Lanterns S1E2 "Trust Fall"

[00:00:00] Hmm? Ah! Hmm. I told you not to bring the suit. Yeah, well, maybe I couldn't bring myself to just disrespect it. What else were you doing when you're rummaging through my stuff? Dance around my bathrobe, sing into my hairbrush? This day and black is night. No evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evils might be where my power green lanterns light.

[00:00:41] Hey, everybody. Welcome to the podcast. I'm Jason Cabassi I'm Eric Nordhoff And I'm Jason Cabassi And this is Wax Episodic. And this episode, we'll be covering Lanterns Season 1, Episode 2, Trust Fall. Trust Fall. Let's just get right into it. Kirk, you want to read the plot summary? In 2016, with his ring nearly depleted,

[00:01:06] Hal sends John back to Coast City to retrieve his lantern while he continues investigating the shooting. Learning that the stadium's metal detectors secretly contain alien detecting technology, Hal convinces Carrie, the sheriff, to let him question William. William denies knowing anything, and when Hal refuses to leave, has him shot by a sniper. Hal later wakes up in the hospital, where he and Carrie reach un-understanding.

[00:01:33] After retrieving Hal's power battery and Green Lantern suit, John is kidnapped by aliens associated with Sanders. They reveal that they came to Rushville searching for a manhunter, an artificial being that caused the genocide of their entire race. The aliens threaten to destroy Rushville and give John 48 hours to find the manhunter. John informs Hal, who travels to a prison to interrogate rogue Green Lantern,

[00:02:01] Thal Sinestro, about the manhunters. But Sinestro shows interest only in John. That's what happened. What did you guys think? Was it good? Was it bad? I liked it. There was a lot going on in this episode. And I did feel at some point that there was almost too much going on. But I watched it a second time. I sort of was like you last week, Jason.

[00:02:30] When I watched it the second time, and I sort of started lining things up in my head about... I mean, this really was that episode. We got a lot in the first episode, as far as action goes, as far as mystery goes. And then I think they sort of backed up a little bit here, and they sort of gave us some information. We had lots of questions on who the manhunters were. We got all that information. We kind of saw the mystery of the football field.

[00:03:01] We find out that there are aliens, but this isn't... There's no connection, at least to this point, of Martian manhunters. We have an actual... This is actual lore that we'll talk about later, I'm sure, in the comic book part. But they give us a lot of information that we clearly are going to need going forward. So it wasn't as adventurous, I think, an episode. There was a lot of humor in this one, I thought.

[00:03:28] I thought that we got a little bit more connection with these two characters. And I think we got a little bit more of Jon Stewart kind of being Jon Stewart. So I liked it. I know that there was a diner scene that Kirk was loving, as Jon Stewart continues to be very focused, except for... I got a new take on that. Okay. Okay. Anyways. But yeah, I don't know about you guys, but I did... I don't know that I liked it as much as the first episode, but I did like it. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

[00:03:58] I was underwhelmed when I came out of it to the initial episode. But on watching it again and then also just thinking about it more and trying to get my thoughts together here for our cast, I think it was really strong. I think it was really strong. Yeah. I think that it was more...

[00:04:24] It dug more into the issues of trust, the tension between Hal and Jon. It seemed like at the end of the first episode, perhaps Jon was starting to feel differently about Hal. And then, you know, because he was right about the alien and he's, you know, very focused on what he's doing and everything else. And...

[00:04:52] But then he just treats him like shit this episode. Yeah. And I think... And then the whole scene with Zoe that you brought up, you know, she's trying to push that avenue with him, with Jon, to put a bigger divide between Jon and Hal. And then Sinestro does the same thing when he goes to see Sinestro's... Yeah. Sinestro's first thing is, you know, your bigger issue is Jon. Yeah. He's your biggest threat. Which is Hal's fear. Well, that's his...

[00:05:22] But you gotta remember, Sinestro's all about fear. That's right. That's his weapon. That's his tool. Yeah. Damon Lindelof and Chris Mundy were comparing him to Hannibal Lecter. Yeah. Which is great because not only is he like this criminal who's behind bars, but you go to get information, but he also slips little things in to make you doubt yourself and he knows how to get to you and everything. Well, he knows what Hal's really worried about. Yeah. Hal's worried about who the manhunter is and all that kind of stuff, but he's really worried about his own ass.

[00:05:52] I was wondering if I was faced with Hannibal Lecter, would he just reduce me to a pile of tears, you know? Or could I handle it? Probably not. Anyway, that was a total tangent. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, but not really. I mean, think about how short a time that Sinestro was on screen and wow, like it was what a way to end the episode. It was like, boom.

[00:06:19] Oh, I, you know, and, and for many people who are watching that, you know, who just watch HBO on Sunday, who don't know Green Lantern lore, they watch that scene and all of a sudden kind of, oh, this is a big bad guy. Like, this is a guy that, you know, I'm sure I, you know, we talked about Hannibal Lecter in our intro episode.

[00:06:39] I'm sure anybody who watches who doesn't know lore, doesn't know Green Lantern, because I think the best part of this episode is that it really, I mean, you could have stripped the Green Lantern out and there was a really great show there. And if you're watching it and you see that ending, you're like, oh, maybe this is the, because there's questions about who the bad guy is in this episode, because there's so many, you know, it's got that breaking bad thing where we've got a lot of different sort of bad guys who might not be bad guys.

[00:07:07] But then you get to Nestro at the end of this and you stop and you go, wait a second, maybe this is the guy. Well, there's a few. How desperate is Hal? I mean, how untrusting is Hal of not only John, but of the Guardians. He doesn't want to call the Guardians. He gets confronted. He goes to Sinestro first. Yeah, John says, what did the Guardians say? And he's like, oh, you know, he's worried that he's going to run off and tell the Guardians what's going on. And so he doesn't trust the Guardians. He doesn't trust John. He goes to fucking Sinestro.

[00:07:37] Sinestro is like his arch enemy. Yeah, we're not sure why he doesn't want to talk to the Guardians. We know he sort of seems to buck authority a lot, but it seems like something happened there that we're going to learn about. But I mean, I've seen from a few different listeners like, oh, I'm glad you guys are podcasting about this because I enjoyed it, but I didn't really understand or I got lost.

[00:08:05] You know, a couple people said, I don't know the comics, so I feel like I'm lost. And I kind of suspect that really it's just a complicated show. And it's the kind of show that if I wasn't podcasting on it, I wouldn't know what the hell was going on. Only because I watched it twice and really figured it out, which is the benefit of podcasting about a show because you can figure it out.

[00:08:28] And I kind of think that you might people might watch this show and not totally get what's going on and think it's because they don't know the comics. But really, it's just because it's a complicated show, maybe, you know, or at least that's part of it, I feel like. So we're going to lay it out for you what we think happened. I mean, I don't know. I think that it's been very successful. Like nine point. Oh, yeah. Three. They say I liked it, but I don't know what's happening. Yeah.

[00:08:55] Like my wife loves it and she doesn't have a clue about what's going on with anything. No, the story's good. I mean, you don't need to know the backstory. You know, it helps. It makes it richer. It makes it a more fun experience if you're into that. For sure. But it's this great standalone. Well, let me go into my first point because it kind of follows on from this, which is why the aliens showed up in Rushville.

[00:09:21] Because I think as long as we can take those people that kidnapped John, which I think it says in the transcript that the guy's name was Anton. A-N-T-A-A. Yeah, Anton. Did they actually say it in the episode? I think he does introduce himself, but I don't remember. How do you pronounce it? Anton? I think it's Anton. Anton. All right. That's what I'm going to say. I don't know. So anyway, if you can believe what Anton said, then. Ant-Man.

[00:09:50] I think it was Ant-Man. Oh, Ant-Man. Okay. The first crossover from Marvel. So this guy who kidnapped John, Ant-Man, was an alien. And he was associated with the four aliens who were shot at the football game by William Macon's men and also the one who exploded himself at the jail.

[00:10:11] And he explained to John that they were there to find this other being or alien called the Manhunter who committed a Holocaust on their planet, which basically means killed most of their people probably or many of them. Uh, that's why, uh, as the alien said in the jail to how they're there for vengeance against this Manhunter.

[00:10:35] Uh, he said, Ant-Man said one of the most dangerous beings to ever exist knows it has been found, which means right now it's repairing its brutal response. And then he explains what the Manhunters are. He says there was a time of chaos in the galaxy. Then the Manhunters came. We don't know where they came from just that they were synthetic. Listen to our comic talk section. We'll tell you where they came from in the comics, but maybe that'll be the same in the show.

[00:11:01] And able to build new bodies, which meant they could take the form of any species and embed undetected within any society. This ability to build allowed them to invent technologies far beyond the limits of the planets they inhabited. They were brutal. They were deceptive. They carried out what they called, quote, justice. Entire species were lost. And then as mysteriously as they arrived, they were gone. At least we thought they were gone. In reality, one of them remained on our planet, passing as one of us while he quietly engineered a Holocaust.

[00:11:30] And so then he said that a lantern took the Manhunter into custody because the guardians found out about it and sent a lantern and took him into custody and guaranteed he'd be executed. But then for some reason, they thought the Manhunter was still alive. And they didn't really explain why. Yeah, that was vague. Yeah. But they searched for him for years and eventually found him in Rushville. They sent those guys in who were exposed and killed.

[00:11:59] And then Hal showed up. And Antan is suspicious that Hal was trying to protect the Manhunter. And now they know that they can't go into Rushville without being detected because of what happened to the other ones. So they now want John to find the Manhunter. And so that's probably why they stuck that gun-looking thing up to his head and forced him to experience what they went through so that he would be more motivated to help, I guess.

[00:12:27] And he says, you know, we could just blow up Rushville, but we don't want to kill innocent people. So we find out later when— But that's the plan if he doesn't get resolution in 48 hours. He says, we'll give you 48 hours to find the guy or we're just going to go in and blow it up. So that's why they were there. But then also John tells Hal, you know, that Antan told him he thinks the Guardians may have hid the Manhunter in Rushville. And Hal says they wouldn't do that.

[00:12:55] Abansur, which is the alien that gave him the ring in the first place that was dying, must have brought him here and the Manhunter killed him. So I think what he's saying there is Abansur was the Green Lantern who went to get the Manhunter from the planet where he committed a holocaust, took him into custody to be executed. But instead, for some reason, brought him to Earth slash Rushville or ended up there somehow. And then the Manhunter killed Abansur.

[00:13:23] And I think this is what I got anyway. That's when Abansur was dying and that's when he sent the ring out to find a new owner, which ended up being Hal. The ring found Hal, brought him to Abansur. And, you know, who told him about the Guardians of the Galaxy, gave him the ring and everything and then died. So if that's right, then this episode takes place in 2016. So the Manhunter has been hiding in Rushville for 30 years since 1986. But so that's a big chunk of it.

[00:13:53] I have a little bit more, but any comments on any of that? Yeah. That seems right, right? Yeah, no, I think that's I think that's basically what I mean, there was a lot of there was a lot of explanation for that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's what Anton believes. Right. Yeah. So so that doesn't doesn't mean that's what it that's what really happened.

[00:14:17] And then there's the mystery of what William Macon, John Dory guy with his name, Garrett Del Hunt's characters up to. Yeah. I'm glad he's becoming a he's got seems to have a pretty big role. But he said he's what he keeps saying is he doesn't want any aliens on Earth and he's worried about them overtaking the planet. But he seems to be working for it seems like an alien or at least someone with access to advanced tech like this alien detector.

[00:14:46] And so, I mean, it seems like the central mystery of of the series, at least right now, is who is the Manhunter? It seems like it's probably someone that we already know. Right. I mean, didn't you find yourself thinking maybe it's I think it's Zoe, the wife? Yeah. I think that's what they want us to think, though. So that means it's too obvious and it's not her. Well, yeah. I mean, she's she's lurking. But if it is her, that means John fucked the Manhunter. Yeah.

[00:15:14] So I kind of want it to be her. Now I kind of want it to be her. Yeah. Because because she had a kid, which means we could have a little Manhunter Green Lantern kid someday. Maybe that's the whole point. I think they didn't they say she was the stepmom? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's not her job. Stepmom Manhunter. I think that's that's the said that mom hunter. Jesus.

