00:00:00
Speaker 1: Worrying. Today's episode contains spoilers for episode one of Lanterns. Hell it was Jasoncepcia and I'm Rosie Night and welcome back to ext revision of the podcast where we dive deep in your favorite shows, movies, comics of pop, poker company Romaia, where we're bringing you three episodes week less.
00:00:32
Speaker 2: News plus Snooze on Saturday's and in today's episode, guys, it's finally here. It's a recap of Lantern's episode one pilot. Now, we were not enabled to access screeners for this, which is why you are getting it after we watched it on Sunday night just like you, and we are going to recap the episode. How do we feel about it? There's a lot of buzz online and we'll be talking about where we think the show is going to go next, how this establishes.
00:00:57
Speaker 3: Or helps the gun Verse, and what standouts are.
00:01:01
Speaker 2: Plus, you may have heard big shocking reveal in this episode, so we will be breaking that down too.
00:01:09
Speaker 1: Let's dive into Lanterns. So we open with John Stewart as a child. He's with his brothers in the den watching sixty Minutes, an episode that is introducing the viewing audience of that time to Earth's very first green lantern, how Jordan talking about how he saved the Earth from a meteorite and all this stuff. He's a very down to earth type of guy. Coach Taylor all of that, who frames the core as essentially like space cops, which is correct. Yeah, and basically says to get in. He was asked one question, which is are you afraid we learn of how How's dad, a pilot and the military, died in a fiery crash when he was a child, and that after that he had no fear and so.
00:01:59
Speaker 3: Of course you need to say go to therapyla.
00:02:02
Speaker 1: Yes. Speaking of which, the sound of a car pulling up in the driveway scares John Stewart and his brothers. They turn off the TV in a rush, and John's father, their father, tough army guy in his army uniform, comes home and I'm here to talk about this. He says, you're gonna tell me his real name? And John says hal something, and so then John's dad says, Okay, we gotta do the thing. They go out to the garage, stand in front of the garage door, where Dad puts a apple fucking William Tell style on John's head and then shoots with his side arm the apple off John's head.
00:02:47
Speaker 3: Now ahead, terrible.
00:02:50
Speaker 1: This is show is, you know, wrapped in several layers of mystery, clearly framed as who done it? Here's one of the whodunnits I have, one of the mysteries I have of It's clear to me from this exchange, or it suggested to me from this exchange You're gonna tell me his real name, that Hal and John had met by this time, something had happened between them.
00:03:10
Speaker 3: I read it differently, and John is covering for him.
00:03:13
Speaker 2: No, I think it is either that or the dad is obsessed with Hal Jordan and is like making him rewatch the sixty minutes and like watch the ship, and is like, and I don't know why John's acting like this, but there was some weird like it would make sense you're reading. But I was also like, how would they have met?
00:03:35
Speaker 1: Right?
00:03:36
Speaker 3: But like at that at that point, right.
00:03:38
Speaker 1: But you're you're reading that he's quizzing him on how Jordan and using how Jordan almost like a sports dad to like, you know, it'd be like a sports dad making their watch watch this, watch the Jalen Brunson as a kid training videos.
00:03:55
Speaker 3: But then why say why why bring jn No?
00:03:59
Speaker 1: But why say you're gonna tell me his real name?
00:04:02
Speaker 2: I know. That's what I was trying to work out, is like, what's the connection here?
00:04:08
Speaker 3: Is it about John?
00:04:10
Speaker 2: Does he think John has a connection to How?
00:04:12
Speaker 3: Because also the other read of this is like the dad is.
00:04:17
Speaker 2: Mentally unwell, right, which is like, I think that's meant to be the clear read.
00:04:22
Speaker 3: But I do think you answer a big question.
00:04:25
Speaker 2: You ask a big important question here, Jason, which is this is obviously establishing that either John or John's family know more about How before I think he meets him than they did. Also, again, I look, I just want to say, I know, I'm really glad people are loving this, Like I know friends of the show like Amelia Emberwing like right as that I love, are really enjoying this.
00:04:45
Speaker 3: But I will tell you, guys, this was exactly my.
00:04:48
Speaker 2: Worry about this show is like do we need a green lantern show where like John Stewart's I want to put a tip in and just say this is where I started to fear that maybe I was right.
00:05:03
Speaker 1: Okay, we fast forward twenty years. Hal picks up John in a classic oldmobile with him what.
00:05:13
Speaker 3: Is it sixteen years or something? Joel's fuck it.
00:05:17
Speaker 1: I think it's like it's some large amount of time because Hall is now a grown ass Aaron Pierre sized man, and excuse me, John is now a grown as Aaron Peer sized man, and Hall is somewhat more grizzled with his hair has gone gray. And he picks up John in front of the Spotify offices in downtown Los Angeles Arts District in a classic old mobile, and we learned that hallis training with John to take over. He's his backup, but clearly John is like dragging his feet in a way that is pretty frustrating for John.
00:05:59
Speaker 2: How's dragging his feet because he doesn't really want to train John and John hasn't even like won the ring yet, and like yeah.
00:06:05
Speaker 1: So they're talking about that. They're heading out of town, like on the road, headed towards like Joshua Tree or something, and Hal's like, okay, you want to wear the ring. He puts the ring on the dashboard and says meet me at the taco stand three miles up the road, and then he leaps out of the car as the car is heading for a ravine. John gets the ring on just before the car just gets fucking torn.
00:06:26
Speaker 2: What a waste of a That car is beautiful, like it makes me so also as well. I just want to say this is a great How Jordan introduction, because this motherfuckers.
00:06:35
Speaker 3: Always doing some dub shit.
00:06:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, but this was again very annoying, Like, okay, so you've been put in charge. If I'm the Guardians of OA and this bitch almost sends my new green lantern off the mountain. He's not in charge of training anymore, you know what I mean, Like, take this man away.
00:06:50
Speaker 1: Well, that's why I have I'll talk about what I think is going on later, Okay. So John walks towards the stand and he's fiddling with the ring. The ring activates, and the backup of like the uploaded to the cloud backup of hol Ai ten years younger than current how because Hall has not been updating it regularly as the protocol say. He should talks to How and he is as surprised as excuse me, talks to John and he is young. How is as surprised as anyone that John isn't being properly trained. He hasn't even you know worn the ring. He doesn't know how to fly. He's walking three miles rather than fly. It's very concerning to young how young Hal gives current, gives a message to John Stewart for his current self. There's Hale in Rushville, Nebraska, and when Hal here's this later at the taco shop, he flies away in extreme haste. John has to follow him to Rushville, Nebraska on a commercial fly crazy.
00:08:00
Speaker 3: I would be calling up them guardians of Oh, like what the fuck is going on with this old white man? Like this is crazy.
00:08:07
Speaker 1: He follows How to a local high school where there's just been just been a mass shooting. Cops are on the scene. There's a shooting on the football field. There's several people down, and we meet the sheriff. Sheriff Kerrie Macon, who obviously knows who helps Jordon as he's very famous, and is like, why are you here? Don't interfere with my investigation. It's clear she's very confident. She knows the town, she knows what she's doing, she knows how to invest your crime. She's like, there's no aliens involved, you shouldn't even be here.
00:08:37
Speaker 2: Yeah. Also, I want to say, this is really funny because this essentially establishes the log line of the show that I hadn't realized to this moment, which is like, what if you are local cop and instead of the FBI, you had like alien cops coming and saying this is my jurisdiction.
00:08:53
Speaker 3: I think that's kind.
00:08:54
Speaker 2: Of the pitch, which which makes sense in the concept of this show.
00:08:58
Speaker 1: So John is like, yeah, what are we doing here? And Hal's like, listen, there's I can feel it. There's there's aliens involved. Just trust me on this. They're like, namely that guy. Look at that guy. And there's a guy on the field like acting like one of the traumatized witnesses, and maybe he is, but he's just kind of down there. John goes down to kind of like check the guy out. The sheriff stops him and is like, what are you doing. I've already you're gonna go talk to that guy. I'm already watching the guy, and if you come down here, you're gonna spook the guy who I am already watching already taking care of this, so don't get involved. And John's like, fuck, I fucked up. And then the guy runs, so they give chase and they catch the guy, but the sheriff won't let Hal talk to him. Later, at a bar, Hal tells John the backstory of how he got the ring, which is the classic comic book Gorgian story with the crashed alien and on the verge of death and the whole thing. And here is so here is my theory. John basically tells how, in not so many words, that he believes the crash it wasn't an act accident. It was something like fate or a plan or something like. It wasn't just he wandered, you know, he happened to bump into this crash site, which leads me to believe that maybe there's this show is setting up a much longer play, and that John, in a similar way, was led to reached out to or met how because how came to believe that something about this long range plan or fate meant that the two had to meet and have a relationship somewhere, because because because how, why not just be like stop following me guy, Like I'm not he's not training him, he's not doing anything, but he wants him around for some reason?
