Lanterns S1E06

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Warning, today's episode contains spoilers for Lanterns, Episode 6. Be warned.
00:00:08
Speaker 2: Hello, my name is Jason Concepcion.
00:00:17
Speaker 1: And I'm Rosie Knight. And welcome back to X-Ray Vision, the podcast where we dive deep into your favorite shows, movies, comics, and pop culture. Coming to you from iHeart, where we're bringing you three episodes a week.
00:00:33
Speaker 2: Plus News on Center. Plus News. In today's episode, we are recapping episode six of Lantans, which raises many questions, Jason. Many questions. Something's right.
00:00:47
Speaker 1: Something's afoot.
00:00:48
Speaker 2: Something is afoot. Something's rotted in Rushville, guys. So let's get into it. Let's recap this.
00:00:57
Speaker 1: Okay, Lanterns, episode six, Bad Optics, we open. In the present day, the year is 2026.
00:01:10
Speaker 2: I was loving it. Perfect opening for me. 10 out of 10, no notes, fan service all the way up and down. Everyone in the Discord is going to know I'm going to be happy about this one. I loved it.
00:01:20
Speaker 1: So in the wake of the events of Superman, in the wake of the events of Suicide Squad, Jon Stewart is pitching the civic leaders of Midway City on basically plans to protect the citizenry from alien attack, supervillain invasion and the like. Stuart and his brother Marcus have a architecture company now. They build safe rooms for like the elite rich guys, you know, billionaires, the Bruce Wayans of the world. He has his own shit. But, you know, like that level of person.
00:01:56
Speaker 2: Stuart Brothers. I was texting Joelle. I was like, I'm going to cry. This is so great. How could this go wrong? How could it go wrong? And the idea is for.
00:02:06
Speaker 1: Midway City specifically, 40 stadium sized panic rooms with their own energy systems, with their own water, with food supplies to protect the city's population. And one of the civic leaders is there, very impressed by John. He's like, you know, very authoritative and, you know, he holds the room really well. One of the guys is like, so can we just talk about the elephant in the room, which is the Green Lantern thing, you being the Green Lantern. And he was like, I was the Green Lantern for five minutes. And The guy says, well, listen, very impressed by you. If you can pitch Colonel Draycott, who for some reason is like the guy holding the federal purse strings for this. Military just very involved in federal, in state level planning. So which is very interesting in the DCU. And so if you can pitch Colonel Draycott the way you pitched us, this project is going to get Green, capital G-R-E-E-N.
00:03:14
Speaker 2: Greenlit.
00:03:16
Speaker 1: And so Marcus is there, and Marcus is psyched. This is going to happen. This is incredible.
00:03:21
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:03:22
Speaker 1: John, yes.
00:03:23
Speaker 2: Wait, can I? I just want to say, this is some incredible storytelling. Because when he asks, he says- It's a great info dump. Well, also, not only do we get to know everything about John, but when the guy who's in charge asks, why were you not Green Lantern, right? it tells us so much about the status of Green Lantern because for a minute, you think he's like, wait, are they mad he's not Green Lantern? But then you quickly also realize that Guy has clearly kind of besmirched the name enough that for them, the fact John turned it down is actually an appeal. Like there is so much implied storytelling here by the fact that they don't see that as a dereliction of duty. You definitely get the, yes.
00:04:06
Speaker 1: You definitely get the feeling from the way multiple characters in this episode talk about Guy that while Guy has like a huge Q rating and everybody knows who Guy is and there are cutouts of Guy in the grocery store, there is maybe a perception of Guy as not the greatest Green Lantern they could have had.
00:04:36
Speaker 2: We'll put it that way. He's a replacement's replacement. You know what I mean? It seems like they weren't planning much past John, and Guy is no John. He's not even a Hal.
00:04:47
Speaker 1: So.
00:04:49
Speaker 1: John, who really should set up his phone better, so that only.
00:04:55
Speaker 2: Block that shit. Jesus Christ.
00:04:58
Speaker 1: If you're gonna go no contact, then go no contact and really do it, John. Gets a call from his mom, and she is... She's only ever mad.
00:05:06
Speaker 2: She's mad.
00:05:07
Speaker 1: Because apparently it's been perhaps years, certainly months, since the last time they actually spoke on the phone. And she is like, Hal Jordan wants to apologize. John is confused.
00:05:18
Speaker 2: It's like, wait, why are you?
00:05:21
Speaker 1: Why the fuck are you speaking to Hal Jordan? And she's like, we were friends. What?
00:05:27
Speaker 2: Since when?
00:05:28
Speaker 1: And we learned that Hal has been, was locked up for a period of time. But now that he's out and apparently he's living in Rushville. And wants to meet John so that he can apologize and he'll be at the cafe. And again, John is like very confused, but he drives directly from this meeting to the cafe.
00:05:50
Speaker 2: Okay, let us stop here talking about some suspicions, right? Because you raised this idea last time that maybe there were other people on the end of the phone. Jon is maybe being controlled by some kind of T-1000 voice controller. This is what this feels like to me. Because imagine if you were trying to psychologically fuck with Jon Stewart. Wouldn't you basically imply his mom has been sending love letters- to Hal. We'll find out later his dad no longer lives at home. And they're basically implying that those two have become close over a 10 year period. And then she says, go to this diner. This man wants to apologize to you. It seems sus to me. It's a set up.
00:06:30
Speaker 1: So by this point in the episode, I was thinking, you know what? Maybe that was wrong because, um, And maybe this is just a cost-saving thing where it's like they got these actors, didn't want to pay them on-screen rates, and so got them for voice actor rates. I think there's still a world where that's possible. That said, there are still too many. There's weird stuff.
00:06:58
Speaker 2: And if we're going to get into it straight away when they go to the diner, there's a disconnect.
00:07:03
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of weird things happening. Not to mention another thing I noticed from the previous episode is when mom calls and is like, they want to talk to you, you know, like, and then John calls back at a certain time, like when the town is exploding is like, get them on, get her on the whatever.
00:07:25
Speaker 2: Now satellite.
00:07:26
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:07:27
Speaker 2: On the satellite. I thought the satellite dish didn't work.
00:07:30
Speaker 1: Remember that? Remember previously when we were actually live with the parents and she was trying to set up the thing and she could never get it to work?
00:07:37
Speaker 2: And also remember they said, that the Guardians never spoke to them. That was the big issue was it was all done in faith. And now they do? Now allegedly they do. I don't know. It is either, I don't want it to be this. I think we could in a couple more episodes start seeing some people talk about plot holes if this is not resolved. But if it is leading into what you are thinking, I think it is a really interesting twist because everyone he speaks to on the phone from his family is is just isolating him. They're being cruel. They're pushing him away and they're pushing him towards this one thing, the ring, how, this mission, the thing that Marcus, the one person we see in person begs him not to do. He says, don't go back to Rushville. Don't do this. Like your life gets destroyed there every time. Please stay here. Everyone else is telling him the opposite and we never see them.
00:08:30
Speaker 1: And I'll say one more thing about what we know about this show. We know that in this show you can create, and there are, fully sentient AI versions of people.
00:08:41
Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely.
00:08:43
Speaker 1: And how does that play further into this? I don't know, but it does seem... I continue to be suspicious of these phone calls. Let's just put it that way. We both do. Okay, so he drives overnight in his....
00:08:59
Speaker 2: Ford Denali.
00:09:01
Speaker 1: Incredible commercial for Ford Denalis.
00:09:04
Speaker 2: Crazy. Very Twilight coded.
00:09:08
Speaker 1: Probably bought $ 550 in gas to get there from Midway.
00:09:13
Speaker 2: City to Rushville. Arrives at the cafe. Hal is there chowing down. Sits across from Hal.
00:09:21
Speaker 1: Hal's like, what?
00:09:22
Speaker 2: Apology?
00:09:23
Speaker 1: Who? What?
00:09:24
Speaker 2: How's your mom doing?
00:09:27
Speaker 1: You know, John is like, don't fucking to my family, don't talk to my mom. We learned that Hal just got out of prison semi-recently, maybe this year, but he's been out for months, right? He just did 10 years in a federal facility.
