I Think This Major Lanterns Character Has Been A Fake The Whole Time, And It Changes Everything

Lanterns has been a show that is full of mystery, and some of those reveals (so far) haven’t worked out the way fans predicted. Episode 4 seemed to deliver at least one big reveal: the identity of the Manhunter who has been hiding out on Earth. However, a lot was going on in “The Weenie”, besides Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) confirming that Zoe Macon (Pooma Jagannathan) is a Manhunter and that his “trainee” John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) has known it for some time. A lot of moves and countermoves were made by competing players, including Thaal Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen) planting seeds of doubt (fear) in Hal, while both John and Hal were turned against one another, leading to a literal car wreck of a partnership.

However, Episode 4 of Lanterns also carefully peppered in a subplot that most viewers may not have picked up on. It has been bubbling for a while, and it basically boils down to one major character in the show having been an imposter the entire time – and I’m not talking about the Manhunter.

Lanterns Theory: Lianna Isn’t Really One of the Guardians

Lianna (Laura Linney) is one of two major X-factors in Lanterns‘ story – the other being Antaan (Paul Ben-Victor) and his vengeful gang of aliens. However, Lianna’s presence goes back much further, as she first made contact with the Stewart family when John Jr. was just a baby. It was Lianna who set things in motion for John (Aaron Pierre) to train as a candidate for the Green Lantern Corps from infancy, and is now returning to assess the return on that investment. However, there are increasingly shady circumstances surrounding Lianna and her agenda, and Episode 4 really presses that point in one key scene.

When John has a secret meet-up with Lianna, she coerces him into hijacking the Power Ring and the title of Green Lantern for himself. When John’s pride and sense of entitlement make him question the tactic, Lianna’s mood and tone shift considerably. She accuses John of being flawed like his father and purposefully stokes his ire for Hal Jordan to start a conflict between them. A lot of viewers unfamiliar with DC lore believe that this is simply how god-like cosmic beings like the Guardians would deal with a lifeform they consider primitive (like humans); however, some longtime DC fans aren’t so certain about that.

One theory is that Lianna could be a Manhunter (or the Manhunter). The timing works out, too: If Abin Sur crashed on Earth with the Manhunter as a passenger, then Lianna showing up soon after the ring rejected John Sr. and chose Hal makes sense. The other theory is that the Manhunter is just a minor boss (the henchman) in this superhero story, and that Lianna is the big boss, the mastermind. That could either mean she is a leader of the Manhunters, or a rogue member of the Guardians who is pursuing her own agenda, likely against her former brethren and their Green Lanterns.

Either way, here are some increasingly conspicuous clues that Lianna isn’t exactly who she claims to be:

• She only appears to a very select group of people (the Stewart family) and always alone. We never see her in the company of other Guardians or Green Lanterns, and she seems to be making a point to stay away from Hal Jordan, someone who could immediately confirm or deny her story. She’s very much a lone wolf.
• There’s a highly questionable purpose behind her decision to treat John Stewart as a home-grown human Green Lantern. John’s overriding quality is his obedience and willingness to follow orders without hesitation (fear). It could be the training for an elite-level Green Lantern, or it could be a way for a scheming villain to create a ring-bearer powerful enough to oppose the Corps.
• Lianna’s odd behavior and mannerisms have been sold to us as a Guardian trying to act human; it could easily be a synthetic being like a Manhunter trying to do the same. A Manhunter would also be able to shapeshift into both a Guardian and a human form to fool John’s mom, Bernadette.
• Some fans think the diamond Lianna offers Bernadette wasn’t a diamond the Guardians made, but an enticing bribe using the crystallized heart of a Manhunter (as Sinestro described).

That’s a lot of circumstantial evidence piling up, and if it pans out, Hal and John are already caught up in serious, world-threatening danger that’s gathering in the shadows (pun) long before Superman and the rest of the DCU heroes are around to thwart it.

Why Lianna Would Be A Dangerous Big Bad for the DCU

Whether she’s a Manhunter or a rogue Guardian (or something else), Lianna may be the one who fed Sinestro information about John Stewart while striking a deal with the fallen Lantern. She could be the “benefactor” who is helping the Manhunter fortify the town of Rushville; she could have created the “Hector Hammond” facade and also pointed Antaan and his crew at the town of Rushville. That would be multiple lanes of intergalactic conflict being stirred on Earth by a single person – exactly the kind of infiltration, espionage, and deception we’ve heard Manhunters excel at. It’s believable that Lanterns solves the main conflict of saving Rushville and exposing the Manhunter hiding there, but Lianna remains undiscovered until Hal Jordan finally spots her as the threat in 2026 (and dies for it). That could be the make-or-break moment where John Stewart completes an arc of becoming a Green Lantern in Hal’s mold, after realizing how Lianna manipulated him.

Then there’s the question of the larger goal here. Destabilizing the structure and order the Guardians have set in place (even within their own peacekeeping force) seems to be the tactic, but to what end? DC comic readers know that these kinds of tensions lead to much bigger conflicts like the “War of Light” and its subsequent fallout, the “Blackest Night.” If this theory is right, Lianna could be the first real big bad the DCU franchise has revealed, and knowing it would be Laura Linney only makes it that much better.

Lanterns is airing on HBO and streaming on HBO Max. Drop your theories on the ComicBook Forum!

Lanterns: Is SPOILER Really the Manhunter? Or Was Episode 4 A Major Fake-Out?