by Charles Kirkland Jr.
Lanterns Episode 104 Turns Rushville Into a Hunting Ground
Lanterns Season 1 Episode 4 Recap sends John Stewart and Hal Jordan deeper into the hunt for the Manhunter as “The Weenie” turns nearly everyone in Rushville into a potential suspect. While John receives an unexpected opportunity to replace Hal as Green Lantern, their investigation of William Macon reveals a disturbing alliance protecting something hidden inside the town.
Lanterns streams on HBO Max, where Season 1 continues John and Hal’s increasingly dangerous investigation into the alien presence surrounding Rushville.
As the Lanterns Season 1 Episode 4 Recap unfolds, the Guardians order Hal removed, Macon reveals the source of his extraordinary prosperity, and a devastating attack sends John and Hal toward a slaughterhouse connected to the mysterious Hammond.
But their investigation ultimately leads them back to someone John thought he had just lost.
Zoe.
Read our recap of “Outkast” here.
Explore the complete Lanterns Series Hub.
Lanterns Season 1 streams on HBO Max.
Lanterns Episode 104 Turns John Against Hal
John meets privately with Sinestro, who warns him not to underestimate Hal Jordan.
Sinestro also plants a dangerous idea.
Capturing the Manhunter would represent an enormous victory for the Guardians, but Hal would receive the credit while John could emerge disgraced.
The conversation exposes the growing tension beneath John and Hal’s partnership just as another authority begins questioning whether Hal should remain Green Lantern at all.
As Lanterns Season 1 Episode 4 Recap reveals, John isn’t simply being asked to find the Manhunter anymore.
He is being offered Hal’s place.
John and Hal Target Macon’s Compound
John surveys William Macon’s compound from the town water tower and spots a helicopter landing inside.
Hal joins him, and the two identify the central building as their strongest lead.
Sheriff Kerry Kane is brought into the investigation and, concerned about Rushville’s safety, decides to work directly with them.
Their alliance has officially become a three-person operation.
The Guardians Want Hal Jordan Removed
Back at the motel, the Guardian suddenly appears before John.
She has learned that Hal violated his oath by meeting with Sinestro.
The Guardians have made their decision.
Hal is finished.
John is ordered to take his ring.
Once he does, John Stewart will become the new Green Lantern.
The offer places John directly between his loyalty to Hal and the destiny he has spent his entire life preparing to inherit.
John and Hal Break Into Macon’s Compound
Rather than fly past Macon’s guard towers, John proposes going underground.
Hal hands him the ring, allowing John to manifest a tunneling machine.
The plan works.
Inside the compound, however, they discover a stockpile of weapons before Hal accidentally steps on a pressure plate.
John quickly creates a weight to replace him, but the guards have already been alerted.
They storm the room carrying alien weapons.
A black cloud incapacitates both Lanterns.
Macon now has them.
And the ring.
William Macon Reveals His Secret
Lanterns Season 1 Episode 4 Recap finally begins connecting Rushville’s strange prosperity to the extraterrestrial mystery when Macon reveals that the Manhunter is his benefactor.
So naturally, he orders John to draw him.
Naked.
Beneath the bizarre performance, however, Macon reveals something important.
The Manhunter is his benefactor.
According to Macon, the Manhunter cured his cancer and is responsible for Rushville’s thriving crops and unusually healthy population.
In exchange, Macon provides protection.
Rushville’s prosperity suddenly has an extraterrestrial explanation.
Before John and Hal can learn more, Sheriff Kane arrives and announces that they’re under arrest.
It’s a ruse.
She gets them safely out.
Zoe Says Goodbye to John
Back at the motel, Kane warns that Macon will retaliate.
She returns Hal’s ring and gives John a shotgun.
Then Zoe arrives.
After spending the night with John, she tells him their relationship is over.
Either John leaves Rushville or someone kills him.
John refuses to go.
Zoe accepts his decision and drives away.
Moments later, a laser from the sky destroys her car.
John watches Zoe apparently die.
But the attack also gives them their next lead.
A Satellite Leads Them to Atlas Inc.
Hal flies after the source of the blast and returns carrying a satellite.
The group traces it to Atlas Inc., owned by a man named Hammond.
Hammond also owns several slaughterhouses.
One is nearby.
John, Hal, and Kane finally have somewhere new to look.
On the drive, John proposes another plan.
Give him the ring.
Hal can act as the decoy.
Hal refuses, but admits that John’s confidence is growing.
For a mentor who once seemed determined to keep John away from the ring, that’s progress.
Hector Gutierrez Claims He Is the Manhunter
At the slaughterhouse, the workers barely acknowledge John and Hal.
Inside an office they meet Hector Gutierrez.
Hector makes an extraordinary claim.
He is the Manhunter.
Then he gives John a reason to believe him.
A laser is aimed at John’s parents’ home.
