The Enemies Sinestro and the Guardian Manufacture
Lanterns Episode 4, “The Weenie,” takes us back to the moment in 2016 when Hal visits Sinestro to ask about the Manhunters.
But what starts as an inquisition quickly shifts when the man behind bars quietly reveals he held more knowledge than Hal—questioning him on John Stewart and where the Guardians found him.
Right away, the series confronts Hal with a truth audiences have watched unravel over the past three episodes:
John isn’t Hal’s backup.
He’s his replacement.
And just as John was told this during the final moments of Episode 3, “OutKast,” Hal speaks the truth he’s known from the beginning out loud.
However, the acknowledgment of this information showcases where each Lantern’s moral code lies.
Sinestro suggests that Hal kill John, an option that would secure Hal’s position as the current Lantern, but it creates an internal battle between what the Guardians expect of him and his fight for survival.
And Sinestro uses this knowledge to play on a thread of fear within Hal, feeding the other green thing in the room.
Envy.
The suggestion lingers within Hal as Sinestro weaves a tale of playing on John’s fearlessness and the opportunities for mistakes it creates.
Arrogance.
Pride.
Stupidity.
But what Sinestro doesn’t know is that John’s parents rejected the ideology of fearlessness and instead taught him to embrace fear and move with it rather than fight against it.
In just one conversation, Episode 4 provides us a small glimpse into why each Lantern was chosen and how, ultimately, they were positioned to replace the other.
“I feel like everybody’s lying to me.”
Episode 3 shows us that John knows he’s here to replace Hal. Episode 4 confirms that Hal is aware of the Guardians’ plans for him.
Trust is no longer an issue.
It’s a crisis.
John’s Guardian handler highlights this crisis by putting him in an impossible situation: recite the oath when Hal gives him the ring.
But Bernadette’s words ring louder and louder.
“Even in space you don’t consider us.”
John hesitates in the backstabbing, and the Guardian goads him, provoking his ego by stabbing a wound not yet healed.
“I wasn’t aware your father’s weakness runs within you.”
This form of baiting is an all-too-familiar and painful double-edged sword for Black families having to constantly prove we are “better” or “stronger” than our ancestors when in reality their adaptation wasn’t weakness.
It was intelligence to secure our survival.
The Guardian’s proposition also highlights an even darker reality.
If John was already chosen, what is there to take?
This moment calls into question every conversation that has taken place with the Stewart family up to this point.
So the question becomes, why do the Guardians want to take away everything from Hal?
This echoes the very question So There’s That posed during Episode 2, “Trust Fall”:
Is Hal actually going rogue, or is his withholding part of something bigger?
The Path Hal and John Choose to Take
As the episode continues, the line between Kyle as Hal and Aaron as John blurs, each actor settling into their roles and becoming the Hal and John duo that fans have waited for.
The quiet tension pulls taut as they view each other through a new lens, more curious than investigative as they navigate the mystery of the alien murders and Macon’s involvement.
Following the conversation with the Guardian, the opportunity immediately presents itself for John to follow her orders to recite the oath.
Instead, John decides to move forward and constructs the exact machinery needed to continue the investigation rather than usurp his predecessor.
And John’s advanced construct prompts Hal to ask a few more questions about John’s background given the complexity and ease with which he was able to use the ring.
This creates an avenue for Hal and John to dig (no pun intended) into one another’s past but in a way that appears to accidentally bring them closer to understanding one another.
Their moment of vulnerability completely shatters the opposing counsel from Sinestro and the Guardians, and they come to realize they may be more valuable to one another than a threat to each other’s existence.
But the thing that looms over John, causing his trust in Hal and the Guardians to waver, is one that feeds back into the plight of Black men in America.
The Guardians don’t want to appoint him the title of Lantern; they want him to steal it—painting him as the bad guy just as the Marines did with his dishonorable discharge.
This feeds a narrative that he was never deserving, that he would just take the title of Lantern without valor and without the credentials to do so.
And as the investigation into Macon continues, this reality settles into John’s morality like a boulder.
After a failed recon attempt on the Macon compound, Zoe comes to warn John to leave town, as she’s desperately trying to save his life behind the scenes.
When John denies her request, she leaves in a somber moment, and suddenly she is executed right in front of him.
But Zoe’s death somehow brings Hal and John even closer.
While they don’t reveal their motivations to one another, both still playing their cards close to the vest, tragedy creates a space where they can connect as humans.
Which brings them to a man (Jason Manuel Olazabal) who claims to be the Manhunter, threatening the life of John’s family while also playing a recording of John and the Guardians’ conversation for Hal to hear—trying to sow dissension between them.
But as much as Hal is arrogant, he is also highly intelligent, questioning the validity of the man in front of him who wants John and Hal to turn on one another.
The standoff between Hal and this man pulls the fear John worked his entire life to hide into the small room like a tornado.
Hal recognizes the frantic change in energy and doubles down on the man before him, as well as on his knowledge that aliens cannot fully replicate, a characteristic he knows all too well.
A bluff that ultimately saves John’s parents’ lives.
A bluff that reveals the suspected identity of the Manhunter.
But is this a smokescreen or a ploy to send Hal and John down a path away from the truth while destroying all trust between them?
As Hal jumps from the moving vehicle, leaving John to suffer an unknown fate, one must wonder if he already answered the question for them.
Or maybe, just maybe, this is Hal’s final attempt to see if John, like him, will choose his own path.
HBO’s Lanterns Episodic Journey
Episode 3 Proves Why John Stewart Was Built to Be Green Lantern
Episode 2 Turns Everyone in Rushville from Witness to Suspect
Kivonshe—founder of So There’s That—is a film & TV critic who explores compelling storytelling, fandom relationships, character psychology, and the impact of entertainment media through film reviews, episodic recaps, and in-depth theme analysis.
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