After an action-packed episode 5, Lanterns returns with a relatively slow-paced episode that tracks the consequences of everything that happened back in Rushville in 2016. It was a dumpster fire on all fronts, whether it was John giving up the ring or the Manhunter decimating an entire town just to lure out Hal.
Fast forward to 2026, John Stewart is a new person, a successful architect working with his brother Marcus to bring a different kind of peace to humanity that the Green Lantern couldn’t. We see John giving an impressive presentation to potential investors for his ‘panic room’ project that has been a success so far.
He mentions how the government is willing to fund weapons, but people want safety rather than to fight. He talks about how they don’t have a Superman like Metropolis, or if one day a giant starfish alien wishes to stomp all over them, the people will have nowhere to protect themselves. That’s why John has designed underground panic bunkers that will be able to hold at least 20,000 people in case of emergencies.
The investors are impressed despite calling out John for not becoming the Green Lantern. He answers honestly and earns a go-ahead for a meeting with a colonel, who has the authority to release funds to him. John is excited, but his enthusiasm dies down when his mother calls.
Surprisingly, John calls his mother by her name, indicating there’s some kind of animosity between them now. Bernadette informs John that Hal Jordan is in Rushville and he wanted to apologize to him for what happened. John is appalled at the idea that his mother has been in contact with Hal while he was in jail. In her defense, Bernadette felt sorry for him and talked to him occasionally because he didn’t have anyone.
She also tells him he’ll be at the Café, eating his usual dinner now that he’s settled in Rushville. John is furious, and he has no need to go down memory lane, but something nags at him. Despite his brother’s request, John ends up driving all the way to Rushville to accept Hal Jordan’s apology.
Hal Jordan meets an unceremonious end
In Rushville, as John is walking into the café, a waitress watches him intently. When he goes inside, Hal is surprised to see him, as if he had no idea he’d be there. John cuts to the chase and asks Hal for the apology he owes him, but he doesn’t have any idea what John’s talking about.
It turns out Bernadette lied to John, and Hal never intended to apologize or call him to Rushville, for that matter. John is furious about Hal talking to his mother, but he calls out John, who, in turn, makes it clear that he was the one who took the fall for the Rushville massacre and served ten years in jail for that.
John is convinced, but Hal keeps talking about how the new Green Lantern is too committed to maintaining the image, including putting a beacon here in Rushville to make up for what they did. However, John quickly points out that whatever happened was Hal’s fault, but Hal begs to differ. He thinks that not taking the ring was what upset John’s mother, and he didn’t take it because he was afraid.
Hal continues to insult John’s choice until John punches him straight in the face, breaking his nose. As he’s leaving, John tells Hal to stay away from his family, but strangely, Hal pleads with him not to tell anyone he was here to meet him.
John drives away, and before he can have a moment of respite, he gets a call that rushes him back to Rushville. We then intercut to the scene we saw at the end of Lanterns episode 1; Hal sitting frozen on the bleachers with a gunshot to his head.
Kerry called John because the whole town hated Hal, and it wasn’t a surprise that someone took him out. She just wanted someone who knew to be around to help her get through. Kerry confesses that Hal was in town because of her and hints embarrassingly that they were kind of together. It started when Hal wrote letters from jail; then, when he was out, he moved back to town.
Kerry didn’t understand why Hal came back, but when he did, he tried to make amends. He would go knocking on everyone’s doors, asking if he could help them out in any way. Although everyone turned him away, he didn’t give up and rented a place in town where he stayed.
Surprisingly, John doesn’t mention that he was the one who broke Hal’s nose, but he also didn’t intend to leave things as they were. Kerry asks him to stay and gives John keys to Hal’s place. As expected, Hal’s place is miserable and sad, and he has a gun tripwire at the front door, as if he's trying to protect himself from someone or something.
John Stewart is unable to move on
John looks around Hal’s place but finds nothing except for his alien plant pet, Earl. As John tries to get a moment of comfort, his brother calls. He’s astonished to hear that he’s back in Rushville despite having the most important meeting of his life arranged with the colonel. John assures Marcus he’ll be there on time and also tells him about Hal Jordan’s death.
The next morning, Kerry comes to take John out for coffee at the Café, and there he learns that the young girl who saw him the other night worked there. As they talk, Kerry tells John that Hal’s body has been scheduled for an autopsy for today, and John insists on coming along.
At the morgue, while hurling insults at both John and Hal, the coroner informs Kerry that there was no foul play other than the broken nose and the gunshot wound. She reveals that it seems someone shot him point-blank, standing right in his face. She sent the blood from his nose to the labs, and the results might point them to the person who fought with him.
Although the coroner suggests that Hal be burned and scattered, John thinks that he deserves more as the Green Lantern and offers to plan a funeral. Kerry calls in for a favor at the funeral home and invites John for dinner with Noah.
Meanwhile, John suggests checking out the storage unit Hal had the keys to before he died. They locate the unit and find nothing but a giant alien-tech vault inside, accessible only by voice recognition. John asks Kerry if she has any voice messages from Hal, and embarrassingly, she does, and it's all about Hal sweet-talking Kerry, indicating that they were way more serious.
