Lanterns gave viewers quite the midseason thrill in Episode 5, as the battle in the town of Rushville, Nebraska, officially kicked off. Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) also had their long-simmering conflict erupt in the middle of the fight, as John finally made his move to claim the ring. It all ended with Rushville in ruins, several key figures dead, and John Stewart making the unprecedented decision to walk away from the Green Lantern Corps.
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However, while Lanterns Episode 5 seemed to close the door on the first chapter of the show’s story, not every fan is convinced that it did. Zoe Macon (Poorna Jagannathan) was revealed as the Manhunter, and she was definitely killed by John Stewart, who took her crystallized heart back to the Guardians as proof the mission was complete and the threat was over
But are the Manhunters really gone for good? Not every DC Universe fan is convinced that threat is truly over…
Lanterns Theory: There’s a 2nd Manhunter In The Macon Family
There’s a popular fan theory gaining traction, which states that Zoe Macon wasn’t the only Manhunter hiding in Rushville. Episode 5 had a moment that some fans honed in on: Zoe stopping to talk with her grandson, Noah (Weapons actor Cary Christopher), before the battle, and basically instructing him to carry on with everything she had taught him. A second look at Noah made fans take note of other moments in the series regarding the strange young child, such as Sheriff Kerry Kane’s (Kelly Macdonald) glowing praise of her son, as well as her level of desperation when telling Hal Jordan that she “owes” Zoe. It sounded like more than just the new life Zoe provided for Kerry – it sounded like Zoe had worked a miracle for her.
Is Noah Macon more than he seems to be? There’s a growing sense that he is. Episode 5 also featured a scene between William Macon (Garret Dillahunt) and the alien leader Antaan (Paul Ben-Victor), which indirectly revealed that Zoe had an agenda to breed with the species she infiltrated – a process that was difficult to achieve. Seeing how Zoe sacrificed her husband and an entire town of her followers, we don’t think Manhunters are overly sentimental; however, the continued survival of their species would be the kind of mission a synthetic being would risk everything for.
Lanterns has made it clear that legacy and succession are major themes of its story. While viewers have been focused on the story of Hal Jordan being replaced by John Stewart, there really could be a mirroring story about how Zoe creates a hybrid between Manhunters and biological life forms (humans), freeing the synthetic beings from the Guardians’ legacy and programming.
We’ll see as Lanterns enters the back half of its story. The series airs on HBO and streams on HBO Max.
Forum Conversation: LANTERNS EP 4 MANHUNTER REVEAL
Go to Forum“Atrocitus” huh LOL
We don’t know how Hal knows — the ring could have told him. We DO now that Hal is not in the habit of checking in, and he goes “with his gut”, so he could just be reacting to his perception of the information he has. The ring could have detected another ring being used when John has his test, and knowing he hasn’t exactly been a model corps member and his age now being more and more a factor, plus his ego… it’s more than likely his behaviour is all driven by assumptions (they are trying to replace me) that just happen to be partially correct, therefor (in his eyes) reinforcing the prospecting telling him all he thinks he needs to know.
What I do love about this show is it leverages the Rashomon storytelling style of telling one even from the perspective of different characters (sometime unreliably), and every time we are told what we “already know”, we actually learn more about what really happened. The answers are most likely right in front of us, it just hasn’t clicked (by design) from the right perspective yet.
Yeah, my comment wasn’t praise (per se) about John’s method — just pointing out their very different approaches — which I feel adds to their disconnect since they aren’t communicating motives. They could actually learn a lot from each other (both for this case, and how to be better Lanterns) had they not been played against each other by Lianna.
Personally, I don’t think time matters (narrative-wise) in relation to one or several Manhunters. They have no real individual personality or motivation outside their human cover, and since we’ve already been introduced to who they are and what they did, having one, three or ten hiding in the town, or hell — the whole town — would need little more setup. All the things you mention can be covered easily in the remaining four episodes, while also revealing half the town (for instance) are Manhunters seeking refuge from those searching for them. What If that is what Abin Sur discovered? Not one, but a colony of them — having Zoe as the narrative’s “representative” for them — and that way providing their exposition.