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Lanterns Just Showed You Why Hal Never Let Go #lanterns

Mr. Know-It-All

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Lanterns Episode 7 The Jordan Boys Legacy Explained

Lanterns episode 7 has two people say "Great arm, kid." The first is Hal Jordan's father, Martin, a couple of months before he kills himself. The second is Sinestro. I missed it on the first watch and caught it going back through the hour trying to figure out why I wasn't crying when everybody else was, and the answer is that Lanterns just showed you why Hal never let go, and it did it with a baseball.

The boat scene is three men and two notes: the grandfather who went to the war, Martin who passed his death off as a test flight, and the note in the safe under the workbench. That's family history before it's a confession, which is why the tears didn't come. Then the copy of Hal Jordan says the line of the season, "I'm not fearless because I'm brave, I'm fearless because I'm broken," and the only version of Hal who could say it is the one with nothing left to protect. Damon Lindelof called canon plutonium this week. I go through the retcon, the airfield speech, the kid in funeral clothes going back for the ball, and why John Stewart is the son Hal never got to have.

Then the fear planet: John Stewart in the rain with a gun to his head, the same image as Xanshi in Cosmic Odyssey, and why his moment counts as overcoming fear when the copy's confession doesn't. The ring comes off and Hal stays. Kyle Chandler plays two men in one body, Ulrich Thomsen's Sinestro greets John with Martin's line, and the planet lost its horizon in post. Then the Know-It-All Index for Lanterns episode 7, and your turn: did that note deepen Hal Jordan, or just explain him?

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Timecode Chapters
00:00 The two men who said great arm, kid
01:15 Not the origin story I wanted
02:36 The wrong sentence
04:31 Why he never let go
06:59 The one who overcame something
09:50 The ring comes off, Hal stays
11:17 What it cost
13:29 The Know-It-All Index

20 Comments

@joshkupka 3 days ago

Might want to rewatch that last scene again, The Halogram says great arm kid after he pops back in after the punch. I cant wait for the finale, this show has been something special.

@borrascaomosh 3 days ago

Me and Mogo were standing right here🤣🤣🤣

@TacticalEntropy 3 days ago

No one calling out how mad Hal got in episode 1 when the alien said it seemed like Hal wanted to die. That scene reads different with the new context of his father.

@OddlyMagicalBrandi 2 days ago

Hal never stopped being Green Lantern. There are a few points to this case:
First, it’s no accident Hal’s dad and Sinestro resemble one another. Two father figures who ultimately failed him. He picks up the ball to reject his father’s legacy as much as it was an obvious proxy for the ring. His construct is in there because it’s still his ring even after it was taken from him. He goes back to Rushville because he doesn’t think his job was done.

Second, Zoe created the fear gas and killed that planet. This is Noah's true legacy, and Hal was trying to prevent it. He’s too perceptive to not clock Noah at some point. Once John showed up, the risk became too great because of what Noah might do. Hal would sacrifice himself to prevent a repeat of 2016.

Finally, Sinestro has been trapped on that world by Hal because Hal doesn't kill and he doesn’t trust the guardians. He leaves the key for John with nothing more than what he needs to reach Sinestro and a gun, because he knows that John would do what’s necessary. John is his failsafe.

@jgaguilar 3 days ago

Since trauma and fear is the overarching theme, we can also simply see the boat scene as John realizing that he and Hal are 'on the same boat.'

@JOHNNYDeep41 3 days ago

The parallel of Hal throwing away the ball and coming back for it and Jon leaving the ring at the bar and then literally digging it back up… chef’s kiss

@nobody_vi3312 3 days ago

My take on the Hal as a kid coming back for the ball is him saying to himself "I'm not like my dad, even if life becomes exhausting, I'm not letting go"

@OkamiSatsujin 3 days ago

The boat was like Greek Mythology, the boatman and all the terrors of the river Styx.

@modigady1 2 days ago

0:15 You didn’t catch it on the 2nd watch either. 😂 Sinestro didn’t say the line. The Hal-ogram said it… “Great arm, kid”.

@TheM4rxman 2 days ago

How'd you watch this episode two times and miss who actually said "great arm" both times?

@allantec57 3 days ago

Gotta correct you, Sinestro didn't say "Good arm, kid." It was the Hal-ogram.

@omarvazquez7241 3 days ago (edited)

So Hals dad left him a key and now Hal left John a "bird" key. He knew exactly what he was doing with the bird. Also Kerry said that he was always disappointed by John but was a big fan of him. So Hal really did care for John deeply in his own way. John was the closest thing to a son that Hal ever had, that just shows how incredibly lonely of a man he was. In only a few months a man who was destined to become his replacement also became the only person Hal could trust. Damn. Then the episode ending with Hal telling John " great arm kid" like his father said to him, John became a Jordan boy in this episode.

@ninjagaming-qh9pr 3 days ago

I only realized after rewatching episode six that John truly did get Hal’s ring standing over his dead body, like Hal said

@calgrier 3 days ago

Looking forward to the next video where he says “I didn’t mishear it, because actually…”

@RobatsWrld.mp3 3 days ago

The Parallel of River Styx and hal crossing the river, symbolically crossing into the underworld was so good

@Deondre_Clark 3 days ago

This show is about generational trauma. It has definitely set up the tear jerking moments. Hal and John are living embodiments of overcoming & being held back by the sins of the father (& mother)

@1_minute_to_midnight 3 days ago

To me, Hal picking up the ball symbolized him NOT doing what his father did. Throwing his life away because it got exhausting. Hal picked up the ball because he wouldn't do what his father did.