00:10:49
Speaker 3: Is my connection? So I this is my theory.
00:10:52
Speaker 2: I don't think that it's because John thinks. I don't think it's because How thinks John is his fate. I think it's the oha Gotti have told How he has to do this and he doesn't want to, and he sees John as like someone who's going to replace him, and he doesn't want to give him the ring. That's why I think that's why I think the major conflict of this season is going to be because otherwise, why there's net Like why first of all, is there even two green lanterns unless we're adapting like a like a Grandmarson's green lantern thing, like they wanted to establish this so they could have a white green lantern mentor that's what it feels like to me. So I think that the idea is like I think John is the one who has the connection to How, and I think How is the one who is being forced into the connection.
00:11:36
Speaker 3: That's my that's my gut at this point, but we'll see.
00:11:40
Speaker 2: I think the fate is more about John's own self worth, Like I mean, How's own self worth, Like he doesn't just think the aliens chose him.
00:11:47
Speaker 3: He thinks that's what's meant to happen, like in the universe.
00:11:50
Speaker 2: And I think this is going to be about the aliens and why they choose, which we've never really talked about.
00:11:54
Speaker 1: Right, It will be interesting to find out what How and John's relationship True was, because it's I mean, it's clear to me, or it seems like that suggests to me that they have interacted back when John was a child. Anyway, he tells John, how does that listen? I've been doing this a long time. I'm the first ever green lantern from Earth. If my gut says that guy's an alien, that guy's a fucking alien, I'm gonna follow it. So just back me up and just watch what I'm doing. He's also constantly selecting the same song in the jukebox, trying to annoy the locals, and John quickly realizes he's trying to get himself thrown in jail so he can talk to the guy, the guy who led the football field.
00:12:42
Speaker 2: If you again, now this might be to do with the true detective, like real detective element of it. I feel like, if you're a green lantern, you could just break into the jail ber like, like not even hard, like just will yourself like a doorway and just open a door into the man's cell.
00:12:57
Speaker 3: Like from the outside. It's like I think that to me. Again, I love Green Lantern, so this is also my problem.
00:13:04
Speaker 2: I think, like the way that they're trying to construct, like why not use the ring.
00:13:10
Speaker 3: Well you could just be like a jucky guy in a ball like that.
00:13:13
Speaker 2: He also speak to me.
00:13:14
Speaker 1: He also says, like the whole thing about being a Green Lantern is you've got this weapon of mass destruction on your finger, and you've got to decide when to use it and when not to use it, and all of this. I mean, Joelle and I were discussing previously before returning the mics, like they turned you know, there is corruption in the Green Lantern cores, or there are cops like any others when that when the Green Lantern books want to get political with it exactly it all of which leads me to believe that how is investigating We're going to find out that the Green Lantern Corp. Is corrupt in some way. He's not using the ring that much because he doesn't trust this it does. He doesn't trust it. It seems something he doesn't want I trying to put it on until well he knows that I'm into this safe to put it on I like that. So he's trying to root out whatever this thing is. That's what I think is going.
00:14:08
Speaker 2: That's such a good read, and I fucking hope that's where the show is good.
00:14:11
Speaker 1: But we'll see. Maybe it might be they were writing a better show. Actually never know, you never never know. Anyway, Uh, Hal gets his way, he gets beat up, and while that's going on, John Stewart starts spitting game at this lady at the bar about yeah, yeah, I'm the I'm the backup lantern, this, that and the other, and she's like, crazy, let's go fucking my truck.
00:14:36
Speaker 3: I was gonna say, I feel like.
00:14:37
Speaker 2: If you're Aaron Pierre, like you don't need to tell that your backup superhero in the DC universe. That's like lowering your levels of like appeal, honestly, Like there's a lot of those my guy. But yeah, obviously had to have some sex here because it's Aaron Pierre. He's hot, and it's HBO.
00:14:53
Speaker 1: I don't know if I was in a strange town, single guy and like I'm backing up Aquaman, I'm like, yeah, I'm Aquaman's.
00:15:00
Speaker 3: Do you think you'd pull it out? I try, like I'm alad.
00:15:04
Speaker 1: You know, like when he's when he's underwater or whatever for long period. Okay, you do make a good brand based represented.
00:15:12
Speaker 2: I think something that I I think you're right, Jason, like something I guess I'm kind of like not used to that this pilot doesn't fully immerse me in is this kind of established universe where how Jordan is essentially like a famous celebrity but also like the face of like a out of planet government.
00:15:32
Speaker 3: Kind of like but works alongside our government. So you're right in this world.
00:15:36
Speaker 2: Saying your green Landin's backup is like saying you're Robert Pattinson's stand in, Like it probably is going to get you.
00:15:41
Speaker 1: Like it's pretty cool, right, Yeah. Anyway, Sheriff Making meanwhile, had realized that Hell was just trying to meet the guy in jail, and so she had him put in a closet so he could copy die and then she takes him to his arraignment at the local courthouse, where suddenly kind of slick but also seemingly nice guy lawyer Billy, who is the Sheriff's husband, just out of the goodness of his heart, is like I'm gonna represent you and ends up getting how like out of trouble more or less, and Hal is like, you know, I don't know. When somebody gives me free legal help or gives me something for free that's worth tens of thousands of dollars, usually I think that guy's a bad guy. And Billy's like, yeah, but I'm not a bad guy. I just want you. You know, my dad is a big fan of yours, big fan of the Green Lantern Corps. And you can pay us by back by having dinner with us at the family ranch. Again, my dad's a huge.
00:16:46
Speaker 3: Fan favorite of reveal of the whole episode.
00:16:50
Speaker 2: I think this was where I was like, Okay, this is doing something kind of Watchman level interesting, Like I thought this was the big hook that made me intrigued.
00:16:59
Speaker 1: So they drive up there. Billy Macon played by Jason Ridder, wonderful Jason Ridder. I'm going to talk a little bit about him so much. What the how the age ranges here work anyway, because this family is so close together all in age.
00:17:13
Speaker 2: It doesn't make any sense if you know the actors ages the rid So the.
00:17:17
Speaker 1: Ranch is full of militia type guys with AR fifteen's, you know, like white to a yellowstone look and they meet will Macon, the patriarch, father of Billy, father in law of Sheriff Carry and he's like chopping up this like huge steaks of some sort of like buffalo or fucking tower whatever, and he you know, Hall and John meet him and he's like, Hey, don't worry, I've got tofu steaks for you. And it's clear what he's saying is, hey, I've studied you guys, like I've read.
00:18:01
Speaker 2: Like, we know you what you can eat, what you can't eat.
00:18:05
Speaker 3: And also I would say, as.
00:18:06
Speaker 2: Well, there is like an implication here, and I think you and Joe were kind of talking about what this statement means when I joined pre pro. But like there's also the soy boy implication. This kind of like that it's very heavily weighted. But I do think the first point of it is to say I know you, I know what you eat, I know you're feeding, I.
00:18:24
Speaker 3: Know your habits.
00:18:25
Speaker 2: But I also think the writers room understood what they sure like that clarif there's like there's the double edged lord of it side of it.
00:18:32
Speaker 3: But I do think you're right.
00:18:33
Speaker 2: This is to let you know he's like the shitty Texas batman, like he has a file on Nebraska.
00:18:38
Speaker 1: Although you played by Garret Dilla Hunt, who I will say plays it. He does it. He delivers it very straight, but you're right, he delivers it straight and dry in a way that clearly John and the audience is meant to wonder, like, what's he really saying all the time?
00:18:55
Speaker 3: Exactly way exactly.
00:18:56
Speaker 1: He's like, you know, John, and how I'll ask about the militia guys, and Will is like, hey, you know, don't worry about them. It's and by the way, this isn't really my ranch, Like I manage it for a guy, but I can't talk about who that person.
00:19:12
Speaker 3: Is going to happen, right.
00:19:17
Speaker 1: And he says, like, let's not talk about the militia guys. Here's what I'm concerned about. Why I wanted to have Earth's you know, first green lantern over for dinner. I'm worried about illegal alien immigration, meaning aliens from another planet coming to Earth when they're not invited and potentially taking it over from native born humans. And I'm concerned about that. And he agrees with Hal that he thinks the guy who fled the football field is an advanced team from an alien race, and he's like, by the way, I can get you, I can pull some strings. You know, my son's wife is the sheriff, and I can get you in a room with the guy to talk to him, and they're like in exchange for what? And Will is very very vague about that. He basically does.
00:20:15
Speaker 3: You're gonna owe this man of favor? Yeah?
00:20:17
Speaker 1: Clearly.
