Episode 2 of Lanterns, titled "Trust Fall," doesn't touch on the premiere's big mystery about Hal Jordan's death in 2026, but on the plus side, returning to 2016 means we get to spend plenty of time with the veteran Green Lantern.
The comic book references come thick and fast this week, including the revelation that Hal defeated and imprisoned Sinestro after the villain led an uprising and killed one of the Guardians. There's also a Gotham City reference, and apparent confirmation that Lanterns' big bad is a Manhunter.
In the comics, the Manhunters were robots created by the Guardians of the Universe as its first intergalactic police force. They rebelled and eventually became a threat, but the DCU may be taking a slightly different approach.
Hal sends John to Coast City to retrieve his Lantern, and while there, he's captured by the aliens posing as humans in Rushville, Nebraska. They reveal that they're in the town to find the Manhunter responsible for a holocaust on their planet; John is given a cell phone and 48 hours to identify the shapeshifter, or they'll blow up the town.
Manhunters don't shapeshift on the page, but they have been known to disguise themselves, so that's likely what we're seeing here. Either way, both we and the show's leads now have to figure out who in Rushville (which is oddly deserted and almost doesn't seem like a real town) is one of them and what exactly they're up to on Earth.
While John is in Coast City—we never get to see what the fictional location looks like as we only visit Hal's sparse mansion, which confirms he once met the Harry Potter cast—Hal discovers that the football field was outfitted with advanced alien detectors and confronts William Macon about what he's really up to.
Despite being a "fan," he responds by having one of his men gun Hal down, though it's only a flesh wound, and the hero will live to fight another day.
After learning what John was told about the Manhunter, Hal charges his ring, puts on his suit, and heads to an alien planet. There, he walks through an intergalactic space prison until he arrives at a cell that we see holds none other than Sinestro. The Green Lantern demands to know more about Manhunters, which the villain says are his second-greatest threat. The first? John Stewart.
"Trust Fall" establishes that John is extremely powerful, as he uses Hal's ring to conjure a bird construct that stays with him during his trip to Coast City and back—even though he's not wearing the ring and it runs out of juice. His willpower is off the charts, but we don't know yet why that would concern Hal.
Overall, the second episode of Lanterns is very much like the first. There's a compelling mystery at its core, but the show still feels reluctant, perhaps a little embarrassed, about its comic book roots. There's an alien plant called Earl and a reference to Mogo, but the series is holding back and seems unwilling to do more than mention those fantastical aspects of the Green Lantern Corps.
What did you think about Lanterns' second episode? Let us know in the comments section below.