"Lanterns" episode 4 recap: the Manhunter reveal nobody's suspect board predicted — and the rift it rips open between Hal and John
Full spoilers ahead for "The Weenie." You've been warned, ring-slingers.
For three episodes, Lanterns pointed every flashlight in Rushville, Nebraska at William Macon, Garret Dillahunt's creepy ranch baron, and we all dutifully pinned his photo to our corkboards. Sweet summer children, the lot of us.
__IMG__
Two fake-outs and a funeral (sort of)
First, Macon redirects Hal (Kyle Chandler) and John (Aaron Pierre) toward Hector Hammond — a deep-cut nod to the giant-headed telepath of the comics and, less flatteringly, the 2011 Ryan Reynolds movie. Hammond swears he's the Manhunter. Hal out-bluffs him with roughly the effort of ordering coffee.
Then Zoe Macon (Poorna Jagannathan) — William's wife, and the woman John has been quietly sleeping with all season — leaves John's motel and gets vaporized by a drone laser in her car. Except.
She's the Manhunter
Zoe is alive. Zoe is the Manhunter. Zoe is the Benefactor. Her husband was the decoy, the "death" was misdirection, and the reason Rushville's hospital sits eerily empty is that her tech has been keeping the whole town healthy. Both Lanterns clock it independently — John because he felt nothing at her death and everything when his parents were threatened.
The reveal lands mid-rift, because this episode also sends Hal on an oath-breaking field trip to Sinestro, who tells him Manhunter hearts crystallize when they die — and that Hal could save his ring by disgracing his trainee. Co-creator Damon Lindelof has been upfront about why that visit was non-negotiable:
"If you're going to do Green Lantern, you have to have Sinestro in it because he's the one who trained Hal," Lindelof said of the episode.
And Hal, freshly informed that John has been talking to the Guardians about replacing him, appears to take his old mentor's advice to heart: he bails out of the moving car and leaves a ringless John to crash. Four episodes left, and the partnership is now the crime scene.
Earlier we wrote: Kubrick wanted John Wayne. Wayne didn’t bother answering: the film is now ranked the No. 1 comedy of all time
