Lanterns Episode 6 Breakdown | Who REALLY shot Hal Jordan?

The Mystery Kicks Off

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It's a classic Who Done It. Who shot Hal Jordan? Hey everybody, I am Frank and I'm sitting in for Aaron on Phantom Portals Podcast. Today we're gonna be talking about lanterns episode six. We've only got two more to go and we still gotta figure out who done it. This is the first of the 2026 storyline following the 2016 storyline, concluding last week with the death of Zoe, the forfeiting of a ring, and Hal under Rebel. We start this episode with John reconnected with his brother Marcus and pitching as an architect now. That's clear key for the combo books. Underground bunkers. And they specifically mention what happened in Metropolis, which, thanks to 2025 Superman, we know what happened in Metropolis, and I'm wondering if you can split Metropolis in half, how good are those bunkers gonna do you? I think it's a numbers games because John says that, oh yeah, we could put 40 of these in this little town, which is pretty good. By the way, we don't know what that little town is, I think. Likely Coast City. It's good to see John repair that relationship with Marcus and his other brother as well to a degree. They still call him the chosen. A joke for them, he seems to not take it that way. But clearly, John is not a big fan of his parents. His father is in a old folks' home. Sounds like he's a pain in the butt and mostly ignored. But the bigger surprise still is that Bernadette, who he calls her Bernadette, by the way, not Mom, Bernadette. That's not great for the relationship. But she's been chatting with an old friend, Hal Jordan. She calls John and says, Hey, Hal wants to apologize to you. John surprises she even talks to him at all, but decides, what the hell, I'll go for a drive. See, Hal went to prison for 10 years, and once he gets out, he moves back to Rushville, a place that literally hates him. Rushville hates him because they had the miracle in town. Remember, those hospital beds were not used. Zoe kept everybody in perpetual excellent health, and then they had the patron of the town, Macon, who kept buying stuff for them. Yeah, they were under the yoke of an alien and a billionaire, but it was a good life. Suddenly two Green Lanterns come into town, well, one Green Lantern and a sidekick, and just kick up dirt for no reason. If we think about it, yeah, literally no reason. It wasn't like a bunch of humans died on the football field, it was aliens too. To make it all worse, they have a memorial set up in town for those who were lost on that unfortunate day when Zoe turned the guns on her own people, which they seem to forget that part. And here comes Guy Garner, the most subtle Green Lantern in the world, and puts a Batman style spotlight right next to memorial and says, shine it when you need me. And this is his way of patching things up for what Hal and John did. We see with the pile of graffiti that's on it that no, people don't really care for you. And Green Lanterns are generally not welcomed in this town. But Hal aims to fix that. After he gets out of prison, he's staying in Rushville. And apparently every day he knocks on a new door and says, Do you need your lawn mode? How about folding the laundry? I'll go walk your dog. Hal, why

Hal’s Apology Meeting Goes Sideways

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are you not knocking on my door, man? I will take all three, please. How are you editing podcasts? Let me know. John shows up into Rushville and he meets Hal in a diner. Hal acts as if, like, oh, well, I didn't call you here. I think a little less honest than Hal should be at this moment. The tension is thick between the two of them, but I feel like one has grown up more than the other. John is still holding on to some old grudges here. Hal sat in a prison for 10 years, stewing over the decisions he's made and come out a better man. But one line in particular, it was used in the preview as well, I think really set how things are. See, Hal says, I took the fall for us. And John says, no, you fell. In Hal's mind, he is still the hero and protecting Jon Stewart. Probably someone he sees a lot of potential in. But John is quick to remind him, no, no, no, you did the things that got you into prison. And later on, Hal says, there's two killers sitting at this table. You pulled that trigger on Zoe. And there are other things too that you've done in that battle of Rushville that contributed to deaths. So both men are both right and wrong in this. And that's, I mean, that's just classic buddy cop storylines. No one's spotless. And as the conversation continues, John gets fed up, punches Hal right across the face. Kind of broke a nose for it. And that will come up later on. While John is leaving, and this is an important note for those who are casual watchers, Hal says, Hey, don't tell anyone you're here. Please do not tell anyone. Why is that important? I think Hal knows that this is his last night in Rushville on this earth. Someone's out to get him, and they'll be out to get John as well. He wanted to say his peace with John and doesn't want him to get hurt. It's far better if John just leaves Rushville and doesn't look back, no matter what happens that night. And that's John's plan. He gets back home, he settles down for a nice drink next to the fireplace and a definitely beautifully architecturally designed house that I am jealous of. But he gets a phone call from Carrie. See, Sheriff Carrie, she saw something different in Hal. After she broke up with her piece of shit husband, her and Hal got together. A man looking for redemption. A generally good man. Yeah, he's a wild card, but I think Carrie likes a wild card a little bit. I mean, she is from Gotham. This slow potent town is a different vibe than what you grew up in. And across the table from her, well, that's a Batman without a mask. So the two were together. It was not a super loving relationship, but we get a voicemail later on that, gosh dang, it is so dang cute. So you kind of have hope for the two of them. Like, oh, maybe they did have a good little relationship there.