00:09:43
Speaker 2: And he says.
00:09:46
Speaker 1: He took the prison bid, he took the fall, he took the entire responsibility, legally, for what happened in Rushville.
00:09:55
Speaker 2: So why... Exactly.
00:09:57
Speaker 1: Should he have to apologize for anything? And John is like, no, you didn't take the fall.
00:10:02
Speaker 2: You fell. You fucked up. You just fell of your own accord. Because you wanted to get the ring. You wanted to prove yourself. You didn't work together with me, as far as we know. They are letting the people of Rushville know. But I think John is right on this. I'm sorry to Hal. Sorry to that man that he was in jail for 10 years. That's a crazy twist. But come on, guys. Like, move on. But also, can we talk about why if I was John... And I have to say, John does great detecting. This episode is one of my favorite things about the episode. But, like, if I'm John... And my mom just called me and said, hey, this man who's fucked up your whole life wants to apologize. And I get that. And the man is like, I don't know nothing about an apology. I would be like, OK, so have you been talking to my mom? Have you guys been writing each other letters? Like, did you tell her I was going to do? I would do a little bit more, just a little bit more investigation.
00:10:55
Speaker 1: More on that in a bit. So, you know, they talk about Guy Gardner a little bit. And it's clear that Hal is not impressed. He refers to him as the gym teacher. This will be, as we noted, kind of a running theme. People not being that impressed with Guy Gardner. Hal says, listen, in terms of the people that died, you were there with me. We're both responsible for all the people that got killed. killed when the hammer of dawn from Gears of War lasered the town and who knows what else.
00:11:32
Speaker 2: The Christopher Nolan drums began to pound and we knew it was all over.
00:11:38
Speaker 1: Hal says he understands why John turned down the ring and he says it's because you were scared. Which I'll say that I John then slugs him and rightly so.
00:11:51
Speaker 2: Crazy thing to say honestly after ten years. Like just calm down please.
00:11:55
Speaker 1: And I will say that You know, you ever get in a fight with somebody that you're close to that you care about and it's like you say something to hurt them and you don't even believe it.
00:12:04
Speaker 2: You just know that. You just know it because you know them so well.
00:12:07
Speaker 1: Right. Yeah. Yeah. This is what Hal did. I don't think Hal does not believe that John was scared. No. At all.
00:12:14
Speaker 2: Agree.
00:12:15
Speaker 1: But he just is like, this is the thing that will hurt this person's feelings right now. And that's why he said it. That's my feeling. I agree.
00:12:22
Speaker 2: John then gets up to leave. And as he's leaving, Hal says in a kind of panicked mode. Yeah. Like he suddenly is like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
00:12:31
Speaker 1: Like.
00:12:31
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:12:32
Speaker 1: Like a little bit of a panic mode. Don't tell anybody you were here. And I'll just say that.
00:12:42
Speaker 2: That that exchange.
00:12:45
Speaker 1: Supports my theory that there is something else that those two are hiding. There is some deeper thing, whether it's they were working together in terms of what happened in Rushville to take down the Manhunter, something. There is some other secret between these two because John walks away wordlessly, but he agrees clearly. And there's something they're protecting, something else.
00:13:13
Speaker 2: John goes home.
00:13:15
Speaker 1: Has a drink.
00:13:17
Speaker 2: Oh, God.
00:13:17
Speaker 1: His day is just terrible. It's a terrible day. He's not gotten any sleep, really. Sheriff Kerry King calls. Oh.
00:13:23
Speaker 2: With the news that Hal Jordan is dead. Uh-oh.
00:13:28
Speaker 1: And we get the scene from the pilot, right? John drives over.
00:13:31
Speaker 2: Meets Kerry.
00:13:35
Speaker 1: Snowy football field. Hal is sitting in the stands with a hole in his head.
00:13:39
Speaker 2: No ring. Sheriff Kerry says all that.
00:13:43
Speaker 1: Security cameras were off. We don't have any witnesses. Hal's nose is broken. So she's like, well, you know, maybe whoever broke his nose killed him. And John is like, oh, shit, that was me. He puts his hands in his mouth.
00:13:55
Speaker 2: He's like, what if?
00:13:59
Speaker 1: But she points out that, listen, everybody here in this town fucking hates Hal Jordan. So a lot of suspects, potentially. John asks why Hal came back. And it's because Hal... As we saw earlier in the series, because kind of had a crush on Sheriff Kerry. He came back for me. She says, we learned that she and Billy split up about three years back. Hal was writing her from prison. Now he's writing everyone from prison, apparently.
00:14:31
Speaker 2: This man can't get enough.
00:14:33
Speaker 1: He was like, listen, I'm so sorry.
00:14:34
Speaker 2: I'm so sorry.
00:14:35
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. He's writing, you know, he was really on an apology tour in prison and post-prison. And then moved there after prison, basically to try and make amends with everybody in the town. And we learned that the town has really been struggling to like rebuild and pick up the pieces.
00:14:51
Speaker 2: No investment from Lex. Zero investment. Or the government, whoever's president right now. It doesn't seem like they're doing a good job investing in midtown America. Not at all.
00:15:03
Speaker 1: Nobody interested in the town. Guy Gardner is like semi-interested in the town. In the wake of what happened, he put a Green Lantern signal like in the town square to be like, hey, if this ever happens again, hit that button.
00:15:19
Speaker 2: Call me.
00:15:19
Speaker 1: I'll be here and I'll fix it without.
00:15:21
Speaker 2: 30% of the town dying.
00:15:23
Speaker 1: They don't want it. But, you know, it's, I guess, a nice gesture from him. She gives John the keys to Hal's place that he was staying in town, tells him to go in the back door. And it's like a real ramshackle, like former hotel maybe that got turned into apartments. It actually might be the original hotel, but it's like fucked up.
00:15:48
Speaker 2: It's a mess. Not a man who's bothered about curating a vibe. Like no matter what house he lives in, it's fucked up, whether it's a rich house or poor people house. It doesn't matter. John goes there.
00:16:00
Speaker 1: Here's something in the back room. He picks up a shotgun. And the thing that he hears is Earl, the plant. Earl's very, very hungry. Love to see Earl. Earl's hungry. John feeds him, gets a call from his brother, Marcus. They've got that pitch meeting with Colonel Draycott. And John is like, listen, I'm in Rushville. And I've got to take care of some stuff. And.
00:16:26
Speaker 2: You know, why are you there?
00:16:28
Speaker 1: Marcus is like, well, I'm here because Hal Jordan died and Earl hears this and just gets very sad. Earl's like, what?
00:16:35
Speaker 2: We learn Earl is fully sentient at that point. Fully, fully sentient. And he didn't know.
00:16:39
Speaker 1: Has been wondering why Hal has not been back and Hal has not been back because he's dead. Marcus is like, listen, are you focused on this meeting with Draycott? Like this is a big deal.
00:16:52
Speaker 2: You better focus up. I gotta say.
00:16:55
Speaker 1: You being in Rushville is you losing focus.
00:16:58
Speaker 2: We know I can be a Jon Stewart apologist, but I'm not really on his side in this case. I do understand what he needs to do and I know he is doing the right thing. But this stuff with Marcus is so well done. You just want to say to him, this has changed your life money for your whole family. They said, if you get this right, you can build whatever you want for the rest of your life. Now, do I think that this will come into play in Superman that they did not build these? Yes, I do think that's going to be a thing. But I also think this is a way of, taking Jon Stewart away from the military industrial system background again, because he's not going to do the thing that he could have done. And then we're going to live with the ramifications because we know he is going to be in Superman too. But I will say James Gunn also said maybe like, there's not going to be that many characters in it, but I feel like there'll be ramifications. I feel like there'll be ramifications.
00:17:53
Speaker 1: I'll just say that, like, so my sense is, John is doing a lot of the architecting, the engineering work, right? And he's got to pitch Drake hot. Like, no offense, but Marcus, what are you exactly doing?
00:18:11
Speaker 2: Okay, good point. Good point, actually. Let's talk about it, Jason. Why can't he do the deck? Wait a minute. Yeah. Can't you just do the deck? Actually, can't John send you a deck? What's on your plate, Marcus? Let's take a quick break, and when we come back, we'll continue the recap.
