'Lanterns' Episode 3 Teaser Breakdown: Will We Learn About John's Past?

[Spoiler Alert] In the ending of Lanterns episode 2, John returned from Coast City to Rushville after a hectic altercation with Antaan, who had tasked John with finding the Manhunter hiding in the city in the next 48 hours, the alternative being him having to watch a major chunk of Nebraska get wiped off the map. Upon returning to the city, he had a little chat with Zoe, where he tried to learn a little about the nature of her dynamic with William, while Zoe tried to dig into John’s dynamic with Hal. Neither of them revealed anything important, because one romantic fling wasn’t enough for them to trust one another. Zoe dropped off John at the motel. John handed Hal his costume and lantern (which allowed Hal to finally recharge his ring). After learning what Hal had been up to with the alien corpses and the sniper wound in his shoulder, John decided to confide in Hal about his altercation with Antaan. He made it clear that Antaan and his gang suspected Hal of hiding a Manhunter in Rushville, but going by Hal’s words, he believed that Abin Sur was the one who had brought the Manhunter to Rushville. Instead of executing him for massacring Antaan’s people, Sur rehabilitated the Manhunter, thereby allowing him to thrive. Hal had less than 48 hours to learn why. So, he donned his suit and took off to what seemed like the Sciencells of Oa or a prison in Qward to question Sinestro regarding that matter. Sinestro was willing to talk about the Manhunters if Hal was open to having a chat about John. Based on that, as well as the teaser for episode 3, what can we expect to see next week? Let’s find out. 

For starters, I don’t think Lanterns episode 3 is going to move the plot forward in terms of the whole Manhunter operation, because the showrunners need to stretch out that 48 hour deadline all the way to the finale. Hence, the third episode is going to be set sometime in the 1996-2016 time period. The teaser opens with a dramatic shot of John falling onto a bunch of mattresses that have been assembled in an abandoned building of sorts. This can seem pretty random on its own, but if juxtaposed with against the snippets of the green light flooding John’s bedroom, it becomes evident that that’s the moment the ring found John. By the way, we see a very small glimpse of the same green light hovering over a baby. Does that mean that John was chosen to be a future Green Lantern when he was a kid? Is that John’s kid? Is John married? Or is it just some random kid who was in the neighborhood when the ring came to John’s house to pick him up? Only time will tell. We get a snippet of John Stewart Sr. sitting with Bernadette Stewart, who seemingly has a baby John in her lap. Next, we see Stewart Sr. shoot at the television set in his house while a segment on Hal’s (who is in full costume with the mask) adventures as Green Lantern is on the air. We know that Stewart Sr. wasn’t a huge fan of his kids watching too much television. So, maybe that’s one of the moments where he caught the kids, or just John, obsessing over Hal on the television and took a very dramatic approach to switching it off. That said, in the very next shot, given how we see Bernadette rushing into the living room with John in her arms, while Aaron and Marcus aren’t even facing the TV, it’s possible that it was Stewart Sr. himself who was watching the news reporting on Hal and got infuriated enough to fire at the screen. 

We see Stewart Sr. and Bernadette looking at an adolescent John as he examines a Green Lantern costume that he has received as a gift. I think Stewart Sr. was actually insecure about Hal, because he got all the accolades that Stewart Sr., or marines like him, should receive. That insecurity probably peaked when John began fawning over Hal instead of the marines, thereby prompting Stewart Sr. to ramp up his fear factor training. Last but not least, Stewart Sr.’s practice of testing a young John’s fear levels by shooting an apple off his head, which Stewart Sr. possibly performed in Bernadette’s presence, is juxtaposed with a shot of an adult John jumping out of a plane, thereby drawing a direct line between Stewart Sr.’s oddball parenting methods to Bernadette’s departure from the family and John’s decision to join the US Marine Corps. It’s unclear how close John and Bernadette were before she took off, but it’s evident that Stewart Sr.’s parenting was the primary reason Bernadette supposedly chose to leave. I say “supposedly chose to leave” because there’s a good chance that Stewart Sr. killed Bernadette in a fit of rage and told his sons that their mother “abandoned them.” Whatever the case may be, it’s quite odd that John still maintains an amicable relationship with his clearly deranged father. There’s no doubt about the fact that, psychologically speaking, there’s something deeply wrong with John. He thinks that since he was in the US Marine Corps and he is disciplined, he isn’t as crazy as his dad, but I feel that, over the course of his journey in Season 1 of Lanterns, he’ll be forced to confront his demons. Because until and unless he defeats the demons in his head, he won’t be ready to fight the ones emerging from all the corners of the universe.

We will finally get to see Laura Linney’s Guardian in action; well, by “in action,” I don’t mean that she is going to partake in some kind of action scene or anything. She is going to sit down and have a conversation about John’s potential as a Green Lantern. John seems to know about the concept of Guardians, which isn’t a big surprise, because he has been a fan of the Green Lantern Corps ever since he was a little kid, and he saw that interview with Hal. But it’s evident that he knows only the sanitized version of the history of the Guardians and the Green Lantern Corps, because it’s only after his altercation with Antaan that he learned that, before the Green Lantern Corps, the Manhunters were in charge of maintaining peace in the universe. Going back to the chat between John and the Guardian, the latter assumes that John is going to ask her why he has been picked to be the next Green Lantern. However, John surprises the Guardian by stating that he actually knows why he has been picked to be Hal’s replacement. John believes that he is one of the most fearless people on the planet and since the Lanterns’ whole shtick is to not be afraid, I suppose John isn’t shocked that he has been picked. I think John is going to ask the Guardian why Hal is being replaced in the first place. If that’s the case, I don’t think the Guardian is going to give John the answer to that question, because that’s something that he has to figure out while being mentored by Hal. Also, based on John’s arrogance after being picked as the next Lantern, it makes sense that Hal isn’t treating him like the prince or “chosen one” he thinks he is. Hal’s methods may be rude, but it seems like he is turning John into a humble person so that he becomes a good Green Lantern and not the next Sinestro. Well, those are my expectations from Lanterns episode 3 based on the teaser for it. If you have any alternative theories that you’d like to share with us, the comments section is open for you.