7.8/10
92%
75%
72%
3.7/5
82%
Things are starting to hot up in Rushville, Nebraska and it’s difficult to know who is telling the truth, who has ulterior motives and who is just playing a sick game.
Hal Jordan has his meeting with his former mentor Sinestro. It’s clear that the two both have respect for each other but given their previous acts — Sinestro tried to take over the galaxy and Hal imprisoned him — it’s easy to see why there is no trust between them and their meeting is icy at best.
Hal confesses to Sinestro that he knows that John Stewart is there to replace him so the mentor gives his former student some advice on how to handle John, but is the advice from the heart or is he merely trying to drive a wedge between Hal, John and the Guardians?
Meanwhile, John is keeping secrets of his own. The Guardians have been trying to contact him through his parents but he’s been ignoring them so Guardian Lianna pays a personal visit where she questions John’s strength, loyalty and ability to do his job.
Again, it’s not clear whether this is a genuine line of enquiry or if she’s trying to drive a wedge between John and Hal. One thing that is clear is that the only person Hal can trust is Hal, and the only person John can trust is John. But they’re both starting to doubt themselves.
John takes it upon himself to stake out Will Macon’s compound and comes to the conclusion that there must be a “weenie” (a central hub) on the property and that Macon’s mysterious benefactor must be hiding out in the building that’s not visible from anywhere but the guard towers.
Hal and John must put aside their doubts about each other in order to breach Macon’s compound and hopefully uncover who his mysterious benefactor is, which they’re sure is the Manhunter.
The clock is ticking though as they only have 36 hours before the alien hunting party arrive and if they haven’t found the Manhunter by then the town and surrounding area will be destroyed.
It’s Always Who You Suspect The Most… Until It Isn’t
🟢Warning! Spoilers for the Lanterns episode The Weenie ahead!🟢
There’s a lot of subterfuge and mind games going on in this episode. Following on from John’s backstory explanation last week, we have his parents pressuring him to speak to the Guardians, then you have the Guardians trying to get John to take the ring from Hal — by any means necessary if I read the inference right.
Then Hal is being manipulated by Sinestro, who obviously has dastardly motives, to not trust John and maybe take John out by any means necessary.
Will Macon is acting tough and trying to stamp his authority on the Lantern duo, right down to asserting his masculinity by getting his literal weenie out.
Poor Sheriff Kerry is caught in the middle of everything, desperately wanting to protect her town but also wanting to keep the peace within her own family too, knowing that if her investigation into her father-in-law’s affairs was revealed and that she was helping uncover who the benefactor/Manhunter is then her marriage and position in the town would be over.
Finally we come to John and Zoe Macon. Once again the two are drawn together and it’s clear that their dalliance in the bar car park led to deeper feelings than both would like to admit. It would seem that Zoe went to John to try and convince him to leave town so that he’d be safe, but I’m pretty sure that was an excuse as she must have known that he would do his duty as a trainee Lantern.
So on that pretext, Zoe and John end up in bed together and several things are casually said, one of which is that Zoe cured Macon.
In their previous meeting, Macon had told John and Hal that the benefactor/Manhunter had cured him of cancer, and kept the town illness free and that is why they must be cherished and protected. He said that Zoe was his cancer nurse who had kept him alive long enough for the Manhunter to save him. But in the motel room, Zoe says that she saved him.
We then have the scene where Zoe is leaving the motel and the car is targeted by a satellite and I just knew then for definite that she was the Manhunter and had survived the hot laser beam car explosion death.
And can I point out the fact that I called out her being the Manhunter in my review of episode 2 Trust Fall, although I did think I would be wrong as it struck me as a bit obvious but under the circumstances I will still claim my genius.
The question now is what will happen when the aliens seeking the Manhunter arrive in town. Hal and Jordan don’t seem to have a plan and are winging it, Macon will do anything to protect his saviour, the Manhunter, and it’s not clear what the Manhunter will do in order to protect themselves.
One thing I think we will see is that the lines are not as black-and-white as they are being portrayed and that the aliens, Guardians and Manhunter have a lot more in common than they would like to admit.
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