00:18:40
Speaker 1: And we're back the next day sheriff kerry comes to the house former apartment and is like let's get breakfast they go to the cafe to get breakfast and maggie the counter person is this young um you know whippersnapper small town person who clearly wants to leave the small town um gives john like this very knowing look she saw john arrived to talk to how witness the whole exchange witness john punch how in the face and she very consciously is being like oh hello sir like i've never seen you before in front of sheriff carrie in a way that is letting john know i'm covering for you yeah and we're going to talk about this later um sheriff carrie.
00:19:31
Speaker 2: They're sitting there. Sheriff Kerry is stricken.
00:19:33
Speaker 1: She's very heartbroken by this, but she's trying to hold it together because obviously the town hated Hal and she doesn't want to show that much. But she says to John, ask me what you're thinking. You're thinking I killed how just ask me and john's like i you didn't kill how it's fine like i i i don't think you killed him um sheriff carrie gets a call from the me and it's the autopsy and john's like i'd love to go to the autopsy i love autopsy i'm big on those like can i go And she's like, you can't because you're not law enforcement. He's like, deputize me. So she deputizes him and they go.
00:20:11
Speaker 2: Gotta say, this is actually, to me, the first episode and the first interactions that truly live up to that kind of true detective tone that they were promising. That scene where she deputizes him is so fucking funny and bleak and realistic and just like this kind of hopeless ridiculousness between these two grieving people. It really hit for me. I think this is such a great sequence. So is the Emmy sequence too. Like when they get in that morgue, that's another true detective type scene. I completely agree.
00:20:47
Speaker 1: So at the morgue, Emmy is just talking wild shit about Hal Jordan, who is deceased, who was murdered.
00:20:55
Speaker 2: But she's like, fuck this guy. Fuck him. Piece of shit.
00:21:00
Speaker 1: Glad he's dead. Hate you also, Jon Stewart. You also a piece of shit.
00:21:05
Speaker 2: Excuse me, Sheriff Curry.
00:21:07
Speaker 1: I know you guys were close, but I hate this fucking guy. And if he was alive and on fire, I wouldn't piss on him to put him out. And I'm kind of glad he's dead. Um, here's the verdict on how it's exactly what it was. It looks like he was shot in the head, close range from the front. So whoever did it looked him right in his eyes. And apparently there was no struggle at all. The busted nose. He just took that hit no scrapes on his knuckles. So he didn't fight back or anything. He just sat there and got shot in the head. It's a complete mystery.
00:21:44
Speaker 2: What about that?
00:21:44
Speaker 1: Nose? Sheriff Kerry says, do you think we might be able to get DNA or something? Maybe the person who punched him, like the knuckles get scraped and there's like skin or, or blood from the attacker, like on the nose. And the Emmy's like, yes, I sent the swabs to the feds and we should have.
00:22:01
Speaker 2: A result on that.
00:22:02
Speaker 1: Like in 300 years or whatever, when the feds fucking get around it, they don't.
00:22:05
Speaker 2: Give a shit.
00:22:06
Speaker 1: And, but John is nervous is actually like a little nervous about it. He put his hands in his pocket. It's good acting here. Yeah. Aaron Pierre, wordless acting. Um, Sheriff Carey is like, listen, this guy was a former superhero. No, just the Justice League does not exist. But like, you know, was one of that group of humans and is very famous.
00:22:29
Speaker 2: And so a version of it is existing somewhere, somewhere.
00:22:34
Speaker 1: But Hal might have been pre Justice League International, whatever that group is.
00:22:39
Speaker 2: Anyway, so.
00:22:43
Speaker 1: Sheriff Carey is like, listen, this guy is super famous, as you know. please don't file the death report now.
00:22:51
Speaker 2: She said four months!
00:22:54
Speaker 1: Four months is fucking crazy.
00:22:55
Speaker 2: Calm down, Carrie. That's some Gotham shit. You can't pay someone off here for four months, babe.
00:23:01
Speaker 1: Four months is fucking crazy, okay? But she makes a good point that it's going to be headline news all around the world when people realize that he's dead. It's actually nuts that nobody knows he's dead yet. You're telling me that Lex Luthor doesn't know.
00:23:21
Speaker 2: That he's dead. No tracking? No drones?
00:23:25
Speaker 1: You're telling me Amanda Waller hasn't gotten, like, inklings? Anyway, nobody knows. So please just, like, wait a while. And the Emmy's like, four months is crazy, but we'll do Monday. I'll give you the weekend. They go, she gives, you know, Sheriff Kerry the contents of Hal's pockets and And one of the things is a bird keychain.
00:23:50
Speaker 2: Very emotional. I thought that was very cute.
00:23:52
Speaker 1: Nod.
00:23:52
Speaker 2: I thought that was very cute. Warmed my heart. I thought that was very cute. To a place called the Fortress of Storage.
00:24:00
Speaker 1: So they go over there. And in Hal's storage locker is his guardian vault with a voice print identifier. Hello, Hal Jordan. You know, identify. This belongs to Hal Jordan. Identify yourself. And so they try to use a voicemail. Sheriff Kerry pulls up a voicemail, and it's Hal giving her the nickname Buttercup. And it doesn't work. The vault is like, that's a recording. Shut the fuck up.
00:24:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, come on.
00:24:30
Speaker 1: Hal has to be here live speaking the password and his name or whatever it is. Don't try that shit again.
00:24:37
Speaker 2: This is your one and only warning. They leave. Sheriff Kerry is like, why don't you come to dinner later?
00:24:45
Speaker 1: Meet Noah. It'll be fun. And then John, like, is it almost as an afterthought, but clearly he's been doing, this is strategic.
00:24:52
Speaker 2: He's like, you know what? I also have a, a thought.
00:24:56
Speaker 1: Let's, they want to, you know, the Emmy wants to, um, you know.
00:25:02
Speaker 2: Like cremate how, cause he has no family. Yeah.
00:25:05
Speaker 1: Cremate how, why not? Let's bury him. He's, uh, you know, he was the earth's first green lantern, met a human, did a lot of heroic things. The big deal.
00:25:15
Speaker 2: Like, let's bury him. Also appealing to emotional connection to him. And I do think it's 50% because he doesn't want to think of him just getting burned up and like thrown down the river or whatever, down the toilet, as the Emmy says. But I do think you're right. I think there is a strategic angle here, as we will see, which will play out.
00:25:34
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:25:35
Speaker 2: So she agrees.
00:25:37
Speaker 1: She's like, I can pull some strings with the church and with the cemetery and we'll see.
00:25:42
Speaker 2: They split up.
00:25:45
Speaker 1: John gets a call. And again, he's got to block these numbers. He gets a call from Comfort Cove, the facility where... Kind of senior facility or some sort of.
00:25:54
Speaker 2: Yeah. Some sort of home for people who maybe have ongoing health issues.
00:26:03
Speaker 1: Yeah. And it's about John's dad. And apparently the dad is very agitated because things aren't the way he wants them. And he's still... holding onto the trauma of the Green Lantern call and that original event and all the things that unfolded afterwards. And, um, John is like, I don't want to talk to him. It's clear he's gotten no contact. And the person on the phone who from Comfort Cove is like, well, listen, somebody's got to deal with this. And he's like, well, not me. And he hangs up and he's in the grocery store at the time. And he sees that full life-size cutout of Guy Gardner, Hawking, whatever it is, Gatorade or something. Um, John then drives to the town square, sees the lantern signal, and presses the button to summon Guy Gardner.
00:26:51
Speaker 2: Crazy move, honestly, sir, when you destroyed this town as the Green Lantern. But I get it. You've got to contact your man. He doesn't have a Justice League email, I guess. Sure. Justice gang haven't got their emails going.
00:27:02
Speaker 1: So shoots a light up to the clouds Batman bat signal style.
00:27:08
Speaker 2: It's a bat signal, which I have to say. I got to say something. You're low tech. Also, a little presumptuous by James Gunn to include a green lantern symbol when you don't have a Batman. That is a bat signal first, my guy. It's a nice implication that Wayne maybe made them, but we still need to know and see that man. I like that reading.