The Call About Hal’s Body

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Carrie, as sheriff, has found Hal shot in the head in the bleachers of the high school. We saw this in the first episode and we're brought back to it. This time we have the weight of context around it. When Carrie poses that, well, whoever broke his nose must have been the one to pull the trigger, John stays quiet. Why does John stay quiet in that moment? Well, let's think about that. First of all, yeah, that's incriminating. That doesn't look good. And like he said, he's a black man in Nebraska, and unfortunately, that's dangerous. We've seen too many times where a cop pulling somebody over for a traffic violation turns unnecessarily violent. John is aware of that history as well. But there's also another thing. See, when he was leaving that diner, Hal said, Don't tell anyone. Not anyone. That includes Sheriff Carrie in this moment. Now I can't imagine Carrie is gonna tell anybody about John doing that. I think she would even kind of brush it under the rug. She knew Hal. She knew Hal deserved to get punched sometimes. But this whole show is definitely dealing with not full truths. After some conversation, John realizes that Carrie and Hal are actually together. This is not just a sheriff investigating a case, it's a lover mourning a friend. And I think John softens up and knows that, yeah, I need to investigate what happened to Hal, but also I need to stay around for a friend. He embraces Carrie and Carrie offers him the key to Hal's house. Of course, go through the back door. He's got the front door, rigged up with a shotgun. That's some old school prepper vibes. But that's also what happens when an entire town hates you, and there's enough good old boys to cause some problems. We see them later on. So let's check in with our opposing question. Who shot Hal? So far, the players that we have on the field are Jon Stewart, which we know is not the case because we saw him go home. And then there's Carrie. I think we could take her off the board as well. She truly feels a loss with Hal being gone now. So I don't think we've got a problem there. But let's move over into suspect

Building The Suspect Board

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number one. That's with Noah. See, Noah is Carrie's son and a quote miracle, which I believe is likely a manhunter. A wild theory, I'm sure, but I believe Noah is actually the second manhunter on this planet. And we have a few clues. He doesn't seem to be incredibly emotional. Zoe was supposed to be the same thing. While his mother is gushing over how great her son is, every mother should. And even the next day when somebody pulls up and starts touting his greatness on the football field, Noah brushes it off as like, this is my life, you know. Like he's overwhelmed with the greatness around him that he emanates. That is a lack of emotion or extreme maturity out of a what 18-year-old at best? But most importantly is the ambitions of the young man. Every kid wants to be president someday, they also want us to be an astronaut, a superhero, and heck, I want to drive trains. But Noah has actually done something about it. See, he is the one that got FEMA to come in and provide sources for this Nebraskan town after that devastation. Which FEMA would have shown up anyways. We know how the agency is, they're just slow. But the fact that he took that initiative to do that shows a leadership quality, which Carrie calls out. He brushes it off, but manhunters seek leadership, they seek power. If they can't take it for themselves, they'll be right next to it. And young Noah already has ambitions of being a senator and one day the president. And right now, the gossip of the town is sure, a Green Lantern's back in town, so hold your breath. But will Noah go to state or will he go to university? What school is he gonna go to? The future head of Noah is quite bright, and it's up to him to choose where he goes. Noah is also aware that his mother has been with Hal Jordan. And if he happens to be a manhunter, Hal Jordan might know him too. So if he has true ambitions, it would probably be best to get rid of the guy in town who can identify a manhunter. And also, I mean, what a place to take him out. The football field where you are at, I tell you right now, as an old football player, every damn day. As long as it wasn't on a Thursday or Friday, ain't nobody gonna see you out there. So, suspect number one, Noah. Possible manhunter, possible murderer. Noah brings John a suit the next day. This is for the funeral for Hal. Of course, John didn't plan on going to a funeral. They were just gonna cremate Hal, but John decided, you know what, we need to bury the man. And it seems like, oh, what a genuinely nice thing to think about. But John's got intentions. He's a smart man. That night, John goes to the hated Batman spotlight and calls for Guy Garner to come to town. Some good old boys, which we were talking about beforehand, show up, and with the help of young Macon, start roughing up John. Well, let's change that up. John roughs up five of them. He is John Stewart, of course. That lands him in a small jail cell where he has to hang out for the night. But the spotlight worked. Matter of fact, we see it's still on later on. So after they're getting their ass handed to him, the boys didn't shut off the light. I was really surprised by that. Like,