00:20:17
Speaker 2: I also want to say, I actually think Jason, now you've pointed out your theory about how exploring the corruption on OAH, if that is the case and that does pay off, this is some really nice foreshadowing and kind of echoing of that, because we get to see the corruption in this small town Nebraska and how easy it is for somebody's friend of the cops to get inside and kind of talk to this allegedly you know, dangerous man.
00:20:43
Speaker 1: Well, that's why I think, by the way, Hal hasn't backed up in ten years because he he began having suspicions ten years ago, and so he doesn't.
00:20:54
Speaker 3: Maybe how who doesn't have the knowledge and.
00:20:56
Speaker 1: Right and he doesn't want the core to know that he knows or suspects, which is why he's not been backing up. That's just my theory. Anyway, John is outside because of all the meat cutting up maybe or just and he's a vegan and he's a vegan, and he's teaching the son of Billy and the sheriff how to throw a nice tight.
00:21:21
Speaker 3: Spike SI unbelievable through a through.
00:21:24
Speaker 1: A tire, just like they do, you know, just like a red blooded American boy. Yeah, And the kids like, holy shit, how did you Wow? You really taught me how to do it? And John is like, yeah, I learned that technique because my dad used to shoot apples off my head, which is you know again, it's so insane that you were John child.
00:21:44
Speaker 2: This is so real though, because people always say to me, they go, oh wow, your nails real, and I go, oh yeah, my mom's second husband. He just used to bully the shower me till I still biting my nails, Like.
00:21:53
Speaker 3: Sorry, Sometimes it's just how you learn. Yeah, it was so funny. It's like, John, you abused you that show apples off your head? Tell you what good football?
00:22:01
Speaker 2: Like?
00:22:01
Speaker 3: Calm down, child?
00:22:04
Speaker 2: Can we please get some like Gaudian therapy for the great lifts?
00:22:08
Speaker 3: Please?
00:22:09
Speaker 1: And so somebody the kids like, oh, Grandma, great wonderful reveal, Hi grandma, And here comes Grandma. John turns around to see her and it's the woman John fucked, and so he's like, damn it. Later we'll make in the Patriarchs. As Hal and John are leaving, is like, hey, hope you're tofu steaks were seasoned? Well, you know, I'm not, you know, it's I'm not used to cooking that, and just like, oh, it's delicious, absolutely great, and he says, yeah, you know, there's nothing there's nothing more satisfying than eating off another man's grill. Huh, which again delivered in that dry style that I think is meant to signal to John that hey, I know you fucked my wife.
00:22:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, And she goes out there and does that shit and then tells me was the implication I got, like, well, he's watching either way something.
00:22:59
Speaker 1: So they get back, you know, hallan John are in the car and Al's like, what the fuck was that about? He's like, well, I fucked that guy's.
00:23:06
Speaker 3: And how I was like sick?
00:23:07
Speaker 4: Okay, maybe that right next day, Hall interrogates the guy as John and Sheriff make and watch this option.
00:23:18
Speaker 2: He gets offlia.
00:23:21
Speaker 1: He is a cut. I mean, it's like, you know, he's doing a solid idea.
00:23:24
Speaker 2: He couldn't get in before, right, and now he went to the white militia barbecue and now he's in that interrogated.
00:23:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, that sounds about to be.
00:23:31
Speaker 1: So long story short, this guy is an alien, although very very you know, we learn that there are over a dozen alien species that cannot be cannot be tested for like whatever DNA takes biological MRI, you would never know. And so John goes in there, and long story short, this guy is an alien. He's here on a very very important and dangerous mission. That quote concerns the opposite of peace, so some thing related to looming whiffs of warfare. And eventually the guy tells How that he he starts making fun of the lantern oath and then suggests that Hal is here on a suicide mission and that How wants to die. And then he gets how to admit. He basically figures out this guy knows a lot about the lanterns and clearly a lot about a lot of stuff. He's like, oh, you didn't take your lantern with you? How much charge is left in your ring? Like what are you gonna do? Like he's and Hal's like, don't worry, there's a I can do plenty with the ring. There's enough in there. And he's like, yeah, but for how long? And the guy admits that you know, he's carrying some sort of bomb or he has access to some sort of explosive weapon. He's making fun of the lantern. Oh oh, the darkest night and this and that how gets Matt starts throwing the guy around the room. The guy starts beeping for fortunately for everyone that this alien explosive device beeps before it goes off. Hal throws the guy into the corner of the room and then puts a shield around him with the ring. And still the explosion does wreck a corner of the building, but everybody survives except the guy, and How goes to John is like I told you so, we fast forward another ten years to twenty twenty six. This is the show is fast forward in thirty years. John now with a goateee.
00:25:24
Speaker 3: This bitch has a soul patch.
00:25:26
Speaker 1: He's got a goatee. Now returns to Nebraska to the very same football field where the mass shooting occurred ten years back. Sheriff Macon is there, leads him up into the snow covered stands where Hal is sitting in almost a frozen type of variation.
00:25:46
Speaker 3: I mean true detective types with.
00:25:47
Speaker 1: A bullet hole in his head, frozen blood dripping down right in his forehead, and his ring missing bombp bump bum.
00:25:58
Speaker 3: Screen is because they kill Jordan at the end. Maybe we'll get them out of this show.
00:26:02
Speaker 1: Let's take a break and we will come back and discuss this show, and we are back. I think I liked it more than you, but also my you know, we had been discussing the fact that there was the people didn't get screener as the press rollout was kind of choppy, and so I had my theory was that they think it's bad, and so I'm surprised that it was solid. I thought it was good.
00:26:43
Speaker 3: I think it's a solid pilot.
00:26:44
Speaker 2: I do have issues, which I think of the other opposite issues, which hilariously like I actually also went in with low expectations I have. I feel like the reviews are pretty mixed if you actually read them, but obviously in our community a lot of buzz because this is a really interesting pilot.
00:26:59
Speaker 3: It's like grim and gritty, it's.
00:27:01
Speaker 2: About kind of like going back to the home town. I feel like it has a lot of our favorite tropes My actual biggest takeaway on this episode is I just don't I just don't know to me if the quality is there for like an HBO show. I feel like it is not the same level as the House of the Dragon a Penguin even like a a kind of sort of you know, AMC like BETTERC or Saul Breaking Bad, Like there's something here to me that feels like this would be such a great broadcast TV show, like a like a CW show or when DC launched DC Universe. It still feels left over to me from that era. I don't know why it doesn't have the juice. It feels to me like it's trying to be an HBO show. But I will say I will say, like many things in this fandom, talking to you about it and hearing your reads on it has gotten me more excited. I do think, unfortunately, I understand what they're going for here, and I do think having Hall as the victim is really cool. But I also just like, too fast forward in a in a pilot to get to an in media res of like how did we get here? Is kind of I don't know it sing It smacks to me of like a rewritten pilot and not necessarily like a I'm interested to where the rest of the show goes. I would say that my biggest takeaway is not who killed John, I mean who killed how? So I think that in itself becomes kind of an issue because like the murder mystery, you need to care.
00:28:30
Speaker 3: But I love your OA corruption idea.
00:28:33
Speaker 2: I do think the white militia is interesting, and that is where I'm going to bring up what I fear My true issue is with this show, which is sort of not fair, but is fair because of who's involved. Damon Lindeloff is involved in this show. He's allegedly, you know, one of the creators alongside Tom King.
00:28:48
Speaker 3: That man has a lot, he's a creator.
00:28:51
Speaker 2: But I would say at this point, five years into the show being created, we don't know how much Damon Lindeloff or Tom King were involved. Like May King, there's there's writers rooms who are really the ones who are like chopping up and making the show right.
00:29:04
Speaker 1: Well, I think that I don't think it's allegend, I mean no.
00:29:11
Speaker 3: Officially created.
00:29:12
Speaker 1: Yeah. My understanding of people who have worked with Lindeloff, including on Watchmen, is that like he's very involved, He's the writers well, he's not one of these flying once a week.
00:29:22
Speaker 3: And then this is what my biggest question is. I have heard many stories from the Watchman writers room.
00:29:27
Speaker 2: It was a as you would imagine, an evocative and emotional time, which is why the show was so fantastic. I fear because they worked through a lot of shit in the writer's room to put on the screen. I think after you make a show like Watchmen, Damon Lindeloff, who I know was had, you know, an incredible team of writers on that show, this to me feels like you're trying to do like not as good Watchmen. I just don't think you can be Damon Lindeloff and make a show about DC comics where you're not recontextualizing. And for me, this is like one again. I knew everyone who listened to the show knew, but this was going to be a problem for me. Military John Stewart is second tier, like fucking retcon John Stewart, and I.
00:30:04
Speaker 3: Don't know why there always insist on this being.
