Hal Jordan and John Stewart have been to hell and back ever since they stepped into Rushville 10 years ago. They lost as much as the townspeople, with scars that will redefine their whole lives. Despite leaving everything behind, John found himself drawn to the quaint little town once more, but this time he’s determined to find closure.
At first, he only expected to level the score with Hal, but with the latter’s sudden murder, John found himself spiraling into another mystery, with new players emerging in the game. Ever since John saw Hal dead on the bleachers, there’s been something bugging him about the whole scene. Therefore, he set out to solve it on his own, only to find that it was nothing more than history repeating itself.
The finale of Lanterns opens with a flashback scene to the fateful day in Rushville ten years ago. Kerry finds Hal at the motel after his fight with Zoe and John. They discuss how everything that has happened is on Hal, and he will have to live with the consequences. Hal admits it’s the perfect opportunity for the Guardians to get rid of him amicably.
Fast-forward to 2026, and Hal is being released from prison, and Kerry waits for him outside with a pack of beer and flowers. Hal is both surprised and happy to see her, and they return to Rushville, where onlookers give Hal the death stare. He’s uncomfortable and tells Kerry it’s a bad idea to be with him in public, but she stands up and announces their relationship.
She tells everyone that it has been a dark time for the town, but Hal has done his time, which means it’s a chance for everyone to move forward. However, the Rushville residents aren’t quick to forget their suffering, and as Hal and Kerry settle into their lives, they take it away from him.
One day, when Hal’s home, someone sets the house on fire; Hal tries to escape with Earl, but he’s surrounded and passes out in the flames. The next thing we see is Hal in the same slaughterhouse where John was healed by Zoe. We get a good look at Hal’s arm; it has a circular scar, indicating he was healed using Zoe’s machine, but it doesn’t take long for his savior to emerge from the shadows and reveal their true identity.
There’s a new player in the game
Surprise, surprise, it’s none other than Noah Macon. He confesses he wished there was another way to save Hal without revealing his true identity. He tells Hal that his mother doesn’t know that he’s a Manhunter. Back on the desolate planet, John also figures out this key detail with the help of a tied-up Sinestro.
It turns out when Hal visited the planet, he told Sinestro everything because Noah was the one who broke him out of prison. He warns John that Noah is very powerful and that Zoe created the portal to visit the planet she once destroyed out of guilt and weakness. Sinestro keeps asking for Hal, but John won't let his only chance for answers slip away.
He keeps pressing Sinestro for more about why Noah would break him out or kill Hal right after he went through the trouble to save him despite risking his identity. Sinestro refuses to cooperate, and that’s when John drags him to the river with the poison water and threatens to torture him until he answers.
Surprisingly, Sinestro is genuinely afraid of the water, which shows him his worst fears. He eventually gives in and tells John that Noah wanted him to forge a lantern. He then shows John the new lantern that’s significantly different from the traditional one. It has yellow light and streaks spread across the core. John figures since Sinestro made it here, the streaks are an essence of the poison in the air and water—a condensation of the people’s fears.
Sinestro explains that the Guardians are wrong to believe that fear must be eradicated to tap into the power of the Green Lantern. On the contrary, he believes fear is one of the most powerful elements in the universe and can offer unlimited power if used and understood correctly. John inquires if it can charge his ring, and Sinestro confirms.
However, as John is about to say the oath, Halogram appears and warns him not to do it. Sinestro tells Hal he warned him not to go back out there, but he didn’t listen and followed Noah after learning his secret. He found Noah's portal and went through it, but he was convinced that he had to hide it from the boy. Sinestro warned Hal that it would only make the boy angry, but he didn’t listen.
At this point, Sinestro is more interested in saving his skin than anything else. That’s why he starts to drive a wedge between Hal and John. He tells Hal that if they get the ring, he can bring him back for good, while he tells John that Halogram doesn’t want him charging the ring from a different lantern because it’ll make him disappear forever.