[00:15:46] Jesus. Jesus. You know, I just I do think this is the central mystery right now. Yeah. I think that trying to figure out who this benefactor is. Initially, I thought it was going to be something bigger, perhaps something not even in the show. Maybe a Lex Luthor. But but now is the benefactor, the Manhunter. You know, I think that to I think Macon is is is somebody else who they're trying to kind of point us to maybe being the Manhunter. But I don't think it's right. Right. Him either.

[00:16:16] It could be anyone, though. It could be Carrie. Sure. The sheriff. Well, we'll talk about her at some point because they sprung some information on her. Yeah. I don't think it's her. Yeah. So but but but it could be. I think that the character that we're not paying attention to the most is the son who who could. It could be the lawyer. Yeah. Yeah. The sheriff's husband.

[00:16:45] I don't think it's him either, but I don't know. We'll see. I think it's how it's how I'm like. One of my favorite parts is when she calls. She calls to her husband, says, honey, in the crowd. And how? And how? Yes. Oh, sorry. Clearly, he's got the hots for her. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I just it's a good mystery. I mean, I hate it. Yeah. I get scared of things like this, though, because it could always be someone we haven't met yet.

[00:17:14] But that would I don't I don't know. I don't I mean, the reason why I well, I sort of go through every person and I said maybe it's Hal as a joke. But who knows? Maybe Hal just doesn't realize he's the manhunter. And that that's why he was there with having sir, because it was actually him. Now, that's probably not true. But because DC wouldn't do that, I don't think. But anyways, the wife. Maybe it's not Hal Jordan. I mean, yeah. Right. You know, we at the end of that. That's why his name is Hal Gordon in this. Yeah.

[00:17:45] But the wife was like saying, you know, like whole conversation that she had in the in the diner with John where she was like, yeah, I'm glad that this guy, her husband didn't choose some blonde Texas bimbo. And then she likes him because he provides security. And so it made me wonder, OK, Macon says that he wants to keep aliens out. But really, is he just protecting the manhunter who's his wife? Right. You know? No.

[00:18:16] I think there's three possible scenarios here. Some of this I've came up with. Some of this I've seen people speculating online. And what we just talked about is that she could be the manhunter. I think, you know, clearly she seems to be trying to sow discord between John and Hal.

[00:18:40] She's trying to bond with him on a racial basis and saying, look, you know, we're all kind of, you know, you and I can relate because we're both dealing with, you know, white privilege. You know, he got the ring and treats you like shit. And if you're questioning whether you should trust him, then that says the answer right there. That says the answer. Exactly. So she's trying to divide.

[00:19:02] And at first I was like, I just didn't like, as I mentioned last time, that he hooked up with her so randomly and everything else. And then I didn't like that he went over and talked to anybody else. But now, you know, he's fucking. He was like, you know, he straightened out a shirt. Like, he's into her. No. This isn't. I think he's very smart. He's very smart.

[00:19:28] He may have already tagged this as being a potential, her being a potential key person in this situation. And the closer he is to her, the better off he is in terms of finding out or getting resolution or whatever. He's kind of like conducting his own investigation since Hal won't let him. You know what I mean? He did decide to trust Hal. Yeah. In the end. Like, she told him, she suggested you shouldn't trust him.

[00:19:56] And then the kidnapper guy told him apparently not to tell. Ant-Man, yeah, told him not to tell Hal anything. And then he went. And Hal is treating him like shit. I mean, Hal treats him. It's not like this fun buddy cop tension. It's like full on contempt. Like, looking at him with a sneer, you know, and trying to kill him, it seems like. So, you've got that possibility that that's her. And then I think what feeds into that as well is, you know, the other little clues we were getting.

[00:20:26] They're all collected together to have that meeting. That they were clearly talking about something that when he came in, they stopped. You don't believe that it was really about the football? No. Whether they did have the football. And then you've got the hospital he goes to when he gets shot. Not only was there no other patients. Oh, what a weird hospital. There was no nurse. There was no doctor. There was, you know what I mean?

[00:20:55] There was no other reception. All the equipment was. Was like in plastic? Yeah, it was all in plastic. You're right. So, if they have a hospital. It's like invasion of the body snatchers or something. Right. The whole town is. The whole town may be. Yeah, because Hal was driving through the town and there was nobody there. Right. Yeah. So, the town may be trying to give off the impression that they're just a small little know-nothing town. So, they got to have, you know, the medical. They got to have a hospital. They got to have, you know, whatever.

[00:21:23] All the different kind of trappings of a town. But it's all just not necessary for them. They don't use it. But it helps the cover. Well, dude, when you get the green lantern in your hospital, unpack the equipment if you want to keep the illusion going. Now, the other possibility is that rather than her being a manhunter, from this twist is that she's not a manhunter. She's a guardian. Hmm. Okay.

[00:21:51] And she's a guardian who's on the planet in order to ensure that nobody finds out about the manhunter that's there and what manhunters did. Do you think the guardians are actually hiding them there? Hiding this one there? I think the—I'm guessing. Why not just execute it? Execute him. Well, I don't know. I guess that's a mystery. We don't know, yeah. Yeah, we don't know. Why they want to keep it other than maybe it's a backup plan for them. I don't know. If the Green Lantern Corps goes bad.

[00:22:20] So that's the—and then the third possibility, and I think this one I just heard online, and I'm going to—I don't remember who it was. I'll try to look it up because I saved the TikTok. We're going to get—I think we're going to get Martian Manhunter in this series. And I think the Antons people may not be who they say they are.

[00:22:48] And they might be white Martians who were fighting and killing the Green Martians. And the Guardians may have taken the last Green Martian Hunter and brought him to Earth to protect him. And that's what they're protecting. And that the Manhunters are not actually part of this story. Oh, I see what you're saying.

[00:23:14] You're just really wanting the Martian Manhunter to be in this. No, that can make sense, though. Because how did John's dad know so much about the Lanterns? You think it might be him? No. Maybe. I think he might be. I mean, because the thing—if you're not a comic reader, I don't know if you understood that, but we kind of talked about it last time. Even if you are, you may not. That's my idea. So you may not have understood.

[00:23:44] There's two different Manhunters in the freaking DC Comics. There's these robot beings that he said that he's synthetic, right? That's what those aliens said they were there to find who committed Holocaust. And then you probably even know if you're not that into comics that the Martian Manhunter is one of the Justice League, this green guy. And the Martian Manhunter can change his form to look like anyone else.

[00:24:09] But as far as I know, the Manhunters in the DC Comics, I mean, I read that sometimes they try to assimilate on other planets. But they're not like shapeshifters, I don't think. But here they are. So that makes me think that maybe you're right, Kirk. Maybe they're making them a little bit closer together so that they can say, oh, actually, this is the Martian Manhunter that they're protecting or something like that. Well, it helps them create this great mystery. It gets everybody running in the wrong direction.

[00:24:37] And thirdly, it would introduce another great DC character, which James Gunn has to be wanting to do without millions and millions of dollars to make lots and lots of different movies. He's got to get them in. You know what I mean? He's got to give them some sort of screen time so that when they show up in a movie, you know what I mean?

[00:24:56] I do think this is the kind of lore that James Gunn loves where this has been discussed so much just by people who read the comics about, you know, Martian Manhunter and Manhunter. And it's been this weird dichotomy of a lot of people like talking about it and DC being like, yeah, nope, they're not together. And then they've created some lore over the years where that maybe there is some connection. One was inspired by the other or something like that. Yeah.

[00:25:23] The description of when they were talking specifically about being able to kill the Manhunter because when it assimilates as a human, it has all human qualities. That certainly doesn't sound like a, you know, a synthetic robot to me. That sounds to me like more like a Martian Manhunter type character.

[00:25:44] So, so yeah, I mean, I, I think, I think when you, when you think anytime you think of Damon Lindelof specifically in a show like this twists and turns are coming. And I think that's what we're seeing right now. And I think Jason, when you were talking, you know, I just sat there and I was listening to you talk about people, you know, the disinterest that some people might have. If you go back to shows like lost, uh, where, where things like that happen, like you're trying to tell a story, you're making it, it's not convoluted at all to me.

[00:26:11] But I do think that we, we, we have a lot of these kind of open questions, not only, you know, I mean, you know, my first point was quite literally like, who is the bad guy in, in the series? Uh, to me, it's the Manhunter, but you know, I just sitting here listening to Kirk and I'm like, we don't really, we don't even really know who this person, this synthetic robot, this possible alien is yet. Why is it being protected? Who's protecting it? You know, I could see it.

[00:26:41] I could see a twist where they're there. You know, I'm on sir is bringing Martian Manhunter there to try and protect him and save him. Um, and it gets, they never saw the other, the other, uh, Anton and his group never got to see the execution, never got to get confirmation that the execution ever took place, but then heard rumor or whatever that they were bringing this single alien entity or whatever. I, you know what I mean?

[00:27:09] I could just see how those stories could get construed and Anton could be on a mission that it's not, not real. I mean, right now we, there's a lot of mystery and there's a lot of people who we don't know if we can trust. So it's hard to know. Yeah. Like you said, I mean, it seems pretty clear that, um, what's the guy's name?

[00:27:34] Uh, Macon Macon is not Hal's friend considering he had his other friend shoot him. So that's like the clearest sign so far. Here's a person who's an adversary. Yeah. But it does feel like the kind of show where once we know everything that's, uh, that we, all the mysteries are revealed that we might go, Oh, my perspective has changed on where they were coming from or something like that.

[00:28:01] Well, so, so you, you were set or, you know, William, William, William Macon is set up as a bad guy. I mean, obviously shoot South Jordan. Right. So, which, which in turn makes you think that these aliens that kidnapped are another main character, Jon Stewart are, um, the refugees of the story, the, the Holocaust survivors of the story.

[00:28:24] However, we spend, you know, the first quarter of this episode of them, you know, beating the hell out of Jon Stewart, of kidnapping him. Um, they don't seem like great characters either. Are they being painted as bad characters or to Kirk's point, are they bad characters? They're seeding doubt between, you know, we've, we've talked about how Jordan potentially in some interesting, like, like going out throughout this series, Sinestro paints. I, John Stewart is a potential bad character.

[00:28:54] And I, I, I, I don't think that he is. And I don't think that how is either. I, I, I mean, obviously I think the central core and, you know, we can talk comic book, talk, talk lore with, with these characters. Um, but I do think that the core story of John, why he is with how right now, I think is equally as important to who man Hunter is.

[00:29:20] As my second point was like, who is Jon Stewart and why is he a part of this? Cause we get little tastes of that again. And why does Sinestro? Yes. He's trying to see doubt, but also he clearly knows a bit about Jon Stewart too. So. Which is odd. How does he know that? Well, when Hal asked Jon. Yeah, that's true. But when Hal asked Jon, did you talk to the, did you tell the guardians this?

[00:29:47] It made me think that Jon does have some connection to the guardians, which would make some kind of sense given that we know the guardians chose him. Right. So, but I guess, um, Sinestro is in jail, so that doesn't explain why he would know about Jon. Yeah. It's weird that he would know that. Maybe Jon was picked before Sinestro went to jail. Right. That could be. Yeah. I got a technical question.

[00:30:14] Does the ring, and I, I'm not a Green Lantern knowledged person. Um, does the ring heal its wearers? I don't think so. No? Uh-uh. Because once he recharged the ring, he's sitting with the sling on. Yeah. And he gets the, he gets the lantern. Right. He pulled the sling off and he's flying around and everything's peachy fine. Maybe in this story it does.

[00:30:42] You know, I also think that over the course of decades of comics, it varies according to the writer. Well, it's one of those things, what it can do. Because after a while it could translate languages. It could, um, what else could it do? I mean, it's, it's designed, he clearly makes it, makes it clear in the beginning, the first episode, that no matter what, the ring is going to protect him. Yeah.

[00:31:08] So, you know, and we, you know, if he walks into a room, as we've seen in a trailer, that, you know, they start shooting at him and he doesn't even say anything. The ring just puts a barrier around him. So, so the ring must also be able to go into his body and the energy and start repairing stuff. You know what I mean? That'd be my guess. And that, they, they certainly played it that way because when he charged the ring, he had the sling on. Right. And he stands up and pulls it right off. He was acting sore and he got up, he still had the sling on and then he literally just takes it off.

[00:31:38] My question is, can he make porn with it? Green porn? No, I'm taking, I'm not including that in the podcast. I'm just kidding. I don't even want to know. I don't even want to know what green porn would look like. After seeing his house, there's zero doubt that Hal Jordan makes porn with that ring. I know. What else has he got to do there? Nothing. No, but that leads into my next point. Is that, can I go? What do you think Earl, what do you think Earl is? Oh God. Oh boy. Plant porn.