00:27:30
Speaker 1: I took it a different way. I took it as another reason people don't like Guy Gardner. He just rips off the bat signal.
00:27:36
Speaker 2: Oh my God, that's so good. People are like, this guy's so corny, he can't even come.
00:27:41
Speaker 1: Up with those shit.
00:27:41
Speaker 2: I know, he's a fucking corny motherfucker. Okay, that's good. I like that too.
00:27:46
Speaker 1: So seconds after he turns on the signal.
00:27:50
Speaker 2: They're waiting. This is the hangout. Yeah, that's true. A bunch of like four guys.
00:27:56
Speaker 1: Who look just like the ex-militia guys dressed in the same way with the ball caps and the. vests and the whole thing and the kind of Western gear where, and they come out and they're like.
00:28:05
Speaker 2: What the fuck are you doing?
00:28:07
Speaker 1: Oh my God, it's Jon Stewart. And then Billy, Carrie's ex, shows father of Noah looking like he's been following in his dad's footsteps. He's got the beard goatee now. He's not clean shaven. Like he's looking a little haggard and he shows up and he's like, what the, what are you fucking doing? You turn that off, Jon Stewart, which why can't they.
00:28:30
Speaker 2: Turn it off? Okay, no, no, no, no. So I do want to say something, right? They can turn it off. They're just trying to be tough. There is a great note here. And part of the reason they are so upset, again, fuck Guy Gardner, he put it next to the memorial for the town. So it's the memorial for all the dead. And next to it is the Green Lantern symbol. They're just telling John to turn it off because they want to fight. And because there's like six of them, they think they've got a chance, but they don't know John was juiced up with the alien blood and he's a Marine. So he just fucking smokes them.
00:29:02
Speaker 1: So I was going to say, maybe it is like a security feature, which would be smart as like the person who turned it on.
00:29:07
Speaker 2: Only the person who turned it on can turn it off. In case like a person in distress called it and somebody who was attacking them turned it off. That's smart. Okay.
00:29:16
Speaker 1: So Billy and the guys attack John and John is clearly Manhunter blood juiced and he takes them out now.
00:29:24
Speaker 2: But here's my issue, Rosie.
00:29:28
Speaker 1: Wouldn't a lot of people in this town be Manhunter blood juice?
00:29:31
Speaker 2: Right? That's, I don't know that. Okay, no, no, no, no, no. I guess, yeah, because nobody gets sick.
00:29:37
Speaker 1: Huh.
00:29:38
Speaker 2: That's an interesting point. but maybe not anymore. Maybe that's why... Maybe they... Because remember... it's not that she was going up to everyone and just putting her juice in the eye. That's not what we understand. What we understand is since she came, she basically manipulated the crops and kind of X-Men, like to get the mutant gene out, she got the sick gene out through like, you know, crops, clean water, whatever else. Some maha. Yeah, some kind of, you know, she's not, no vaccines in that town. No vaccines. No vaccines in that town. No processed foods. I think if they were slightly juiced, They ain't anymore. And also as well, Jon Stewart is like a trained man. We saw how bad that military was. The militia was in episode five. They flopped. They did not have the juice when it came to the invasion. She did not train them. Absolutely flopped. It might also be that there is, you.
00:30:32
Speaker 1: Know, Sinestro said that there's something dangerous about Jon Stewart. And he did manifest that bird. And it was alive, you know, outside of the radius of the ring.
00:30:44
Speaker 2: That's true.
00:30:45
Speaker 1: And so there might be something extra about Jon Stewart. A little juice. More juice to add to the Manhunter juice that makes him super juiced.
00:30:56
Speaker 2: That might be the case. But certainly he's juiced in.
00:30:59
Speaker 1: Some fashion because he just absolutely washes these guys easily.
00:31:02
Speaker 2: And then, can I just say, still goes to the dinner with this man's ex-wife. Bruv, just don't go. Like, I'm sorry. That's so disrespectful. It's going to end badly for you. Like, at least tell her. At least tell her.
00:31:14
Speaker 1: Here's how juiced, though, he is. He gets in a fight with five guys, destroys them, and then is able to go to a dinner where the people at the dinner have no idea that he fought five guys because he's got no marks on him or anything.
00:31:29
Speaker 2: That's how juiced this guy is. So Carrie at.
00:31:33
Speaker 1: The dinner is, she thinks the whole panic room, she thinks basically Stewart.
00:31:40
Speaker 2: Brothers' business model is stupid.
00:31:42
Speaker 1: She thinks it's dumb. she's like, let me get this straight. You build these panic rooms, then you want to build a panic room the size of a stadium.
00:31:49
Speaker 2: That's never going to work.
00:31:50
Speaker 1: And John's like, listen, it's not about it working actually, but of course they do work.
00:31:54
Speaker 2: Yeah. It's about the peace of.
00:31:56
Speaker 1: Mind that it gives to people knowing that it's there. Okay.
00:32:01
Speaker 2: And I have to say again, I do think there is some real potential for them to be setting up kind of like how, look, I have to say, this is not necessarily a complimentary thing, when you compare with how well it was done in that, in my opinion. But it does feel to me like John and the stadiums and the panic room, like it feels like they're really seeding this kind of idea of like, is it safe? Would it just be elitist? it feels like it's going somewhere bigger because Carrie's opposition is giving kind of the Jean Grey conversation with the mutant inhibitor, right? Like there's something here that feels like it's building. And if we think about Lex's metropolis, you could, I mean, doesn't he already kind of have this in his little prison world? Isn't that what he has down there? I'm very interested. I thought it was intriguing. And John also like, got to say classic, this John, not particularly passionate about the project. He's just like, Yeah, as long as rich people think it works, we'll make our money.
00:32:57
Speaker 1: The money is good. More on this in a bit. So we learn that Noah is a very ambitious kid.
00:33:05
Speaker 2: He wants to be the president. He wants to be a president.
00:33:08
Speaker 1: He wants to be a senator. He's got his pick of elite schools right now. And where is he going to go?
00:33:14
Speaker 2: Manhunter.
00:33:16
Speaker 1: Maybe.
00:33:17
Speaker 2: He's juiced. Clearly juiced. Brain juiced. Brain juiced. And also, can I say... Everyone in town hates him and is hella resentful and drives past him and is like, where are you going to go, superstar? Which makes me think if those people had been raised to protect Zoe and the Manhunter, if Noah is that and they're trying to seed him into some kind of position of power, if you were a young person in that town and your town's destroyed and now you've got to fucking dedicate your life to this new alien, you're going to be pissed, right?
00:33:48
Speaker 1: I'm glad you mentioned that because did you notice the parallels? John's brothers, his family, treat him the exact way that the town treats Noah, which.
00:33:58
Speaker 2: Is you get everything. They call John the chosen. Everything was for you, Mr. Special.
00:34:05
Speaker 1: And so that's notable to me that those two figures are treated in a very similar way. Carrie gets a call, answers, and it's clearly a very serious call. She sends Noah to his room and she's like, why don't you tell me that you beat up my ex-husband and four of his militia friends?
00:34:23
Speaker 2: And John's like, you beat up my dad! Like, off camera, you beat up my dad! And John is like, well, they attacked me.
00:34:32
Speaker 1: I don't know, I had to, you know, like, I wanted to come to dinner. She locks him up, both for his protection and because it would look, you know, it would look bad in the town also if she didn't do it, but she should do it.
00:34:44
Speaker 2: She locks him up.
00:34:45
Speaker 1: Clearly, John was kind of thinking this would happen because he says listen you're gonna lock me up anyway whether i told you exactly so she leaves john who seems to like know he knows a lot of the people in the town he knows the um the bail the sheriff or deputy and he's like hey let me get my call lopez let me get my call He gets his call.
00:35:10
Speaker 2: He calls Marcus.
00:35:11
Speaker 1: For bail money, Marcus is like, what the fuck is going on?
00:35:13
Speaker 2: Marcus is having, look, you are right. I'm not going to lie. Marcus needs to take a little bit more responsibility on things, right? I cannot deny. But I also can imagine that Marcus is so stressed 10 years of none of this. 10 years of no Green Lantern, no Nonsense, no Chosen One. And suddenly, the day before, this motherfucker is in jail calling you for $ 1, 000 bail money. Like, come on. Also, Marcus, just pay it because you guys have been making millions. This is like a.
