If you have your audience asking that question right in the middle of the inaugural season of your show, I’m not sure if you’re doing something good or bad, but you’re certainly doing something unusual.
asserted
you → have → something
That’s the point we reached at the end of episode five of HBO’s Lanterns.
asserted
we → ’ → Lanterns
The three-way war between aliens, Lanterns, and Zoe the Manhunter, with the fate of Rushville, Nebraska hanging in the balance, reached its bloody conclusion.
asserted
fate → hang → conclusion
So did the struggle for control of the Green Lantern power ring: John Stewart pried it from Hal Jordan’s still living hand, then delivered it straight to Lianna the Guardian, refusing to take this extremely shitty job after all.
asserted
Stewart → do → job
Sheriff Kerry Kane calls off a mob of angry villagers when they surround John, and that’s that.
asserted
that → call → John
Leaving the fate of your show so wide open so early in the proceedings is, by far I think, the boldest thing series co-creators Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King have done during the show’s shaky but promising run so far.
asserted
creators → leave → run
In a way, of course, they’re just mimicking the structure of, you guessed it, True Detective Season 1, with its mid-season time jump from being primarily flashbacks to primarily present-day material, and its concurrent shift in the personalities and fortunes of the two main characters.
asserted
you → mimic → characters
But in both cases, the big mid-season climax only gets you so far.
asserted
climax → get → you
You still have to come up with something interesting for everyone to do afterwards.
asserted
everyone → have → something
So far, at least, Lanterns has done it.
asserted
Lanterns → do → it
The episode picks up just before the flash forward that ended the series premiere, where John and Kerry discover Hal Jordan’s dead body frozen in the Rushville, Nebraska football stadium.
asserted
John → pick → stadium
Just hours before, John was lured to Rushville by his mother Bernadette, who remains the absolute dirt worst person in his life; she claimed Hal Jordan told her he wanted to apologize.
asserted
he → lure → her
The apology turns out to be bullshit, but Hal informs John that the friendship between himself and John’s mother is real, which is basically the worst possible outcome for John.
asserted
which → turn → John
They argue, John breaks his nose, John leaves.
asserted
John → argue → nose
Hours later, Hal’s dead of a 9mm gunshot at point-blank range in that football stadium.
asserted
Hal → ’ → stadium
To quote Robert Pattinson quoting Chris Hansen, you see how this looks, right?
asserted
this → quote → Hansen
Of course we know John was nowhere near town anymore when Hal got popped, but it would look a type of way to Kerry if he were found to have broken Hal’s nose.
asserted
he → know → nose
John already lands himself in enough trouble when he gets in a fistfight with her now ex-husband Billy Macon and a gaggle of other goons when he activates, get this, a Lantern-Signal left behind by Hal and John’s replacement.
asserted
he → land → Hal
That would be Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion, having a ball), the blond, bowl-cut gym teacher — excuse me, athletic director — who was chosen to be this sector’s Green Lantern after Hal burned out and John turned them down.
asserted
John → have → them
No one in the town is particularly happy the thing is there, and they’re double mad to see an ex-GL (even if only for five minutes) activate it.
asserted
they → ’re → it
Of course, you don’t pick a fight with John Stewart if you value having all your teeth.
asserted
you → pick → teeth
And even though John plays it cool with Kerry and her now-teenaged son Noah (Shea Pritchard) at dinner at her house that night, word eventually catches up to him, and he spends the night in the clink before his brother Marcus (Jared Grimes) bails him out.
asserted
brother → play → him
Marcus has good reason to do so, and even better reason to be mad he has to.
asserted
he → have → reason
First, he has a full goatee, a bold choice.
asserted
he → have → goatee
Second, he works as an architect, designing panic rooms for both individuals and entire municipalities in a firm he co-founded with his brother Marcus.
asserted
he → work → brother
He funds the recording career of his other brother Andre (Romeo Brown) with the proceeds.
asserted
He → fund → proceeds
Both brothers insist on calling him “Chosen,” a reference to his green past and his parents’ preferential treatment of him.
asserted
brothers → insist → him
Not that this last bit amounts to much by now: His mom remains a weirdo, and his dad is shooting up his retirement home to get John’s attention.
Anyway, John is supposed to be pitching an underground bunker system capable of housing tens of thousands to Midway City, a fake DC Universe town.
asserted
John → amount → City
But he’s stuck in Rushville, and not only because he’s in prison.
asserted
he → ’ → prison
He feels obligated to provide Hal with a proper burial and funeral service, complete with a uniform and ring Guy has to go to outer space to get for him.
asserted
Guy → feel → him
John even delivers the eulogy that Hal wrote and gave to his ex-girlfriend Carol Ferris (Amie Mackenzie).
asserted
Hal → deliver → girlfriend
The speech is a mixture of delusions of grandeur (he assumes his funeral would be a major world event) and sad grappling with the fact of his own mortality.
asserted
funeral → assume → mortality
“I hope I mattered,” it concludes.
asserted
it → hope → ?
But John is determined to find out who killed his predecessor, even if it means sticking around in a town that hates him and potentially alienating his friend Kerry, the only person in town who gave a shit about Hal.
asserted
who → find → Hal
(They were, in fact, an item, which is hard to wrap my mind around.)
asserted
which → wrap → mind
He digs up the body, pries off Hal’s decommissioned ring, and unlocks his digitized doppelganger, who reacts to the news of his real self’s demise with profane dismay, as you might expect.
uncertain
you → dig → dismay
A few other plot threads bear examination.
asserted
threads → bear → examination
While going through Hal’s personal effects, Kerry and John find a key to a storage locker containing some kind of cosmic-cube vault they can’t access without Hal himself.
asserted
they → go → Hal
(Maybe the decoy Hal will work where a voice recording failed.)
asserted
recording → work → ?
There’s also a teenager named Maggie (Hannah Christine Shetler) who’s shaking John down for Lantern/alien/Manhunter battle reparations — the word feels pointed right after she dismisses his fears that their rural Nebraska town is racist — or she’ll tell the sheriff she saw him with Hal the night of his death.
asserted
she → ’ → death
…and 19 more, not listed.
The Aporia
