Lanterns Episode 3 “OutKast” switches the tempo of the HBO show to delve into how John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) became the Guardians’s top pick to be Hal Jordan’s (Kyle Chandler) replacement in the first place.
**Spoilers for Lanterns Episode 3 “OutKast,” now streaming on HBO Max**
While some fans might have assumed that the series cold open confirmed that John Stewart Sr. (J. Alphonse Nicholson) was the driving force behind his unconventional childhood — shooting apples off his head, preparing him to be totally fearless so he could one day be Green Lantern — Lanterns Episode 3 reveals it was actually John’s mother, Bernadette (Jasmine Cephas Jones). When she learns that her husband could have been Green Lantern, she makes a personal appeal to a visiting Guardian (in the guise of Laura Linney), to give John a chance one day. Armed with this promise, she proposes raising young John (Cairo Cash Lee) to be the unflappable man we know in the 2016 and 2026 timelines.
So how much of John’s fearlessness is just his nature and how much of it is the result of nuture?
“I believe that John was born fearless and then his parents, arguably through very questionable methods, managed to keep that fearlessness instilled in him through his childhood, through his adolescence, and into his adulthood,” Lanterns star Aaron Pierre told DECIDER. “At which point he takes the reins and he continues keeping himself fearless.”
Pierre then changed the subject, calling attention to a key scene in this week’s Lanterns that he thinks fuels the “raging sea” churning inside of his adult version of the character.
“There’s a moment in Episode 3 that really breaks my heart every time I watch it,” Pierre said. “It’s where John’s mother tells John that essentially the Guardians are not impressed with his progress and that the birds have relayed that. And he says, ‘Well, the birds are lying.’”
“It breaks my heart because this kid is maybe this high [mimes short height] and he believes that the birds are the narrators and the storytellers and the direct ear to the Guardians. And he feels betrayed by the birds. How could they lie and say that I am not giving everything that I possibly can? I’m having guns aimed at me routinely. An inch south and I’m out of here, I’m out of here! Like how can they say I’m not pouring myself into this?”
Pierre then said, “I think that is what is the beginning of this raging sea that stays with John all the way through his adulthood. And I believe has not — even when the series ends — [it] is still there and he’s still contending with it.”
“He has a very excellent way of outwardly making it seem that everything is smooth sailing, but he’s a raging sea internally, and he wrestles with that relentlessly.”
Lanterns Episode 3 “OutKast” underlines how John Stewart grew up to become a man without fear, but that only means he’s a man full of fury.
Lanterns will return on Sunday, September 6 at 9 PM ET on HBO and HBO Max.
