Hal’s Choices and Consequences
“Was it worth it?”
Lanterns Episode 8, “Dirt and Stars,” is all about choices.
The ones that shape us.
The ones that make us.
And the ones that scare us.
The finale doesn’t immediately pick up where we left John and Halogram. Instead, it takes us back to 2016, in the aftermath of the destruction, and then to 2026—the aftermath of Hal’s choices.
When Hal was released from prison, Kerry stood waiting for him.
He had a choice: leave Rushville or stay to face the consequences of his actions.
Hal chose Rushville.
He chose Kerry.
In that, the town chose to remind him daily that he was unwanted and unwelcome—their anger direct and arsonous.
In a house fire caused by vengeful townspeople, Hal lies on the floor near death. That is, until Noah saves him.
The way Zoe saved John.
Noah is a Manhunter.
Now facing Sinestro, John and Halogram realize Hal’s final years aren’t as disconnected as they once appeared.
Hal found out the truth about Noah, but Manhunters don’t give without exchange, and Noah’s (Shea Pritchard) request in exchange for revealing his identity was one man.
Sinestro.
Noah broke him out.
With every passing moment John and Halogram interrogate Sinestro, the truth reveals itself beneath the layers of Sinestro’s careful admissions.
Manhunters are transactional—no reason for morality and ethics to cloud their judgment.
There was a transaction with Hal.
And there’s a transaction with Sinestro.
John will stop at nothing to find out what Noah wants with Sinestro—torturing him until the truth explodes.
Noah wanted Sinestro to forge a lantern.
But Sinestro is out for Sinestro.
First, appealing to Halogram about the new ring being able to bring him back to life for real.
And when that fails, he appeals to John to charge the ring—speaking to the friction between him and Hal.
The friction between a man and his replacement.
But this time, Sinestro’s seeds of distrust don’t work.
With everything John and Halogram went through inside the boat during Episode 7, “The Jordan Boys’ Legacy,” this Hal and John are finally on the same page, leaving Sinestro behind.
Halogram and John discuss the ring and the newly forged lantern.
They bicker back and forth when Halogram, frustrated by John’s stubbornness, suddenly asks what Hal’s last words to him were.
“Don’t tell anyone you’re in Rushville.”
Halogram admits something he knew about Hal all along, and something John may have secretly hoped but never allowed himself to believe:
Hal was always, and still is, trying to protect him.
Always.
This revelation takes John by surprise, continuing to break down his former perceptions of the Hal he knew and finding space to reconcile the Hal he needed.
This Hal.
And they hatch a plan to address Noah.
The new Manhunter.
Where Programming Ends and Life Begins
“She wanted me to kill her.”
John’s plan lands him right into the arms of Noah—the yellow lantern ring on his finger—as he demands John tell him why he killed Zoe.
And John tells him plainly: Zoe wanted to be killed to keep everyone else from looking for Noah.
From knowing that she’d found a way to no longer be the last of her kind.
Why she welcomed death with a smile.
And when Noah trusted Hal with his identity, Hal’s persistence in knowing what Noah was up to in the portal led to Noah taking the ultimate steps to protect his species.
Suddenly, survival takes a different shape when filtered through Noah’s fear and his need to protect his identity and the existence of his people.
Noah killed Hal.
But this act cost him.
It cost his innocence, forcing him to struggle with the version of himself who is a product of his loving environment and the one that’s a product of what Manhunters were made to become.
A struggle that John knows all too well.
“For a long time I couldn’t tell where I started and where my programming ended.”
John takes a risk in vulnerability by sharing his life and traumatic upbringing with Noah.
To the boy he taught how to throw a perfect pass.
To the Manhunter with a conscience that now sits beside him.
One who feels.
One who cries.
One who wants to simply live.
Noah and John live with the same question about their purpose, their programming, even though they were created under two entirely different circumstances.
But both were given instructions on who they should be before ever having the chance to choose for themselves.
It’s in this vulnerable space where John connects with Noah the most—where his existence as a human and Noah’s as a Manhunter feel the same.
