# Lanterns (the green kind) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, hbomax-wb-dc\ **Created:** [August 17, 2026, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lanterns-the-green-kind/1032374 "2026-08-17T05:23:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 18
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2026, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lanterns-the-green-kind/1032374/341 "2026-10-05T22:27:31Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The lack of an autopsy is probably the most not possible in our world element of the show. A superhero gets shot in the head? Every government official, journalist, and crazyhead would have descended on Rushville and never left. Aren’t there other superheroes in this DCU in 2016? All of them would investigate as well. The only medical examiner who knew he was dead hated his guts. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2026, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lanterns-the-green-kind/1032374/342 "2026-10-05T22:34:19Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > The only medical examiner who knew he was dead hated his guts. And owed the sheriff favors. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2026, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lanterns-the-green-kind/1032374/343 "2026-10-05T22:54:42Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The lack of an autopsy is probably the most not possible in our world element of the show. A superhero gets shot in the head? Every government official, journalist, and crazyhead would have descended on Rushville and never left. Aren’t there other superheroes in this DCU in 2016? All of them would investigate as well. They very clearly addressed this in the show. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2026, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lanterns-the-green-kind/1032374/344 "2026-10-05T23:32:23Z")
Right. A couple of things about this…I think the battery does set the stage for Parallax. The tie in to the yellow being in the battery and to Sinestro being imprisoned by the Guardians, sure points that way. The other thing, the title card for the show was decidedly right down the middle on green vs yellow. I was surprised to find out that Noah was one who broke Sinestro out of prison. Also, there was no closure or continuation of story for Lianna. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2026, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lanterns-the-green-kind/1032374/345 "2026-10-05T23:38:14Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > Also, there was no closure or continuation of story for Lianna. I guess she was just exactly what she appeared to be, bit of a waste of Laura Linneys perfect smug shady look. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2026, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lanterns-the-green-kind/1032374/346 "2026-10-05T23:39:31Z")
No, they handwaved it away. A former Green Lantern has died and nobody in the world is asking how? It’s not like nobody knew. He had a public funeral, amazingly enough not attended by locals to gloat, the same locals who had firebombed his house. Did they all make a pact to ignore the circumstances? Carol Ferris had the time to get to the middle of nowhere for the funeral. Did she not ask a question or tell people where she was going? In this world people are totally not suspicious of a dead Green Lantern in a town which he purportedly devastated, where everybody hated him, where just setting off the Lantern signal brings out a mob before they could possibly know who pulled the handle. Realism! ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2026, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lanterns-the-green-kind/1032374/347 "2026-10-05T23:44:07Z")
A disgraced former lantern, who spent the previous decade in jail. The one person who SHOULD have been the one to investigate did not think it was a good look. Hal death was probably seen as a relief by anyone who would have been paying attention to him at that point. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2026, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lanterns-the-green-kind/1032374/348 "2026-10-05T23:52:29Z")
Hal Jordan’s self-written eulogy was hilarious in terms of who he expected to be in attendance. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2026, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lanterns-the-green-kind/1032374/349 "2026-10-06T00:21:41Z")
And it also indicated how many years old it was. As forgotten as the Halogram. Which, I have to admit, is a great name, although I can’t remember it being used in the show. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2026, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lanterns-the-green-kind/1032374/350 "2026-10-06T00:24:08Z")
I think Hal stopped updating the hologram because he liked that version of himself better. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2026, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lanterns-the-green-kind/1032374/351 "2026-10-06T03:40:37Z")
Nobody knows Hal is dead outside of Rushville by the end of the season. They made this clear that the ME was holding back the info a few days. Yes once the world finds out there will be some kind of shitstorm but that happens after the finale ends. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2026, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lanterns-the-green-kind/1032374/352 "2026-10-06T10:50:00Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > And don’t get me started on Kelly. She became pregnant before she even met Billy? An immaculate conception? She accepted that out of gratitude to Zoe? Look at it her way: she’s a marked woman, who’s dead if she leaves the town, who’s also in debt to an incalculably powerful alien being who rules the place with a velvet fist. Of course she’ll accept her alien baby. What choice does she have? > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Where did Billy come from, BTW? Was he Will’s from a previous marriage or did Zoe magic him into existence? Occam’s Razor says that he’s from a previous marriage. And Zoe made him marry Kelly so the baby Manhunter would have a father and a powerful grandfather. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Did nobody in the town notice any of this? Notice what - that a pretty girl showed up from out of town, got knocked up, and married a local? What’s to notice? Besides, people in this town believed whatever Zoe told them to believe. Manipulating people and creating a cult is the Manhunters’ superpower. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Can any of Kelly’s actions be better explained by her knowing all along what was going on? All of her actions can. She was a good person pulled in a dozen directions: she wanted to protect the town, to protect her son, to enforce the law, to obey Zoey, and to protect Hal and John. Everything she did served those oft-conflicting goals. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2026, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lanterns-the-green-kind/1032374/353 "2026-10-06T10:56:51Z")
