[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “Lanterns” Episode 3, “OutKast,” including the ending. Find last week’s review here, or for a spoiler-free analysis, read our full season review.]
“How do you make a Green Lantern?”
The third episode of “Lanterns” provides an answer to this unlikely question. After all, Green Lanterns are supposed to be chosen by rings. The implicit neutrality of letting an inanimate object guided by a mysterious, principled force make the decision — rather than a living, breathing, fallible entity — is meant to elevate the honor. The ring recognizes that whatever wearer it selects is worthy of the greatest power in the universe. So it’s safe to assume that says something pretty important about the one who’s chosen.
Safe-ish. In Episode 3, “Lanterns” turns that idea on its head, as the Guardians take matters into their own hands. Their trust in Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler), the first human to serve as a Green Lantern, is broken. Their confidence in the system (as it applies to people of Earth) is compromised. So they interviewed replacement candidates and now believe they’ve found a perfect successor in John Stewart (Aaron Pierre), a man who’s been raised (or programmed) since birth to be hired for the job (in part, at least, because of the Guardians’ interference with his family).
The Guardians are bending their own system to their will. John is doing the same for himself. But whether they share a vision of what that system should be, exactly, remains to be seen.
Episode 3, “OutKast,” is told entirely in flashback. There’s no mention of the case in Nebraska or the presence of Manhunters. Hal Jordan only appears at the very end to ruin John’s day. Instead, the story is devoted to illustrating what it takes for a young Black man in America to earn the same position as an old white guy, how race affects people’s lives at a core, emotional level, and how its impact permeates everything from personal relationships to career opportunities.
Ultimately, the exceptional, engrossing third entry of “Lanterns” paints a striking portrait of what separates our two heroes, while putting a spotlight on the one whose perspective goes historically overlooked — on Earth and, it turns out, in space.
So, to accommodate the departure episode’s unique narrative (don’t you dare call it a bottle episode), the format below is getting a slight tweak. This week, John is the case — his origin story is the mystery we’re slowly solving. The Guardian will be our suspect, since Laura Linney’s evasive alien invites ample suspicion, and the co(r)ps will dig into how our perception of John and Hal as Green Lanterns has changed — starting with the big reveal that John is there to replace Hal, not back him up.
OK, just pop an apple on top of your head, and let’s get to it.
The Case
John Stewart wasn’t born to be a Green Lantern, but he is in the room with his parents when his father is tested by the Green Lantern’s ring. After failing honestly, John Sr. (J. Alphonse Nicholson) spirals. People think he’s crazy. His own wife orders him out of the house. However bad it gets for the former Marine, it’s bad enough that his fellow officers still remember his trouble by the time John Jr. gets deployed.
At home, at least, things change after the Guardians pay a visit to Bernadette (Jasmine Cephas Jones), and she vows to turn her youngest son into the next Green Lantern. He’s raised to be fearless — the one quality the ring requires of its wearer, and the one quality that’s hard to come by when you’re “terrified daily of persecution,” as Bernadette explains to the Guardian (Linney). “Do you understand how unfair it is to ask a Black man in America if he’s afraid?” The Guardian doesn’t, but the Stewarts sure do, and they take extreme measures to ensure John grows up with only the right kind of fear (like, say, fear of losing a loved one).
Their methods are… questionable, to say the least. John’s training takes precedence over everything. He’s forced to find his way home, alone, when he’s just a boy. He’s forced to become an expert marksman even though he just wants to draw. He’s often isolated from his brothers, and — most notably — he lets his parents fire a gun at him, over and over, until the only way he can process the trauma is by rejecting the reward. (His dad always gets him a hamburger afterward, so John becomes a vegan.)
For his parents, it’s all worth it, as long as John becomes a Green Lantern. “He’s going to hate us,” John Sr. says. “So be it,” Bernadette replies. But for John, there is no choice. He’s on a “path,” and that path leads from graduation, to the Marines, to art school, to an interview with the Guardians. For as much as he’s willing to sacrifice in order to live out his parents’ dreams (one that passed over his father), it doesn’t seem like a sacrifice to him. It’s just what he has to do. If that means spending nine months of his life in the dirt, subsisting on bugs and wild fruit, waiting for his target to emerge, so be it. Until he’s a Green Lantern, it’s all waiting anyway.
The allegory surely resonates: In order to succeed in a system that doesn’t consider you, certain sacrifices have to be made. John is a Black man trying to shape himself around the expectations of the Guardians, all-powerful beings that don’t know the first thing about his culture. So the parts of John that are inherently his own are (nearly) drilled out of him, like when his brothers claim he doesn’t know the lyrics to OutKast’s “Gasoline Dreams” because “he’s not even Black.” There’s even a servile quality to John’s actions, in that he’s always doing what he’s told (be it by his parents or his superior officers, including the Guardians).