00:35:42
Speaker 1: Drop in the ocean.
00:35:43
Speaker 2: Don't worry about it.
00:35:45
Speaker 1: The next day, John wakes up and it's Guy Gardner sitting outside the jail cell throwing like... glowy green light on john and it's clear that they there's a previous relationship there they know each other pretty well like they're talking to each other using almost nicknames hey stewart you know hey gardner uh they they guy talks about the time that he first met hal also in a cell he's like isn't that crazy you know like like he was in the federal apparently hal was in a kind.
00:36:20
Speaker 2: Of like federal facility, like a soft facility. Notable, right? And again, we know how this show has been trying to have these conversations, but I do think it's notable here that Hal came out of prison and was like, I did the bid, I did it. And then Guy Gardner comes and was like, he's in fucking blue collar vacation jail. He's on fucking terminal Island, like sun tanning. Actually, and you're here in this fucking shithole tiny jail. What's that about? Another interesting bit of dialogue that tells us a lot about how these people are perceived in the world.
00:36:53
Speaker 1: The relationship dynamics between John and Guy are fascinating. So John tells Guy that Hal is dead and Guy is absolutely shocked.
00:37:04
Speaker 2: But he pretty immediately says, but listen.
00:37:07
Speaker 1: I can't help you with the case because it just would look bad. Why it would look bad is, we can try and unpack that later in the conversation, but he's like, it's just bad optics if I get involved in this. I can't get involved in this. John's like, I don't need your help. That's not why I called. Yeah, you're useless.
00:37:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're useless anyway.
00:37:24
Speaker 1: I called because Hal should have a funeral. He's the Earth's first Green Lantern. Give me a break.
00:37:31
Speaker 2: He's a legend.
00:37:31
Speaker 1: Whatever we think of him, he's a legend. He needs to be buried in his uniform with his fucking ring on.
00:37:39
Speaker 2: This man is so deep. I got to say, like, I do believe again, 50% he believes this. 50% this man is a grave digger planning to be digging up that grave.
00:37:50
Speaker 1: I think it's both.
00:37:51
Speaker 3: I think he agrees with what he's saying, but it's a plan. When I rewatched the episode, I was like, okay, this is so nefarious when you know how it ends.
00:38:02
Speaker 1: So we learn here some very important information that the Guardians forged a new ring for Guy and that Hal's ring got decommissioned and it's up at Oa along with his uniform and all this stuff. And Guy is like, doesn't want to fly up there and get it because he feels like the Guardians are going to be mad at him. There's something there that he just doesn't want the Guardians to know he did that and it would look bad.
00:38:27
Speaker 2: I also want to say, thinking of this, right? You're the Guardians. You had all the issues, hypothetically, these issues with Jon Stewart and Hal and all the drama you have to clean up after Lyanna. And also we remember, and this was a conscientious moment. I think a lot of people didn't clock what you clocked, Jason, when you did your recap. But remember, Hal was able to chip the control thing off his ring so that the AI could stay out, right? Like Hal's ring had a freedom to it. There's something about it that was, I think, more directly connected. First Earth Lantern. It seems like Guy is on a leash. They probably can track his ring in a way they couldn't. They can probably throttle the power. There are probably certain things he can and can't do. I think they have probably learned after the Hal-John situation, but that is why John is very smart to try and get Hal's ring back into play. I mean, to your point, the Guardians.
00:39:26
Speaker 1: Had a concern with Hal that he was too involved in Earth stuff, and this is a comics thing too where the guardians are like you're you've got a whole sector of space that you should be patrolling and you're just too involved in yeah in the internal earth politics so i think part of what guy is concerned about is like if i get involved in this Now I'm doing the thing that Hal did, which is getting too involved in Earth politics. And like, I've got space and stuff to deal with. So Hal, John is like, listen, you fucking owe me. Because if I hadn't passed on the ring, you wouldn't have it.
00:39:58
Speaker 2: You're my backup. Yeah, he says, he says, everything you have is because I turned it down. And I was like, yes, tell him that shit, man. That was so good. And fuck, you know what I like about it? Great character moment. Guy's arrogance falls. In that moment, Guy knows that he folds. Yeah, he folds.
00:40:18
Speaker 1: And what I took from this was, if Jon changed his mind, he could get the ring.
00:40:24
Speaker 2: The Guardians will give it back to him, clearly. And also, does Guy know... what the Guardians told Jon to do with Hal, because technically doesn't that mean Jon could literally just take it back and they'd probably be fine with it? He doesn't even need to ask them. You know, like they wanted him to steal it from Hal. If he took Guy's ring, they probably wouldn't argue.
00:40:48
Speaker 1: So other important news that Guy brings is that some time in the past, past year, past few months, we don't exactly know, someone busted Sinestro Out of space jails, Spasskaban, as Guy calls it.
00:41:06
Speaker 2: Rude.
00:41:07
Speaker 1: The main suspect would have been Jordan, except he was in jail at the time. So who could it be? Guy flies away. John gets his bail.
00:41:17
Speaker 2: He gets out.
00:41:17
Speaker 1: When John gets his phone charged, there are a million messages from his mom, from Marcus, from just everybody. He calls his mom back. She's trying to apologize for lying to him about Hal.
00:41:32
Speaker 2: So weird. It's very, very strange. More calls, you know, lying about Hal.
00:41:38
Speaker 1: Wanting to apologize, right? More calls from Comfort Cove. Dad is wilding out. John calls his brother Aaron, who is in the recording studio.
00:41:47
Speaker 2: Unbelievable phone acting, by the way, by RMPR here.
00:41:52
Speaker 1: And apparently John bankrolls Aaron's music dreams at the studio. Go pick up dad, he says. Apparently dad shot a window out at the comfort code. Crazy. And now he's got to leave. Like they can't keep him there. And, you know, Aaron is refusing to go and is like, he keeps calling him chosen. He's like, well, you know, you should do it because, you know, you're the chosen one and you got all the stuff. They were always paying attention to you. John just eventually manages to get Aaron to do it by himself. again, pointing out that like, I pay for everything. So fucking go get them right now. It is incredible phone acting.
00:42:27
Speaker 2: Also want to say, this was where I started to jump back on the Jason Concepcion phone theory wagon, right? Because I do, one, this could just be sibling banter. We know that the siblings are fucked up. But, there are some moments in this phone call where it goes so dark, where Aaron is saying the most horrible, isolating shit to him. Like, you ruined dad's life. It's on you. He wasted his whole life because you didn't take the ring. Where I was like, that sounds like, what Oa would make someone say if they wanted someone to take the ring you know what I mean like I think that that there is still an argument for that theory and yeah Aaron is just selling this shit like when he says to him he's like you're right dad is on me and he goes but you're not and then Aaron goes okay I'll go and he goes exactly go now like shut the fuck up and go it's so good.
00:43:19
Speaker 1: Maggie is waiting for John back at Hal's apartment and now we learn why she covered for John.
00:43:27
Speaker 2: She wants money.
00:43:30
Speaker 1: She wants cash because of everything that happened when the town was attacked. We didn't discuss it in the last recap, but when the hotel was struck, there was a young family there with a child. And John was like, it'll be okay.
00:43:47
Speaker 2: Get to safety. And that child was Maggie. Mm-hmm.
00:43:53
Speaker 1: John explains, listen, I didn't tell Sheriff Kerry because one, Hal told me not to tell anybody it was here.
00:44:02
Speaker 2: And two, I'm black in this all white town.
00:44:04
Speaker 1: They would have felt.
00:44:05
Speaker 2: And she's like, we're not racist here. And he's like, oh, okay. Great line.
00:44:12
Speaker 1: Great line. Okay. She asks for $ 314, 000, which she is a formula she had come up with plus interest of all the.
00:44:18
Speaker 2: Things she lost. Yeah. How much damage her family's businesses. Can I say something? If this man has been making panic rooms for the elite, which, by the way, from David Fincher's hit movie from the zeros, Panic Room, starring Kristen Stewart and Jodie Foster, those things cost a million dollars in the 90s. Easily. Just give her the $ 314, 000, babe. Just Venmo that shit over. Blackmail done. Why is this even a conversation?