Chartreuse Lantern? ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2026, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lanterns-the-green-kind/1032374/354 "2026-10-06T10:58:19Z")
The entire town was indebted to Zoe. It wasn’t some secret. Everyone knew. She helped everyone. That’s way the hospital was abandoned and never used. And why they all took up arms to protect her. They had a pretty sweet deal: perfect health and all their needs met and Hal screwed that up and (in their minds) destroyed the town. That’s why they hated him so much. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2026, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lanterns-the-green-kind/1032374/355 "2026-10-06T11:32:02Z")
Moderating: > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > > [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > > > except the multiple times Hal flew, - _he could have driven off_ > > the exploding aliens, - _could have had implanted bombs_ > > the magic green bird, - _mostly ignored and easily substituted with another gimmick_ > > the sentient plant, - _another irrelevant gimmick_ > > the laser beams from space, - _they were from drones_ > > the futuristic healing technology, - _done for drama and not plot_ > > and going to a fear planet via a wormhole - _could have gone to an island_ > > You’re confusing fanservice gimmicks with meaningful plot elements that couldn’t ever happen in our world. You have included a lot of text in the quote box that was not written by the person you are quoting. That’s strictly against the rules. from the Terms of Service: - _Quote attributed to real SDMB user_ . Quotes must be accurate, whether displayed using the message board’s quote function or ordinary quotation marks. Normal editorial rules apply. You may indicate omitted portions of a quote by the use of ellipses “…” or devices such as [snip]. You may add text to clarify a word using square brackets (e.g., “her [the sister’s] friend”), but you may not add editorial comments or edit a quote to change the substantive meaning, nor may you substitute text such as “some blather” or “more nonsense” inside the [QUOTE] tags or quotation marks. This applies to all forums including the Pit. Because you were fairly clear about what you did, and weren’t attempting to pass your edits off as the original, this is only a mod note, not s warning. But that’s a bright-line rules violation. Don’t do it again. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2026, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lanterns-the-green-kind/1032374/356 "2026-10-06T12:18:15Z")
When did Kelly and Hal have time to become an item? I’m a bit confused on the timeline of that. She was no fan of his after the town was destroyed, then he went to prison for 10 years. I assumed it must have happened in the…weeks? Months? Between his release from prison and his murder. But in the season finale, she was shown waiting for his release from prison with a 6 pack of Schlitz and a bouquet of flowers. I guess she must have kept in touch, and they had a prison romance (or at least a mere prison flirtation, since she thought twice about the flowers and threw them in the car) and took it to the next level after his release. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2026, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lanterns-the-green-kind/1032374/357 "2026-10-06T13:16:53Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > > [@Southern\_Yankee](#): > > > > I assumed that was going to lead to a Yellow Lantern. But then… nothing came of it. > > It’s a plot thread to dangle for next season. He’s not a Green Lantern or a Yellow Lantern. He’s something in between. I got the impression that he’s more of an (non-magical) Alan Scott Green Lantern - an independent agent. > [@Cheesesteak](#): > > #2. Hal gets shot in the head by the sheriff’s pistol and there’s no ballistics? The bullet sure as shit didn’t go out the back. Hal was shot by the person who would be investigating his murder and autopsied by someone who was glad he’s dead. Who’s gonna call for a ballistics test? > [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Though I don’t see why there would be a non-plot convenience reason recharging the ring would delete the backup. I took that as charging the ring and saying the oath acted as sort of a factory reset on the ring. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2026, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lanterns-the-green-kind/1032374/358 "2026-10-06T13:33:04Z")
> [@solost](#): > > When did Kelly and Hal have time to become an item? She explained it as essentially a jailhouse romance via correspondence as her own marriage was slowly imploding. So over ten years, more or less. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2026, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lanterns-the-green-kind/1032374/359 "2026-10-06T13:46:18Z")
Ah ok, I must have missed that part, thanks. I have to say, in a show involving aliens, alien tech, manhunters, portals to other worlds and space laser satellites, the thing I found most unbelievable about the show was Hal and Kelly as a couple 😏 ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2026, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lanterns-the-green-kind/1032374/360 "2026-10-06T13:47:34Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Now he’s double-dead. Though I don’t see why there would be a non-plot convenience reason recharging the ring would delete the backup. The charging process ties the rings to the wearer. The guardian told John to take the ring and say the oath, and it would be his. He never did that so it was still Hal’s. Now that he charged it, it’s his now so it would be his consciousness baked up to the ring. EDIT: Of course, I doubt it that’s simple, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Hal in some capacity next season. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lanterns-the-green-kind/1032374.md?page=17) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lanterns-the-green-kind/1032374.md?page=19)