00:30:07
Speaker 2: The only version we can see of him, and I think the military dark and gratty for me, of Tom King and Damon Lindeloff together, it's just not my vibe. But I do think that Carl Chandler and Aaron Pierre are amazing. I'm interested in the white militia angle, and I will be obviously like tuning in to see what happens next, but I need the alien thread and the small town thread to come together in a way that feels like satisfying and makes sense.
00:30:36
Speaker 1: Here are my Yeah, I think I definitely like it more than you because I was. I mean, this to me feels like A at this point. We'll see if this if all the pieces come together, but A at least suggests that this show is going to be interestingly subversive, which true, it's trying of style when he's in this universe, whether it's you know, he did the Ultimate Hulk versus Wolverine, which was interestingly subversive and was also like for I think a four or six issue limited series delayed for like two and a half years. It was like last issues like one, two, three came out and then it was like a year and.
00:31:22
Speaker 3: A half two yeah, till the next day anyway, and.
00:31:25
Speaker 1: Then Watchman of course was like very subversive and actually like an important television and cultural moment. I do think that I, I mean, I get the distaste with like the military angle. But it's not like I will say that, it's not like he's it's not like a Paw Patrol take where he's like big up upping the military industrial complex. His army dad was shooting apples off a child's head. Like. It's not like you know, like it's not like rue.
00:32:01
Speaker 3: It's not like ra ra.
00:32:02
Speaker 2: But I will say contextually the well we meet John Stewart with the well we meet John and Allan is a ra ra like the green Lantern works for the government military like kind of that.
00:32:12
Speaker 3: Is the established world.
00:32:13
Speaker 2: We meet the men, yes, which again I will say it feels a little bit derivative from the old Watchman. I feel like a lot of what David Lindolf is doing here is stuff he learned on Watchman, but I don't know if he's then elevating it because.
00:32:24
Speaker 1: Like the good news is no one watched Watchmen.
00:32:28
Speaker 3: Well, isn't that the truth? Sad but also really good.
00:32:32
Speaker 1: Corruption of the audience is not going to pick up any like the double beat.
00:32:36
Speaker 2: Because that's why I never got a second season, which it shouldn't have got. So but yeah, I'm interested to see where it goes.
00:32:42
Speaker 3: I think you're right. I think it's lightly subversive.
00:32:44
Speaker 2: I think my this is a wider issue I'm having right now culturally, which is like a lot of what we were pushing towards and striving towards over the last ten years is now kind of being represented to us again in this like twenty sixteen packaging, which is like a white guy and a black guy working together and the black guy is also in the military, and like it's I just I feel like there was a time when we were pushing for so much more than like grim and gritty cop stories with diversity, and I feel like this is kind of a return back to that. But you know, it's pretty good for a DC project, Like it's definitely better than Supergirl, like the quality. Wise, they needed a hit, and I do think that this at least has the fans more excited.
00:33:30
Speaker 1: I would be shocked if this was a hit. I think I would be shocked if this was as acclaimed indoor popular as the Penguin.
00:33:39
Speaker 3: No that says it's not gonna get on me, M and A.
00:33:41
Speaker 1: I think it's pretty good and if it does, and if it does follow this kind of the uh, you know, the Green Lantern core is compromise kind of thread that I think it's doing. Then, I don't know, that's kind of it. That's pretty good to me because here's I mean, the main question I have after the after the credits rolled, was like, so John has never put the ring on for it?
00:34:08
Speaker 3: How to him?
00:34:09
Speaker 2: Right?
00:34:10
Speaker 3: Mm hmmm that he can't have done.
00:34:12
Speaker 1: He can't have done because there's that's the ring.
00:34:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that was also what I want to know is like, so what happened after that? Like did John just go off on his own? Did John choose not to be a lantern after he he does have a go tee now, so maybe he became an architect in my dreams. But yeah, I am definitely interested to see where they go with that because the tenure time difference is kind of huge.
00:34:39
Speaker 3: Also, what does this mean for the show going forward? Is there a lot of.
00:34:42
Speaker 2: Kyle Chandlers still in the show? I believe there probably will be in either flashbacks or hey.
00:34:47
Speaker 3: I how yeah right, yeah.
00:34:49
Speaker 2: But I'm excited to see this new version of John Stewart and kind of how he works and also will this is John Stewart there not only as part of the Sheriff's investigation, which First of all, how is she still the sheriff when her husband's dad is like sending people to fucking blow up the prison by doing like illegal investigations with aliens. But sure small town policing, I guess, But like I am interested to know, like what is in that ten years between Why are weren't Hale and John working together?
00:35:21
Speaker 3: How is the Greenland and perceived? Now?
00:35:24
Speaker 2: Like was John copp that entire time or has he gone back there because mcconnor's called him back and been like, oh, can you come and check this out because your partner died? Did how become like a crazy introvert who hit the ring? And also is John there because the OA Guardians have actually asked him to go and try and find the ring because.
00:35:46
Speaker 3: It was stolen? That's what I think, maybe.
00:35:51
Speaker 2: Kind of secondary intrigue. I also feel like after the first episode, second episode, we've got to learn more about John's dad and his connections.
00:36:04
Speaker 1: If I had one big criticism of the show, you know which, again.
00:36:09
Speaker 3: I liked it's pretty fun.
00:36:12
Speaker 1: I did like, uh, I think more than most you know, the Extra Division crew in general, I wanted more like who is John Stewart?
00:36:22
Speaker 2: Yes?
00:36:22
Speaker 1: And I I've watched a good amount of Aaron Pierrre at this point, and I think he's an incredible screen presence, a very like magnetic physical presence. I don't know that he's the guy who's going to deliver an emotional range, and that is just something I'm watching going forward in this show.
00:36:53
Speaker 2: I understand.
00:36:54
Speaker 1: I think he's a great action star essentially, but that's why I think.
00:37:01
Speaker 3: I want to see what I But.
00:37:02
Speaker 1: I do think that I do think that a more that that, a more a motive actor might have given you a little bit more of a window into who the guy is, because the host feels like a mystery right now, and I think part of that might be that Iran pier is just in this very tight emotional bandwidth as a performer.
00:37:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, I also do wonder as well, like I'm hoping that the act the writing can give him more chances because so far, if you think about what we've seen him in, especially, you.
00:37:33
Speaker 3: Know, you're, uh, what was it called? Not Ruby Ridge?
00:37:38
Speaker 2: Ruby? Well, yeah, not Ruby Ridge, but not Ruby Ridge, but named after the real you know, not named after the real Obviously, the implication of the name was there.
00:37:49
Speaker 3: After seeing him in that you know that's.
00:37:51
Speaker 2: A very streamlined, kind of classical action performance.
00:37:57
Speaker 3: Right, It's Clint Eastwood.
00:37:58
Speaker 2: It's the it's that not thing, kind of like you're an avatar for the the everyman. We need to see him written in a way that tells us more about who he is. I'm hoping episode two is a John Bottle episode telling.
00:38:11
Speaker 1: Us right now that How's kind of been pushed aside and we're just gonna get younger ai How. Yeah, I agree with you because I was thinking a lot about Rebel Ridge, because I kind of felt like you could take any scene from Rebel Ridge and drop his performance into this show and it would and you'd be like, it's the same guy again. And I'm not saying that's bad.
00:38:38
Speaker 2: I actually think, honestly, I think that's kind of the appeal is I think they saw Rebel Ridge and they went.
00:38:43
Speaker 3: Oh, well, if this guy was John Stewart.
00:38:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I'm fine, I'm not saying that's bad. Like to your point, like Eastwood was basically Clint Eastwood in every single movie, But I did find myself wanting more from who is John Stewart? What's going on inside his head? How did he feel about getting apples? Shot off his head. Why isn't he more like pissed off at how for being such a dick to um like over what is clearly like the course of like many months when he's suppress training him. And I felt like you didn't really get it. You didn't really feel if he's frustrated or not. He's just kind of taking it all in stride. And so I wanted more and hopefully and I think you're right, we will get truly get more.
00:39:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, we have to, right, we have to. We need it. They gona tell us more about these men well.
00:39:34
Speaker 1: Will be continuing to keep an eye on Lanterns as the season goes forward. On the next episode of X ray Vision, we're diving into stuff. That's it for this episode that X ray Vision is hosted by Jason Concepcion. I'm Rosie Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcast.
00:39:56
Speaker 2: Our executive producers a Joe Alminique and Aaron Coleman.
00:40:00
Speaker 1: Our supervising producer is Abu Zafar.
00:40:02
Speaker 2: Our producers are Common Laurent Dean Jonathan.
00:40:05
Speaker 3: And Fay Wag.
