Lanterns Recap: Episode 3 - OutKast

Ash Walker • 01 Sep 2026 Features

“Are you afraid?”

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SPOILERS AHEAD!

It’s flashback time, as we take a break from the main ongoing mystery to take a look at John Stewart’s (Aaron Pierre) messed-up origin story.

We open in 2016, in mysterious fashion as, offscreen, an unfamiliar voice tells someone to ‘jump’ and John finds himself falling through an abandoned mall onto a stack of mattresses. A series of arrows lead him to a dingy room and an interview with a strange woman (Laura Linney), who turns out to be one of the godlike Guardians of the Universe - the beings in charge of the Green Lantern Corps.

As the woman presses John to prove himself the perfect Lantern candidate, we see glimpses of his past and get some much-needed context for this whole Training Day situation our heroes have found themselves in.

We learn that, when John was just a baby, Abin Sur’s ring actually came to John’s father before Hal, and asked him the same question - ‘are you afraid?’ - to which John Sr (J. Alphonse Nicholson) answered, understandably, with a big old affirmative.

Unfortunately, that isn’t the answer the ring is looking for, and it swiftly moves on. Even more unfortunately, the encounter sends John Sr on a bit of a downward spiral, and he almost loses his family until that same Guardian from the opening of the episode appears to his wife (Jasmine Cephas Jones) to apologise for any trauma the ring might have caused.

The Guardian isn’t too happy that unpredictable, insubordinate Hal Jordan ended up with the ring, and suggests that while it might be too late for John Sr to take it, baby John Jr still has the time and potential to become the perfect Green Lantern candidate. Thus poor John is set on a deeply upsetting path, as his parents raise him to be utterly fearless.

They shoot apples off his head - something we glimpsed in episode 1 - keep him separate from his brothers and even leave him alone in dangerous neighbourhoods. This all leads to an adult John, now a highly skilled marine sniper, on a fateful mission to assassinate a terrorist.

He waits for months in the same spot, waiting for his target to arrive at his remote mountain retreat, only to be scuppered at the last moment when Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) turns up, blows up the compound and drags the terrorist to Guantanamo Bay. To make matters worse, John is forced into a dishonourable discharge to cover for the US Government and, in particular, Hal’s involvement in the whole debacle.

All of this leads us back to 2016, where John, now in art school, is finally contacted by the Guardians and brought in to serve as Hal Jordan’s replacement.

What an origin story! It’s all very dark and full of delicious drama, and it makes John an infinitely more interesting character than he first appeared. We now know that beneath that quiet, stoic exterior is a very traumatic past and a deep loneliness.

We also get the impression, despite what he says, that he’s harbouring some deep-seeded resentment towards Hal Jordan - how could he not be after what he went through? It’s all setting up some juicy conflict a little further down the line, and I can’t wait to see it all explode.

Random Thoughts:

• The writers of this show are bringing all of the disparate plot threads together in really satisfying ways, and it seems like they’ve really thought everything through.
• It’s becoming increasingly obvious that something has happened to Hal Jordan to make him the jaded, cynical veteran that he is, and it seems likely that Sinestro’s betrayal had a lot to do with it. Hopefully we see more of that soon.
• A lot is made of Hal being the only Earth-based Green Lantern, and I’m still wondering how Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion) from last year’s Superman fits into all of this. If John has to go through all of this to replace Hal, how did Guy of all people end up with a ring? Seeing as Guy is slated to appear in next week’s episode, we should find out soon.

Verdict: Maybe the best episode yet focusses in on John’s dark past, while setting up some meaty drama between our two heroes yet to come.

Lanterns is available to stream every Monday from 2am on HBO MAX, available now as part of Sky Ultimate TV.