Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Lanterns Episode 1, including the final scene and comments about Hal Jordan, John Stewart, and Guy Gardner.
Lanterns spends most of its first episode in 2016, then jumps ten years ahead for a final scene that changes the entire case. John Stewart returns to Rushville, Nebraska, and finds what appears to be Hal Jordan’s frozen body in the football stadium. Hal has been shot in the head. His Green Lantern ring is nowhere to be seen. The episode ends before explaining who killed him, when it happened, or why John never received the ring he was being trained to inherit. The official episode listing gives away almost none of that, so the premiere is asking viewers to sit with the same questions John has.
The episode gives us a timeline, a body, and a missing ring. It does not give us a clean answer.
The Premiere Starts Ten Years Earlier
Most of the episode takes place in 2016. Hal is an experienced Green Lantern, and John is only two months into his training. The pair are sent to Rushville after a violent incident, with the investigation pulling them into a town that looks ordinary until the clues stop behaving like an ordinary murder case. GamesRadar’s review describes Hal as a veteran who has been doing the job for decades, while TechRadar’s series guide identifies 2016 and 2026 as the show’s two connected time periods.
John is not yet operating as a full Green Lantern. He is learning how Hal works, trying to prove he belongs, and waiting for the decision that will make him Hal’s successor. DC’s official Lanterns overview says Hal has been training John for two months and sees him as a replacement, even though Hal is not exactly welcoming the idea.
That is where the tension comes from in 2016. Hal has the ring and the authority. John has been chosen for the future, but he is still being kept at arm’s length.
The 2026 Jump Leaves John With a Body
The episode’s last minutes move to 2026. John finds Hal in the same Rushville setting, frozen and apparently dead, with a gunshot wound to the head. There is no ring on Hal’s hand, and John is not wearing one either. The scene is staged as a discovery, not a ceremony: John does not arrive to accept the mantle. He arrives to investigate a death. also describes the series as using the later timeline for the consequences of what happened in the earlier one.