John has two minutes to enter a code or his family dies.
Hector also plays a recording of the Guardian discussing Hal.
She describes Hal as old.
Someone merely holding the ring for John.
The message attacks the fragile trust between the two men at precisely the worst moment.
But Hal isn’t convinced.
Hal Calls Hector’s Bluff
Lanterns Season 1 Episode 4 Recap delivers another reversal when Hal refuses to believe Hector’s claim that he is the Manhunter and threatens to expose the truth himself.
Hal threatens to settle the question rather brutally.
If Hector really is the Manhunter, Hal can prove it.
By removing his heart.
Hector folds.
He isn’t the Manhunter.
He works for him.
Then he gives them the identity they’ve been searching for.
William Macon is the Manhunter.
At last, the mystery appears solved.
Except something doesn’t fit.
John Confesses What He Told the Guardian
On the drive back, John admits what happened between him and the Guardian.
He spoke against Hal.
Hal forgives him.
In fact, Hal admits John wasn’t entirely wrong.
It’s an important moment for their relationship.
For much of Lanterns, John and Hal have been forced together by circumstance and hierarchy.
Now they’re beginning to choose trust.
Unfortunately, their Manhunter theory is about to collapse.
Zoe May Be the Real Manhunter
John and Hal reconsider everything.
The biggest reversal in Lanterns Season 1 Episode 4 Recap comes when John and Hal reconsider everything they think they know about Zoe.
If Macon is really the Manhunter, then who fired the laser that supposedly killed Zoe?
The answer creates an entirely different possibility.
Zoe didn’t die.
She staged her death.
And if she could survive or manufacture an attack that appeared to vaporize her car, perhaps Hector was lying about Macon.
Perhaps Zoe is the Manhunter.
The woman who became intimate with John may have been hiding directly beside him throughout the investigation.
Suddenly, Zoe’s warning that John should leave Rushville carries an entirely different meaning.
Hal Jordan Forgives John, Then Crashes His Car
Hal assures John again that he forgives him.
Then, in classic Hal Jordan fashion, he jumps from the moving vehicle.
There is one minor problem.
John is still inside.
The car promptly crashes into a telephone pole.
Trust may be growing between these two.
Common sense still has some catching up to do.
Lanterns Season 1 Episode 4 Ending Explained
Why do the Guardians want Hal Jordan removed?
Hal violated his oath by secretly meeting with Sinestro. The Guardians subsequently vote to remove him and instruct John to take his ring, which would make John the new Green Lantern.
What is William Macon hiding?
Macon admits that he has been protecting the Manhunter. In return, the mysterious benefactor cured his cancer and apparently improved Rushville’s crops and the health of its residents.
Who is Hector Gutierrez?
Hector initially claims to be the Manhunter and threatens John’s parents. Hal calls his bluff, forcing Hector to admit that he merely works for the Manhunter.
Is William Macon the Manhunter?
Hector claims Macon is the Manhunter, but John and Hal quickly recognize a problem with that explanation. Zoe’s apparent death doesn’t fit.
Is Zoe really dead?
Probably not. John and Hal conclude that Zoe may have staged the satellite attack that appeared to kill her.
Is Zoe the Manhunter?
That’s John and Hal’s new theory. If Zoe faked her death and Hector lied about Macon, she could be the shape-shifting Manhunter they have been hunting.
The episode stops short of confirming it, leaving Zoe as their strongest new suspect.
Lanterns Season 1 Episode 4 Recap ends with John and Hal realizing that their investigation may have been built around the wrong suspect, transforming Zoe’s apparent death into the episode’s most important clue.
Final Thoughts
Lanterns Season 1 Episode 4 Recap turns “The Weenie” into an episode about misdirection.
Everyone seems to possess part of the truth.
Sinestro knows the Guardians.
The Guardian knows about Hal’s betrayal.
Macon knows the Manhunter.
Hector claims to know its identity.
Kane knows more about Rushville than she initially revealed.
And Zoe may not even be who John thinks she is.
But beneath the shifting suspects is something more important.
John and Hal are finally beginning to trust each other.
The Guardian gives John exactly what he has been raised to want: Hal’s ring.
Sinestro gives him a reason to take it.
Hector gives him evidence that Hal may merely be standing in his way.
Yet John ultimately tells Hal the truth.
And Hal forgives him.
That relationship matters because “The Weenie” leaves them with their most personal suspect yet.
If they’re right, the Manhunter wasn’t hiding behind Macon’s walls or inside Hammond’s slaughterhouse.
She was sleeping beside John.
The hunt has just become personal.
And in Rushville, apparently even getting into the car with Hal Jordan remains hazardous.
Continue following our Lanterns Season 1 Episode 4 Recap coverage and visit the Lanterns Series Hub for every recap, On Deck preview, Beyond the Episode analysis, character guide, and feature from HBO’s DC mystery.
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