Lanterns S01E07 — The Jordan Boys’ Legacy

Things are rather sedate at the star of the penultimate episode of season1 of Lanterns.

At the end of the last episode, John had dug up Hal and had brought his backup online (now about 20 years out of the loop at this point in the story). John needs HoloHal to open the storage box to find out what Hal has left him, but HoloHal isn’t inclined to help willingly.

When HoloHal finds out that not only was Hal in jail, but had forged a life for himself outside the Lanterns and even fallen in love, he refuses to help John until he’s taken to meet Sheriff Kerry. John thinks this is a bad idea as she’s still trying to get over Hal’s death/murder but HoloHal is insistent.

After meeting with Kerry and realising that perhaps his life has been shallow and empty, HoloHal helps John open the storage box where they find a backpack with supplies and a device that can create and Einstein-Rosen bridge — a theoretical gateway that can connect two points in space and time.

Alongside this, we get flashbacks of Hal’s childhood showing us that while he came from a caring home, his father had issues which led to his suicide. We also see the origins of Hal’s character — his stubbornness to concede defeat, his lack of fear and holding on to a grudge even after apparently letting it go.

While this goes a bit of the way to explain why he treats John with such disdain and refuses to teach him as he should be, you would think this backstory would enable the physical Hal to have a more father/son relationship with John, one that HoloHal seems to be forming instead.

Using the bridge, John and HoloHal travel to a distant planet which turns out to be Antaan’s (the leader of the exploding alien faction on Earth) home world — one that suffered devastation at the hands of the Manhunter. Will John be affected on the planet in the same way Antaan’s people were? Any why would Hal send them to a devastated planet in the first place?

Escaping The Family Curse

🟢Warning! Spoilers for episode 7, The Jordan Boys’ Legacy ahead!🟢

Why Hal’s dad committed suicide isn’t discussed, he lost his own father as a child (I assume in the Vietnam war) and as Hal’s dad died in 1975, perhaps he was haunted by military action too. He also said that he was going to fly commercial planes “until they make him retire at 100” so maybe that dream didn’t pan out for him and he felt he had no other choice but to take his own life.

This leads into a discussion about whether Hal might have followed in his father’s footsteps and taken his own life on the bleachers, with Kerry clearing up the scene after to protect Hal’s legacy — what little of it is left. HoloHal also posits the idea that Kerry might have been behind his murder, but at this point I think they’re just grasping at straws.

When HoloHal and Kerry meet you can see how deeply his death has affected her and she truly did care for him, and because of that (and how stubborn he was) I don’t think Hal would have willingly taken his own life.

The sub-plot of Maggie extorting John is brought up again briefly. Honestly I don’t know if this is going anywhere and why it’s relevant but surely a man who can make a phone call to get $315,000 released immediately would have some serious lawyers willing to have a little chat with Maggie and at least make her sign some kind of contract or NDA.

I get that John feels (at least partly) responsible for the events in Rushville 10 years before, but there were other people affected by the Lantern/Manhunter fight, not just Maggie. Surely that $315,000 would be better going to the whole town, not just one individual who has proven to be underhanded and not necessarily trustworthy.

That’s why I think there’s a bit more to this Maggie storyline than we’ve been shown so far. John seems to be giving in to her demands far too easily for some reason and it really make little sense in the context of who he is and what the entire town went through.

And while it was nice seeing Hal’s relationship with his obviously loving and protective father, the only thing we saw of his mother was a vague silhouette. His mother was responsible for bringing him up alone the majority of his childhood so surely that would have had a big influence on how he turned out. Was she as fiercely protective over Hal? Did she nurture that stubborn streak? Who knows, I guess there’s only room in this series for one mother figure.

With the revelation of what/who was really on the Einstein-Rosen bridge planet at the end of the episode — which was telegraphed the minute they stepped foot on the alien world if I’m honest — I wonder whether we we’ll get some answers, or just even more questions that leads the unlikely duo of HoloHal and John on an intergalactic quest.

Let me know what you think: do the revelations about Hal’s childhood help explain his attitude to John or make it odd that he doesn’t want to mentor him properly? What about the ending? Where do you think this will lead our main characters? Drop a comment below!