RECAP: ‘Lanterns’ Episode 2 — “Trust Fall”

After an eventful pilot episode set in three different decades, Lanterns Episode 2, “Trust Fall,” takes place entirely in 2016. It’s a nice change of pace to have the episode feel more dialed in than the premiere. In the aftermath of a shooting at a high school football game that saw the death of four aliens plus a fifth that blew himself up and half a city block, Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) are still in town investigating.

A flying lesson results in John failing to fly but instead projecting a live bird with the power of the ring. It turns out that one of the more absurd elements of Green Lantern’s story — the supernatural ring that needs to be charged on the lantern — has made its way into Lanterns Episode 2. Perhaps the reason John can’t fly is that the ring is at 3% battery. Unfortunately, the lantern is at Hal’s home.

Hal already knows that the ring needs to be charged and has set up a flight for John to go back home to retrieve the lantern, but gives him explicit instructions to keep projecting the bird until he comes back. John catches a flight but instinctively knows Hal sent him on an errand mostly to get rid of him for a while.

Lanterns Episode 2 stays fixed in 2016, creating a nice change of pace from the first episode.

With John out of his way, Hal begins investigating the deaths of the four aliens in earnest. Right now, he’s got more questions than answers. Specifically, how were these four aliens targeted on the football field? They appeared as human as anyone else there that night, but no humans were killed. A trip to the high school reveals that the metal detector isn’t actually detecting metal even when Hal pulls the bumper off John’s rental car and walks it through.

In Lanterns Episode 2, Hal realizes that to test a theory, he’ll need to talk to Sheriff Kerri Kane (Kelly Macdonald). He finds her in the midst of talking to the town’s citizens in a town hall meeting. Hal is less than welcome when he comes in but chooses to sit down and wait out the meeting. His lawyer, Billy Macon (Jason Ritter), takes a seat next to him, and they begin whispering about the details of Hal’s investigation until Sheriff Kane interrupts them to say that they need to stop talking or leave.

Hal, losing his patience, attempts to get his moment with the sheriff immediately but is ultimately told he’ll have to wait. Patience isn’t Hal’s strong suit. In fact, it’s a great character-building moment in Lanterns Episode 2 for both him and Sheriff Kane. His impatience and impertinence are becoming a hallmark of both his character and their relationship. He leaves and decides to take matters into his own hands. After breaking into the morgue, Hal takes the four alien corpses from the shooting out to the car.

Episode 2 builds on Hal’s character, more specifically his inability to sit still.

When he arrives at the football field, he attempts to drag the first alien through the metal detector, which sets it off. After leaving the football field, the now-freed-up Sheriff Kane pulls Hal over with the corpses still in the car. Hal confirms with her that the metal detector isn’t a metal detector at all. It’s an alien detector. This scene ultimately becomes important to the entire investigation because, as in the Lanterns pilot, it validates Hal’s suspicions once again, showing exactly how keen his intuition is.

After some back-and-forth, Sheriff Kane agrees to take Hal back to the Macon family ranch to talk to William Macon (Garret Dillahunt). William is much less friendly than the last time Hal stood on his property. While Hal accuses him of hiding something on the ranch that would blow this whole investigation open, William refuses to answer any questions, asks for a warrant and threatens to shoot Hal for trespassing.

Hal doesn’t take him seriously, and steps further into the gates, and one of William’s snipers takes a shot at Hal right in the shoulder. When he awakens, he’s in the hospital with Sheriff Kane sitting by his bed.

When she asks why Hal hasn’t left already, he explains that it’s just a gut feeling — like there’s more to the story that he isn’t seeing and that he thinks William Macon is the key to unlocking it. Perhaps Sheriff Kane should start listening to the man when he has a gut feeling. He’s clearly proven that his spidey-senses are pretty impressive.

William Macon may be the key to unlocking everything Hal is searching for.

Hal then decides to ask a few questions of his own: How is there sophisticated alien tech in Rushville that can detect aliens, and why, if Sheriff Kane knew about them, was she unwilling to hand him jurisdiction when he first arrived? Sheriff Kane and Hal both seem to believe more definitively that the answer has to do with William Macon. Hal is given a stern warning that he should leave. The Sheriff doesn’t want him interfering in her ability to keep people calm and safe, and she also doesn’t want her father-in-law to succeed at having more power in town than she has.

Meanwhile, Lanterns Episode 2 also follows John as he arrives at Hal’s mansion. He retrieves the lantern and Hal’s uniform. After feeding Earl, Hal’s carnivorous plant, John heads back out but is ambushed from behind. After a struggle, he finds himself tied up in the back of a van. John is horribly outnumbered but attempts to free himself again anyway. So far, we’ve seen that Hal is incredibly insightful, but now we’re seeing that John, by comparison, is physically adept and very determined. His former Marine training established in the pilot is on full display.

The second attempt at getting free results in him and one of his captors falling out of the back of the van onto the busy highway. While running through a sea of oncoming vehicles, the man chasing him pulls crazy, inhuman stunts, but John still manages to stay clear. Unfortunately for John, that luck runs out when he slams face-first into the side of a van.

The aliens become more defined, and the conspiracy surrounding them only intensifies.

Tied up in an abandoned warehouse, John confirms that the men who captured him are, in fact, aliens. They explain that they need his help because, simply put, they don’t trust Hal. They say they’re looking for a manhunter they believe is in Rushville. They are surprised to learn that John doesn’t even know what a manhunter is.

It’s here that Lanterns Episode 2 also includes an interesting twist. The aliens ask how Hal is able to keep the projection of the live bird going from such a far distance. When John explains that he’s the one projecting the bird, they are in awe because it’s no small feat to project a live animal, much less keep the projection running without wearing the ring. This small moment isn’t something to sleep on. It’s clear that John Stewart is much more powerful than even he realizes.

The aliens give John a way to contact them and say he’s got 48 hours to find the manhunter or else they’ll simply blow the whole town up. When John returns to Rushville, against the aliens’ wishes, he immediately tells Hal. Hal is incredibly interested in what John has to say, as it certainly seems to relate to his investigation into the aliens’ death at the football field.

The emergence of Sinestro is a shocking reveal, and the series has only just begun.

Hal had asked him to leave the suit behind when John went to his home, but armed with this new information, Hal puts the uniform on for the first time in a long time. He takes off from the hotel and flies into the icy crevasse of a canyon on a distant world. He’s granted access to an underground facility after proving his identity. This is an incredible moment for Lanterns Episode 2 because, despite being space cops, Hal and John are very much grounded on Earth for most of the first two episodes.

When he enters the facility, he immediately goes to a man in a cell. The idea feels obvious, and still, it’s a bit ironic to think that space cops do indeed have space jail. Hal asks the man what he knows about manhunters. The man staring back at him is an iconic Green Lantern villain, Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen). In the most shocking reveal for Lanterns yet, Sinestro only gets a moment to speak, but he makes the most of it. Sinestro says right before the credits roll, “If one still existed, that’d be the second greatest threat you’re currently facing. So, why don’t you tell me about John Stewart?”

In this episode of Lanterns, the plot, as they say, thickens. By focusing on the mystery set in 2016, Lanterns Episode 2 does a fantastic job of enriching the story by letting each character’s small details matter. Further, it’s enticing viewers to come back for the next episode to see what other secrets Lanterns has in store.

Lanterns Episode 2 is now streaming on HBO Max with new episodes weekly on Sundays.

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