Guy Gardner And The Lantern Brand

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come on. Anyways, Guy Gunner shows up and we get more context for Guy. He's visited Hal before and got some advice from him. It was useless. He hates being referred to as a gym teacher. He's an athletic director. We've all had those kinds of gym teachers. And he's worried about the brand. Now, I know that on the surface, it's easy to say, like, well, yeah, he's worried about the brand. He's got sponsors, he's trying to make money. I think more so if we look at Rushville as a very good example of this, the Green Lantern brand is at an all-time low. Guy is trying to make Green Lantern a beacon, much like that spotlight that's sitting out there. Somebody that everybody knows is a good guy. Simple as that. You know he's a good guy because not only does he save the day with the brightest green orbs and a giant boxing mitt in the sky, but also you see him on TV talking about it all the time. You see him in an ad for a soda over there where he says, like, I'll fight the bad guys, and here's a die coat. So what I thought was just a blowhard Green Lantern in Superman. I see now is a Green Lantern who's trying to fix some bad PR out of the last two guys. He's visiting John, and John asks for a simple request. I want Hal's old ring, which is decommissioned, and his old suit. A Green Lantern should be buried in his regalments. Of course, you need to go and get this stuff out of Oa, which means that Guy Garner's gotta go to space, kind of be quiet about this, grab those and head out. It's a risk for Guy. And if he's purely just being Green Lantern without any reflection on the past, he says no and he walks out the room. We see later on he goes and does exactly that. Which right there, that's the brotherhood. There's four and then more Green Lanterns on Earth, and they are a brotherhood beyond the Guardians of the Galaxy. And here's our first little peek at it. See, Guy goes and does this because he knows it's actually his woods, right? Hal might be a piece of shit, but he defended this country, this planet, the best he could. And yeah, 30 years of the ring on your finger will make you jaded. This actually happens in the comic books as well, when Hal dies after his parallax run. It's a very complicated funeral. See, Hal just spent the last couple years being a menace. And the people who are attending his funeral are conflicted, including Jon Stewart. This is their friend, a good man who saved countless people, but he went down in flames. It's Superman who steps up in that funeral and reminds everybody of a hero. And the fact that he was so high is why the fall hurts so much. And in this moment, Guy is hitting exactly that. He still deserves his armor. Let's fast forward a little bit now. We see that there's a giant cube in storage and Hal Storage that's only voice activated. If only they could find a life-sounding Hal Jordan voice. Then we also have Maggie, who is a waitress, a bit of a scoundrel, if I must say. She was the waitress the night that John punched Hal in the face. But she kept her mouth shut about that, right? She didn't tell anybody about that. Oh, is Maggie a good person? And just knowing that, you know, as a difference amongst friends, it doesn't mean he's a killer. No, she wants money. She wants exactly $314,536.27. That's how much the lanterns took from her in damages that faithful day when they took out Zoe. Maggie's gonna blackmail John and get that money out of him. And here's our next suspect. Now I think Maggie actually kind of represents the entire town. I think there's plenty of people who would have an exact number amount to tell John that day. But let's use Maggie in this moment. Could she, out of frustration, follow Hal outside of that restaurant? See, Hal's been going to that diner every night. She knows Hal well now at this point. But maybe that night, after watching him get punched in the face, she's like, you know what? It's my turn. Hal goes back to that stadium, probably to reminisce on the day he first came to Rushville, 10 years beforehand. Maggie walks up and Hal assumes it's someone who has another grievance. That's a normal thing for him in Rushville. She pulls a gun and shoots him. It's thin, but very possible. See, the reason I don't like that one is because Maggie is new to our story. She was nine years old during 2016, so we didn't really see her on screen. But there are plenty of people in town that we have seen on screen this whole time, like one Billy Macon. Then we get to throw in the little spiciness of, hey, you're screwing my wife. So what if it was Billy walking up that stadium? He knows how it goes to the diner. He goes there every night. He sees that Hal goes over to the football stadium and he's like, okay, today's the day I get my revenge. Hal sees Billy walking up and go, oh my god, the ex-husband's coming up. Let's hear what this asshole has to say. Billy, with what little courage exists in that small man. I'm saying that as a character. I love Jason Ritter, the actor. He pulls a gun and he shoots Hal and he thinks he's victorious. He goes from there and he starts to drink his thoughts away until he sees a green light shining outside of a window and sees that Jon Stewart's in town. It's time to take out the other lantern. Sephiroth gets his ass handed to him. So let's throw Billy and let's throw a Macon on our lantern's most wanted list.

