Episode 7 of Lanterns starts in 1975, and it is exactly what we need to truly know Hal Jordan.
Content warning: This recap explores suicide and self-harm.
Hal is in his baseball coach’s office with a bruised eye, because he refused to give up the ball to his teammate. Hal’s father, Martin Jordan, joins and finds out Hal was on a roll, but the coach wanted Hal to give up his moment. To the coach’s surprise, Martin agrees with Hal. The next thing we hear is a fight between Martin and the coach. In fact, Martin is not going to let anyone bully his son or him.
Hal and his father, now both with black eyes, share ice pops while watching planes near an airplane hangar. Martin gives him a key to a safe and tells Hal the story of Martin’s father. Being fearless and being prepared are Jordan qualities. The instructions for the key were simple. Should anything happen to Martin, Hal is to open the safe, as Martin once did when his father never came home. Meanwhile, Hal is still holding on to the baseball from earlier in his coach’s office. Martin tells Hal to throw it away; holding on that long can be exhausting.
The next scene takes us to the young Hal preparing for his father’s funeral and attending the ceremony. When Martin gave Hal the key, he assured his son he would be around for many years to come. However, we learn Martin’s life was cut short; Hal laid his father to rest not too long after that talk. Then, the scene transitions to Hal-o-gram in 2026 looking down and seeing Hal in his grave.
Hal-o-gram has some questions. How much time has passed since he last saw John? Why is John not the Green Lantern for Earth? Who killed Hal? John clears up the time gap, but many questions are still unanswered. So, John recalls Hal-o-gram and heads to town. On the way, he calls his brothers to help him get the blackmail money for Maggie.
Photo Courtesy: Warner Bros. Discovery
John returns to the storage unit and calls up Hal-o-gram. But Hal-o-gram refuses to use his voice to open the vault until John gives him answers. John finds out that Hal-o-gram can still hear what’s happening, even when John thinks he has turned him off. Next, Hal-o-gram requests to speak to Sheriff Kerry, and John reveals that Hal was in love with the Sheriff. Regardless of this information, Hal-o-gram won’t help open the vault until he speaks to her.
On the drive to town, we find out Hal-o-gram manifests whenever the wearer is thinking of him. He goes away when the wearer stops thinking of him. Hal-o-gram gives John props for being able to keep him projected without wearing the ring. It’s the first time John has ever gotten a compliment from Hal, or at least a version of him.
They arrive in town to find out the Sheriff is at the hat ceremony for Noah. Hal-o-gram sees Guy’s Lantern signal and all the names of those in Rushville who died during the attack. He also learns that John and the Manhunter Zoe were an item. But he wrongly assumes it was Hal who killed Zoe and believes that is why John hates Hal. Notably, John does not correct this assumption. Hal-o-gram does make it clear: he is not Hal, so whatever Hal did is not what he would do.
Heading to the hat ceremony, John finds out that singing can help clear his mind of Hal-o-gram and uses it. John gives Maggie his watch to tide her over until the money comes in from his brothers. At the ceremony, we learn more about Noah’s character. Noah won’t do his ceremony without his offensive line behind him. However, he will make his school selection after the team wins the championship.
Billy tries to confront John at the end of the event until Sheriff Kerry steps in. She agrees to talk to John in the science lab before the guests from the event arrive at her house. John quickly confirms the transaction for the blackmail money before trying to give Sheriff Kerry a rundown on what Hal-o-gram is. Sheriff Kerry is clearly emotional when she sees Hal-o-gram. We learn through Sheriff Kerry’s words that Hal had more hope in John than John knew. After a brief conversation, Sheriff Kerry invites herself to the storage unit to open the vault. She asks the two to follow her to her house and wait, so they can leave together.
