John’s Parents Give Dysfunction A Whole New Meaning In This Week’s ‘Lanterns’ 

This week’s episode of Lanterns takes us on a detour where we learn all about John Stewart Jr.’s (Aaron Pierre) backstory. 

The episode opens with John falling through a roof onto a stack of mattresses in a dead mall. John ventures through the mall before eventually finding Lianna (Laura Linney, crushing it as always), a Guardian who’s taken human form. After a brief greeting, he’s left to wait for an entire day until Lianna eventually returns. 

From here, the interview begins. I really appreciated how they used the interview as a framing device to take us through several periods in John’s life. The first flashback takes us to when John was just an infant. John’s mother, Bernadette (a fantastic Jasmine Cephas Jones), leaves the room briefly when the ring visits John Sr. The ring asks him if he’s afraid, and he frantically says yes. 

John Sr. is haunted by this failure. He’s already spiraled into drunken depression when Hal reveals himself to the world, and John Sr. learns that the ring was testing him to become the next Green Lantern. His distress over failing the test has caused a strain in his marriage and alienated him from everyone in the military. 

One night when John Sr. is away, Lianna visits Bernadette to make amends for the psychological trauma caused by the ring’s test. Bernadette initially doesn’t believe Lianna is an alien until she transforms AND GOES FULL GIANT BLUE PERSON BAYBEE.

Each time I think Lanterns is going to shy away from a super comic book-y concept, they go at it with full force. 

Bernadette invites Lianna in for coffee, where she explains the concept of race and how it’s messed up to ask a Black man in America if he’s afraid. I love that the show is already introducing the idea that the Guardians are not this wise, all-knowing alien race (they do a lot of sketchy things in the comics). 

I also love that both Bernadette and Kerry have clocked that Hal didn’t get this ring because he was some paragon of virtue. In the first episode, Kerry notes that Hal doesn’t have a family or anything to lose, which makes him lonely, not fearless. In this episode, Bernadette says he got the ring because he had the privilege of not knowing fear. 

John Sr. actually had something to lose and was worried about what would happen to his family if something happened to him. Bernadette knows her husband has everything it takes to be a Green Lantern, but he couldn’t pass a test rigged against him. Jasmine Cephas Jones crushes it as Bernadette Stewart, portraying her with a mix of tenderness and relentless determination. When John Sr. returns, Bernadette tells him that John could be trained to be the Green Lantern of the future. From here, we see the lengths that Bernadette and John Sr. go to train John through childhood. 

We see Bernadette and John Sr. make the bold move to tell John about his destiny as a Green Lantern in front of his brothers. We learn the meaning behind the bird John generated in the last episode, as the Guardians told John’s parents that they would use birds to monitor John’s progress as he grows. 

Throughout John’s childhood, we see the various trials he’s put through. From getting apples shot off his head to his parents straight up dropping the little negro into the hood and saying, “survive.” John makes it home from the last part, but you see the toll it’s taking on both him and his parents. 

The second timeline shows John as a Marine on a sniper mission, as we learn why he was dishonorably discharged. The mission immediately goes south when lightning strikes his parachute, and he crash-lands through the woods. The mission shows John’s tenacity as a soldier, as he stays for what’s eventually revealed to be nine months in the same sniper post, his hair getting longer and longer as the days go by. 

The Russian national John is sent to kill eventually appears, and he lines up the shot. As he’s about to take it, a missile is seen coming toward the man before a green bubble appears over him and narrowly protects him. Before John can take the shot, Hal swoops in and saves the man. 

Thanks to Hal Jordan’s heroism, John is dishonorably discharged from the military and takes the fall for the attack. 

As a child, John shows a passion for art, and his mother enrolls him in art school after his discharge. This brief detour leads to John’s first encounter with the Green Lantern ring, when a mysterious man asks him to draw multiple objects from memory. He then hands him a power ring and asks him to make a construct of his father’s watch. After successfully using the ring, the man drops a mysterious goo that creates a portal in the ground. John takes a leap of faith, which takes us back to the opening of the episode as he falls into the dead mall. 

The interview portions also give us more insight as to why they’re auditioning a new Green Lantern. Hal beat Sinestro, but the Guardians are concerned about his lingering affection for his mentor. It also doesn’t help that the stunt Hal pulled saving the Russian national was the latest instance of him disobeying direct orders. 

Lianna tells John that his training is under false pretenses. He’s not training to be a backup; he’s training to replace Hal. John agrees to the arrangement and heads back to his parents’ house to tell them, only to find Hal Jordan at the dinner table. Hal is putting on a charm offensive for John’s parents, though he gets in a slight dig with his “Midwest Huxtables” line. 

Hal immediately notes there’s some tension with John as they’re leaving the house. John says he was disappointed because he wanted to be the one to tell his parents about receiving the invite. Hal goes full mask off, telling John he doesn’t care what he thinks, feels, or wants, and that the only way he’s getting the ring is over his dead body. 

What an episode, y’all. There is so much to chew on. 

In the last several years, we’ve seen more and more mainstream pop culture steer away from Black themes for fear of offending the unseasoned fanboys who make five-hour YouTube videos complaining about two-hour movies. You know, the type of fan who thinks introducing themes relevant to the real world somehow means the creators of a show/movie aren’t taking the characters seriously. 

This week’s Lanterns unapologetically dives headfirst into what it would truly mean for a Black man to become a Green Lantern in the real world. In some ways, this week’s Lanterns feels like a companion piece to executive producer Damon Lindelof’s other superhero show, Watchmen. That show was a superhero drama and a thorough examination of the role race plays in America. 

With this episode, we got the most extreme version of the “you have to work twice as hard for half as much” speech. As a Black person, you rarely get to be the right guy at the right time, like Hal Jordan. Any amount of ambition requires a lifetime of preparation, and even then that’s not always enough.

With this episode, it’s clear that John is the best Green Lantern because, for better or worse, he’s spent his entire life being prepared for the opportunity. 

It looks like next week we’re going back to Rushville and finally getting to see Hal Jordan and Sinestro verbally spar. 

SEE ALSO:

Aaron Pierre Shines As ‘Lanterns’ Gets Off To A Thrilling Start

‘Lanterns’ Episode 2 Delivers Compelling Mystery, Solid Worldbuilding