[00:32:07] All right, now I have to leave all this in because that was so funny. So, I'm going to talk about the bird. Bird. I love the bird. Yeah. Bird's great. Bird's great. Bird's the word. John conjures the bird. You can see by Hal's reaction that it's a big deal. He's like, not just like, what the fuck? You fucked up. You were trying to fly and you made the stupid bird. It was more like, oh my God, you just did something I couldn't do. It felt like, you know. That was played really well too. Yes. He played that really well.

[00:32:37] Kyle Chandler. Trying not to show it. Yeah. He was so impressed, but I think he's impressed and threatened and surprised. And I think, I mean, later when John tells Hal that, oh, these guys that kid met me said that to create a living thing, let alone keeping it alive while not wearing the ring is so advanced that it's practically impossible. Yet you didn't give me any hurrahs for that. Doesn't he say hurrah? Hurrah. Hurrah. Hurrah. Hurrah.

[00:33:06] But I think there's a few. Well, listen, but don't gloss over that. Because that's, instead of Hal saying, well, it wasn't really that blah, blah, blah. He actually, he actually. That's how I took it. I took it up to him and says, hurrah, you're right. I would say though. Yeah, it was mocking, but he didn't say, it's not that big of a deal, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's true. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hurrah, you're right. You're right. You fucking. Yeah, that's true. You did a good job. Uh-huh. Truth. Truth.

[00:33:31] So, so, I mean, it's, this is really interesting because for a few different reasons. One, he made this thing that seems like a living thing. Two is that it stayed present even when he took the ring off. And usually when a Green Lantern takes the ring off, anything they made, any constructs disappear. So that's clearly something special. And it seems like that suggests that John is special in some way and Hal seems to know that.

[00:33:56] But also, even weirder is I'm like, okay, maybe he's still keeping it going with his will because the ring is nearby. But then the ring ran out of power and it was still there. So I'm like, okay, maybe you just need the power of the ring to create something. But if you're special in some way, you can keep it going with just your will, which is, that's new to Green Lantern as far as I know. But then Hal turns it into this challenge.

[00:34:25] He says, take that bird with you and bring it back alive. You lose concentration, it disappears. And then he goes unconscious. He's tased and he's unconscious. So not only does he not have the ring, he's not conscious. He can't concentrate when you're not conscious. And yet it still sticks around. So it's like, I hope they don't just gloss over that, that they explain what's going on with it. I don't think they will. I think, I think Aaron Pierre clearly played it as though that bird was not an afterthought.

[00:34:53] I think he really thought that bird was special too. But I mean, clearly there were parts of this episode, he was not thinking of that bird and that bird was very present. Yeah. And it was fun to have sort of like a little sidekick for him through the whole thing. But then I thought it was kind of disturbing when he disintegrated it. Like, oh, the little bird. But I think that moment was interesting because Hal said, oh, what is with this bird? It seems important to you. You pull it from your subconscious.

[00:35:20] And I think that's why John disintegrated it because he wanted, he didn't want to be vulnerable. Like there is something with a bird in his past. And he's like, no, no, it's no big deal. Smush, you know? Right, right. But it was interesting. Like that was kind of my favorite part of the whole episode was just that. Yeah. All this stuff. I love too how the bird kept trying to help John. Yeah. It kept trying to protect him. And it was fighting the people that were dealing with him. I didn't even notice that. Yeah. It was always trying to help him.

[00:35:45] And it helped him find the lantern in the pocket dimension when he reaches in there. He can't find it. It's flying around trying to find. So it wasn't only, it really almost had its own consciousness. The thing about the lanterns is that they make a big point of it in the comics. You know, that you're only limited to your imagination in terms of the constructs that you can make.

[00:36:09] So clearly, you know, they're trying to show us that John has this very, you know, developed, artistic, creative. You know, he's not only a military, but he's also an architect. And he's got all this other background that's, you know, gives him a lot more imagination. I mean, John Howell's always just like using it like a punching thing. You know what I mean? It's always just. Yeah. Shield. Blunt instrument. Yeah. Or he makes a can opener or whatever. I mean.

[00:36:41] Or he just blasts. I would be making that money, boy. I'd be using it for a can opener too. Yeah. I think that they very pointedly show the detail of the bird. He lands on John's shoulder at one point and you can see the feathers. I half expected when he disintegrated the bird for it to come back.

[00:37:07] I, I, I curious to see how this plays out going forward as far as him getting the brain because, you know, how they led to the bird. You know how they led to this. What I thought was pretty consequential piece of the show of having how try to make him fly. And the funny part about it, the ring had 5% power left. So even if he did fly, he was going to fall. So he knew he wasn't going to be able to fly.

[00:37:36] But watching these two interact, I, the, the chemistry, which is my, the chemistry between these two, I'm a spectacular. But I, um, having the setup be that, you know, he's trying to fly and he conjures up this small bird, which Hal tries to make fun of. And it turns into, uh, I think something that lets all of us know that maybe Jon Stewart is sort of, you know, like a Mozart, um, of, of these green lanterns.

[00:38:04] That the true fear of, of Jon Stewart for someone like Sinestro or, or someone, um, who may be telling him that these people are bad when they're not. To your point, Kirk, uh, is Jon Stewart becoming green lantern because he, he truly becomes, uh, a force that, that, that's hard for them to stop. Yeah. And as we're talking about it, it's making me draw some other conclusions or, or, or thoughts on it.

[00:38:32] And when, when he goes to fly, talking to your, coming back to your point of the fact that there's only 5% in the ring, he goes to fly and he, he, you know, he does this whole thing like this. And Hal flinches. Hal, he jumps. He does. He's like, what? Like, oh shit, he's really going to fly. And I think that was because he knew that if he flew, he was going to fall because there was nothing left. There was no juice left in the, in the ring.

[00:39:00] And he didn't want him to do that because he could fall from way high and killed or whatever. He thought there was no way he was going to be able to make it happen. So I think it startled him at first, but then he created the, the fact that he created a bird that protected him and was, the bird flies. And that's all the ring had left for juice. It's just, it was just kind of, it was like a connection with him.

[00:39:25] Like I need to fly, but the ring's like, yeah, but dude, I can't fly you, but I'll make you a bird. See, I don't, I think, I don't know if I'm right, but. I think it's just got a special connection with it. Hal needed John to go get the lantern, which is what I was saying last week. My prediction came true and when, so I thought that's why he was trying to get him to fly, to go get it.

[00:39:52] And then when it didn't work, it said ring charge 5% house says, all right, new flight plan. I booked you a window. So to me, I took that as maybe that he was like, well, I was going to have you fly there, but the ring's out of power. So you're going to be on a plane instead. But he had already booked the plane. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe. I mean, he knew it wasn't going to work. He didn't have the battery and he didn't have enough juice. He certainly wouldn't have enough juice.

[00:40:18] But I mean, I have a whole point about this, so I won't go too far into, well, I guess I could. So I try to save my complaints towards the end, but we're sort of touching on it. Well, I mean, if you want to save it, I've got, I've got. You got a point. Okay. Yeah, sure. I just want to say, I think Hal's reckless. I'll say that. And he could have, if John could have, would have been successful, he could have died. So, yeah.

[00:40:44] Well, to that point, like literally, you know, Hal flies 15 feet in the air about 20 minutes later and then ends up falling to the ground. Yeah, he's reckless with himself too. Then he goes and gets himself shot right after the sheriff says, you probably shouldn't do this. And then he does it anyway. I mean, and it was clear he was going to do it. But anyways, I, yeah.

[00:41:03] So, so I do want to, and if this is going to skirt along your point, because my point is the progression of loneliness for Hal Jordan in his life. And we get to see, we get to see this stark kind of life that he lives as, as John goes to the house to get, to get the lantern. Sad. Sad.

[00:41:32] You see this man, and I love that they paint it behind this mansion. And I, you know, John walks into the mansion and it's, there's quite literally nothing in it, but lawn chairs, beer bottles. Big screen TV. A big screen TV. And a bed. To play as, to play as green porn. Yeah. Can you make a TV with his ring? I wonder. That'd be cool. It'd be all green though. Yeah.

[00:41:59] So I, and you go back to last week's episode when they sort of paint this 1986, 1996, 2006, 2016, kind of picture of this man who was in many ways, the first superhero, uh, who we see video of somebody who seems the part.

[00:42:25] Uh, we see, um, a construct that he makes of himself. That's over 10 years old. And for whatever reason, he has not made a backup of himself in between 2006 and now, um, in between 2006 and 2016, uh, he saves this, this boy of this, uh, rich person who gives him this house that he clearly can't afford, uh, because he has no furniture to live in it.

[00:42:53] Uh, and really the only thing that he has in this is a greenhouse with plants and Earl, uh, who, uh, you know, I'm sure we'll find out a little bit more about. And you think about his character in this, uh, and maybe this does feed into your point a little bit.

[00:43:09] But Jason is, um, you know, he's supposedly in his fifties, I think in the series and he is, um, has lost a human being, uh, as, as, as he possibly can be trying to figure out perhaps why he was chosen to have this ring, which seems to be at the core of everything that he's doing. He keeps coming back to the same place.

[00:43:36] There clearly has been stuff happening there over the entire course of his career. He's clearly a busy man, um, barely at the house, um, of his loneliness. And you can see, uh, that there's really nobody in his life until, you know, he has this banter, uh, with, you know, um, sheriff, uh, Kane, who, uh, seems to be the only person who's building trust with him.

[00:44:03] Uh, as hard as it is for Jon Stewart, uh, as easy it is, as it is for, for officer Carrie or sheriff Carrie Kane to do. Um, they sitting in the hospital very clearly have chemistry, um, and very clearly are building trust with each other.

[00:44:21] Uh, so I, I, I, I think the storytelling right now trying to figure out for me, uh, you know, being someone of the same age as, uh, how Jordan and feeling some of the similar things of loneliness. Sometimes I think the, the, the, you know, we don't know the core of his story of what happened over the past 10 years that has led him to where he's at now.

[00:44:43] And then of course, you know, the cliffhanger last week of what happens in the 10 years after, um, the central focus of the show in 2016 that lead him to, uh, sitting in those football stands. And I just want to throw this out here. I is a Friday night lights fan having two full episodes of Kyle Chandler sitting on a football field has not gone past when we got off the, when we got off the show yesterday, I was so pissed that I didn't mention that. That was number one on my list. I can't believe it didn't even occur to me.

[00:45:12] You just said it and it blew my mind. I'm like, yeah. So, and I think that that was close. So on purpose, I so good seeing him when they had him sitting in the same spot, I wasn't thinking about the, the, the, the sniper scene or whatever that was at the end of episode one. I was thinking, gosh, he's in a football. You know, I think somewhere in my subconscious that was registering. Cause I just had a warm feeling and I didn't know why until you just said that. Cause I don't really care about football, but I'd love that show.

[00:45:42] Well, and then they sort of throw that like to trash as he, we spend the first half of the show with him driving to the morgue and pulling these alien bodies. And just so he can drag them through these alien. I loved it. All right. So whose turn is it? Well, I can, I got something I want to come back to. You guys were talking about the, the, um, the house and how, you know, lonely it looked for him. But did you notice some of the details in the pictures?

[00:46:12] Yes. Yeah. Pretty cool. Pretty cool. First of all, he's, he's at the recept. He's at some sort of premiere for, um, it was Harry Potter for Harry Potter. And he's meeting the Harry Potter actors. He's a Harry, he's a, he's a fucking Harry Potter fan, which is why he said Harry Potter in the first episode. I mean, isn't that even worse? Yes. Like you guys were complaining about it last time. No, I think it's better. I think it's better. Yeah. Because they went with it. They didn't just do it as a throw.

[00:46:41] They said, okay, let's make it part of him. You know, I hope the whole cast is in the next episode. I don't want the whole cast, Jason. I want them to be Harry Potter. But I think what's cool is that it shows, demonstrates, you know, he had a social life. He was going out. He was doing things with the people. He was pursuing these things that he was into. Yeah. You know what I mean? Other than just lantern. Then he's sitting with Obama. Yeah. And I thought it was interesting. He has a tie on. So he's trying to impress. Yeah.