Noah recognizes this shared experience, but he recognizes where they diverge in their assigned destinies as leaders.
And Noah wants John to release him in the only way he knows will ensure he doesn’t succumb to his programming.
In death.
When John calls on Hal—for guidance or to talk him out of what Noah asks of him—he doesn’t appear.
But maybe Hal’s absence is the guidance.
For once, there is no one standing over John’s shoulder telling him what the right decision looks like.
No commander.
No Guardians.
No mother.
No Hal.
Just John.
So he chooses to trust his gut. To process everything Noah said and everything that was left unsaid.
And if there’s one thing John has learned from Hal/Halogram, it’s to ask questions and pay attention to the answer.
Pay attention to the child.
Pay attention to the mother who would do everything to protect her child.
John recognizes this fierce protection because he felt it every day that his mother waited for him to return home.
Holding her breath.
Waiting.
Hoping he’d survive.
Just like Kerry held her breath.
Waiting.
Hoping no one would discover Noah’s identity.
But Hal never stopped digging.
And it cost him his life.
The Choice John Makes for Himself
“Why did you call me?”
Kerry killed Hal.
Not Noah.
And when John asks her why she called him, knowing he’s the one person who would uncover the truth, she admits her fear that maybe she’s been raising a monster this entire time.
That the son she raised is a product of what made him, not a product of who loves him.
But John grants her a gift.
The truth, letting her know that Noah is more than his programming—he wants to be good.
So good he admitted to a murder and asked to be killed just to protect her.
A goodness that reflects John’s internal dilemma that he’s been battling his entire life.
But one that’s finally showing John who he is, not who people made him to be.
He realizes, through Noah and even through Hal, that we are the sum of our choices, not just a product of our predispositions.
Although Kerry possessed those fears about Noah, it’s a fear John has spent the entire season wondering about himself.
And with this recognition, John embraces that fear, allowing it to take on a new form.
Determination.
John chooses to bear the ring.
“Imma take Earth.”
He activates the lantern beacon to summon Guy Gardner, to let him know that a different kind of hero will protect Earth.
With a new ring—Hal’s decommissioned ring—and a newly forged lantern.
Not quite green. Not quite yellow.
An “independent contractor” not bound to the rules of anyone but himself, his integrity, and his morality.
John chooses not to become the Green Lantern everyone expected him to become, but he doesn’t abandon everything Hal left behind, the lessons his mother taught him that worked, and the many lessons everyone taught him that didn’t work.
With this decision, John becomes something brand new.
Once an outcast by circumstance.
Now an OutKast by choice.
But in his final stand, his subconscious calls forth Hal.
When John thought he needed Hal to help make this decision, Hal didn’t appear. But now that John made it on his own, Hal appears one final time.
For validation.
For reassurance.
For the passing of the torch.
John is scared, but Halogram tells him what he’s known all along.
“You’re ready.”
Halogram urges him to charge the ring, knowing he will cease to exist for John.
But this time, there is love.
It’s always been love.
A spoken love between the two of them that didn’t get room to exist during Hal and John’s training.
The love from John the little boy who idolized Hal in his prime.
The love from John the trainee, who watched Hal piece together information faster than anyone he’s ever seen.
And the love from John the man, who got to experience Halogram—a version of Hal that wasn’t yet exhausted.
It was exactly the moment needed for John to accept that he’s ready, to make a choice on his own that wasn’t driven by anyone or anything else except his own desires.
“In the brightest day and the darkest night I’ll embrace my fear I’ll do what’s right. I choose this ring I choose this fight. In service to this lantern’s light.”
A new oath.
John’s oath.
One that imbues both fear and bravery.
One that honors agency.
John Stewart spent an entire season being chosen for circumstances he never asked for.
But the man standing in the streets of Rushville with his new ring isn’t waiting on orders for anyone to tell him who to be.
“I know exactly why me” now changes meaning. The answer is no longer rooted in why his mother knows and why the Guardians know.
It’s rooted in why John finally knows the answer for himself.
And for the first time, the lantern’s light and the choice to bear it belong entirely to him.
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The Evidence Continues
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.