However, John is too good to believe anyone’s word and quickly figures out that the only reason Noah broke Sinestro out is that he’s the only one who has ever killed a Guardian. Noah simply wants revenge for his grandmother and is using Sinestro to get what he wants. However, he hasn’t gone through with his plan, meaning he’s weighing his choices and fighting against his nature because of his human upbringing.
Sinestro urges John to charge the ring if he wants to go against Noah, but he doesn’t listen to him. Both Hal and John leave Sinestro to his fate, as he’s a prisoner on the planet. He can’t swim in the poison water, which makes him as good as dead.
On their way back to the portal, Hal corrects himself and tells John to charge the ring because that’s the only way to protect himself against Noah. However, John doesn’t indulge his request, stating the irony of the situation in which Hal is determined to protect John. When he doesn’t believe him, Hal asks John what his last words to him were. Despite his annoyance, John says Hal told him not to mention to anyone that he visited him in Rushville.
John admits that Hal must have said it to protect him from Noah because if he found out that John and Hal spoke, he’d automatically assume that Hal told him the truth and he’d kill him. They arrive at the portal, and Hal pleads with John one more time, but he says that Noah has a game and it’ll give him enough time to think about a plan. However, as soon as he walks through the portal, he falls to the ground somewhere else, with Noah looking over him.
Hal’s murderer is revealed
John is caught, and Noah isn’t forgiving. He takes a minute to beat John up and takes both the ring and the lantern from him. He then forces them to drive, probably to somewhere he can quietly take care of John. However, Noah has questions, especially about why John killed his grandmother. As expected, John doesn’t sugarcoat anything and tells Noah that he liked Zoe because he felt she understood him the best.
He is grateful to her for saving him from the fire, but he also points out the irony in her actions. He clarifies that despite having the choice, Zoe waited until John was on the very edge of death to save him, just so he could be wholeheartedly indebted to her like she did with the whole town. She did so John could kill Hal for her. In other words, Zoe didn’t help people out of the goodness of her heart; it was only a survival tactic.
John explains he felt that Zoe wanted him to end her life because she knew she was programmed not to stop herself. He thinks she was tired of being alive for so long and that if she were gone, no one would suspect Noah or come looking for another Manhunter. As they wait at a crossroads, John leaves it to Noah’s conscience to decide where he wants to go. After a few seconds, he signals John to drive to the game.
They arrive at the field, but Noah’s still gutted and confused about what happened. He confesses he didn’t set Hal’s house on fire; on the contrary, he just wanted to help him and, in exchange, required his silence. However, when he discovered the portal and Sinestro, he couldn’t risk Hal telling his mother, and that’s why he killed him.
He explains how sometimes he can’t tell the difference between what’s his programming and what is his true character, to which John says that he can never tell unless he asks the right questions. John shares that he understands more than anyone what it's like to be programmed all his life toward a goal he didn’t even choose. However, if a person starts asking questions themselves, it becomes easier to find answers to them as well.
Noah opens up about feeling conflicted that some part of him wants a normal life in Nebraska while the other consistently pushes him to explore and expand his unlimited power. He can be anyone in the world, from being in the Pentagon to becoming president, and have all that power at his fingertips. He can’t even begin to tell the ideas that occupy his head because they’re so destructive.
Noah takes off the ring and gives it to John. He then asks him to offer him the same mercy he once gave to his grandmother. Noah wants John to kill him so that he can end the threat once and for all. He requests that John wait until the game is over but do it in a way that’s quick and easy and that he doesn’t see it coming.
A new oath, a new Green Lantern
After confronting Noah, John finally discovers who killed Hal, and he decides to set the record straight on the murder mystery once and for all. He meets up with Kerry, who’s watching the game from the sidelines. She mumbles that she always loses her nerve when Noah’s playing, and John leans on saying he knows a mother’s fear.
He tells her how Bernadette used to leave him in bad neighborhoods so he could find his way back and overcome his fear as part of his Green Lantern training. However, the whole time he was out, Bernadette would be terrified, as if she was holding her breath all that time until John reached home. He points out that a mother can do anything when she’s terrified for her child, and somehow Kerry understood what he meant.