[00:47:13] Yeah. Right. We learned in first episode, the reason he doesn't wear the suit is he, you know, you don't need it. If you, you know, you just use it to try and impress like wearing a tie. Um, so that, that was pretty funny. Uh, yeah, there's a sense he, he, at some point kind of gave up. He's like, I'm going to be up on life and maybe something happened. Well, and then he, he's being interviewed. There's a pictures from an interview and it looks like it must be in the eighties. Like right shortly. And he's got the mask. He's got the mask on. Yeah. Oh, the eye mask.

[00:47:43] Yeah. Yeah. Oh, cool. Yeah. I didn't notice any of that. I gotta watch it again. Yeah. I like it. So that was pretty, I thought those were cool little glimpses into his past. Just the whole going to get the lantern was cool. Like seeing the green lantern. And I saw behind the scenes where the actors were like, and Pierre was like, Oh my God, there it is. You know? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:48:08] I mean, I was sitting with my son and that was the fact, again, going back to last week, you know, I was just seeing the ring and seeing some of the things that they did with it. Like I was, I was so excited. And then we get the suit. We get the suit. And yeah, you know, John brings the suit and he brings it and we get to see the suit. Like it's just, again, as a superhero fan, they, they're giving us, it's the second episode. I was like, I'm surprised how comic booky this is.

[00:48:37] I was expecting more prestige-ness, but it's, I like comic book suit. I like too, though, that, that it's almost as if John is trying to help Hal regain his sense of purpose and, and, and how, you know, it isn't what, what he's doing is so important and has value. And that, you know, it's, uh, it's not just a burden to, to bear. I mean, it's one of those sort of never meet your heroes, the kind of things I feel like he's going through.

[00:49:05] Like he's just had so much respect for the whole thing of green lanterns, but it's complicated because he wants to be one and there can only be one. So he's got these two things going on at once admiration, but also wanting to really supplant this guy eventually, and then meets with him and starts training and he's a total asshole and he's kind of not showing respect for the thing. He's counterfeiting money and everything. And he's like, no, be your hero self again that I admire so much. Here's your suits.

[00:49:34] You know, money. He, the, the, the part that I, I, you know, he, he stood behind. The suit, you get that moment where he's looking, you get, he's imagining himself wearing it. Yeah. They made it almost look like he was going to put it on. But, you know, but he, he brought it, you know, and that's the thing. He knows it's not his space yet.

[00:49:58] So I love the, the, the joke about the suit, you know, he's talking to him about the suit. I love that the suit is yellowed over time. You know, I, um, well speaking of that, that's interesting that you said that because when the title screen comes on, you see it coming out of the ring and it, it's really a yellow green. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Oh yeah. And the suit is like, it's yellowed some, but the green land and green is forest green.

[00:50:27] There's no yellow in there, but yellow is the color of fear. And I feel like they're doing that on purpose. They're mixing up fear and willpower in there. Well, I mean, before we leave his house, uh, I thought, you know, it was sad, like you guys said, but also a little sketchy to me compared to at least what we're used to with heroes that he would accept this huge gift. Even if it's somebody he saved, you just don't think of like Spider-Man would never accept a mansion from somebody that he saved.

[00:50:57] You know, it was such a weird twist. It was such a weird. I'm not saying it's bad, but it was interesting. No, no. And it was almost like he, he almost made it sad, but it's hard to tell because how Jordan's so cynical about everything. He's like, I forced me to take this house, you know what I'm like? Right. You're looking at this thing and, and watching, watching John Stewart, try to pay, pair it all together as he's, as he's walking through. It was unexpected. Yeah.

[00:51:26] Like it felt like almost like a Bruce Wayne kind of thing really. Yeah. Except he has no Alfred. I wonder if we'll get, I wonder if that'll be a, uh, something we'll come back to, you know? Yeah. And then last about how he got the house. Yeah. Yeah. That'd be cool. Uh, he says when he opens the box, well, John has to hold the phone up. So how can say Mogo doesn't socialize? Yeah.

[00:51:53] Which that's Mogo is a green lantern. That's a whole planet, a planet size green. Crazy. And if you see it from outside, it's got the green, the foliage mix up the green lantern symbol or something. But he first appeared, I didn't know this, but I looked it up in, in a 1985 story. Mogo doesn't socialize in green lantern. One 88 written by Alan Moore and drawn by Dave Gibbons, the watchman team.

[00:52:19] And it was all about this mysterious green lantern called Mogo that no one seems to know or encounter. And then at the end it's revealed like kind of like a punchline that it's the planet that they've been standing on or something like that. So anyway, that was kind of a fun little thing. Nod to the comics. There's some, there's also, isn't there something about him that he's involved in distribution of the rings? Oh, I think you're right. Yeah. Yeah. I think there's some element of his thing that has to do with that.

[00:52:48] And, and then the box is a pocket dimension, which that concept comes up a lot in DC comics, but we saw it in the Superman movie. Lex Luthor had a pocket dimension where he had his secret base and like private prison and everything. So a lot of comic booky stuff there. I want to come back one second to that, cause there's a little piece that I forgot with the, the idea that, um, this might be Martian manhunters and not the manhunters.

[00:53:16] That, that concept that I mentioned at the top, um, the warning that how from 2016 is 2016 or is it 2006? 2006. Oh yeah. Six is the hologram. Right. And what the warning is it's hailing in Rustoff or whatever the name of the town is. Rushville. Rushville. Rushville. Is it hail? Yeah. Hail and Rushville. Yeah. Hail and Rushville. Hail is white.

[00:53:46] Mm-hmm. Yeah. Like white Martians. Yeah. White Martians are landing. Russ off. Okay. Yeah. I don't know. We, we still. That little side note here. I forgot to mention. Like even that whole, where I laid out why the aliens were there and maybe Abin Sur brought the manhunter there and then the manhunter killed him. And that's when he needed to find a new ring bearer.

[00:54:13] And so he sent it out to, um, how that still doesn't explain why, how, how to set this alarm at keep tabs on Rushville in case aliens landed there. Like, it feels like there's a piece of the puzzle missing there. Well, and it just feels so on the, the whole premise of the show of, and we find out that this town has been a part of his life since he became Green Lantern.

[00:54:40] It just, it's, it's a weird, it's a weird sort of twist to who he is. And, and I think obviously connects to whatever has happened to him currently. And where he ends. And yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Potentially. We think, we think. There was, there was real quick, another. How fitting it's on a football field. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't think that, yeah, I don't think that it was, um, I don't think this is a

[00:55:09] spoilery land, but they, uh, he, he asked, uh, Carrie Kane where she was from. Uh, and she noted that she was born in Gotham. Um, well, she's from Gotham. I don't know if she says she's born, but she's, she's from Gotham. And I think I, this is, you know, I don't think that this plays any part whatsoever in this. So I'm just going to go ahead and say it, but, uh, Batwoman, uh, her last name is Kane, uh, Kate Kane. Oh yeah. Uh, it's she's cousin to Bruce Wayne.

[00:55:38] I, so I, I feel, you know, I mean, I, I, again, this might just be, Hey, we're going to give her the last name of Kane so that dorks like me notice it. Because Gil Kane is the, is the guy who created Green Lantern. So I thought that's why she was named Carrie Kane, but now maybe she's like specifically a character or something. But that, that very well might be that, you know, that very well might be. And then they're like, Oh, let's just give her, you know, maybe she spent some time in

[00:56:07] Gotham so that people can have another little Easter egg. And then in the first episode, she's on the phone in, in the sheriff's office and she says, we'll tell, yeah, she says, tell Barb. I said, hold on. As if she's talking to, to, um, Barb. Well, no, she's talking to her father. Oh yeah. Yeah. But about Barbara Gordon. Yeah. Jim Gordon. Yeah. Okay. Well, I mean, I kind of don't trust her because she's, I don't understand why she's, well,

[00:56:36] she's so antagonistic towards how from the beginning, and I guess she sort of explains it. So maybe this is enough, but she says, I apologize for trying to obstruct you. I just didn't want Billy's dad, which is William Macon, insurrecting the shit out of everyone and getting them all paranoid about invasion. So much for that plan. And I'm like, why would obstructing how create that kind of an uproar?

[00:57:02] But then I think it's because most people in, or at least you could argue most people in Rushville don't know about all this alien stuff, but how was being really loud about it. So she just wanted to push him off to the side. But now, I mean, we're talking about like how she just sort of brushed it off when Hal said, how come there's no other patients here and why is the equipment all unpacked? And she just made some comment basically ignoring him. Is she on your list? Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

[00:57:32] I think, I mean, I just don't believe, I don't, I, her behavior from the start has been a little bit puzzling to me. Why doesn't she want him to confront Macon? She doesn't seem to like him. Why does she care if he goes off to Macon's ranch and gets shot? But is she protecting Macon? What is she protecting? Like how she says, you know, I'm not on your side or on Macon's side. I'm on my own side and I just want to keep this town together.

[00:57:59] So maybe it's as simple as that, but it's like, what about stopping the bad guys? She may have left Gotham at Batman's request to come and help supervise the protection of Johan Johan. Well, if this gets James Gunn to actually cast Batman, that would be, I would be all for that. But do you know what I mean?

[00:58:29] Like, I don't know. I feel, maybe I'm just, you know what? I think I'm just suspicious of everyone because it's a big mystery. So I have to suspect everyone. I was suspicious of her the first episode. I'm not anymore. Not anymore. I think she's clearly trying to keep this, whatever it is that's going on here. She's trying to keep it from blowing up. But she's, she, she doesn't, you know, she's got these wackos that are, that are anti alien. She's got aliens coming to try and whatever they're trying to do.

[00:59:00] And now she's got Green Lantern on top of it. And it's like, it's all just starting to smash up into a big accident. The sheriff of a town and there was alien bad guy stuff going on and Green Lantern showed up. I'd be like, Hey, can you help me out with this? There's some bad shit going on in my town. I need your superhero, you know? To me, to me, the two people that don't fit are Zoe and Kane.

[00:59:27] Those are the two to me that don't fit this town at all. But you were saying that Carrie Kane and Hal are building up trust. So how can that be true? And you don't trust her? What's the, well, so if you are the manhunter and you don't want him to know who you are. That you just play it up like your friends. Yeah. Yeah. So to, to your, to the point of that, you know, we fast flash, flash forward to 2026.

[00:59:57] We have potentially Hal Jordan dead and who's the one person from the town that we see. Carrie Kane. And, and John has a good relationship with her. That's a good point. Yeah. Yeah. That says something you'd think by 10 years later, it would have come out. Of course, a week ago we were wondering why I was sleeping with Zoe, but I digress. He's like, remember when you blew up the whole town full of innocent people? Those were the days. Those were the days.

[01:00:26] It does. You know what? Speaking of that reminds me in 2026 that we saw last week, it looked like the whole place was destroyed, right? Destroyed. Yeah. And now we're talking about this week back in 2016, the aliens threatening to come in and blow up the whole town. So I wonder if that's what happened. It wasn't something that happened recently. It looked like it had happened a long time ago. So yeah. It looks like that's coming. I hope soon. Actually. I hope soon. I hope that's not the, we were not waiting to the end to see something that we already know. So yeah.

[01:00:58] Yeah. I feel like, I mean, I enjoyed this week a lot, but I, I feel like we need a shakeup next week. Yeah. Something a little different. But I do, I do feel like what, what was laid out in this episode potentially has those satisfying little ties that'll, that'll tie them all together. All right. What else? Who feels called to go on to the next point? Cause I don't know. I have, I have exhausted my. Point. You got any more, Jim?

[01:01:28] We didn't really. We didn't really talk a lot about Sinestro. Yeah. You got, what do you got to say about him? Well, we don't get a lot of Sinestro and I think probably most of what we'll say will come in comic talk. But the actor, Alrich Thompson, well, first off a couple of things. We, he flies to this prison and I thought it was interesting that as he walked through

[01:01:55] the prison, every time he walked past a cell, that cell turned yellow. Uh, it looked, um, and if you, if you watch the previews, if you watch the trailer, it looked like there was only one yellow cell that, but it turns out every time you walk by, they turn yellow. Um, I thought they did a really nice job in the span of, you know, he puts the suit on to go. It's, it's where we get, uh, you know, he talked about not wanting to wear the suit, but to

[01:02:22] go see Sinestro, he puts the suit on and we don't know if it's because, you know, he's going to the prison. We don't know if he's going to impress Sinestro or if he's going to try to, you know, say, Hey, look, I'm Green Lantern still. Uh, my guess is it, it is about wanting to put on his best face. Right. Yeah. So not just that you need the suit to be in space or something like that. I think it's more, more about that. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:02:51] I don't, I, I, I mean, I, I didn't get the impression. Yeah. I, it might be a little bit of the space thing too, but I, I, I felt it felt like he's got the suit. I'm putting it on him to go. I'm going to go see this guy. Yeah. Like you would wear a suit to see Hannibal Lecter, baby. Or you wouldn't just wear your jeans and a t-shirt. I think that in three minutes we understand the relationship between the two. We understand how manipulative Sinestro is.