Photo Courtesy: Warner Bros. Discovery
In the car, Hal-o-gram shares his suspicion that Sheriff Kerry killed Hal. He tells John they need to get to the storage unit ASAP. When they arrive, Hal-o-gram wonders, “What if I wasn’t trying to keep people out, I was trying to keep something in?” Inside the vault, they find a backpack with a canteen, protein bars, a poncho, and a gun. They also find a travel-size Einstein-Rosen bridge, i.e., a wormhole, that will take them to another planet. To avoid the risk of Sheriff Kerry finding them and the wormhole, Hal-o-gram suggests they go somewhere else.
They go to the decoy water tower in town and head into the wormhole. Once through, they come out to what seems like a barren land, and John notes that it feels familiar. They soon realize there is a city in the sky, and John connects the dots that this was Antaan’s world. The familiar feeling John has is due to the memories he was given by the aliens when they recruited him to hunt down the Manhunter.
In the memories, John saw the inhabitants of this planet succumb to a gas that left them terrified. As a result, it drove them to kill each other and themselves. The desert they are walking on is a graveyard of those who lived in the city. Next, they walk toward a lake that has an island in its center. Then, they board a small boat to cross the lake. This is the only area of the planet where we see an active rainstorm.
The two have a heart-to-heart on their boat ride. John reveals that Hal and his mother became friends. So, John came back to Rushville for an apology from Hal that he never received. Then, John unloads all the reasons why he was upset with Hal.
Hal-o-gram makes two very important points to John. The first: John will never get Hal’s apology; Hal is dead. Second: if John had listened to Hal that last night, he might have seen Hal was in trouble. But John puts on his vocal skills to recall Hal-o-gram. As John paddles, apples begin to appear in the water. He is suddenly face to face with an apparition of John Sr., who calls him “Junior.” John Sr. puts an apple on his own head, demanding to know if John is afraid.
As John pulls out the gun to take the shot, John Sr. transforms into John in his youth. The apparition challenges whether John ever wanted to be a Lantern. As John tries to take the shot, he is suddenly knocked into the water. Hal-o-gram pulls him out to save John from harming himself. They both realize the effects of the gas that made the prior inhabitants of the planet kill themselves are still present in the falling rainwater. John puts on the poncho and they continue their journey.
Hal-o-gram reveals that he believes Martin Jordan killed himself shortly after he gave the young Hal the key to his safe. When Hal opened the safe, he found money, old photographs, and a form of a note. Martin lived with a deep pain, and his father before him did as well. This is the Jordan Boys’ legacy: Hal was only fearless because he was “broken.” Hal-o-gram had wondered if the vault would lead him to Hal’s own note. The obvious question comes up: did Hal kill himself? Hal-o-gram now believes that Sheriff Kerry tried to protect Hal’s image from people thinking he died by suicide. This moment gives us the first time that John ever calls Hal-o-gram “Hal.”
When they arrive at the island, John realizes that he has lost the gun. They enter a structure that is sporadically emitting streams of power into the sky. Upon entry, Hal-o-gram is attacked from behind and a knife is placed at his throat by a hooded figure. The hooded figure has two demands. Specifically, Hal and John must give up their boat and tell the location of the portal.
John recalls Hal-o-gram and knocks the assailant to the ground. Hal-o-gram reappears and when the hood is removed, we find out the assailant is Sinestro.
Photo Courtesy: Warner Bros. Discovery
The episode closes with a flashback to the young Hal. Wearing the suit from the funeral, he is back at the hangar where we saw him speak to his father. Ultimately, he came back to get the ball his father asked him to throw away.
We have only one episode left for this season. For now, we know a few things, but we still have questions. The Jordan Boys’ legacy might be a nod to mental health and how important it is, especially for the most fearless of us all.
If Sinestro is on Antaan’s planet, he couldn’t have killed Hal because Hal left him there.
Sheriff Kerry is absolutely hiding something; we just need clarity on what it is.
Did Hal bring Sinestro to this planet? Was the plan to come back for him? Did Hal really kill himself? If Hal really did believe in only success or failure as outcomes, did he believe he failed? If so, was his preparation leaving John the items in the vault? Overall, there are so many threads to pull on in this episode. One thing we got for sure: Hal-o-gram gives John the best compliment we have heard or seen this series,“Great arm, kid.”
