for his destiny. The Guardians chose him. His mother chose it for him. His father trained him for it. Hal reluctantly brought him along for it. John spent much of this season running away from it, but now he chooses it himself. I’m still torn on whether the finale needed to give us so much information and answer quite so many questions in such a short period of time. “Dirt and Stars” sometimes feels like several episodes of revelations packed into 54 minutes. But after spending seven episodes investigating who killed Hal Jordan, Lanterns ends on an interesting question. What happens to a self-made Lantern, especially since a Lantern getting to choose the ring and make their own rules is totally outside comic canon? From here, we know that Aaron Pierre will be in Superman: Man of Tomorrow in 2027. What his role will be or how much he will factor into that story remains to be seen. Collider is also reporting that Season 2 of Lanterns is already in pre-production . How will this work? Will Kyle Chandler be in it? We don’t know, but all comic book fans know these stories are often open to wild reinterpretation and a reimagining of events. Ultimately, to me, this season was a refreshing take on the superhero genre, but one that ran out of gas close to the finish line and had to get some help to push it across to the end. I would definitely be on board for a second season, but something we all have to remember is this: These superhero television stories inevitably must work in service of a bigger picture and a larger universe. What made Lanterns special might not be what we get as Aaron Pierre moves deeper into the DCU.