But now that he’s reached his goal — now that he’s in line to be the next Green Lantern of Earth — what will he do next? John says there’s a difference between being raised and being programmed. The Guardians don’t, and they’re hoping for their next Green Lantern to act more like the latter than the former. He says he will. His actions back up his words. But will he continue following orders, or will his time with Hal shake something loose in him — something that’s been waiting his whole life to get out?
(The bird imagery seems telling here. Last week, we saw how important birds were to John, and this week, we found out he grew up believing birds were the Guardians watching over him, tracking his progress — before finding out his mom made that up. Maybe no one is watching, maybe they’re always watching. Either he acts like they are, or he flies his own course, like a certain pilot we know…)
The Suspects
While far from the forefront of the episode, the Guardians’ presence looms large in Episode 3 — and not only because we get to see Laura Linney morph from “some unfortunate white lady” into a giant blue alien (from behind).
When John’s interview finally begins, the Guardian tees up the requisite exposition by asking him what he knows about her kind. He says the Guardians are the ruling body of the cosmos who founded the Green Lantern corps. There used to be 12 of them, but one recently died. Later, we learn Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen) killed a Guardian, and Hal was the one who had to bring him in — despite Sinestro being a “father figure” to Hal. Linney’s Guardian also says it’s because of that Guardian’s death that she’s choosing the next Green Lantern, rather than leaving it up to the ring.
Her perpetual composure notwithstanding, the Guardian’s whole attitude screams, “I don’t trust Hal Jordan.” She mentions having told him not to interfere with domestic disputes, like he did when he spoiled John’s sniper mission, and she also seems exasperated by his continued closeness with a mentor who murdered their boss. Given the limited grasp of human relations she exhibits with John’s mom, her lack of compassion isn’t surprising. But it is a flaw in a character who acts like a god, and it’s a flaw that she (or it) doesn’t see as a flaw.
Her blind spots already screwed up John Senior’s life. Might it lead to the end of Hal’s?
The Co(r)ps
Also of note regarding Earth’s Guardian representative: Sinestro was right about her plans. At the end of Episode 2, he and Hal agreed that John isn’t there to be the backup; he’s there to replace Hal, and that’s exactly what the Guardian asked John to do at the end of their interview.
Confirming as much adds to the tension in an already tense relationship, just as it complicates our rooting interest going forward. On the one hand, “Lanterns” Episode 3 makes clear that John has put in the work and then some. He’s earned the right to be a Green Lantern. The series has also gone out of its way to make clear that Hal didn’t earn anything. He’s only there because he was able to honestly and correctly answer a question that wasn’t designed with humans in mind.
“The only reason why he has that ring is because he’s been privileged enough in this life that he didn’t have to know fear,” Bernadette tells John. “And we are giving you that same gift. I can see it for you. I can see you wearing that uniform, making us all proud.”
“But I wasn’t chosen,” John says.
“Sometimes a Black man has to raise his own hand,” she says. “Doesn’t mean he’s not good enough, doesn’t mean you’re not better, it just means they don’t see us. So we make ourselves seen.”
Blunt messaging aside, there’s no disputing what she says. But at the same time, there’s also reason to doubt the motivation behind Hal’s ouster. It’s not about John’s abilities and readiness. If it were, they could’ve called on him a lot sooner. It’s about the Guardians’ loss of faith in Hal after one of their own was killed by his mentor, Sinestro.
John sees that. For now, he seems to be OK with it because he’s lived his life following orders. But now that he’s paired with a Green Lantern who’s everything John isn’t (wild, impulsive, rebellious), will it change him? In a typical cop show, it’s not just the case that affects the detectives; it’s their partners, too.
Once again, John wasn’t chosen. Once again, John has to make himself seen. What happens next, well, he’ll have to make that decision on his own.
Grade: A-
“Lanterns” releases new episodes Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.
“Good Luck or Oh Fuck” (Points of Clarity)
• Which is the better illustration of John’s superhuman patience: spending nine months outside, hiding in the wilderness, before failing to take out his target — or sitting in a chair for 12-15 hours without moving or sleeping and then acing his job interview?
• It’s been a while since a needle drop hit as hard as “Gasoline Dreams,” but that’s just what happens when a) you play any Outkast song, b) the song is the only diegetic music played at full volume throughout a steely serious episode. (I also like it because it’s such a banger, even John Stewart would have to dance a little, or at least bob his head.)
• Hal calling the Stewart family “the Midwest Huxtables” — in 2016 — is as perfect as it is upsetting. Well done, Vanessa Baden Kelly (the episode’s credited screenwriter).
• Speaking of episode credits, “OutKast” was directed by Stephen Williams, who previously collaborated with “Lanterns” co-creator Damon Lindelof on “Lost” and “Watchmen.” On the latter series, Williams helmed the landmark sixth episode, “This Extraordinary Being,” and took home an Emmy Award for his trouble. I’m not sure I’d predict a second win for this effort, but clearly some of the duo’s magic came through once again.