[01:03:18] We understand that if we're given the information in episode three, which I, I doubt, I mean, I, I, who knows where it's going to go, but if we're given the information, I think we're going to learn, um, something fairly sizable, uh, in this conversation. I just, I thought that it's really hard to convey a whole history in that short amount of time, but they really, I think did a nice job of giving us a little bit of that history without saying. Yeah.

[01:03:43] And I think the suit was to, um, not to impress this time, but more to reinforce, I'm a green lantern. Yeah. And you're not. And you're not. What's, what's, what's the first thing Sinestro said to him though? Talked about how shitty the suit looked. Yeah. He's trying to cut him all the time. Yeah. Yeah. But, but it doesn't matter. Which again.

[01:04:11] And he, and he says that because it pisses him off because you know, he, he, he, he didn't, he failed as a lantern. It wasn't that different from how Hal was describing the suit, which is, I think interesting as well. I think. Yeah. You know, maybe one of the things that Hal is most afraid of is maybe he's looking in the mirror when he sees Sinestro and I, I, we don't know, we don't know in TV lore, in the show's lore, we don't know what happened between the two.

[01:04:40] Um, we'll talk about that in comic book talk, but you can tell that there is a whole lot there. Sinestro. Well, I think Hal, I think Hal's got a lot more fear on a lot more issues than have even been clearly defined. You know, I think if he, if he's not a lantern, what is he? At this point, he's got nobody at home. He's got nothing on his walls. He's got a plant. He's got Earl. Beef. Yeah. He's got Earl and that's it.

[01:05:06] I mean, without being a lantern, he's got nothing, you know, and that's terrifying him. Also, if I'm not a lantern, do I end up becoming like Sinestro? You know what I mean? Is that, is that my destiny? This was my mentor. Am I following his lead and I'm going to end up being on going bad? Um, I think he's, you know, he's, he's scared about a lot of things and he doesn't trust the guardians anymore for whatever reason that we don't know yet.

[01:05:31] I really hope that episode three gives us perhaps a little flashback of what happened with Sinestro. That's my hope. That's where I think we're going. I think we're going to have a lot to dissect about their conversation. That's coming up too. So excited. Okay. I want to talk about this thing that I alluded to earlier. It's my one sort of nitpicky point, extreme reckless behavior.

[01:05:56] Is it thrilling at the expense of being nonsensical or not appropriate for the character? Because the show is reminding me of some of Lindelof's tendencies in Lost that I didn't love. Um, I think in Lost, he had people being really aggressive with each other in ways that didn't make sense, but were exciting to watch.

[01:06:19] Um, sort of like how jumping out of this moving car headed for a cliff with John inside is, is ridiculous. Hear him trying to teach John to fly by saying, okay, fly, knowing that the ring is almost out of power, not telling him safe ways to land or anything. Um, I think, you know, something like going into his room and throwing a bucket of water on him to wake him up is great. That's hazing.

[01:06:49] But jumping out of a moving car is fucking psycho, you know? And then he decides to confront, uh, Macon, how Carrie tells him to be careful that Macon basically won't be friendly, but how comes in all belligerent anyway, just barging right in. He knows the rings out of power and he gets shot and it's not, it's not a bright move. Like he could have gotten shot in the head and gotten himself killed.

[01:07:19] And to me, it's not exciting. It's like, what is wrong with this guy? That's dumb. You're a dummy. And, and so I just think it's another case of going for the exciting writing, but in my view, taking something away from the character. And it reminds me of on lost when Jen attacked Michael because Michael was wearing a Rolex. And we find out later that it was Jen's father-in-law's Rolex that he was entrusted to protect.

[01:07:47] But it doesn't make sense that he would just viciously attack the guy. He should point at that watch and say, that's my watch. You know, try that. Like he found it in the wreckage of the plane, but because they want to make it all bombastic, they have people doing things that just don't make any sense. This freeway foot chase going against traffic with John, uh, when he's being kidnapped, he gets out of the van or whatever. Or it was cool to watch, but it also was like, gee, you're endangering people.

[01:08:16] There are, there are innocent people crashing into each other that could die. Why don't you run off the freeway? Not like one or two. Yeah. Yeah. Go off the freeway. You might kill somebody. That's not cool. It makes me not like the characters much. And then, um, another thing, this is the last thing is how people don't tell each other things that you think they would tell each other. They did that so much on loss just to keep the mystery of the plot going. And after we learned why the aliens were there, then I thought maybe this Waylon Sanders guy that Hal interrogated might say, Hey, we're looking for a manhunter.

[01:08:47] One of your sworn enemies. He killed my people. Can we team up and try to find him? Um, I don't know. Maybe Waylon Sanders thinks that the manhunters and the Green Lanterns is being in the same league or something like that. But, um, that was my thought after watching this. So maybe I'm nitpicking. I don't know. I don't, I don't think so. I mean, so you could say, well, maybe, you know, you know, we get this painting of, of

[01:09:12] Hal Jordan is somebody who's clearly spiraling, but he clearly wants to still be Green Lantern. So it's not, he's not, you might say, well, maybe he was wanting to get shot. You know, maybe he's just done with it, but he's not, he's not, there was no reason for him. He, there's no reason for him to do that. Yeah. It does. It seemed dumb and it turned out to be dumb. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:09:36] So it does feel like what they were, I mean, I, I, I, I, my thought with that scene was a little less than, than what you said, but it was like, oh, come on. You don't have to show him getting sniped. To let us know that he might've gotten sniped. Like, I think the point that, that what they're trying to get across maybe is like, oh my God, this guy, he's so irascible. Like, no, you know, you just can't control them. But what I feel is, wow, you're stupid.

[01:10:06] And I don't think they want me feeling like that. No. They're overriding for, for a character that, that doesn't need it. I'm going to devil's advocate on this one. Okay. I do. I keep counting. First of all, first of all, I think, I don't think Chris Mundy and Tom King are going to let Glendalough, you know, ruin this. In terms of the writing. I think if they felt that way, they would interrupt it or they would. He's a legend though. I mean. Yeah, it's true. You know?

[01:10:36] Yeah. I feel like in terms of Hal, he's very self-destructive and that's not uncommon when you're in his kind of, you know, depression. He's clearly got some depression, anxieties, you know, he's stressed out. You get reckless. He's terrified. Yeah. He, he, he doesn't trust the guardians. He doesn't trust John.

[01:11:03] He thinks, you know, he's becoming paranoid. You, you make dumb, you think you're the only one in the world you can rely on and you make dumb decisions. You know what I mean? And I don't see that as being out of the character. It doesn't take me out of it. John running through the traffic. I can kind of see your point. Um, although I'm sure from a strategic point of view, that was helping him evade them because

[01:11:32] they were having to deal with- In the process. Oh, well. At least I got away. I mean, yeah. And I think John would be conscious of that as opposed to Hal. So I think, I think there, it's a good point. It was definitely so that they could have some car crashes and stuff, um, and look more threatening to him. Um, but, uh, but with Hal, it, it still seems very much in character for me. I mean, just devil's advocate. I can say, okay, yeah, he, he's more, he's reckless.

[01:12:02] And that sometimes translates into being self-destructive in a way that doesn't seem so bright, but it makes sense for the character. But man, to have that affect other people where, like I said, I keep mentioning this, but jumping out of a moving car that's headed toward a cliff. What if John had fumbled with the ring and dropped it and then been killed? I mean, okay, maybe it makes sense for the character, but that turns him into a character that's kind of, uh, despicable in my opinion.

[01:12:32] Is that what we want? Well, I don't think you're, I don't think we're necessarily supposed to really like John. I mean, like how is he supposed to be despicable? I'm not sure that's what they're going for. Well, we also don't know, you know, would the, would look, the ring automatically protects Hal. Would it not automatically protect John? Maybe. You know, if he hadn't thought of the bubble wrap, would it have still picked, you know, saved him? And Hal knew that. Yeah. And Hal knew that.

[01:13:02] God, I hope so. But he also knew that the ring was out of juice and that if he flew, he would fall, but he also didn't think he could possibly fly yet. Maybe not. We don't know that for sure. We don't know that. Well, like I said, I thought the fact that he was so startled and like, you know, flinched when he started. He goes like, oh shit, he's going to fly now. Because he also, if you're watching his reactions to understand what he's thinking without him actually saying it, he seemed kind of impatient that he couldn't figure it out too. He's like, just fly. I just think of it.

[01:13:31] You know, he seemed more like an impatient teacher to me. Like, why aren't you flying right now? So I thought more as he's just being mean to him. Like he knew he wouldn't be able to fly yet. And he wanted, you know, he's just trying to continue. My point is we don't know for sure. Knock him down. Yeah, we don't. We don't. And there's a chance that he could have figured it out. You'd think. And why even risk it? Well, and also, I don't think they necessarily want you to be in love with Hal Jordan.

[01:13:58] Well, if that's what they, if they don't want that, they're getting their wish. No, I mean, it doesn't ruin it for me. It makes me like it a little bit less, but just a little bit, you know, just a notch. And it makes me suspect that some of Lindelof's tendencies are coming through. But even if they are or not, it's just a small thing, you know. That's why I save it for the end. It doesn't.

[01:14:27] And I'm just listening to the two of you. Like, and Kirk, I agree with you too. You're not falling asleep? Well, I did a little. That's a good sign. Oh, shit. No, I think that Kyle Chandler in between these moments that he has, these bombastic moments, like has played what you're saying, Kirk, really well. I think we get definitively a look at a man who's not in a great place.

[01:14:55] I don't know that they need to do some of these wild things with his character specifically to show that. But I don't know. I do still feel like there's a window to John that we don't know yet in the show. I do agree with you. I mean, I was so taken. I was so taken out of, you know, he's that scene where 30 cars rack or more and not little racks.

[01:15:28] It took me a little bit out of the scene. Then he gets hit by a car, you know. It was a weird scene. It was just a weird scene. It felt like there could have been a scene there that wasn't necessarily that, that could have still been really dramatic. There is a way. I mean, I always come back to Breaking Bad, which I feel like Vince Gilligan just has such a good beat on how people really act. But it can be thrilling and not take you out of it where you're like, whoa, that didn't make sense for that person's character. A little more subtle. Yeah. A lot more subtle.

[01:15:58] That scene has already been done and very, very successfully. Do you know the movie? It's a Marvel movie. Civil War. And they're chasing Bucky. The Black Panther, Cap, and Falcon are all chasing Bucky. Oh. And they jump down into a highway. And they're running with the traffic. With the traffic. Right. And it made it so much more different.

[01:16:25] It wasn't really anything that was lethal for the people driving the cars as much. I mean, there were a couple crashes. But it was very lethal for them, potentially. And it was exciting. Then they blew up the exit and the whole thing caves down. My son and I just watched this again recently. So there was that. I'm sure some people died in that. These damn heroes. I know.

[01:16:53] Well, but to that point, the heroes, he's also cocky for so many years now. He hasn't had to worry about anything. Anything he wants to do, he's going to be able to do because you can't stop the ring as long as he's got the ring on. So that also feeds into. So when you start to spiral, you're also thinking I'm untouchable. You know what I mean? Yeah. Which is very dangerous. And he's. Reminds me of that Corey Feldman documentary. Did you watch that?

[01:17:21] He's just singing this ridiculous, dressing up like Michael Jackson and going on tour. Oh my God. He thinks he's. I just. Playing for like audiences of 15 people in these little bars. That's sad. My son and I got into a spiral of YouTube videos of reaction videos to Corey Feldman's performances. If this show turns into Corey Feldman performances, we're going to end up.