00:40:06
Speaker 1: A theme song is by Brian Vasquez, with alternate theme songs by Aaron Kaufman
00:40:10
Speaker 2: Special thanks to Soul Rubin, Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman, and Heidi our discord moderator,
Speaker 1: Worrying. Today's episode contains spoilers for episode one of Lanterns. Hell it was Jasoncepcia and I'm Rosie Night and welcome back to ext revision of the podcast where we dive deep in your favorite shows, movies, comics of pop, poker company Romaia, where we're bringing you three episodes week less.
00:00:32
Speaker 2: News plus Snooze on Saturday's and in today's episode, guys, it's finally here. It's a recap of Lantern's episode one pilot. Now, we were not enabled to access screeners for this, which is why you are getting it after we watched it on Sunday night just like you, and we are going to recap the episode. How do we feel about it? There's a lot of buzz online and we'll be talking about where we think the show is going to go next, how this establishes.
00:00:57
Speaker 3: Or helps the gun Verse, and what standouts are.
00:01:01
Speaker 2: Plus, you may have heard big shocking reveal in this episode, so we will be breaking that down too.
00:01:09
Speaker 1: Let's dive into Lanterns. So we open with John Stewart as a child. He's with his brothers in the den watching sixty Minutes, an episode that is introducing the viewing audience of that time to Earth's very first green lantern, how Jordan talking about how he saved the Earth from a meteorite and all this stuff. He's a very down to earth type of guy. Coach Taylor all of that, who frames the core as essentially like space cops, which is correct. Yeah, and basically says to get in. He was asked one question, which is are you afraid we learn of how How's dad, a pilot and the military, died in a fiery crash when he was a child, and that after that he had no fear and so.
00:01:59
Speaker 3: Of course you need to say go to therapyla.
00:02:02
Speaker 1: Yes. Speaking of which, the sound of a car pulling up in the driveway scares John Stewart and his brothers. They turn off the TV in a rush, and John's father, their father, tough army guy in his army uniform, comes home and I'm here to talk about this. He says, you're gonna tell me his real name? And John says hal something, and so then John's dad says, Okay, we gotta do the thing. They go out to the garage, stand in front of the garage door, where Dad puts a apple fucking William Tell style on John's head and then shoots with his side arm the apple off John's head.
00:02:47
Speaker 3: Now ahead, terrible.
00:02:50
Speaker 1: This is show is, you know, wrapped in several layers of mystery, clearly framed as who done it? Here's one of the whodunnits I have, one of the mysteries I have of It's clear to me from this exchange, or it suggested to me from this exchange You're gonna tell me his real name, that Hal and John had met by this time, something had happened between them.
00:03:10
Speaker 3: I read it differently, and John is covering for him.
00:03:13
Speaker 2: No, I think it is either that or the dad is obsessed with Hal Jordan and is like making him rewatch the sixty minutes and like watch the ship, and is like, and I don't know why John's acting like this, but there was some weird like it would make sense you're reading. But I was also like, how would they have met?
00:03:35
Speaker 1: Right?
00:03:36
Speaker 3: But like at that at that point, right.
00:03:38
Speaker 1: But you're you're reading that he's quizzing him on how Jordan and using how Jordan almost like a sports dad to like, you know, it'd be like a sports dad making their watch watch this, watch the Jalen Brunson as a kid training videos.
00:03:55
Speaker 3: But then why say why why bring jn No?
00:03:59
Speaker 1: But why say you're gonna tell me his real name?
00:04:02
Speaker 2: I know. That's what I was trying to work out, is like, what's the connection here?
00:04:08
Speaker 3: Is it about John?
00:04:10
Speaker 2: Does he think John has a connection to How?
00:04:12
Speaker 3: Because also the other read of this is like the dad is.
00:04:17
Speaker 2: Mentally unwell, right, which is like, I think that's meant to be the clear read.
00:04:22
Speaker 3: But I do think you answer a big question.
00:04:25
Speaker 2: You ask a big important question here, Jason, which is this is obviously establishing that either John or John's family know more about How before I think he meets him than they did. Also, again, I look, I just want to say, I know, I'm really glad people are loving this, Like I know friends of the show like Amelia Emberwing like right as that I love, are really enjoying this.
00:04:45
Speaker 3: But I will tell you, guys, this was exactly my.
00:04:48
Speaker 2: Worry about this show is like do we need a green lantern show where like John Stewart's I want to put a tip in and just say this is where I started to fear that maybe I was right.
00:05:03
Speaker 1: Okay, we fast forward twenty years. Hal picks up John in a classic oldmobile with him what.
00:05:13
Speaker 3: Is it sixteen years or something? Joel's fuck it.
00:05:17
Speaker 1: I think it's like it's some large amount of time because Hall is now a grown ass Aaron Pierre sized man, and excuse me, John is now a grown as Aaron Peer sized man, and Hall is somewhat more grizzled with his hair has gone gray. And he picks up John in front of the Spotify offices in downtown Los Angeles Arts District in a classic old mobile, and we learned that hallis training with John to take over. He's his backup, but clearly John is like dragging his feet in a way that is pretty frustrating for John.
00:05:59
Speaker 2: How's dragging his feet because he doesn't really want to train John and John hasn't even like won the ring yet, and like yeah.
00:06:05
Speaker 1: So they're talking about that. They're heading out of town, like on the road, headed towards like Joshua Tree or something, and Hal's like, okay, you want to wear the ring. He puts the ring on the dashboard and says meet me at the taco stand three miles up the road, and then he leaps out of the car as the car is heading for a ravine. John gets the ring on just before the car just gets fucking torn.
00:06:26
Speaker 2: What a waste of a That car is beautiful, like it makes me so also as well. I just want to say this is a great How Jordan introduction, because this motherfuckers.
00:06:35
Speaker 3: Always doing some dub shit.
00:06:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, but this was again very annoying, Like, okay, so you've been put in charge. If I'm the Guardians of OA and this bitch almost sends my new green lantern off the mountain. He's not in charge of training anymore, you know what I mean, Like, take this man away.
00:06:50
Speaker 1: Well, that's why I have I'll talk about what I think is going on later, Okay. So John walks towards the stand and he's fiddling with the ring. The ring activates, and the backup of like the uploaded to the cloud backup of hol Ai ten years younger than current how because Hall has not been updating it regularly as the protocol say. He should talks to How and he is as surprised as excuse me, talks to John and he is young. How is as surprised as anyone that John isn't being properly trained. He hasn't even you know worn the ring. He doesn't know how to fly. He's walking three miles rather than fly. It's very concerning to young how young Hal gives current, gives a message to John Stewart for his current self. There's Hale in Rushville, Nebraska, and when Hal here's this later at the taco shop, he flies away in extreme haste. John has to follow him to Rushville, Nebraska on a commercial fly crazy.
00:08:00
Speaker 3: I would be calling up them guardians of Oh, like what the fuck is going on with this old white man? Like this is crazy.
00:08:07
Speaker 1: He follows How to a local high school where there's just been just been a mass shooting. Cops are on the scene. There's a shooting on the football field. There's several people down, and we meet the sheriff. Sheriff Kerrie Macon, who obviously knows who helps Jordon as he's very famous, and is like, why are you here? Don't interfere with my investigation. It's clear she's very confident. She knows the town, she knows what she's doing, she knows how to invest your crime. She's like, there's no aliens involved, you shouldn't even be here.
00:08:37
Speaker 2: Yeah. Also, I want to say, this is really funny because this essentially establishes the log line of the show that I hadn't realized to this moment, which is like, what if you are local cop and instead of the FBI, you had like alien cops coming and saying this is my jurisdiction.
00:08:53
Speaker 3: I think that's kind.
00:08:54
Speaker 2: Of the pitch, which which makes sense in the concept of this show.
00:08:58
Speaker 1: So John is like, yeah, what are we doing here? And Hal's like, listen, there's I can feel it. There's there's aliens involved. Just trust me on this. They're like, namely that guy. Look at that guy. And there's a guy on the field like acting like one of the traumatized witnesses, and maybe he is, but he's just kind of down there. John goes down to kind of like check the guy out. The sheriff stops him and is like, what are you doing. I've already you're gonna go talk to that guy. I'm already watching the guy, and if you come down here, you're gonna spook the guy who I am already watching already taking care of this, so don't get involved. And John's like, fuck, I fucked up. And then the guy runs, so they give chase and they catch the guy, but the sheriff won't let Hal talk to him. Later, at a bar, Hal tells John the backstory of how he got the ring, which is the classic comic book Gorgian story with the crashed alien and on the verge of death and the whole thing. And here is so here is my theory. John basically tells how, in not so many words, that he believes the crash it wasn't an act accident. It was something like fate or a plan or something like. It wasn't just he wandered, you know, he happened to bump into this crash site, which leads me to believe that maybe there's this show is setting up a much longer play, and that John, in a similar way, was led to reached out to or met how because how came to believe that something about this long range plan or fate meant that the two had to meet and have a relationship somewhere, because because because how, why not just be like stop following me guy, Like I'm not he's not training him, he's not doing anything, but he wants him around for some reason?