00:44:44
Speaker 1: Very, very interesting, his response to being blackmailed. Um, and she's like, you know, give me the money or I tell the sheriff.
00:44:50
Speaker 2: She does call it reparations though. So you know what?
00:44:53
Speaker 1: Fuck.
00:44:53
Speaker 2: That's yeah. But she is racist in the town. That's fine.
00:44:57
Speaker 1: Noah shows up and he's, he very thoughtfully brought a suit for that for John to wear.
00:45:05
Speaker 2: For Hal's funeral. He's the lead-up. I guess he just.
00:45:09
Speaker 1: He must be juiced, because I don't... Getting a suit is hard, and he just, I guess, visually measured Jon Stewart and got a perfectly fitting suit.
00:45:17
Speaker 2: He's doing the interior leg measurements, like, in his mind, did not. He's like... He's got this talism baby.
00:45:25
Speaker 1: He could like look at something and know exactly what the measurements are.
00:45:29
Speaker 2: It's like incredible. He's got the Apple measuring app in his eyes, but it just works. He's like that. And then went off and made a suit.
00:45:37
Speaker 1: Sure.
00:45:37
Speaker 2: Got a suit in 24 hours from somewhere.
00:45:40
Speaker 1: Manhunter.
00:45:41
Speaker 2: Manhunter. He's got the magic. He goes, they beat someone up with his cyborg alien vibes and they make that suit. Something. While that is going on, like somebody drives.
00:45:50
Speaker 1: By and does the thing you said, which is.
00:45:52
Speaker 2: Where are you going, special guy? Like, what's your decision?
00:45:58
Speaker 1: Jon Stewart apologizes for beating Noah's dad's ass, Billy. And Noah doesn't, clearly the relationship between Noah and Billy is not good because he's like, I don't care.
00:46:09
Speaker 2: Also, John gives him this great line, which again, I think, Jason, you went onto something with the echoes between these two characters. Because they are talking about season two. So I think the Noah storyline is setting something up there. I agree. There's this great moment when... John sees that happen and he apologizes. And then he says, the only thing that matters for you is like the path you want. I'm paraphrasing, but he's like, the only path that you should be on is the one that you're on and don't let anyone else change that. And he says to him, do you really believe that? And that's the big question, right? Of this whole show is like destiny versus self-determination.
00:46:46
Speaker 1: At the funeral, it's just the priest... Guy and Carrie, Guy will only be there for a moment. He brought the uniform. He bought the ring. The ring is on Hal. The uniform is on Hal. He's laying in the coffin. Guy is clearly nervous about Oa ever finding out that he got this stuff. Yeah. And put it on Hal. He's nervous about it. And he stresses, listen, the ring is dead. It's been decommissioned.
00:47:12
Speaker 2: It's not going to work.
00:47:14
Speaker 1: So.
00:47:14
Speaker 2: don't be digging this man up and stealing that and john says ring great i love this line so much i did not think it was going to pay off john goes what kind of like creepy freak do you think i am and guy says apparently very knowingly the kind who's really good at hiding it and we learned that yeah like john does have a freaky side he's willing to push it to save the world.
00:47:39
Speaker 1: Um Guy flies off because again, he says it would be a bad look for him to be at the funeral, which is, I don't believe, but that's weird.
00:47:47
Speaker 2: Do you think that's because he is the new Green Lantern and Hal was murdered? So like, it looks like, but do we know, do people outside of the world know he was murdered? Do they just know he was dead? I think there's something suspicious about this that could pay off. That's either him being told not to be there or he's just a fucking coward and he doesn't want to be there and answer any questions.
00:48:08
Speaker 1: I think it's that, Yeah, I really want to figure out why he's so nervous about this.
00:48:13
Speaker 2: It could be any of those things.
00:48:15
Speaker 1: And I also, to your point, think it's, I think he's uncomfortable around Jon because maybe Jon could snatch the ring from him at any time.
00:48:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's right. I think you're right, actually. Like, if he's even looked in the archives or has his own version of the bolt or whatever, he could have heard that story about that's how you get the ring, right? And that's why they had to give Guy a new ring because he couldn't take it from Hal.
00:48:40
Speaker 1: Very interesting. That is also very interesting. Why did they not?
00:48:44
Speaker 2: I think they wanted more control over him.
00:48:47
Speaker 1: I think they wanted more control. I think you're absolutely right. And I also wonder if whatever conspiracy is going on with the Guardians and Noah, if there isn't some sort of incriminating stuff in that. I mean, it clearly is. The AI is going to know something. The AI house is going to know something. And they don't want someone else having potentially access to that.
00:49:08
Speaker 2: Anyways.
00:49:10
Speaker 1: Carol, Hal's longtime love interest shows up and she's like, I have Hal's eulogy here. And I think you should read it. I think you're the only person that can read it. I think it would be crazy if I read it. So you should just read it.
00:49:28
Speaker 2: She's like, it's embarrassing if anyone reads it. So I'm going to make you do it.
00:49:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm going to make you do it. It's titled Brightest Day. And it's very clear that Hal was expecting a massive... You know, in the comics, when a superhero dies, there's always that cover where it's like.
00:49:44
Speaker 2: Death of Superman. Death of Superman.
00:49:48
Speaker 1: And it's like... The huge audience of every superhero, even the minor ones, and the president is there, and aliens are there. And that's what he was expecting, was this huge fucking turnout.
00:50:01
Speaker 2: Definitely thought Superman would be there. The likes of which has never been seen in the DCU yet.
00:50:08
Speaker 1: And it's just... John, Carrie, and the priest. That's it.
00:50:13
Speaker 2: Carol doesn't even hang out. Carol doesn't even hang out. She hangs out for like a minute looking sad. And she leaves. I want to say, one thing Hal Jordan was clearly doing was taking care of the women. Because the two people, two of the three people who came were people he used to be sleeping with. So good for him. Good for that man. Also, crazy to have Carol Ferris here just like dropped in like that. That is crazy. Crazy.
00:50:37
Speaker 1: Taking care of everyone. I don't know that we can just keep it to a gender because he was out in space doing who knows what. Okay, that's true.
00:50:43
Speaker 2: He did say opportunity, opportunity knocks, but he was not taking care of those lovers. Actually, Jason, let me... I'm going to pose something to you then because... is it slightly suspicious that nobody showed up for Hal Jordan's funeral? Like actually, if we think about it, like I get that he's kind of meant to suck or whatever, right? But if you actually just even look at the way he's being perceived by the fans, there is like an edgy, loving rawness, right? So surely some weird, you know, Chip the squirrel or like some random alien that he fucked in 10 different universes away, like wouldn't, They come? Like, wouldn't somebody come? I feel like there is something very isolated about Rushville right now.
00:51:30
Speaker 1: It makes me feel that whatever the public story of what happened at Rushville is, it's very, very bad. Okay.
00:51:39
Speaker 2: Don't even ask about it.
00:51:41
Speaker 1: Like, some Green Lantern turns into a.
00:51:43
Speaker 2: 9-11 type shit. Yeah, he turned into a terrorist. I will say, they do... They did lean very heavily on suicide bombing in episode five. So yeah, you're right. They might just be talking around how horrific it is. So it's like, you just don't even bring it up. And I guess that's also why John feels comfortable doing what he does to end this episode, which is an absolutely insane way to end the episode. And I fucking love it. So that night, John returns.
00:52:09
Speaker 1: He digs up Hal. While he's digging up Hal, he's in the fucking grave pit. Couldn't wait till tomorrow.
00:52:16
Speaker 2: I couldn't.
00:52:18
Speaker 1: Marcus calls with Colonel Draycott. Now, earlier at the funeral, John had taken a call from Marcus and was like, listen, I'm not going to be there for the pitch, but I'll be there to close later. Like, I'll close personally with Draycott. So apparently Marcus did the pitch. He puts Draycott on the phone. Draycott's like, yeah, Colonel Draycott. And then the call cuts. John calls back. And it turns out that Draycott just hung up and walked out.