[01:17:51] We're just going to end. All right. Should we get to notes? Let's do it. What do you got, Jim? So in the grand scheme of the DCU, as I was watching this episode and I like the series a lot. Is this just a series to get John the ring? Is that what we're doing here? I was watching the show and I kept thinking to myself, is this story going to be consequential

[01:18:21] other than giving us some cool lore, which I love and I'll love it. I'll still love it. Don't get me wrong. But are we going to watch a prestige HBO show and the goal is just to get Jon Stewart the ring? I wouldn't ever look at it that way. If it's a good story and an enjoyable watch and that is the goal, but it's the journey is the reward kind of thing, as corny as that sounds, you know, like it's an Ozark style, like true detective. Every hero has an Oregon story. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

[01:18:51] Okay. Okay. Yeah. Is that what you, are you, you have a problem with that? You're not, you're not happy with that. It's not that I have a problem with it. It's that I think the, the story points in episode two, I just, I was watching and I was like, well, what's the point? And, and, and I just started thinking about where are we going with this or what characters are we trying to vet out? What, what story is trying to be told?

[01:19:17] And I think going back to when Jason was talking about why people are not really sure what's going on and it's because it's a green lantern show. I do think that, that I was feeling that because, um, I liked the small town storytelling and then, and, and, and I love that. So, so, but I, I, I was, I kept feeling like, so what's the point? What's the point? What's the point? And I still don't know the pleasure of this kind of a show.

[01:19:43] There's a lot of different levels, but it, one is the mystery of it. You know, it's just, I mean, mostly I tend to like shows that are about some kind of human truth and, and, and character. And this has some of that, but this is more of those kinds of show where you're just like, Oh, there's all these characters and you're not sure who's on the up and up and you have to, there's a mystery and you have to figure out what's going on. And then that mixed with the comic bookiness of it.

[01:20:11] And I didn't really make a fine point of it, but when he flew off to that ice planet, that was fucking amazing. I was super thrilled. And then into the prison, you know, like, I don't care if the, um, point of this is all to get John with being the Green Lantern at the end or not. Like, I'm just enjoying this whole environment. No, I, I, and I don't, yeah, I, I don't want to, I, I am enjoying the show. I, I liked this episode.

[01:20:37] I liked the last episode, but I, I hate it when I, when I, there were moments where I was personally was feeling that this could be me thinking about, Oh, maybe, maybe, maybe the points weren't as important as I thought they were going to be, which is a Lindelof thing. Right. Well, I think also it's not, it's clear, it's not just, it's clearly a story about how John gets the ring and why he gets the ring and what makes him different than other lanterns.

[01:21:07] All of that is part of that. But it's also what, is it clearly though? I mean, are we saying it's clearly because we, we, we know he's going to be the Green Lantern because, I mean. I think, I think it's also just as much a story about what happened to Hal. It's how did we get John and what happened to Hal? And those are two different stories. My favorite part of it right now is kind of watching, you know, a character that I see similarities in with myself.

[01:21:34] And I think that's done very well along with the comic book points. I think those are really carrying the show for me right now. And I do like the relationship between the two because you've got one character who's very much trying to hold on to friendship and you've got, or trying to build this relationship with someone who maybe looks as a hero and this other guy who's just heading down this, this crash. Yeah. I'm trying, I think I'm trying to be ready for the possibility that we're getting one

[01:22:03] season with Hal Jordan and to enjoy that. And then we're going to see what kind of a show it's going to be with Jon Stewart next season, you know, because. Perhaps somebody else. Yeah. Yeah. And I, and I, I think Kyle Chandler's great. We're all much closer to his age, so maybe we can identify with some of the issues he's going through better. So it might be hard to lose him, but I do feel like that might be where it's going. We don't know for sure though. When you were talking, Jason, it made me think of the fact that there's some similarities

[01:22:32] in story structure and storytelling here as to Yellow Jackets. Do you feel that? Where we kind of know the future, but we have to figure out how we get there. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah, for sure. That November 20th, by the way, final season. I'm only two seasons through. I think I kind of, I got waylaid. There's so much now. I mean, I don't want to complain. It's wonderful. You know? Yeah. No, I need to watch. Are you watching Silo? Do you watch Silo?

[01:23:02] We're podcasting on that. Yeah. It's so good. That's what I watch whenever it drops. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's great. All right. Any other notes, Jim? I liked how Jordan showed him how to get a couple of extra. Yeah. He smacked it on the ground and got him an extra couple of percent. Yeah. Remind me of Fonzie. I think that's going to be a good point.

[01:23:28] I was going to say, it felt like we got to see Earl today because he's going to come back into play, and it felt like we got to see that extra juice from the ring because that's going to come into play. Is Earl from the comics? No. That's totally new. Not that I'm aware of. Interesting. Just shows that he collects exotic things. Well, yeah, but there's also something else. John is a vegetarian. Earl's a plant. Mm-hmm. That eats meat. And John had to feed him meat.

[01:23:59] It was just an interesting kind of thing. Kind of perverse in a way. Well, yeah, but also I think, I don't know, I think also maybe he'll start to look at things differently or maybe they'll develop a relationship since he's vegetarian. Is this the part of the show where the rabid dog likes this new character? Well, part of being a vegetarian is that you don't want to eat a living thing. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Earl's alive in the sense of an animal. Yeah. So, interesting.

[01:24:28] And there's plant green lanterns in the comics. Plant-based green lanterns. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe that's where that idea came from. Yeah. Maybe really this is the story of how John becomes a bee feeder. The lantern was great. I thought that, I think they're doing, I think they're doing a really nice job of, I mean,

[01:24:58] I'd say 25% of the show is just straight up. If you want, if you like the comic book, here you go. And we're only two episodes in. So. The aesthetics, the aesthetics are great. The look, the look of how the ring, the look of the ring, the lantern. Green lantern, yeah. Even how the lantern in use looks, it's good. It took me a little bit to warm up to the way the ring looked because it looks different than any green lantern ring I've ever seen before. I love it. I do now, yeah. I like it a lot. I like it a lot.

[01:25:26] And I don't know if we mentioned it, but the three of us ordered three replicas from the DC official site and we were too late. So it's not coming until November. We were, I was like, we can wear it while we podcast. But next season two, we'll have it around town. Yeah, I was just wearing it around. Jump off a roof or something. I hope I can make a bird with it. This will be the only season of Lanterns we do because we all roll out of a, we all get jump out like a car goes driving off a cliff. We try to prove Jason wrong.

[01:25:57] Why didn't it wrap me in bubble wrap? I don't understand. But the other thing, so it's kind of cool bubble wrap and a bird are the two things that he's constructed so far. Just very, they're very soft, very, I don't know, just interesting. I mean, he's trying to fly. He creates a bird that's very, I don't know, just cool. The way he constructs stuff. What else, Jim? Any other points?

[01:26:26] Any other notes? That's it for me. Nope. That's it for me. Kirk? No, I'm all done. I had a few. So this whole episode was in 2016. There were no time jumps. And it is so weird for me to think of that being 10 years ago. You say 2016, it seems like a few years ago, but it's 10 years ago. Yeah. I felt, this is kind of silly, but when they were in the town hall and Hal and the lawyer

[01:26:54] guy were whispering, it was hard for me to concentrate on what they were saying because I get nervous when somebody's disrupting something. Like when we used to have substitute teachers in high school and their kids would start being bad. I would just get all anxious about it. That's how I felt. I thought that's what they were going for though. I felt that way too. Yeah. I thought that's what they were going for. But they were saying things that you needed to hear and it was hard to watch it twice.

[01:27:22] Because the meeting with Zoe at the diner, John says, you know, I wouldn't have slept with you if I knew you were married. And she says, well, I'm glad you didn't know. And I'm like, that's fucked up. That's shitty. Like he should be mad at that. And imagine if the genders were reversed and a girl said to a guy, I wouldn't have slept with you. I knew you were married. Well, I'm glad you didn't know. He'd be like, what a douchebag, right?

[01:27:49] So anyway, um, well, I think she's flirting with him. She's trying to imply that she enjoyed it. Yeah. She wouldn't have wanted to miss out on it. Yeah. Yeah. And I guess he didn't care. I don't know. You know, I compromised my morals with you. Oh, I'm glad you did. Just to get a manhunter asleep with a green lantern. Like, let's go. Flirt, flirt. She's a man eater.

[01:28:17] Um, so in the, in the, uh, in the, where's Earl when you need him? Rhymes with girl. Uh, in the diner, in the background, they were playing this song, red eyes by the war on drugs, which I love. I noticed it. Uh, let's see. I liked when Carrie said, these are all random. When Carrie said to, um, how it's not against the law to be obsessed with aliens.

[01:28:47] Trust me. I wish it was. It'd make my marriage a hell of a lot smoother. He goes, your marriage is unsmooth. Maybe it was being hopeful. I don't know. Absolutely. I think so. I think so. Yeah. Absolutely. And then I guess that's it. That's all I got.

[01:29:29] Time for some listener feedback. Lister feedback. Derek. I thought it was a great episode. The writing, the attention to detail, just really good so far. Elsa said the mystique of the green lantern is really building. I'm enjoying the mystery box side of the show too. Me too, actually. And I, I'm usually kind of wary of mystery box writing because I'm afraid it's going to be a mystery just to string people along and it's not going to have the substance

[01:29:58] underneath or something like that. But there's something about a crime mystery where I don't feel that way. A whodunit or just wondering who the manhunter is and sort of thinking about each person and whether they could be, it is fun. So I'm digging it. Kevin says not to get much into the weeds of comics lore, but there is some history of

[01:30:23] the Android manhunters taking other forms in the 1988 millennium event, hidden manhunters were found to have deeply infiltrated the lives of many heroes. Interesting. Yeah. Tam GG. Okay. So I just finished episode two and being a non-comic girly, I have no clue what's going on, but I'm fine with that because I'm enjoying it more than expected. Plus who doesn't love Kyle Chandler even more in a superhero suit?

[01:30:52] So glad I listened to you guys just for the hell of it with your preview pod. So glad that you listened. That's awesome. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, Tim. Megan O. I'm really glad I have you guys to explain the lore and even the comic talk because I love spoilers, but mostly just to understand the story more. I like your takes on the show. I also enjoy hearing Jim again as it's been a while since Agatha all along. I do hope that Hal and or John to not end up being the bad guy.

[01:31:21] Thanks again for your work and thoughts on the pod. Thank you so much. I don't think either of them are going to be bad guys. Yeah, I don't either. By the end of it. I mean, they're making Hal look like he might be a bad guy, but I don't think he is. Yeah. I think he feels like he's all by himself. You know, the Guardians are working against him. Sinestro is working against him. John's trying to replace him. He's you know what I mean? But I think he's trying to do the right thing. You know, something's wrong. Kyle Chandler plays a hell of a bad guy, though.

[01:31:51] If unless they go the parallax route. But yeah, we'll see. OK, here's a call from Jenny Ryan. Hello, this is Jenny. I'm not a comic book person, nor am I a superhero person, nor am I a superhero movie person. But I am a Kyle Chandler person. So I followed him into the land of lanterns. And so far, it seems pretty good.

[01:32:19] I do have a couple of questions for you guys. Number one is you were talking about things, not on the spoiler section, but the regular section. And you were like talking about some someone named Guy something or other who's like another lantern. And you were talking about him like we're supposed to know who he is. And also the super like you were like, oh, it's after Superman showed up. Do I need to know this universe to understand what's happening in the film? Should I be watching the new Superman movie? Can this stand alone?

[01:32:51] That's question number one. Question number two. Let me pause it. I don't know yet because I imagine when this person that we've referred to as Guy comes into the series. We know he will because he's played by Nathan Fillion. It's been announced that he's in the cast. We know he was that character in the Superman movie. But I imagine once he comes into the lantern series that they'll try to make it so that people who haven't watched the other stuff will understand.

[01:33:21] Right? Yeah. I mean, it wouldn't hurt to watch Superman. I mean, the show's called Lanterns. It's a good movie. Right? But she's not a superhero person. She's a Kyle Chandler person. And this universe, the DC universe, just started. There's only like four things or three things. And if they're already making it so you have to watch them all, I think that's – they should try to make it so you can enjoy the series without having had to watch the movies and stuff. Yeah, I think they will.

[01:33:51] But I think it would be advantageous to watch the Superman movie. Even if you hate superhero movies, you should watch it. You don't need to see Peacemaker. You don't need to see the animated – what's the other? The monster squad or whatever. Creature commandos. Yeah, creature commandos. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think you need all of that. But the Superman movie would be – you don't need Supergirl. But I think Superman would be a good one to watch because there's a lot of lore there. I definitely feel bad that we even talked about Guy Gardner yet because – Me too. Yeah.