00:10:49
Speaker 3: Is my connection? So I this is my theory.
00:10:52
Speaker 2: I don't think that it's because John thinks. I don't think it's because How thinks John is his fate. I think it's the oha Gotti have told How he has to do this and he doesn't want to, and he sees John as like someone who's going to replace him, and he doesn't want to give him the ring. That's why I think that's why I think the major conflict of this season is going to be because otherwise, why there's net Like why first of all, is there even two green lanterns unless we're adapting like a like a Grandmarson's green lantern thing, like they wanted to establish this so they could have a white green lantern mentor that's what it feels like to me. So I think that the idea is like I think John is the one who has the connection to How, and I think How is the one who is being forced into the connection.
00:11:36
Speaker 3: That's my that's my gut at this point, but we'll see.
00:11:40
Speaker 2: I think the fate is more about John's own self worth, Like I mean, How's own self worth, Like he doesn't just think the aliens chose him.
00:11:47
Speaker 3: He thinks that's what's meant to happen, like in the universe.
00:11:50
Speaker 2: And I think this is going to be about the aliens and why they choose, which we've never really talked about.
00:11:54
Speaker 1: Right, It will be interesting to find out what How and John's relationship True was, because it's I mean, it's clear to me, or it seems like that suggests to me that they have interacted back when John was a child. Anyway, he tells John, how does that listen? I've been doing this a long time. I'm the first ever green lantern from Earth. If my gut says that guy's an alien, that guy's a fucking alien, I'm gonna follow it. So just back me up and just watch what I'm doing. He's also constantly selecting the same song in the jukebox, trying to annoy the locals, and John quickly realizes he's trying to get himself thrown in jail so he can talk to the guy, the guy who led the football field.
00:12:42
Speaker 2: If you again, now this might be to do with the true detective, like real detective element of it. I feel like, if you're a green lantern, you could just break into the jail ber like, like not even hard, like just will yourself like a doorway and just open a door into the man's cell.
00:12:57
Speaker 3: Like from the outside. It's like I think that to me. Again, I love Green Lantern, so this is also my problem.
00:13:04
Speaker 2: I think, like the way that they're trying to construct, like why not use the ring.
00:13:10
Speaker 3: Well you could just be like a jucky guy in a ball like that.
00:13:13
Speaker 2: He also speak to me.
00:13:14
Speaker 1: He also says, like the whole thing about being a Green Lantern is you've got this weapon of mass destruction on your finger, and you've got to decide when to use it and when not to use it, and all of this. I mean, Joelle and I were discussing previously before returning the mics, like they turned you know, there is corruption in the Green Lantern cores, or there are cops like any others when that when the Green Lantern books want to get political with it exactly it all of which leads me to believe that how is investigating We're going to find out that the Green Lantern Corp. Is corrupt in some way. He's not using the ring that much because he doesn't trust this it does. He doesn't trust it. It seems something he doesn't want I trying to put it on until well he knows that I'm into this safe to put it on I like that. So he's trying to root out whatever this thing is. That's what I think is going.
00:14:08
Speaker 2: That's such a good read, and I fucking hope that's where the show is good.
00:14:11
Speaker 1: But we'll see. Maybe it might be they were writing a better show. Actually never know, you never never know. Anyway, Uh, Hal gets his way, he gets beat up, and while that's going on, John Stewart starts spitting game at this lady at the bar about yeah, yeah, I'm the I'm the backup lantern, this, that and the other, and she's like, crazy, let's go fucking my truck.
00:14:36
Speaker 3: I was gonna say, I feel like.
00:14:37
Speaker 2: If you're Aaron Pierre, like you don't need to tell that your backup superhero in the DC universe. That's like lowering your levels of like appeal, honestly, Like there's a lot of those my guy. But yeah, obviously had to have some sex here because it's Aaron Pierre. He's hot, and it's HBO.
00:14:53
Speaker 1: I don't know if I was in a strange town, single guy and like I'm backing up Aquaman, I'm like, yeah, I'm Aquaman's.
00:15:00
Speaker 3: Do you think you'd pull it out? I try, like I'm alad.
00:15:04
Speaker 1: You know, like when he's when he's underwater or whatever for long period. Okay, you do make a good brand based represented.
00:15:12
Speaker 2: I think something that I I think you're right, Jason, like something I guess I'm kind of like not used to that this pilot doesn't fully immerse me in is this kind of established universe where how Jordan is essentially like a famous celebrity but also like the face of like a out of planet government.
00:15:32
Speaker 3: Kind of like but works alongside our government. So you're right in this world.
00:15:36
Speaker 2: Saying your green Landin's backup is like saying you're Robert Pattinson's stand in, Like it probably is going to get you.
00:15:41
Speaker 1: Like it's pretty cool, right, Yeah. Anyway, Sheriff Making meanwhile, had realized that Hell was just trying to meet the guy in jail, and so she had him put in a closet so he could copy die and then she takes him to his arraignment at the local courthouse, where suddenly kind of slick but also seemingly nice guy lawyer Billy, who is the Sheriff's husband, just out of the goodness of his heart, is like I'm gonna represent you and ends up getting how like out of trouble more or less, and Hal is like, you know, I don't know. When somebody gives me free legal help or gives me something for free that's worth tens of thousands of dollars, usually I think that guy's a bad guy. And Billy's like, yeah, but I'm not a bad guy. I just want you. You know, my dad is a big fan of yours, big fan of the Green Lantern Corps. And you can pay us by back by having dinner with us at the family ranch. Again, my dad's a huge.
00:16:46
Speaker 3: Fan favorite of reveal of the whole episode.
00:16:50
Speaker 2: I think this was where I was like, Okay, this is doing something kind of Watchman level interesting, Like I thought this was the big hook that made me intrigued.
00:16:59
Speaker 1: So they drive up there. Billy Macon played by Jason Ridder, wonderful Jason Ridder. I'm going to talk a little bit about him so much. What the how the age ranges here work anyway, because this family is so close together all in age.
00:17:13
Speaker 2: It doesn't make any sense if you know the actors ages the rid So the.
00:17:17
Speaker 1: Ranch is full of militia type guys with AR fifteen's, you know, like white to a yellowstone look and they meet will Macon, the patriarch, father of Billy, father in law of Sheriff Carry and he's like chopping up this like huge steaks of some sort of like buffalo or fucking tower whatever, and he you know, Hall and John meet him and he's like, Hey, don't worry, I've got tofu steaks for you. And it's clear what he's saying is, hey, I've studied you guys, like I've read.
00:18:01
Speaker 2: Like, we know you what you can eat, what you can't eat.
00:18:05
Speaker 3: And also I would say, as.
00:18:06
Speaker 2: Well, there is like an implication here, and I think you and Joe were kind of talking about what this statement means when I joined pre pro. But like there's also the soy boy implication. This kind of like that it's very heavily weighted. But I do think the first point of it is to say I know you, I know what you eat, I know you're feeding, I.
00:18:24
Speaker 3: Know your habits.
00:18:25
Speaker 2: But I also think the writers room understood what they sure like that clarif there's like there's the double edged lord of it side of it.
00:18:32
Speaker 3: But I do think you're right.
00:18:33
Speaker 2: This is to let you know he's like the shitty Texas batman, like he has a file on Nebraska.
00:18:38
Speaker 1: Although you played by Garret Dilla Hunt, who I will say plays it. He does it. He delivers it very straight, but you're right, he delivers it straight and dry in a way that clearly John and the audience is meant to wonder, like, what's he really saying all the time?
00:18:55
Speaker 3: Exactly way exactly.
00:18:56
Speaker 1: He's like, you know, John, and how I'll ask about the militia guys, and Will is like, hey, you know, don't worry about them. It's and by the way, this isn't really my ranch, Like I manage it for a guy, but I can't talk about who that person.
00:19:12
Speaker 3: Is going to happen, right.
00:19:17
Speaker 1: And he says, like, let's not talk about the militia guys. Here's what I'm concerned about. Why I wanted to have Earth's you know, first green lantern over for dinner. I'm worried about illegal alien immigration, meaning aliens from another planet coming to Earth when they're not invited and potentially taking it over from native born humans. And I'm concerned about that. And he agrees with Hal that he thinks the guy who fled the football field is an advanced team from an alien race, and he's like, by the way, I can get you, I can pull some strings. You know, my son's wife is the sheriff, and I can get you in a room with the guy to talk to him, and they're like in exchange for what? And Will is very very vague about that. He basically does.
00:20:15
Speaker 3: You're gonna owe this man of favor? Yeah?
00:20:17
Speaker 1: Clearly.