00:52:44
Speaker 2: He felt so slighted by the fact- Because he wasn't worth John's time. Yeah. Felt so slighted by that. But it's like- Sometimes a 6'2 man needs to dig a hole with his old best friend in it, okay?
00:52:58
Speaker 1: This is why it must- Like Hal's name must be dirt on a level that we kind of can't understand right now. And we just, the cover story must be something completely.
00:53:09
Speaker 2: Terrible, bad. John can't even bring this up and say, hey, this is Green Lantern shit.
00:53:16
Speaker 1: So Marcus is fucking pissed, whatever. John opens the coffin. He takes the ring off Hal. It has 5% charge. He like bangs it on a grave. It manifests AI Hal, the Halogram. and Hallegram looks down at the grave that John and it are standing over, and there is the body of Hal Jordan, and Hallegram is like, oh, fuck.
00:53:40
Speaker 2: Cut to black! I have a different reading of the ending, so let's go to break and talk about it. Yeah, let's take a break and come back. And we're back. Okay.
00:54:04
Speaker 1: What is your take on this?
00:54:06
Speaker 2: Okay, so I think yours is the Occam's Razor, like, most obvious version. But when I was re-watching it, I actually was like, wait. I think that what it is, is that Jon is using the ring, right? What was always meant to be his ring. The AI manifests differently for different people. And I think what happened is his AI manifested as cranky, dead Hal that we know. And Hal was like, fuck like now i'm stuck in this fucking ring teaching this fucking annoying ass guy kind of playing on that original relationship they had so i'm really i think that it's open-ended but i think that where that is gonna go and also as well i gotta say i love the sheriff kerry stuff in this episode with john but obviously the tease of a final two episodes where it's this true detective with john and hal but it's halogram and john is really smart that's a fun twist I agree.
00:55:03
Speaker 1: Now, I agree with you that Halogram now has the most up-to-date memories of Hal, probably, right?
00:55:18
Speaker 2: Well, since he was... Before he died, basically. Before he went into jail 10 years ago, right? Oh, okay. Because when he empowered him up....
00:55:27
Speaker 1: During the events that led to the death of the Manhunter and the attacks. Remember, it had been 10 years, but there must have been a catch-up process, right, where he downloaded other things.
00:55:37
Speaker 2: It might also be instant. Like, as soon as you connect the ring or you charge the ring, it updates it or whatever. So I do think there's an updated version.
00:55:46
Speaker 1: We should assume that the hologram has the information about whatever it was that Hal was working on with Sinestro or that working on the Sinestro, you know, information that he had gotten when he interviewed Sinestro. I also think this, we, Halogram flew off and was keeping an eye on things. But we actually have no idea what Halogram was doing for a lot of that. Exactly.
00:56:12
Speaker 2: And we don't know if Halogram was working with Sinestro. We don't know what's going on. I mean, also, we know so little about the ring. And I'm not going to lie. I do think one of the coolest things about this show is how much they've expanded the lore of the ring, whether it's to do with the ring not always choosing people or whether it's to do with how it chooses. I kind of am starting to feel like, what if? Hal's hologram and Sinestro's, you know, yellow lantern ring that he has got. What if they can communicate? What if there is a network of the ways that the AI can communicate if it is up to date? I think there's so much about it that we don't know. And I think that is going to be ripe for the next couple of episodes because what happens when there are two active rings? Let's get crazy for a second because I.
00:57:00
Speaker 2: Let's just work with what we have in this show.
00:57:03
Speaker 1: Jon Stewart can manifest stuff from the ring that persists.
00:57:06
Speaker 2: Yes.
00:57:08
Speaker 1: We think, we suspect, potentially, Jon and Hal, even though they had a lot of animosity towards each other, there is some secret that they were keeping. We don't know what Hallegram was doing. Hal knows that Jon can do the thing with the bird. Yes. Did... John, juice Haligram so that Haligram was more alive, persistent, outside of the ring's influence than previous.
00:57:45
Speaker 2: I'm going to go crazier because I think you're right. But also, what about this? What if Haligram was like, because this is definitely going to be the big conversation, is Hal really dead? What version? What if John helped a version of Haligram die? be the dead how like if he helps it manifest into something real right and so we could end up with a real how jordan because i do feel like a lot of the conversation has been hey he was so well received these two go really well together we're starting to get it how do you have him in second season two hologram works but i think there is a lot of potential you know we know that in the mcu we had the sam uh samuel l jackson lmds we know that here there are these kind of man hunters who can change shape. Is that a different man hunter? Is that someone they man hunted used to look like Hal and then kill? Maybe we'll have to chop out his heart and find out. I'm intrigued. I think there's a lot of potential. I agree with you.
00:58:45
Speaker 1: I think that there is a world in which Hal and John make some kind of deal. John juices the ring, manifests AI Hal so that it's a live person, just like the bird. AI Hal goes to jail.
00:59:02
Speaker 2: That's what I was going to say.
00:59:04
Speaker 1: Hal is, wherever he the fuck is, running around secretly, is the one that broke in. out Sinestro, actually.
00:59:11
Speaker 2: Did do it. Oh, shit. Even if it was just for the, he could have been in jail for a lot of the time if they just needed to switch him out as well. There's ways you could heist this up. Right. This could have been a little secret Green Lantern heist. Oh, I love this. And, you know, or.
00:59:29
Speaker 1: And now, somehow this has gone a crazy way because Halligram is actually dead.
00:59:36
Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. Or, you know, someone killed it.
00:59:39
Speaker 1: So... It could also be reversed in which, I don't know, like that is the real Hal and Halogram is off running around and was the one who broke out Sinestro. Like, I just think that we know that Jon can do this and there's no way that's not coming back in some way.
00:59:55
Speaker 2: Remember that when Hal broke the chip off, it was so that the Halogram could be free and go further and stay out for longer, right? So they've established that both of those things can happen. So I think we're going to at least get a bit of a hologram switcheroo. Okay, Jason, two episodes left. It's not enough. It feels like it's not enough, especially because now it feels like the juice is really going. Like it's pumping through. We're getting to the central mystery. Who do you think was behind the killing? Is it a real killing or is it part of this play? And how does Sinestro play into it? I, that's a great question. I, here.
01:00:43
Speaker 1: Are my top suspects for who shot Hal. Noah, because we're not suspecting it.
01:00:49
Speaker 2: And also he's the manhunter, right? Like obviously he's at least a little bit of the manhunter, omen child or whatever.
01:00:56
Speaker 1: And whoever shot Hal, remember, Hal just let it happen or didn't react or let this person get close enough to him.
01:01:04
Speaker 2: And that is his girlfriend's kid brother. Yeah. Jason!
01:01:10
Speaker 1: Or it was Sinestro somehow. But why would Sinestro be on Earth? And I just think an alien on Earth, it would be too obvious.
01:01:18
Speaker 2: Can I say something else?
01:01:20
Speaker 1: Yeah.
01:01:20
Speaker 2: Did John... Okay, wait.
01:01:23
Speaker 1: Did.
01:01:23
Speaker 2: This is so crazy, guys. I'm sorry. But sometimes we got to go there. Yeah. Did you notice the echoes between the whole thing of in the last episode, there was all this conversation about a Manhunter would never welcome death. smiling. There's a lot of parallels between Zoe's death, getting sniped in the head with the smile, no fight. And Hal's death. Is there a world where Hal thought John was killing him to take the ring and it was the right thing to do or something? Like there is so many elements that echo there. I feel like it has to connect back together.
01:01:58
Speaker 1: I think that whatever Hal and John are up to, if they're up to something, It's they both decided that protecting the Manhunter, the Manhunter's offspring, is so important that they needed to go through all of this and somehow create this faked... I mean, it was a real death of the Manhunter, right? But do it in such a way that.
01:02:27
Speaker 2: It's a cover-up for the fact there's another Manhunter. Or something.
01:02:31
Speaker 1: And something deeper, right? Like... And what is that? Also, here's another thing I wanted to ask you. Mm-hmm.
01:02:39
Speaker 2: Abin Sur, in the comics, Hal gets the ring from Abin Sur, who, like, passes it on to Hal Jordan. He crashes, and he meets Hal, and he's a brave pilot, and he's like, oh, you're a good guy.