Funeral Fallout And Graveyard Twist

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It's time for a funeral, lightly attended. We've got Jon Stewart, we've got Guy Garner, who will be there for a moment and then leaves. After bringing her ring in a suit, by the way, we have Sheriff Carey and a new character in the play, Carol Ferris. Now, if you're a Green Lantern reader, you know that name well. That's Hal's on and off again girlfriend for many, many years. And she's also a villain called Star Sapphire. Now I'll get this out of the way real fast. Again, same problem with Maggie. I don't think that Carol had anything to do with the death of Hal. First off, she actually loved him. But next, this is the first time we're seeing her. And again, whoever put that bullet in Hal has been there since the beginning. Funeral grows well, again, lightly attended. Eventually they're at the gravesite and they're putting Hal on the ground. Hal has his own eulogy and it shows how far he's fallen. In the eulogy, Hal assumes the president's there. This must be a different timeline because Hal wouldn't want this president there. Shout out to Aaron's Australian audience. We're sorry. Oh God. But he planned on dignitaries, he planned on other heroes being there. Simply three people. After all is said and done, everybody goes off in their own directions, except for John. Fast forward to that night. The lights of his Chevy lighting up the graveyard, and John is digging. He gets down to Hal's body and pulls that ring off. A ploy. Did Guy Garner know that John was gonna do that? I think he might be aware that old John's got his trick up his sleeve. Again, I think that's Guy kind of being complicit or at least supportive of his old lanterns. John takes that ring off. It must be a little awkward, puts it on himself, and remembers an old trick an old friend taught him one time. And he hits the ring against the tombstone. Boom, boom, boom. And there comes our backup Hal. Both look into the hole of the grave and see a dead Hal Jordan there. And our backup Hal says, Oh shit. And now suddenly we're back to a buddy cop drama. Let's round up the last of our suspects.