00:20:17
Speaker 2: I also want to say, I actually think Jason, now you've pointed out your theory about how exploring the corruption on OAH, if that is the case and that does pay off, this is some really nice foreshadowing and kind of echoing of that, because we get to see the corruption in this small town Nebraska and how easy it is for somebody's friend of the cops to get inside and kind of talk to this allegedly you know, dangerous man.
00:20:43
Speaker 1: Well, that's why I think, by the way, Hal hasn't backed up in ten years because he he began having suspicions ten years ago, and so he doesn't.
00:20:54
Speaker 3: Maybe how who doesn't have the knowledge and.
00:20:56
Speaker 1: Right and he doesn't want the core to know that he knows or suspects, which is why he's not been backing up. That's just my theory. Anyway, John is outside because of all the meat cutting up maybe or just and he's a vegan and he's a vegan, and he's teaching the son of Billy and the sheriff how to throw a nice tight.
00:21:21
Speaker 3: Spike SI unbelievable through a through.
00:21:24
Speaker 1: A tire, just like they do, you know, just like a red blooded American boy. Yeah, And the kids like, holy shit, how did you Wow? You really taught me how to do it? And John is like, yeah, I learned that technique because my dad used to shoot apples off my head, which is you know again, it's so insane that you were John child.
00:21:44
Speaker 2: This is so real though, because people always say to me, they go, oh wow, your nails real, and I go, oh yeah, my mom's second husband. He just used to bully the shower me till I still biting my nails, Like.
00:21:53
Speaker 3: Sorry, Sometimes it's just how you learn. Yeah, it was so funny. It's like, John, you abused you that show apples off your head? Tell you what good football?
00:22:01
Speaker 2: Like?
00:22:01
Speaker 3: Calm down, child?
00:22:04
Speaker 2: Can we please get some like Gaudian therapy for the great lifts?
00:22:08
Speaker 3: Please?
00:22:09
Speaker 1: And so somebody the kids like, oh, Grandma, great wonderful reveal, Hi grandma, And here comes Grandma. John turns around to see her and it's the woman John fucked, and so he's like, damn it. Later we'll make in the Patriarchs. As Hal and John are leaving, is like, hey, hope you're tofu steaks were seasoned? Well, you know, I'm not, you know, it's I'm not used to cooking that, and just like, oh, it's delicious, absolutely great, and he says, yeah, you know, there's nothing there's nothing more satisfying than eating off another man's grill. Huh, which again delivered in that dry style that I think is meant to signal to John that hey, I know you fucked my wife.
00:22:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, And she goes out there and does that shit and then tells me was the implication I got, like, well, he's watching either way something.
00:22:59
Speaker 1: So they get back, you know, hallan John are in the car and Al's like, what the fuck was that about? He's like, well, I fucked that guy's.
00:23:06
Speaker 3: And how I was like sick?
00:23:07
Speaker 4: Okay, maybe that right next day, Hall interrogates the guy as John and Sheriff make and watch this option.
00:23:18
Speaker 2: He gets offlia.
00:23:21
Speaker 1: He is a cut. I mean, it's like, you know, he's doing a solid idea.
00:23:24
Speaker 2: He couldn't get in before, right, and now he went to the white militia barbecue and now he's in that interrogated.
00:23:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, that sounds about to be.
00:23:31
Speaker 1: So long story short, this guy is an alien, although very very you know, we learn that there are over a dozen alien species that cannot be cannot be tested for like whatever DNA takes biological MRI, you would never know. And so John goes in there, and long story short, this guy is an alien. He's here on a very very important and dangerous mission. That quote concerns the opposite of peace, so some thing related to looming whiffs of warfare. And eventually the guy tells How that he he starts making fun of the lantern oath and then suggests that Hal is here on a suicide mission and that How wants to die. And then he gets how to admit. He basically figures out this guy knows a lot about the lanterns and clearly a lot about a lot of stuff. He's like, oh, you didn't take your lantern with you? How much charge is left in your ring? Like what are you gonna do? Like he's and Hal's like, don't worry, there's a I can do plenty with the ring. There's enough in there. And he's like, yeah, but for how long? And the guy admits that you know, he's carrying some sort of bomb or he has access to some sort of explosive weapon. He's making fun of the lantern. Oh oh, the darkest night and this and that how gets Matt starts throwing the guy around the room. The guy starts beeping for fortunately for everyone that this alien explosive device beeps before it goes off. Hal throws the guy into the corner of the room and then puts a shield around him with the ring. And still the explosion does wreck a corner of the building, but everybody survives except the guy, and How goes to John is like I told you so, we fast forward another ten years to twenty twenty six. This is the show is fast forward in thirty years. John now with a goateee.
00:25:24
Speaker 3: This bitch has a soul patch.
00:25:26
Speaker 1: He's got a goatee. Now returns to Nebraska to the very same football field where the mass shooting occurred ten years back. Sheriff Macon is there, leads him up into the snow covered stands where Hal is sitting in almost a frozen type of variation.
00:25:46
Speaker 3: I mean true detective types with.
00:25:47
Speaker 1: A bullet hole in his head, frozen blood dripping down right in his forehead, and his ring missing bombp bump bum.
00:25:58
Speaker 3: Screen is because they kill Jordan at the end. Maybe we'll get them out of this show.
00:26:02
Speaker 1: Let's take a break and we will come back and discuss this show, and we are back. I think I liked it more than you, but also my you know, we had been discussing the fact that there was the people didn't get screener as the press rollout was kind of choppy, and so I had my theory was that they think it's bad, and so I'm surprised that it was solid. I thought it was good.
00:26:43
Speaker 3: I think it's a solid pilot.
00:26:44
Speaker 2: I do have issues, which I think of the other opposite issues, which hilariously like I actually also went in with low expectations I have. I feel like the reviews are pretty mixed if you actually read them, but obviously in our community a lot of buzz because this is a really interesting pilot.
00:26:59
Speaker 3: It's like grim and gritty, it's.
00:27:01
Speaker 2: About kind of like going back to the home town. I feel like it has a lot of our favorite tropes My actual biggest takeaway on this episode is I just don't I just don't know to me if the quality is there for like an HBO show. I feel like it is not the same level as the House of the Dragon a Penguin even like a a kind of sort of you know, AMC like BETTERC or Saul Breaking Bad, Like there's something here to me that feels like this would be such a great broadcast TV show, like a like a CW show or when DC launched DC Universe. It still feels left over to me from that era. I don't know why it doesn't have the juice. It feels to me like it's trying to be an HBO show. But I will say I will say, like many things in this fandom, talking to you about it and hearing your reads on it has gotten me more excited. I do think, unfortunately, I understand what they're going for here, and I do think having Hall as the victim is really cool. But I also just like, too fast forward in a in a pilot to get to an in media res of like how did we get here? Is kind of I don't know it sing It smacks to me of like a rewritten pilot and not necessarily like a I'm interested to where the rest of the show goes. I would say that my biggest takeaway is not who killed John, I mean who killed how? So I think that in itself becomes kind of an issue because like the murder mystery, you need to care.
00:28:30
Speaker 3: But I love your OA corruption idea.
00:28:33
Speaker 2: I do think the white militia is interesting, and that is where I'm going to bring up what I fear My true issue is with this show, which is sort of not fair, but is fair because of who's involved. Damon Lindeloff is involved in this show. He's allegedly, you know, one of the creators alongside Tom King.
00:28:48
Speaker 3: That man has a lot, he's a creator.
00:28:51
Speaker 2: But I would say at this point, five years into the show being created, we don't know how much Damon Lindeloff or Tom King were involved. Like May King, there's there's writers rooms who are really the ones who are like chopping up and making the show right.
00:29:04
Speaker 1: Well, I think that I don't think it's allegend, I mean no.
00:29:11
Speaker 3: Officially created.
00:29:12
Speaker 1: Yeah. My understanding of people who have worked with Lindeloff, including on Watchmen, is that like he's very involved, He's the writers well, he's not one of these flying once a week.
00:29:22
Speaker 3: And then this is what my biggest question is. I have heard many stories from the Watchman writers room.
00:29:27
Speaker 2: It was a as you would imagine, an evocative and emotional time, which is why the show was so fantastic. I fear because they worked through a lot of shit in the writer's room to put on the screen. I think after you make a show like Watchmen, Damon Lindeloff, who I know was had, you know, an incredible team of writers on that show, this to me feels like you're trying to do like not as good Watchmen. I just don't think you can be Damon Lindeloff and make a show about DC comics where you're not recontextualizing. And for me, this is like one again. I knew everyone who listened to the show knew, but this was going to be a problem for me. Military John Stewart is second tier, like fucking retcon John Stewart, and I.
00:30:04
Speaker 3: Don't know why there always insist on this being.