She knew her secret was out, so she didn’t beat around the bush. Kerry remembers she was right here in this very field when Hal arrived, his face smashed by John. Kerry asks what’s wrong, but Hal gets straight to the point and inquires if she knew about Noah. With nowhere to hide, Kerry confesses when she first arrived in town, she was being chased by some men, and she ended up losing a finger.
Zoe offered to grow it back, but something happened in the process, and she became pregnant despite not being intimate with anyone for months. She admitted she hated the idea of being a mother, but seeing Noah changed her mind, and she genuinely believed that with love and care, she could oppress his true nature.
Unfortunately, Hal isn’t as quick to be dismissive of Noah’s Manhunter nature as Kerry is. He downright asks if there are more, but Kerry insists he’s the only one, and she wouldn’t know what to do if he found out the truth. However, Hal tells her Noah already knows, which means it’s too late to assume that things wouldn’t go sideways.
It’s a tough spot for Kerry because it’s the ‘Zoe’ situation all over again where she tells Hal to drop it but he doesn’t and insists on taking action despite knowing what happened last time. He suggests they go somewhere isolated and think of a better way to deal with Noah, but Kerry doesn’t want to be separated from her child. The two argue, and in the heat of the moment, Kerry shoots Hal in the head.
Kerry confesses it happened so fast that she couldn’t comprehend what she had done. However, John still doesn’t understand why she called him because she must know if John came, he’d eventually discover about Noah. But Kerry knew what she was doing when she asked John to come down. She wanted confirmation if Noah’s Manhunter nature was taking over; she wanted to know if she was raising a monster.
Obviously, John doesn’t believe Noah is a monster or anything like his grandmother. On the contrary, he praises Kerry for raising a capable young man, who went to great lengths to ensure his mother wasn’t accused of murder and asked John to kill him in fear of turning into a species-killing machine. John assures Kerry that it can go either way, but for now, Noah deserves to live a normal life.
Kerry wishes to give herself up after the game, but John refuses, saying, Hal wouldn’t have wanted that. John bids Kerry farewell, saying if the day ever comes when Noah needs to be stopped, there will be someone that they can count on. As he leaves, Noah wins the game and is offered a spot on the top team.
Before saying goodbye to Rushville, John lights up the Green Lantern signal to call Guy Gardner. He’s annoyed seeing John but is more surprised to find Hal’s ring on his finger. He immediately accuses John of using him to get the ring and warns him of the consequences. However, this is where John draws the line, and he won’t be dictated anymore, not even by the Guardians or the Corps.
He offers Guy a deal that he will remain the Green Lantern of Sector 2814, but he will tell the Guardians that Earth is his. He will relay a message saying that if they truly find it in their hearts, they will let him be. Guy is flabbergasted at the idea, but seeing he has a ring and a lamp, it didn’t make much sense to cause a scene. Guy will get all the glory dealing with the big issues up in the stars while John will deal with the dirty stuff down here.
Guy isn’t thrilled, but he somehow agrees and flies away. Hal appears as soon as Guy leaves and appreciates John’s efforts for finding the truth. He confesses he knows John will become a much better Green Lantern than he ever was. But John doesn’t want to say the traditional Green Lantern oath because it’s too black and white. Hal advises him to make up his own oath since whatever he’s doing hasn’t been done before, and John agrees. However, before John charges his ring, Hal insists he tells him what were his last words. John says, ‘I love you,’ and Hal replies, ‘I love you too, Junior’ and disappears for good.
As John places the ring on the lantern, his new oath echoes in the background alongside his final actions in Rushville and in the series. He recites, ‘In brightest day, in darkest night, I'll embrace my fear, I'll do what's right. I choose this ring, I choose this fight, in service to this lantern's light.’
When he leaves Rushville, he gives Maggie a bag full of cash she demanded. He goes home straight to his family, proudly wearing the ring. He hugs his brothers, father, and mother, who feels she has finally found her son.
In the closing scene, John looks up at the sky as the ring charges full. He knows he has always been worthy and capable of being a hero he was even without the ring. He swiftly rises into the air and disappears into the night sky. He then shoots across the Green Lantern signal, indicating that Earth finally has its true hero.
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