The Season 1 finale of HBO Max’s Lanterns, titled “Dirt and Stars,” finally gives viewers the answers they’ve been waiting for. After spending the season treating Hal Jordan’s death like a grounded murder mystery, the show reveals that the truth is much more personal than some giant cosmic villain being responsible. The finale also digs deeper into the Manhunter mythology, gives John Stewart a defining moment of his own, and leaves the door wide open for where the DC Universe could take these characters next.
The Truth About Hal Jordan’s Death
The mystery surrounding Hal Jordan’s death comes to a tragic conclusion when the finale reveals that Kerry Kane was the one who shot him. Hal had survived the house fire that viewers thought had killed him, thanks to secret Manhunter technology, and eventually returned to Rushville to confront Kerry about her son, Noah. Once Hal realized that Noah was connected to the Guardians’ dark technology, he tried to convince Kerry to leave with him before things got even worse.
Kerry, though, was terrified. She knew that exposing Noah could put her entire family in danger, and when Hal confronted her with the truth, she panicked and shot him in the head. It’s not exactly the kind of answer you expect from a Green Lantern story, but that’s part of what makes it work. Hal’s death wasn’t some huge cosmic battle. It was a frightened person making a terrible decision in a moment when she felt completely trapped.
Of course, death doesn’t quite mean the end of Hal Jordan here. Kyle Chandler’s Hal survives in another form inside John Stewart’s Power Ring, appearing as an interactive artificial intelligence called the “Halogram.” He spends much of the finale guiding John as his former partner prepares to move beyond the life they once shared. Eventually, John has to let him go. As John prepares to create a new Power Battery and fully step into his own role, Hal’s digital presence disappears after leaving him with one final lesson: courage isn’t about having no fear. It’s about being afraid and doing what needs to be done anyway. That idea becomes especially important for John by the end of the episode.
Noah Isn’t Really the Villain
The story involving Noah could have easily turned him into the season’s big supernatural or alien villain. Instead, Lanterns makes him one of its more tragic characters. Years earlier, Zoe Macon saved Kerry’s life by repairing her body with salvaged Manhunter technology. When Kerry later had Noah, some of that ancient technology and programming was passed down to him, leaving him as a strange combination of human biology and Manhunter technology. The problem is that Noah is terrified of what that means. He isn’t sitting around plotting some grand scheme. He’s a teenager who believes there is something inside him that could eventually take control and turn him into the kind of ruthless enforcer the Manhunters were designed to be.
That fear becomes so overwhelming that Noah eventually begs John to kill him before he can hurt anyone. John refuses. And this is really where the finale makes its point about the kind of hero John is becoming. He refuses to judge Noah simply because of what he carries inside him, choosing instead to judge him by the choices he actually makes. John extends that same mercy to Kerry. Rather than immediately handing her over to the authorities, he chooses to protect her as well. It’s a decision that goes against the straightforward idea of justice, but it fits the finale’s larger argument that fear and punishment don’t always solve anything. Sometimes breaking the cycle means refusing to repeat it.
Sinestro Brings Fear Into the Equation
Sinestro, played by Ulrich Thomsen, becomes increasingly important to the mythology as the finale moves toward its conclusion. After Noah frees him from captivity because he needs an engineer capable of building a device to power a ring, Sinestro travels to a planet devastated by the Manhunters. There, he begins working on a new Power Battery. There’s a pretty major complication, though. The planet is saturated with a gas that induces fear, and that changes the nature of the battery Sinestro creates. Instead of relying purely on the green energy associated with willpower, the battery becomes a combination of green willpower and yellow fear.
That is a big deal for the mythology. Sinestro sees fear as something that can be used to control people, which points toward the eventual rise of the Sinestro Corps. John, meanwhile, is learning almost the exact opposite lesson. He isn’t trying to pretend fear doesn’t exist. He’s learning how to acknowledge it without letting it dictate his choices. So even though Sinestro and John are dealing with similar ideas, they arrive at completely different conclusions. Sinestro wants to use fear as a weapon. John realizes that accepting fear can actually make him stronger.
John Stewart Finally Steps Out of Hal’s Shadow
The emotional center of the finale is really John Stewart. Aaron Pierre’s character has spent much of the season operating in Hal Jordan’s shadow, but by the end of “Dirt and Stars,” he finally decides what kind of Green Lantern he wants to be. John rejects the rigid oversight of Oa and chooses to operate independently. He also meets with Guy Gardner, making it clear that the two Lanterns will have different responsibilities going forward. Guy will continue working in deep space across Sector 2814, while John takes responsibility for protecting Earth.
Then comes the moment that sums up John’s entire journey. As he establishes his new identity, he recites a modified version of the Green Lantern Oath. Instead of simply embracing the traditional idea of fearlessness, John adds the words, “I embrace my fear.” It’s a small change to the oath, but it carries a lot of weight. Hal’s approach was often built around pushing fear down and charging forward anyway. John takes a different path. He accepts that fear is part of being human, and instead of seeing it as weakness, he makes it part of his strength.
What the Finale Means for the DCU
The finale clearly isn’t just trying to wrap up the first season. It’s also positioning Lanterns as part of the larger DC Universe being built by James Gunn and Peter Safran. John Stewart’s new role as Earth’s primary Green Lantern gives him a much clearer place in that universe, with his return already set up in Superman: Man of Tomorrow. Guy Gardner will be there as well, played by Nathan Fillion, and the two Lanterns could have very different approaches to dealing with the threats coming their way. The finale suggests that larger cosmic dangers are waiting, including the possibility of Brainiac becoming a major threat.
There’s also plenty left unresolved if Lanterns gets a second season. Sinestro is still out there, the yellow-tinged Power Battery is now in play, and Noah still has to figure out how to live with the Manhunter side of himself without allowing it to define him. More importantly, John Stewart has finally become his own character rather than simply being the person who has to follow Hal Jordan. That’s probably the biggest thing “Dirt and Stars” accomplishes. The murder mystery is solved, Hal’s story reaches its emotional endpoint, and John walks away from the finale carrying something much more interesting than a new Power Battery: his own idea of what it means to be a Green Lantern.