00:30:07
Speaker 2: The only version we can see of him, and I think the military dark and gratty for me, of Tom King and Damon Lindeloff together, it's just not my vibe. But I do think that Carl Chandler and Aaron Pierre are amazing. I'm interested in the white militia angle, and I will be obviously like tuning in to see what happens next, but I need the alien thread and the small town thread to come together in a way that feels like satisfying and makes sense.
00:30:36
Speaker 1: Here are my Yeah, I think I definitely like it more than you because I was. I mean, this to me feels like A at this point. We'll see if this if all the pieces come together, but A at least suggests that this show is going to be interestingly subversive, which true, it's trying of style when he's in this universe, whether it's you know, he did the Ultimate Hulk versus Wolverine, which was interestingly subversive and was also like for I think a four or six issue limited series delayed for like two and a half years. It was like last issues like one, two, three came out and then it was like a year and.
00:31:22
Speaker 3: A half two yeah, till the next day anyway, and.
00:31:25
Speaker 1: Then Watchman of course was like very subversive and actually like an important television and cultural moment. I do think that I, I mean, I get the distaste with like the military angle. But it's not like I will say that, it's not like he's it's not like a Paw Patrol take where he's like big up upping the military industrial complex. His army dad was shooting apples off a child's head. Like. It's not like you know, like it's not like rue.
00:32:01
Speaker 3: It's not like ra ra.
00:32:02
Speaker 2: But I will say contextually the well we meet John Stewart with the well we meet John and Allan is a ra ra like the green Lantern works for the government military like kind of that.
00:32:12
Speaker 3: Is the established world.
00:32:13
Speaker 2: We meet the men, yes, which again I will say it feels a little bit derivative from the old Watchman. I feel like a lot of what David Lindolf is doing here is stuff he learned on Watchman, but I don't know if he's then elevating it because.
00:32:24
Speaker 1: Like the good news is no one watched Watchmen.
00:32:28
Speaker 3: Well, isn't that the truth? Sad but also really good.
00:32:32
Speaker 1: Corruption of the audience is not going to pick up any like the double beat.
00:32:36
Speaker 2: Because that's why I never got a second season, which it shouldn't have got. So but yeah, I'm interested to see where it goes.
00:32:42
Speaker 3: I think you're right. I think it's lightly subversive.
00:32:44
Speaker 2: I think my this is a wider issue I'm having right now culturally, which is like a lot of what we were pushing towards and striving towards over the last ten years is now kind of being represented to us again in this like twenty sixteen packaging, which is like a white guy and a black guy working together and the black guy is also in the military, and like it's I just I feel like there was a time when we were pushing for so much more than like grim and gritty cop stories with diversity, and I feel like this is kind of a return back to that. But you know, it's pretty good for a DC project, Like it's definitely better than Supergirl, like the quality. Wise, they needed a hit, and I do think that this at least has the fans more excited.
00:33:30
Speaker 1: I would be shocked if this was a hit. I think I would be shocked if this was as acclaimed indoor popular as the Penguin.
00:33:39
Speaker 3: No that says it's not gonna get on me, M and A.
00:33:41
Speaker 1: I think it's pretty good and if it does, and if it does follow this kind of the uh, you know, the Green Lantern core is compromise kind of thread that I think it's doing. Then, I don't know, that's kind of it. That's pretty good to me because here's I mean, the main question I have after the after the credits rolled, was like, so John has never put the ring on for it?
00:34:08
Speaker 3: How to him?
00:34:09
Speaker 2: Right?
00:34:10
Speaker 3: Mm hmmm that he can't have done.
00:34:12
Speaker 1: He can't have done because there's that's the ring.
00:34:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that was also what I want to know is like, so what happened after that? Like did John just go off on his own? Did John choose not to be a lantern after he he does have a go tee now, so maybe he became an architect in my dreams. But yeah, I am definitely interested to see where they go with that because the tenure time difference is kind of huge.
00:34:39
Speaker 3: Also, what does this mean for the show going forward? Is there a lot of.
00:34:42
Speaker 2: Kyle Chandlers still in the show? I believe there probably will be in either flashbacks or hey.
00:34:47
Speaker 3: I how yeah right, yeah.
00:34:49
Speaker 2: But I'm excited to see this new version of John Stewart and kind of how he works and also will this is John Stewart there not only as part of the Sheriff's investigation, which First of all, how is she still the sheriff when her husband's dad is like sending people to fucking blow up the prison by doing like illegal investigations with aliens. But sure small town policing, I guess, But like I am interested to know, like what is in that ten years between Why are weren't Hale and John working together?
00:35:21
Speaker 3: How is the Greenland and perceived? Now?
00:35:24
Speaker 2: Like was John copp that entire time or has he gone back there because mcconnor's called him back and been like, oh, can you come and check this out because your partner died? Did how become like a crazy introvert who hit the ring? And also is John there because the OA Guardians have actually asked him to go and try and find the ring because.
00:35:46
Speaker 3: It was stolen? That's what I think, maybe.
00:35:51
Speaker 2: Kind of secondary intrigue. I also feel like after the first episode, second episode, we've got to learn more about John's dad and his connections.
00:36:04
Speaker 1: If I had one big criticism of the show, you know which, again.
00:36:09
Speaker 3: I liked it's pretty fun.
00:36:12
Speaker 1: I did like, uh, I think more than most you know, the Extra Division crew in general, I wanted more like who is John Stewart?
00:36:22
Speaker 2: Yes?
00:36:22
Speaker 1: And I I've watched a good amount of Aaron Pierrre at this point, and I think he's an incredible screen presence, a very like magnetic physical presence. I don't know that he's the guy who's going to deliver an emotional range, and that is just something I'm watching going forward in this show.
00:36:53
Speaker 2: I understand.
00:36:54
Speaker 1: I think he's a great action star essentially, but that's why I think.
00:37:01
Speaker 3: I want to see what I But.
00:37:02
Speaker 1: I do think that I do think that a more that that, a more a motive actor might have given you a little bit more of a window into who the guy is, because the host feels like a mystery right now, and I think part of that might be that Iran pier is just in this very tight emotional bandwidth as a performer.
00:37:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, I also do wonder as well, like I'm hoping that the act the writing can give him more chances because so far, if you think about what we've seen him in, especially, you.
00:37:33
Speaker 3: Know, you're, uh, what was it called? Not Ruby Ridge?
00:37:38
Speaker 2: Ruby? Well, yeah, not Ruby Ridge, but not Ruby Ridge, but named after the real you know, not named after the real Obviously, the implication of the name was there.
00:37:49
Speaker 3: After seeing him in that you know that's.
00:37:51
Speaker 2: A very streamlined, kind of classical action performance.
00:37:57
Speaker 3: Right, It's Clint Eastwood.
00:37:58
Speaker 2: It's the it's that not thing, kind of like you're an avatar for the the everyman. We need to see him written in a way that tells us more about who he is. I'm hoping episode two is a John Bottle episode telling.
00:38:11
Speaker 1: Us right now that How's kind of been pushed aside and we're just gonna get younger ai How. Yeah, I agree with you because I was thinking a lot about Rebel Ridge, because I kind of felt like you could take any scene from Rebel Ridge and drop his performance into this show and it would and you'd be like, it's the same guy again. And I'm not saying that's bad.
00:38:38
Speaker 2: I actually think, honestly, I think that's kind of the appeal is I think they saw Rebel Ridge and they went.
00:38:43
Speaker 3: Oh, well, if this guy was John Stewart.
00:38:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I'm fine, I'm not saying that's bad. Like to your point, like Eastwood was basically Clint Eastwood in every single movie, But I did find myself wanting more from who is John Stewart? What's going on inside his head? How did he feel about getting apples? Shot off his head. Why isn't he more like pissed off at how for being such a dick to um like over what is clearly like the course of like many months when he's suppress training him. And I felt like you didn't really get it. You didn't really feel if he's frustrated or not. He's just kind of taking it all in stride. And so I wanted more and hopefully and I think you're right, we will get truly get more.
00:39:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, we have to, right, we have to. We need it. They gona tell us more about these men well.
00:39:34
Speaker 1: Will be continuing to keep an eye on Lanterns as the season goes forward. On the next episode of X ray Vision, we're diving into stuff. That's it for this episode that X ray Vision is hosted by Jason Concepcion. I'm Rosie Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcast.
00:39:56
Speaker 2: Our executive producers a Joe Alminique and Aaron Coleman.
00:40:00
Speaker 1: Our supervising producer is Abu Zafar.
00:40:02
Speaker 2: Our producers are Common Laurent Dean Jonathan.
00:40:05
Speaker 3: And Fay Wag.
00:40:06
Speaker 1: A theme song is by Brian Vasquez, with alternate theme songs by Aaron Kaufman
00:40:10
Speaker 2: Special thanks to Soul Rubin, Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman, and Heidi our discord moderator,
