Honestly? After watching this week’s “Lanterns,” I’m surprised that John Stewart turned out as well-adjusted as he did.
Episode 3 lays out John’s backstory, framed by the process by which he was brought into Green Lantern-dom. In short: A high-pressure childhood followed by an anything-it-takes military career led him to the opportunity we’re watching unfold… though it may not be exactly what we’ve thought it was.
Read on for the highlights of this week’s hour.
In the episode’s very first moments, John is falling; he lands on a mattress in what looks like an abandoned shopping mall. He comes to a door marked “Manager,” which is opened by a broadly smiling woman (played by Laura Linney, “The Big C”). He’s there for an interview. She tells him to have a seat, and she’ll be back. And she does return… a day later.
She’s pleasantly surprised he had the patience to wait, and as they get settled, we learn that she’s one of the Guardians of the Universe, the “ruling body of the cosmos” that founded the Green Lantern Corps. The Guardians are usually all blue, but she’s in human form to ease their conversation.
John says he knows why he’s there. Let the extended flashback begin!
‘This is what it takes’
John is an infant in his crib when a green light passes over their house. It frightens his father greatly — and remember, Lanterns aren’t supposed to fear anything — so he is passed over. The missed opportunity so greatly messes with John Sr. (played by J. Alphonse Nicholson, “P-Valley”) that he spirals in its aftermath, at one point shooting the television set when a news report about the Green Lantern upsets him. John’s mother, Bernadette (Jasmine Cephas Jones, “Hamilton”) worries for her husband but also demands that he leave for a while in order to protect John Jr. and his brothers.
Laura Guardianney visits Bernadette soon after and apologizes for visiting “emotional turmoil” upon the family. A highly suspicious Bernadette demands for the Guardian to prove she’s an alien — she does by dropping her human disguise, right there in the driveway — and then invites her in for coffee. Laura Guardianney gives Bernadette a honking huge diamond to make amends for essentially breaking her husband, then she makes a point of noting that “whatever the ring saw in your husband was in his genetic makeup.”
The visit gets Bernadette’s wheels turning. She apologizes to John Sr. and they talk about how best to raise their child so he’ll be picked as a Green Lantern. Some time passes, and on John’s fifth birthday, they sit him down to talk about his “destiny.” He’s going to be schooled separately. His folks tell him that the birds they see around their home are watching over them and reporting back to the Guardians. At one point, they gift him a Lantern costume and a gun. It’s John’s idea to put an apple on his head and have his father shoot it off in the backyard. John Sr. is NOT REAL SURE ABOUT THIS but Bernadette, who has hardened over time with the desire to see her child achieve such fame, gets super scary as she intones, “This is what it takes, for the both of you.” So John Sr. pulls the trigger — it’s mightily unsettling — and everyone emerges alive and unbloodied. In relief, John’s dad announces that the kid deserves a cheeseburger for his bravery. (And that’s how we got the opening scene of the series.)
‘Guess the birds aren’t liars, after all’
The lessons continue. At one point, a family car ride turns super weird when John Sr. and Bernadette make John get out of the vehicle at night in a dodgy area of town. He comes home physically unscathed, but cries on his bed; Bernadette merely tells him that she saved him a pork chop from dinner. (Side note: Who else just wants to HUG THIS KID?)
In the present, the Guardian asks if John won’t miss his family if he’s chosen to become a Green Lantern. “We grew up in the same house for 18 years,” he replies. “I grew up missing them.”
As the years pass, Bernadette grows frustrated with the Guardians’ lack of response or follow-up. She installs a satellite dish in an attempt to contact them. And when she gets the idea that maybe John isn’t fearless enough, she thinks it’s a good idea to shake things up by having John shoot the apple off his father’s head, instead of the other way around. John can’t do it, and it guts him. “Guess the birds aren’t liars, after all,” Bernadette sniffs.
Later, though, she seems to see things slightly more clearly. She comes to John’s room and says that loving his dad isn’t anything to be ashamed of: “It’s normal not to want to hurt the people you love.” Then she admits that she made up the whole bird thing. Is it any wonder that, in that moment, John says he’s ready to hold the gun again? And this time, he’s going to aim it at “not Dad. You.”
So they go outside, and John pings the fruit off his mother’s head with no problem. As they celebrate, the kid confesses that he hates cheeseburgers, and his parents agree that he doesn’t have to eat them anymore.
The big day finally arrives
Eventually John joins the Marines and becomes a sergeant major, as well as a talented sniper known for being incredibly patient. We see him parachute into an assignment that gets him injured and takes up months of his life, waiting for the moment he can kill a target who’s done some bad stuff. And when that moment arrives? Hal Jordan swoops in, puts a green bubble around the dude, and carries him off. Turns out that Hal was at a strip club with some government mucky-muck who thought it would be a good idea, and it’s created a diplomatic firestorm. John is forced to take a dishonorable discharge so the United States can save face.
After all of that, with Bernadette’s blessing, he attends art school to follow the talent he’s had since he was a child. And one day, he’s tapped for a special project. A man hands him a ring and asks him to manifest his father’s watch; John does. “Now, off you go, or you’ll miss your interview… the one you’ve been waiting for,” the man says. He opens a portal on the floor. When John steps through, he falls, and we see that we’re back at where the episode began.
In the office, the Guardian asks if John has any ill will for Hal Jordan. John says he does not. She points out that Hal is the reason John was dishonorably discharged, and that his actions at the time were rogue and ill-advised. Then she asks if he’d be comfortable replacing Hal, even though the older Lantern would think John was just his backup. “Are those my orders?” he wonders, and she says they would be, if he got the job. “Well then it doesn’t matter if I’m comfortable with it.” So the Guardian stands, shakes his hand, and congratulates him on landing the gig.
‘I think he likes me’
An exuberant John returns home to tell his parents the good news… only to find that Hal himself has told them. While Hal prattles on about how John MUST be a great guy thanks to his salt-o’-the-earth parents (“y’all are like the Midwest Huxtables”), none of the Stewarts’ faces look happy.
Outside, Hal asks if there’s any “tension” he needs to resolve, because John is giving off weird vibes. But John quickly says that although he would’ve liked to have told his parents about his Lanternship, it’s all good. “Good, because honestly, I don’t give a flying f**k what you’re hoping for. I’m guessing it’s this ring right here. And I don’t need a f**kin’ sidekick, and I don’t want a f**kin’ backup. And the only way you’re going to get this ring? Is over my dead f**kin’ body.”
He takes a beat. “We’ll start training Monday morning. Looking forward to it, Junior,” Hal says before flying away. As OutKast’s “Gasoline Dreams” plays on the soundtrack, John looks at a bird alit on the mailbox. “I think he likes me,” he quips.
Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!