Sinestro Theory And Final Predictions

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Let's see who we got on the board. Here's a couple wild cards for you. Bernadette, who presumably was faking the apology call. So why did she want John out there? That's interesting. But I don't think Bernadette's got it in her. First off, we've never seen her shoot the gun. But we know who's a really good shot, and we've been told about it a lot of times, is John Sr. Now, John Sr. is supposed to be in an old folks' home, that's true. But John Sr. is also a real pain in that old folks' home. And matter of fact, is getting kicked out because he was brandishing a gun. Could John Sr. have made it to Rushville? We know he could shoot an apple off of a kid's head, which is abuse, by the way. I will stick by that. No matter what the shroviners think. That means he knows how to shoot a guy in the head from very far away. John Sr. could have done this. Well, here's my theory. Let's go back to Hal visiting an old friend in prison. An old mentor. Sinestro is Hal's main bad guy. The Joker to Batman, the Lex Luther to Superman. And much like those characters, there's this odd kinship between the two. More so than those others, actually. See, Hal saw Sinestro as a mentor, as a teacher, as a friend. And to a degree, Sinestro wasn't wrong. Much like a common complaint with Batman, Sinestro felt like the Guardians were not doing enough to protect people. He saw this complicit, arrogant Guardian Senate making all the choices without being out on the field. He took actions in his own hands. Did Sinestro go too far? Absolutely. But if we look at what I feel is a Sinestro parallel in Star Wars, that's our Qui-Gon Jin. Someone who questions the Jedi Masters, who raises their apprentice to do the same. Now, maybe my comparison is not so great because that would eventually be Anakin Skywalker. So it does go, so it does go in a bad direction. But nevertheless, I feel like there's something there where Hal has a deep respect for Sinestro and wants the very best for him. See, Sinestro, we find out, is broken out of prison. What do they call it? Space Caban. That's the third Harry Potter reference, by the way, for a show that's on HBO and has a Harry Potter series coming out next year. Clearly, some marketing being done there. Can't blame him for it. And guys says the first suspect would be Hal, but he was stuck in prison down here, right? Who was that in that conversation in the prison cells back in the day? Did Sinestro explain, hey, this is what happened. You gotta get me out of here. Did Hal say, well, I got a plan? What if Sinestro and Hal work together to break Sinestro out? And I want to remind you, this is before the fear ring and all that happens, before the yellow lanterns and stuff. We haven't heard about any of the other Spectrum rings. He breaks his friend Sinestro out. He has the doppelganger down there. It could be a manhunter. We know about Zoe, sure, but we also know that Avincer had a manhunter on board, which we believe is Zoe, but when Zoe's hearing about that story, clearly she's hearing about it for the first time. Watch reactions. It's while John is on the medical bed. Watch her reaction to that. She's finding out about the story the first time that time. Uh-huh. So I believe that there's a different manhunter that was there. One that owes Avincer, or maybe Hal Jordan, for letting them off. See, Hal's a brand new Green Lantern. He's full of sympathy. He hasn't as jaded as he is now. That manhunter could take the place of a Hal Jordan in prison, so Hal can do his business, saving his friend Sinestra. So to make sure that he's fully off the board and not actually in danger anymore, he needs to fake his own death. That manhunter spent the 10 years in prison and is now available again. So we could be seeing a dead manhunter in the bleachers, and Hal is still out there. Matter of fact, if Hal really wanted to hide himself, probably hide himself in a giant cube. One that can only be activated by his own projection from his old ring. Is this far fetched? Oh dear god, yes it is. All the best ones are. I mean, I kept hoping for Mephisto to pop up in Wandavision. And is this sound? Oh no, it's a leaky ship. Water's coming in. But there's something there. I believe a manhunter has helped Hal cover his tracks as he saves his friend Sinestro. And I believe that the death that we see at the end of the first episode and at the beginning of this one is fake. I do not believe that's Hal. When John was digging for that ring and sees our old Hal in the tombstone, I was really hoping he would just take a knife and dig in. Just to confirm. It's gruesome, sure, but I mean, you just gotta double check. So my theory is that's not Hal. Hal's alive. He might be in a cube, he might be in a prison in space, he's just not there. John doesn't know where he's at, the guardians don't know where he's at. Like the only person who knows where Hal is right now is probably Sinestro. I think in the next two episodes we're gonna see the return of Sinestro, possibly the introduction of yellow lanterns. I think we might see the first sight of that. There has been a theory where all the title cards are becoming more and more yellow. And I think this lantern series, not the Green Lantern series, but the lantern series, might be about the creation of the Yellow Lanterns. That actually might be the origin story of this whole thing. It's a wild theory. And you know what? I'd love to hear your guys' version of it because that's the best part of this whole podcasting and social media game that Aaron does, that I do. Let us know who you think needs to be on that wanted board. Currently, I have Hal doing his own murder. So there's gotta be better options out there, right? You can find Aaron at the Phantom Portals accounts, but you can also find me at the Geek Freeze accounts. I'm glad to take your DMs and hear how terrible my idea was. You wouldn't be the first. I want to thank Aaron for letting me jump in on Phantom Portals as he's dealing with some personal stuff. I love to talk about Green Lantern. I love to talk about all pop culture, so of course I'm here for that. I'm a little late on this one. It has been one of those weeks, but here we go. And I want to thank you guys very much for hanging out with me today. If you're on YouTube, make sure you subscribe to Phantom Portals. One of the buttons is down here somewhere. You can also do a thumbs up if you think maybe my idea was right in the comments where you'll let me know when it's wrong. If you happen to be listening to Apple Podcasts or Spotify or alike, they all have a way to subscribe and follow Aaron. Make sure you do that so you know when Aaron and Brash is coming out with a new episode. And hit them up with five-star reviews. They work very hard, trust me. You need to let them know that. And that's it for me, guys. I hope you enjoy this one, and we'll see you guys for episode seven of Lanterns. Take care.