[01:34:20] I don't feel like as of right now you need to know anything else. Just forget we said that. Yeah. If he shows up, just – I think the one thing that you need to know that they've talked about a few times in the first two episodes is that they're part of a bigger group of intergalactic police officers, which I guess saying out loud sounds ridiculous. But there's more. And Guy Gardner is one of them.

[01:34:47] So I don't think it's going to – I don't think it's going to be that imperative that you know that. And you can watch Superman for sure to get an idea of who he is. But I don't think it's important for this show as of yet. Yeah. I don't think so. I agree. I don't think it's important. All right. Let's see what her second point is.

[01:35:08] I was hoping you guys would talk about when John is little and he's at home with his two brothers and they're like watching TV and they're really nervous because he's coming home. We can't be watching TV. And then they quickly turn off the TV and the dad comes in and it's like he's caught them watching TV. And then he takes them out to shoot the apple off his head. You get the feeling they're in trouble for watching TV. But then they're not. Why did he not want them watching TV if then he was like, what's the guy's name? What was that?

[01:35:38] Why? Why was the dad weird about the television? That was confusing to me and I really hope someone would bring it up and nobody did. Anyway, that's it. That's all for me. Clear eyes. Full hearts. Can't lose. Bye. I would say the best I can do for you is to validate your confusion because I felt exactly the same way. Me too. And then I got so thrown off. I didn't. No validation from Kirk, but. No validation from me.

[01:36:06] I think it's this simple. He didn't want him watching the interview with Green Lantern. That was what was off limits. But why were they so scared? They seem scared. Because they knew they were going to get in trouble if they found out that he was watching the interview. But why didn't he be like, oh, what's his name? Like, it's cool you watch that. Because he's training him to be a Green Lantern. And he doesn't want him to necessarily understand or identify with Hal.

[01:36:34] He wants him to be his own Green Lantern. But why did he ask him about it nonchalantly instead of acting like they did something bad then? What's his last name? Yeah. And I'm going to shoot an apple off your head. It was a weird scene. It just was a weird scene. I got the impression that he was physically abusive. Yeah. Just by being so scared. Shooting an apple off his head, I guess.

[01:37:04] But again, I don't think that's what the writers are going for. I think they're like, this dad was hardcore training this kid to have no fear. And it's so cool. But I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong about that. Maybe it was supposed to be abusive. But anyway, that's sort of beside the point. What you're asking about, Jenny, is why did it seem like the kids were so afraid they were going to be in trouble for watching TV? And then the dad came home and just casually asked them about it. And I was confused by that, too. All right. Let's move on. Who's next?

[01:37:34] I think you are. Me? Okay. MoFavo says, good to hear from you. I haven't heard from you in a while. She says some random. No, you're up, Jim. Oh. Some random areas of internet hope your expertise clarifies. Very interested in hearing your takes on how the green bird continued to exist even when John was tasered and unconscious. How does that work? John's special. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:38:04] Kelly McDonald was great in this episode. She's playing a very tricky role, perfectly and believable. Please educate us non-comic readers more on Sinestro. I hope we did that. Stay tuned to Comic Talk for a little bit more of that at the end. And Kelly McDonald, again, one of my favorite actresses. She's fantastic. I'm excited to hear debate on who to trust and who is the manhunter. I trust no one. Yeah. Pretty much. And all of the female characters apparently are the manhunter.

[01:38:33] Love how they're setting up everyone's different motivations and now a sense of urgency with clock. Nice mirror homage of Friday Night Lights with Town Meeting. Oh, yes. Yes. Some. Somehow I have missed. Who is Tom Osborne? Tom Osborne. They mentioned him actually in the first episode. He was the longtime coach of the football coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers when they were one of the best teams in the country.

[01:39:03] Won several national titles. In the DC universe. No, I'm just kidding. Oh. It's real life. Yeah. And he is the Martian manhunter. No, I'm just kidding. Because she's asking in case people didn't catch it because Hal said to Carrie, in the name of Tom Osborne or whoever it is that you worship, take these things off. Talking about the handcuffs. And she's like thinking that's a character, which I wouldn't know either, but I had to look it up. And it's this head coach of the football team.

[01:39:31] And he eventually was a politician. I can't remember if he was a senator or a congressman. But he was a longtime coach at the University of Nebraska. She also said, any speculation on what the sheriff is reading normally wouldn't wonder. But after Lost and Lindelof, because they had a lot of books in Lost. And I read this. And so I went back and went through in slow-mo.

[01:39:58] And they seem to take great pains not to show the cover of that book. So I don't think it's meaningful, whatever she was reading. It was, I am a Martian. No, I'm just kidding. Well, she was there. She was there because. How to hide amongst the humans. She was going to wake up and there was going to be nobody there. There's no doctors. There's no nurses. Yeah. There's no staff. And she didn't, you know, she couldn't not be there.

[01:40:28] She had to be there when he woke up. But she said after surgery. So who did the surgery? Maybe she did. Well, or maybe some alien tech. Because she's the man hunter. Jesus. Now it's my turn, right? Yeah. No, no, no. Oh, no. You did the call. Jim did. No, it doesn't count when you do a call. Oh, all right. Then I screwed up. Then I was supposed to go next. Then I'll still take, let me take this one. All right.

[01:40:57] Jordan, a.k.a. Jeff. Hey, casting light. Another good episode. I thought it was funny having Kyle Chandler attend a small town meeting about football. Another Friday night lights thing. I also liked that the first oath to recharge the ring was rushed one. Like he's tired of it and just getting it out of the way. Like he doesn't really believe in the lantern core anymore. He's just going through the motions. Excellent point. We didn't talk about. Fantastic point that we didn't talk about. I mean, it was so obvious. He was just, just had to get through it. It was funny.

[01:41:27] Not a lot. But then if you want to look at it another way, it's like, well, he said it. Like, does he have to say that to charge the ring? I wouldn't think so. So he's at least saying it, but he is rushing through it. And it was kind of funny. Yeah. Yeah. I think in the comics, there was a period when they had to say it, but I think they changed. They reticoned that. But the bird projection was interesting and how John maintained that and took it on a commercial flight. That's true.

[01:41:56] Also, how did the lantern make it through TSA? That could have been a funny scene. The mystery of what is going on deepens. Anyone could be the Manhunter. I wonder if it is Macon's son. All right. It's interesting. Sinestro says the Manhunter is the second greatest threat. What's the first? John. I'm assuming that's John, right? Yeah. Is it Hal as being a little bit rogue? John is somewhat unknown quantity as a trainee?

[01:42:24] Or is it Sinestro calling himself the greatest threat? Interesting. Very curious what that means. That's a cool, cool idea. I got the impression, though, that it was what Sinestro was saying was that John is... Knocking at the door. John has a power that may be beyond what any of us would want a Green Lantern to have. Yeah. Or it's just like he knows that John... I mean, Hal resents having to train John and doesn't want to be replaced.

[01:42:54] And John is his replacement. And he's trying to dig at him. Could be something along those lines, too. Yeah. No 2026 timeline this week. I wonder if they will only show small bits from the entire season or if we will get a full episode in the 2026 timeline. I think this is the only thing in the DCU before next year's Superman, so I think it will likely tie in. Especially with Guy Gardner acting as a lantern.

[01:43:22] Well, we're also getting Clayface, I think. That's true. Horror movie. Although I don't expect any superhero stuff in there. Also, y'all may have seen, but there's a new Jimmy Olsen show. They just gave a series order to. Not lantern-specific, but within the same universe. Anyway, that's it for the week. Until next time. Yeah, I've heard more. The Jimmy Olsen thing was like disgusted me. You know, if that's what they're going to spend their money on.

[01:43:51] Meanwhile, they need to introduce Batman. They need to introduce Wonder Woman. They need to introduce Justice League. They need to introduce Flash. They need to introduce. I mean, come on. Yeah. But it's interesting. Do you guys read about the premise? Yeah. No, I forget. I think I might have, but I don't remember. Isn't it? Well, it's all about the trial of Grod Groot or the gorilla ape. What's it called? Grod. Gorilla Grod. Gorilla Grod. And it's about his trial.

[01:44:17] And so I think you're going to see a lot of DC heroes, especially Flash-based heroes, that would either be told in flashbacks or maybe come to the court and speak. I don't know. But it's supposed to be like six episodes and just a limited series.

[01:44:40] One thing that James Gunn has said is he wants to green light the series where the script has come together and is strong. And so and movies, too. And so what that ends up producing is you have something weird like Clayface, which is a Batman villain. But it's a horror movie. And it's written by, shoot, what's the guy's name that did Haunting of Hill House? Mike Flanagan. And it sounds cool.

[01:45:08] But then we're like, where the fuck is Batman? And it's just the Batman script is not coming together. And I do respect not rushing something. But I also want to see that Brave and the Bold movie with Batman and Robin, you know, with what's the Robin that's his son? Oh, Damian. Damian Wayne. Yeah. I really want to see that. Yeah. But anyway, if this Jimmy Olsen series is good, I'm like, cool. I mean, I liked him in the Superman movie.

[01:45:35] Well, I think it's good in the sense that what I think might be good about it is that it allows him to introduce characters in the DC unit. And expand the DC universe without having to spend $250 million on a Flash movie or, you know what I mean? Which it takes two years or three years to make. They did cast a bunch of, you know, Perry White's in it, Cat Grant's in it.

[01:45:57] And it's a perspective piece on Jimmy Olsen reopening a case that he doesn't think was tried correctly. I just think it's a great idea. We'll see. We'll see how it plays out or if anybody even gives a shit. But I mean, that's the big thing with this show is anybody. But it's an HBO series. So I think the potential is there to do something, again, like really cool.

[01:46:24] I think people are responding pretty well with this show, Lanterns, it seems like. Yeah, they are. People are digging it. All right. We have one more call. It's from Damian. Hey, guys. It's Damian. I really like that episode. Sometimes I feel like the pilot is almost like it has too much to do.

[01:46:45] And even though it's really good, it doesn't have like the freedom to kind of, you know, go off on its own pace and its own, I don't know, have its own vibe. So, yeah, I thought episode two was great. Like it did a lot. It seemed like a lot of story in one hour. And I really liked a lot about it.

[01:47:11] And last week I was saying I didn't necessarily like the Jon Stewart character. But I think, you know, there was a great line near the beginning when Hal told him to unclench. And I feel like that was very apt because I feel like he did unclench. I actually really like his character a lot more this week. He was looser this time. I will let you guys talk all about the actual story of what happened. And I just, yeah, I really dug a lot of it.

[01:47:41] There were some really great scenes. And I'm really looking forward to seeing where it goes. Yeah. It's built up some, it's built up a bit of gravitas already. And yeah, no, I'm digging it. And that bird is really cute. Anyway, cheers, guys. I mean, it opened up with Hal pouring that bucket of water on him and he jumps up and says, what the fuck? And that was like the loosest we've seen him. So it's a good start.

[01:48:11] He felt different. He felt different this episode. Yeah. I thought so. Well, they're rubbing off on each other too. You know what I mean? Yeah. Hal's getting him to loosen up a little bit from being so regimented and military-like. And I think he's helping Hal remember what's important about being a Green Lantern and who he was.

[01:48:43] All right. That is our show. Thank you so much for listening, everybody. Next episode, of course, will be Lantern Season 1, Episode 3. If you want to write in or leave us a voice message about it, you can send it to brightestdayatpodcastica.com. Or you can leave comments in the Podcastica Discord or in our Facebook group where you can also chat with us and other listeners about Lanterns or whatever else you're watching. Of course, the links are in the show notes. Yeah.

[01:49:12] Join our Discord. I just put a forum in there. It's a different way to an internet forum where people can post whatever they want and talk about it. But we also have channels for every show that we podcast about and a bunch of other ones. So it's kind of fun. I also want to mention that Kirk is a great artist and has a website that you should all go and check out. What is it? StudioKM, right? StudioKM.com. Check out.

[01:49:42] You'll be impressed and amazed at what he's got going on there. Thanks. And I can't wait to see your Green Lantern poster that's sure to come at some point. No pressure. I mean, if you follow Kirk at all, there's so much art that you post that you are working on. And it's one of the great joys of podcasting with you over the years has been seeing the art that you do. Yeah. Thanks.