01:02:50
Speaker 1: And he's like, how the fuck did Abin Sur end up with the Manhunter also crashed on Earth?
01:02:56
Speaker 2: Exactly. So it seems like, and I do think a big part of this is going to be potentially, it would be a big swing, but potentially could be what we see lead into Superman too. I think we've established that Jon knows, just like in the comics, the Guardians created the Manhunters before they created the Lanterns, right? So it's that Jack Kirby Eternal shit. And Abin Sur obviously was seduced by the Manhunter, like everyone else, and was convinced to flee off the planet with her to Earth. And I think that you know, she's crashed the plane to kill him because, you know, whatever she said, they disagreed. And that's how she saved herself. And I'm interested to know then where she was when Hal got the ring. Because wasn't Abin Sir crashed straight away? Yeah, that's what I mean. Like, doesn't that sound exactly like Hal Jordan's origin story?
01:03:52
Speaker 1: There's something that doesn't line up to the point where I'm wondering, like, Was Abin Sur always the, was Abin Sur, did he exist?
01:04:03
Speaker 2: Was he the Manhunter? Not even just that. I was going to say, what if Zoe was Abin Sur in that moment? Like she made herself look that way to give Hal the ring. And honestly, for all we know, she called him back and was like, hey, bruv, I need a little help over here. We don't know like the different conflicts of interest. I also feel like, family-wise, Hal has no one, right? They keep leaning on that. Hal has no one, Hal has no one, Hal has no one. John has this family, but he doesn't really have anyone, right? Marcus was the closest thing, and that seems like it was kind of transactional in the end. Understandably, Marcus is pissed off. When do we get them acknowledging, because it does seem like this is where they're going, that they are the thing they have? You know, that they lean on each other. I think there's going to be a moment where John has to pick how over his family, but it's not really his family. It's like an illusion of his family or it's something like that. But I do think the phone calls, I think Bernadette has to come back into play. You might be right. Look, it might just be a cost cutting issue. And I think if that is the case, by the end, by the end, We'll see how we feel about it. But currently it's opening the doors for so many interesting things. And I think that Aaron Pierre has really sold everyone. He sold Joelle now. He sold a lot of us on this version of Jon Stewart, who kind of has this wild card element to him, who plays games and makes choices you can't really understand. Like there's that great moment. I believe it was. in episode four, maybe, where Jon and Zoe sleep together again, and he says, I see you. And everyone was like, oh, it's this empathetic moment. But it was because in that moment, he understood that she killed Abin Sur, that she had done everything. He has this way of perceiving things. So, Jason, episode... seven and episode eight or our last two episodes i think we get one crazy construct from each lantern in each episode because i feel like that's the one thing we haven't got even in the crazy finale a style episode of episode five we didn't really get a lot of green lantern action it was more like last of us like militia do you think we're gonna get to see guy hal or halogram and john all three of them in the suits at any point i think they've got to do it for the finale I.
01:06:20
Speaker 1: Think we might see that. Yeah, I certainly think we might see that. And we're building up to a point where John unambiguously becomes one of Earth's Green Lanterns. I think we are moving towards a DCU. paradigm where there's multiple Green Lanterns like in the comics from Earth because it's like such a nexus point for all these events and stuff.
01:06:44
Speaker 2: It makes sense too because we know that they're going to do the Jessica Cruz Green Lantern animated series and they've liked to kind of align these ideas. And also Green Lantern, there's always been many of them. It makes sense, right? So I think you're right. We got to see how Guy and John are going to coexist. It could be, let me just quickly, it could be something like in Superman, we saw that there were these kind of two sides, which is like Superman and Lois, and then the kind of corporate Justice League that was going to be the authority on Lex's side. Maybe John becomes Superman's Green Lantern. Like that's leading to your real JLU Justice League Unlimited and the kind of justice gang stay as the corporate Lex version until they have to come together in Superman 2 is kind of my guess.
01:07:30
Speaker 1: As we leave, who are your top suspects for who shot Hal?
01:07:36
Speaker 2: I'm kind of liking this manhunter to make himself look like Jon, but I think that's a bit out there. I think your Noah plan is pretty good. And I think that... Also, I have to say, Sheriff Kerry lied to us the entire way through the first four or five episodes. She was the one who met Zoe. She was the one who was saved. She made the protection deal. She's from Gotham. She's done stuff to stay alive. There is a version where... She killed Hal to save her son. And she's just acting. And no, no, but she's probably sad. Like she didn't want to have to make that choice, but she made the right choice if she did because her son is her son is her son, right? Yeah. But is she dealing with the guilt of killing the one man that she authentically cared about to save her potential genocidal alien, you know, cyborg son? And is the Manhunter in The Rise of Noah or the notion of a shape-shifting alien secret invasion-esque of thing going to be why Superman and Lex have to team up in Superman too. Like, I feel like this has to lead directly into it.
01:08:41
Speaker 1: Okay.
01:08:41
Speaker 2: Final, final question. Cause I think I agree with your suspects. Do you think we'll see somebody else like Superman from the DC movies in the last two episodes? Or do you think we just get Guy?
01:08:55
Speaker 1: I think we get somebody, but it's probably not like a huge thing.
01:08:59
Speaker 2: One more thing. we gotta talk about what's in the vault oh my god the vault also okay can i give you my theory this out tell me your theory hal jordan Oh, bro. That's so fucking good. Like if he's like in cryostasis in there. Well, that's good, too, because. Well, couldn't he just be alive in there?
01:09:17
Speaker 1: Well, it is.
01:09:18
Speaker 2: I mean, he might have like a nice little. The bird flew around in there. He might have like an apartment. We've seen what Lex's weird like time portal thing looked like. It could be like his, you know, staycation is just in there. It would be funny if he had a little nice man cave in there, but everywhere else he lived sucked. Also, that would make sense because I think he would know what my theory is and why I'm glad you brought this up. I think one of the reasons that Jon dug up the ring is because he will have Hal's ring. He can go to the vault and be like, I'm the Green Lantern, baby. Like, this is actually my job. Remember me, Jon Stewart? I came and opened you before because Hal Jordan said it was OK. And once he has Hal's ring back, I think he's going to access it. And you know what? I would love if they open the next episode and he opens it and Hal's like about fucking time. Like, do you know how bad the food is in here? What do you think is in there?
01:10:11
Speaker 1: I think.
01:10:12
Speaker 2: Obviously, the battery is going to be in there. The actual lantern, his version of the lantern, which we'll probably find out, is the original Oa version. Jon has never needed a lantern, though. I want to say that. I mean, he has in the original, but later on, he can go beyond it. And I do think that's part of why the ring turned back on. Other things that could be in there. I feel like there is, it's not a MacGuffin, but I feel like there is still a piece that we are missing or not seeing.
01:10:39
Speaker 1: Right.
01:10:39
Speaker 2: Of the puzzle. And I think whatever is in the vault, whether it's Hal himself or, you know, a MacGuffin or a piece of evidence, I think whatever it is, the evidence against the Guardian, the filing cabinet, Abin Sir, maybe he's still fucking alive. Maybe there's five fucking Guardians. Like, who, whomst among us knows that that is why we need to watch the next episode. Send it to us, please.
01:11:04
Speaker 1: Coming up on X-Ray Vision, we're revisiting Marvel's The Avengers as part of our impending Doomsday series and reacting to Resident Evil now in theaters and more.
01:11:16
Speaker 2: That's it for this episode. Thanks for listening. Bye.
01:11:24
Speaker 1: X-Ray Vision is hosted by Jason Concepcion and Rosie Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcast.
01:11:29
Speaker 2: Our executive producers are Joelle Monique and Aaron Kaufman.
01:11:33
Speaker 1: Our supervising producer is Abu Safar.
01:11:36
Speaker 2: Our producers are Carmen Laurent, Ian Johnson, and Baywax.
01:11:40
Speaker 1: Our theme song is by Brian Vasquez with alternate theme songs by Aaron Kaufman.
01:11:44
Speaker 2: Special thanks to Sol Rubin, Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman, and Heidi, our Discord moderator.