RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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The third episode of "Lanterns" provides an answer to this unlikely question. After all, Green Lanterns are supposed to be chosen by rings. The implicit neutrality of letting an inanimate object guided by a mysterious, principled force make the decision — rather than a living, breathing, fallible entity — is meant to elevate the honor. The ring recognizes that whatever wearer it selects is worthy of the greatest power in the universe. So it's safe to assume that says something pretty important about the one who's chosen. Related Stories 'Robot Chicken' Celebrated 25 Years of Adult Swim with an Absurd, 'Circus of the Stars' Crossover 'Dark Matter' Season 2 Tests the Limits of Apple TV's Sci-Fi Obsession
Safe-ish. In Episode 3, "Lanterns" turns that idea on its head, as the Guardians take matters into their own hands. Their trust in Hal Jordan ( Kyle Chandler ), the first human to serve as a Green Lantern, is broken. Their confidence in the system (as it applies to people of Earth) is compromised. So they interviewed replacement candidates and now believe they've found a perfect successor in John Stewart ( Aaron Pierre ), a man who's been raised (or programmed) since birth to be hired for the job (in part, at least, because of the Guardians' interference with his family).
The Guardians are bending their own system to their will. John is doing the same for himself. But whether they share a vision of what that system should be, exactly, remains to be seen.
Episode 3, "OutKast," is told entirely in flashback. There's no mention of the case in Nebraska or the presence of Manhunters. Hal Jordan only appears at the very end to ruin John's day. Instead, the story is devoted to illustrating what it takes for a young Black man in America to earn the same position as an old white guy, how race affects people's lives at a core, emotional level, and how its impact permeates everything from personal relationships to career opportunities.
Ultimately, the exceptional, engrossing third entry of "Lanterns" paints a striking portrait of what separates our two heroes, while putting a spotlight on the one whose perspective goes historically overlooked — on Earth and, it turns out, in space.
So, to accommodate the departure episode's unique narrative (don't you dare call it a bottle episode), the format below is getting a slight tweak. This week, John is the case — his origin story is the mystery we're slowly solving. The Guardian will be our suspect, since Laura Linney's evasive alien invites ample suspicion, and the co(r)ps will dig into how our perception of John and Hal as Green Lanterns has changed — starting with the big reveal that John is there to replace Hal, not back him up.
OK, just pop an apple on top of your head, and let's get to it.
John Stewart wasn't born to be a Green Lantern, but he is in the room with his parents when his father is tested by the Green Lantern's ring. After failing honestly, John Sr. (J. Alphonse Nicholson) spirals. People think he's crazy. His own wife orders him out of the house. However bad it gets for the former Marine, it's bad enough that his fellow officers still remember his trouble by the time John Jr. gets deployed.
At home, at least, things change after the Guardians pay a visit to Bernadette (Jasmine Cephas Jones), and she vows to turn her youngest son into the next Green Lantern. He's raised to be fearless — the one quality the ring requires of its wearer, and the one quality that's hard to come by when you're "terrified daily of persecution," as Bernadette explains to the Guardian (Linney). "Do you understand how unfair it is to ask a Black man in America if he's afraid?" The Guardian doesn't, but the Stewarts sure do, and they take extreme measures to ensure John grows up with only the right kind of fear (like, say, fear of losing a loved one).
Their methods are… questionable, to say the least. John's training takes precedence over everything. He's forced to find his way home, alone, when he's just a boy. He's forced to become an expert marksman even though he just wants to draw. He's often isolated from his brothers, and — most notably — he lets his parents fire a gun at him, over and over, until the only way he can process the trauma is by rejecting the reward. (His dad always gets him a hamburger afterward, so John becomes a vegan.)
For his parents, it's all worth it, as long as John becomes a Green Lantern. "He's going to hate us," John Sr. says. "So be it," Bernadette replies. But for John, there is no choice. He's on a "path," and that path leads from graduation, to the Marines, to art school, to an interview with the Guardians. For as much as he's willing to sacrifice in order to live out his parents' dreams (one that passed over his father), it doesn't seem like a sacrifice to him. It's just what he has to do. If that means spending nine months of his life in the dirt, subsisting on bugs and wild fruit, waiting for his target to emerge, so be it. Until he's a Green Lantern, it's all waiting anyway.
The allegory surely resonates: In order to succeed in a system that doesn't consider you, certain sacrifices have to be made. John is a Black man trying to shape himself around the expectations of the Guardians, all-powerful beings that don't know the first thing about his culture. So the parts of John that are inherently his own are (nearly) drilled out of him, like when his brothers claim he doesn't know the lyrics to OutKast's "Gasoline Dreams" because "he's not even Black." There's even a servile quality to John's actions, in that he's always doing what he's told (be it by his parents or his superior officers, including the Guardians).
But now that he's reached his goal — now that he's in line to be the next Green Lantern of Earth — what will he do next? John says there's a difference between being raised and being programmed. The Guardians don't, and they're hoping for their next Green Lantern to act more like the latter than the former. ...
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