However, the trick doesn’t work, and the vault warns John that it can only be accessed with live voice recognition, and if he’s not Hal Jordan, then it’ll be his first and last warning. The two leave, and John goes on to grab beer for the dinner with Kerry.
On his way to her house, John comes across the Green Lantern beacon and activates it. His actions draw the locals’ attention, who aren’t happy with the beacon in the sky. As the men attempt to threaten John, Billy also joins in and threatens to beat him if he doesn’t leave. Of course, they are no match for John, and he ends up beating Billy as well.
At Kerry’s house, the atmosphere is warm, and as they talk, Kerry receives a call that John beat up Billy and other locals. She’s furious and takes John down to the station to put him behind bars until bail. He doesn’t argue but calls his brother, who is shocked to hear that John is still in Rushville and in jail on top of that. However, John reassures that he’s handling it and will be back in time for the meeting.
Later that day, Guy Gardner comes to visit John in jail. Before John can say anything, Guy mocks him, saying that he also met Hal when he was jailed right after what happened in Rushville, but they never got on the right foot. He makes it clear that he has no soft corners for Hal, even after John informs him that he’s dead. Guy thinks that John called him to solve Hal’s murder; however, John only wants to pay him his respects.
He wants Guy to go get Jordan’s ring since the Guardians forged Guy a new one, and his was decommissioned after he was jailed. John wants to bury him with his ring and uniform since he was the first Lantern, and all he wants Guy is to get his ring. Naturally, Guy refuses, but John reminds him that everything he has is because he refused it first, so he owes John big time.
Guy doesn’t answer right away, but he does inform John that someone broke out Sinestro, and the prime suspect was Hal, but since he was in prison, the culprit is still on the loose. He’s reluctant to cause a stir in such dire times but doesn’t flat-out refuse before bolting into the sky.
John is not ready to let go of Hal’s murder
The next day, when John gets bail, he gets into his car and listens to all the voicemails piled up because his phone was dead. The nursing home their father was staying at called to let John know that he set off a firearm on the premises and they’d like him to be picked up ASAP. There’s another from his mother, who called to apologize for lying about Hal, but she did it out of the goodness of her heart because it was high time the two buried the hatchet.
Frustrated, John calls Aaron, his brother, to pick up their father. However, he argues that he’s the 'chosen' one, and since their father cared about him the most, he should be the one to take care of them. From John’s expressions, it feels like they've had this conversation a couple of times, but he wasn’t going to let his brother walk all over him.
He reminds Aaron that it wasn’t his job to bankroll his album, and if he wants his brother to pick up their father, he will, because the consequences will be dire. Of course, after John threatens to cut him off, Aaron agrees. John arrives at Hal’s place and finds the girl from the Café waiting for him.
The girl, Maggie, wants to blackmail John into paying her a very specific amount in exchange for her silence over the matter of him meeting John just before he died. Maggie explains it’s the amount that both John and Hal owe her after they destroyed her house during their fight with the Manhunter. She gives John a deadline and then leaves.
A few moments later, Noah arrives with a suit for John so that they can attend the funeral together. John offers to talk to Noah about Hal if he wants to process the grief, but he dismisses his concern, saying he barely knew the guy.
John arrives at the funeral and seems a bit relieved to see Guy, who managed to come through with the request. He brought the suit and the ring and paid his respects to the dead. However, Guy warns John not to pull anything funny but believes he can’t since the ring is dead. He then flies away, telling John that the debt has been paid.
Outside the funeral house, a woman named Carol Ferris approaches John to deliver Hal’s eulogy, which he apparently wrote himself. Hal had a relationship with Carol, but the way she talked about him suggests Hal enjoyed a better relationship with the ring on his finger than with any human.
During the funeral, John reads Hal’s eulogy, and it’s the saddest affair. He starts off by thanking the masses who were present there, including celebrities, dignitaries, and the president of the United States. It’s a sorry state of affairs as John reads Hal’s words, which oozed hope and confidence in his heroism, yet only three people at his grave actually cared for him.
It’s ironic that Hal held an imaginary successor in such high esteem in his letter, yet treated his actual replacement terribly. When the processions are over, John comes back to dig the grave in the dead of night. It’s clear that he wants the ring, and he manipulated Guy into bringing it to him.
As he digs, he receives a call from Marcus, who is furious that he’s not back yet, but he’s got the Colonel on the phone for the meeting. As he starts to speak, the Colonel cuts the call. Marcus tells him that he blew his one shot at kicking off his project just because he can’t let go of what happened in Rushville. His brother calls him out for never moving forward and says he has been stuck in that town for the past decade.
Marcus disconnects, saying that he doesn’t want what killed Hal to kill John too. However, once John sets his eyes on something, he doesn’t stop until he gets to the bottom of things. He finally uncovers Hal’s grave, takes the ring, and smashes it lightly on a rock.
The ring comes to life, announcing it has only five percent battery, but it's enough to summon Hal’s consciousness from the ring. Hal looks wildly surprised, but when he looks down into the grave, he understands why he is there. With Hal’s consciousness guiding him, John will know the answers to what really happened to his former mentor.
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