[01:50:13] On the shows we've covered and other shows as well. It's really cool. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. The talent is, it's prodigious talent. Wow. I have to look that word up. He's an artist. Thank you. Thanks. I appreciate the plug. Okay. Well, stay tuned to the very end if you want to hear comic talk with spoilers. But for now, that's it. That is our show. Thanks for listening. In brightest day and blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight.

[01:50:41] Let those who worship evils might be where my power Green Lanterns like. All right. Here we are in the comic talk segment. So it's all spoilers are okay for comics here. If you don't want to hear any of that, then you should probably not be listening. Why are you still listening? So I wanted to talk about the Manhunters who are basically the Green Lantern Corps before the Green Lantern Corps.

[01:51:09] Billions of years ago, the Guardians of the Universe in the comics created these powerful androids to police the cosmos. But the Manhunters eventually concluded that emotions and ultimately organic life itself were the source of chaos and evil. So that really went wrong. That's why we have to watch out for AI. They rebelled against the Guardians and they committed all these atrocities. The massacre of a whole sector and they wiped out nearly all life there. That's just billions of life forms.

[01:51:39] And then that's why this alien that kidnapped John and Tan said they carried out what they called justice. Entire species were lost. And so the Guardians shut the Manhunters down and replaced them with living beings who could exercise judgment and free will, the Green Lantern Corps. And so there have been surviving Manhunters. They've been recurring enemies of the Green Lanterns ever since.

[01:52:06] And they say, no man escapes the Manhunters. So yeah, that's something that I'm guessing will be in the show too, that the Guardians will have created them. But maybe they'll be Martian Manhunters and that will have nothing to do with it. You know, who knows? Kirk's insane. But that same lore, you mentioned the Sector and the Sector was... 666. 666. Yeah. And... Isn't that the Son of the Devil?

[01:52:37] Yeah. What's up with that? I... The... The... And again, this is comic book talk, so, you know, spoilers. Atrocitus was the main alien. Certainly has a feel that this Antan character might be based on it. And the reason why I say that is I watched The Wrap. And in The Wrap, they talked to... I think...

[01:53:03] I can't remember who they talked to, but someone specifically asked one of the three showrunners if Antan is based off of Atrocitus. Who I'll get to in a second. And he said that he certainly was the premise for this character. For those that don't know, Atrocitus is kind of the leader of the Red Lantern Corps. And the reason why I mention this is because...

[01:53:33] And my big curiosity as I watch this show is where we're at in the lore of the lanterns. Because I'm trying to figure out if any of these other colors are out there. Because we certainly haven't. So that's... Yeah. You know, and I was sort of just being an asshole earlier talking about, you know, what if the show is just about John getting the ring? But I do think it's the bigger picture of this. I didn't think you were being an asshole.

[01:54:03] That I'll say here. Well, I mean, that's just me. I'm just an asshole. But I think the rings, finding this rich color palette of rings that is in the comic book lore is kind of where we're heading. And perhaps these aliens, whoever they might be, are connected to that Sector 666 that they probably don't want to dive too much into. Right. But maybe we'll get to see a couple of different color rings at play here.

[01:54:33] I hope so. Yeah. Yeah, I'm just reading the Wikipedia when the rogue man hunters rampage through space Sector 666 Atros was one of only five beings in the entire sector to escape death. And then he witnessed the death of his wife and children, renamed himself Atrocitus and formed this terrorist cabal and blah, blah, blah. Ended up becoming the bearer of the red ring. And that feeds on hate, right? And anger. Rage. Rage. Rage.

[01:55:02] And they spit up blood all the time. It was Chris. It was Chris Mundy, by the way. Chris Mundy was asked about Antean being analogous to Atrocitus. And Mundy discussed translating that specific concept into Antean's personal vengeance story. So it does feel like that we're starting to bubble into yellow and red territory here. So maybe those aliens that kidnapped John are from Atros?

[01:55:32] Or no, I mean, Space Sector 666 or something? Yes. Yeah. Well, they said five. And I can't. I don't know how many. I mean, obviously, there were more than five because there were four on the football field that were killed. But I'm trying to picture like how many were sitting there in that room. And it feels like there might have been five. But I don't know. It could just be a different number in the show, though. But again, it could be that Atrocitus is on the wrong path. You know what I mean?

[01:55:57] That he's mistaken this hiding that's going on in that town as them hiding the Manhunter. And they might not be. They might be hiding Martian Manhunter. So we get the backstory and the lore of this horrible Armageddon that was caused by the Guardians. But we don't necessarily—that isn't the actual story plot for this particular episode.

[01:56:22] One question that I wish we had talked about in the main part of the podcast, but I forgot, is that, you know, the sheriff told how—you know, one reason I kept you out is because I thought that since that guy didn't trigger the alien warning that he wasn't an alien, but I was wrong. That's paraphrasing. But anyway, I'm like, yeah, why didn't he trigger it? Yeah. Is he a different kind of alien that can pass through or something? Yeah.

[01:56:52] I want to know. Which guy? Which guy? The one that blew up in the jail. Yeah. Oh, he didn't set off the alarm? I think that's what she said, yeah. So that was the question. Why didn't any of them set off the alarm? They did. Oh, maybe they did, though. Yeah. No, they did. They all did. They made— No, he didn't. He didn't. Yeah. She said it. Well, I mean, she said it. Yeah, that's what she said. Yeah. And they did make it a point of showing—they did a nice job.

[01:57:20] Like, they showed the ones at the field, and then they showed the ones at the police station that worked for metal, which I thought was just a nice little touch. Yeah. So she said—he goes, can I ask you a question? And she goes, if I knew about the alien detectors, why did I fight you on jurisdiction? He goes, does make a guy wonder. She says, the others were dead. I assumed if Waylon didn't set off the alarm, he wasn't an alien. I was wrong.

[01:57:49] And I'm like, yeah, why didn't he set it off? Because she's a liar. That's why. Okay. The other part is Sinestro, who, in the comics, was once considered one of the greatest Green Lanterns. The Guardians assigned him to train a newly recruited Hal Jordan. Hal eventually discovered that Sinestro maintained order in his sector by ruling his home planet,

[01:58:15] Korogar, as a dictator, using the power of his ring and the threat of violence to make his people fear him. Hal helped expose him, and the Guardians stripped Sinestro of his ring and expelled him from the core. Sinestro became Hal's enemy and eventually acquired a yellow ring powered by fear, and later created the Sinestro core around his belief that fear and authoritarian control are more effective at maintaining order than the Green Lantern's willpower.

[01:58:41] Which makes you wonder if the story is similar in this DC universe. Has all of that already happened, or is the Sinestro yellow core part yet to come? Well, there's one part of that I think that wasn't included there, and that is that he makes connection with the yellow force when he's in prison. And that's how he forms the ring.

[01:59:10] I don't know the details. In the comics? In the comics. In the comics. In the comics. And he actually creates the ring and the power and everything else while he's in prison. I don't know how he did that, but... So that would suggest it might be coming up. Yeah. Yeah. And then he breaks out and he forms the yellow core. Interesting. And it's tied to Parallax. I believe the...

[01:59:33] I believe the lore is that the Parallax is inside the main lantern in Oa. Oh, the main lantern in Oa. Yeah. I don't know if it's in prison or that's how they can contain it or what. Ooh. That suggests that's where they're going with it because they show that yellowishness inside the ring at the beginning. Exactly. Exactly. And that Sinestro somehow finds a way to communicate with that or connect with that. Right. And that's how he gets the power.

[02:00:03] I wonder if season two is going to be full Parallax Hal Jordan or something. That'd be cool, man. I'd be down for that. I would... Well, yeah. I would really be down for that. He could redeem himself at the end. By the end of the comics. I don't know if... Does Jon Stewart in the comics come from Coast City as well? I don't think so. I know... I don't think so either. And they made a point of that he's training... Remember, he was boxing and it was in a gym in Coast City.

[02:00:33] Yeah. So he's from Coast City. Well, no. He's there to... Oh, I'm sorry. You're saying Hal's from Coast City, right? Because Jon's just there to train. No. No. I'm saying Jon's from Coast City. He's there... Well, what I read... I read somewhere that he's there to train because he's training with Hal. Yeah. I mean, I think because his dad was in the military, they traveled. Okay. Because Coast City in the comics is where Parallax... Well, where Hal Parallax goes and destroys the whole goddamn thing.

[02:01:03] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I thought if they made... It would be a nice twist to have Jon's family be there too. So he ends up wiping out Jon's family. But... That'd be really nice. That'd be kind of dark. Dark. Kyle Chandler said... Talking about this scene with... I forget the actor's name, but Sinestro. He said, The more and more that we ran through our scenes together, I found myself feeling more of respect in that mentor-student thing

[02:01:32] because he gave me what I have, like him or not. There was almost like a father figure sitting in front of me. So... Yeah. That was in there too. Yeah. Alrich Thompson. Yeah. Yeah. That was... He was famous from the show Banshee, I think. I never saw that, but I think he was on it. I never saw it either, but I remember some people saying he was amazing in that. I don't know. I've heard... There was another show that they were talking about, but I can't remember what it was.

[02:02:01] But yeah, I guess he's a great actor. I mean, from that scene that I saw, but that's really all I know him from is this. Yeah. 30 seconds. Yeah. Yeah, really. There was so much... There were so many Easter eggs in this that are just obvious comic book connections. You know, we talked about the suit. We talked about the lantern. And it's funny how the lantern can get lost in the story a lot

[02:02:31] because everybody's so focused on the ring and getting to see that. You know, we talked about it in the other two episodes, but I think that the showrunners are really doing a nice job tying... I mean, this is... As far as television shows go, it feels as connected to the comic book lore as any of the other shows that I've ever seen. It just seems like everything fits a certain piece of the puzzle pretty well so far.

[02:02:59] I mean, only two episodes in, of course, but... They're throwing so much lore in there. I kind of worry that non-comic bookie people are... Their eyes are going to glaze over sometimes. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, we've talked about that. People have talked about that. I think that what I like the most, though, is from our callers, they seem to still want to watch. I mean, most of it seems to be because of Kyle Chandler, but... Whatever it takes. Yeah. Well, I don't think there's anything

[02:03:27] that's from the lore or the comic book that we've talked about that is necessary for enjoying the story. Me neither. I agree. I think it just adds to it, but it doesn't... If you don't know it, it's not important. I just can see if you're watching the show and you start to go, wait, why is the guy doing that? And you might think, oh, I think I'm missing something because I don't know the comics, even though that's not true. I think the big issue is Guy Gardner. I think that's the only one that's going to throw people off,

[02:03:57] which is why I thought she should go see Superman. But because they push hard on the fact that there's one Green Lantern and one ring, and that when the lantern dies, the ring finds another user. But we've got this whole scenario where we've already got another lantern in 2026, and... We may have... And that was before Hal died. Yeah, but I just, I think that... Right? The reason why Guy Gardner...

[02:04:27] In 2035. Yeah, yeah. No, it was before. Yeah. Yeah. So how do you get the ring? I just think that Guy Gardner's, I mean, a key to this. So I, my hope is that him being in the show explains some of it. Oh, yeah. If they don't explain it, they failed. You know? Yeah. Trust these awful writers. I'm just kidding. No, no. I'm sure. I can't wait. I'm actually excited. I love Nathan Fillion. Yeah. I, I, uh, yeah. I hate Guy Gardner, though. Yeah.

[02:04:57] He's a great character, I think. Oh, I hate that character. If you, those Justice League International comics were so good. I love it. I read them. I read them because Adam Hughes did some of the art. Oh, you didn't like it? Yeah. It was more of a comedy, a comedy book. Weren't they, didn't they have at that point, didn't they have the rich guy was their... Yeah, Max Lord. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Max Lord. He ended up becoming a bad guy. Yeah. I killed, I think he, uh, Wonder Woman killed him. Snapped his neck.

[02:05:27] Nice. All right. Thanks, guys. Well, thank you guys. Till, uh, till next Monday. What if doctors could detect Alzheimer's before symptoms appear or treat cancer with unprecedented precision? On the new season of Tomorrow's Cure, the chart-topping and 2025 Ambie Award finalist podcast from Mayo Clinic, we explore how breakthroughs like these are already reshaping the future of healthcare. I'm Lindsay Siever, the new host of Tomorrow's Cure.

[02:05:57] And this season, I'm joined by leading physicians, researchers, and Mayo Clinic experts exploring everything from AI-powered diagnostics to precision cancer treatments. Follow Tomorrow's Cure wherever you get your podcasts.