In last night's episode of Lanterns, Hal Jordan and John Stewart come to blows to decide who deserves to wield the ring. While John overpowers the veteran Green Lantern, Hal uses the last of his ring's charge to protect them both from the Manhunter's blast.
With Hal defeated, John takes the ring from him and rejects it after returning it to Lianna, one of the Guardians of the Universe. Next week, Lanterns will jump from 2016 to 2026, finally revealing who killed the former hero and seemingly ending Hal's story in the DCU.
Earlier in "Lights Out," Hal breaks off a piece of his ring and tasks the "Halogram" with finding Zoe. Now, eagle-eyed fans have noticed that in the Latam Spanish subtitles for this episode of Lanterns, the broken Hal in the motel is labelled "Clone de Hal," which translates to "Clone Hal."
While we wouldn't put too much stock in that, the theory now is that the defeated Hal—and his ring—were the Halogram, which, somehow, took on a solid form or was switched out for the real deal after the explosion.
That would be one heck of a twist, but what exactly that means for Hal heading into the next three episodes is hard to say. Is he off in space taking revenge on the Guardians of the Universe? Has he gone into hiding with his ring? Either option is possible, and Hal somehow splitting the ring in two would potentially explain how John and Guy Gardner are both Green Lantern in the present day.
We'll have to wait and see. This could be a glitch or error in the subtitles, or confirmation that not everything is as it seems in Lanterns.
In an interview with Polygon, Poorna Jagannathan reflected on the moment that John guns down Zoe and ends the Manhunter. "The thing that will hurt you, you bring the closest to your heart. She didn’t expect to fall in love with John and see herself in him at all. That last moment when John Stewart actually kills her, she is absolutely blindsided."
"She assumes everyone works through their programming like she does, and she is blindsided that John doesn’t," the actress added.
Lanterns follows new recruit John Stewart and Lantern legend Hal Jordan, two intergalactic cops drawn into a dark, earth-based mystery as they investigate a murder in the American heartland.
Alongside Kyle Chander and Aaron Pierre, Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, Nicole Ari Parker, Jason Ritter, J. Alphonse Nicholson, and Jasmine Cephas Jones round out the cast.
Four episodes of Lanterns are now streaming on HBO Max.