Lanterns Episode 7 Review: The Jordan Boys Legacy Delivers Halogram Depth But Stumbles on Local Subplots

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Lanterns is a live-action series developed by Universal Studios Hollywood Hub that premiered on Microsoft Windows on September 10, 2023. The show follows Green Lanterns Hal Jordan and John Stewart as they investigate a mystery spanning decades, blending superhero mythology with a grounded, small-town procedural structure. Season 1 consists of eight episodes, with the narrative split between a 2016 timeline featuring Hal and John's partnership and a 2026 timeline where Hal has been murdered and John must uncover the truth.

The series distinguishes itself from typical superhero fare by treating its cosmic elements as horror-adjacent mysteries rather than spectacle. The Halogram concept — a backup of Hal's consciousness — allows the show to maintain its central duo dynamic even after the character's death, creating a unique storytelling device that explores memory, legacy, and the unreliability of digital preservation. For viewers invested in character-driven sci-fi with procedural bones, Lanterns offers a fresh angle on the Green Lantern mythos.

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When the Halogram reactivates after another 10-year hiatus, the series reclaims its strongest asset: the Hal/John banter. But the digital version presents a slightly younger, less mean-spirited Hal than the one John knew in 2016. This twist allows the Halogram to convey vulnerabilities the living Hal could never admit aloud. Watching the two interact becomes endlessly entertaining — not just for the chemistry between Chandler and Pierre, but for what the format reveals about both men. The Halogram isn't a perfect copy; it's a curated version, and the gaps between the backup and the original become a story engine in themselves.

Sheriff Kerry (Kelly Macdonald) reuniting with the Halogram delivers arguably Macdonald's strongest performance in the series to date. The reviewer notes they're not prepared to discount the theory that she was Hal's killer, particularly if it involved protecting her son, but emphasizes her grief is clearly genuine regardless. This ambiguity — genuine emotion coexisting with potential culpability — makes Kerry one of the show's most compelling figures. The Halogram scene with her works because it doesn't resolve the tension; it deepens it.

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"The Jordan Boys Legacy" shares a flaw with Episode 6: the drama involving Rushville locals remains uncompelling. The blackmail conflict between John and Maggie (Hannah Christine Shetler) — involving $315,000 and a Richard Mille watch — struggles to justify its screen time. As the reviewer asks, why does any of that matter in the grander scheme of John's Green Lantern origin story? The financial stakes feel trivial against the cosmic backdrop, and the personal stakes haven't been sufficiently established to carry the weight the show assigns them.

Noah (Shea Pritchard) and his Hat Day runaround present a similar problem on the surface. The subplot doesn't compel in isolation, but the reviewer suspects something deeper: a theory that Noah is a human/Manhunter hybrid at the heart of Hal's murder, assuming Hal is even dead. The show is running out of room to prolong that mystery, and the finale will need to pay it off decisively. Until then, these local threads feel like filler in an episode otherwise focused on the central investigation.

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Episode 7 ends with John stepping onto an alien world for the first time, accessing a portal Hal bequeathed to Antaan's (Paul Ben-Victor) home planet. The setting reveals the devastation Manhunters can wreak — a nice change of pace from Earth-bound scenes, even if the flat, featureless desert doesn't make for the most memorable visual. Stephanie Economou's eerie, discordant score does heavy lifting here, making the environment feel hostile and otherworldly where the production design falls short.

A tense fear gas sequence and more heart-to-heart moments between Hal and John precede the long-overdue return of Ulrich Thomsen's Sinestro. Finding him marooned on a dead world instead of imprisoned on Oa raises more questions than it answers, but his presence alone signals the finale's direction. With one episode remaining, the show must address Sinestro's status, Noah's true nature, Kerry's potential involvement in Hal's death, and John's season-long arc — a lot of ground for a single finale to cover satisfyingly.

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The Rushville local drama remains the show's weakest element. Neither the Maggie blackmail thread nor Noah's Hat Day sequence compels on its own terms, and both consume screen time that the central mystery — Hal's murder, the Manhunter threat, Sinestro's return — desperately needs. The reviewer's frustration is palpable: these subplots don't just feel secondary; they feel irrelevant. In a shortened season, every scene must earn its keep, and these haven't.

The alien world's visual design also disappoints. A flat, featureless desert is a missed opportunity for cosmic world-building, especially when the show has proven it can deliver striking imagery elsewhere. Economou's score compensates, but audio shouldn't have to carry the entire atmosphere of a first-contact moment. This feels like a budget or time constraint showing through, and it undercuts the wonder of John's first step onto another planet.

Lanterns Episode 7 earns its 8/10 by leveraging the Halogram to deliver the show's best character work while stumbling on the same local subplots that dragged down Episode 6. The Hal/John banter returns sharper than ever, Martin Jordan's introduction adds important texture to Hal's legacy, and Sinestro's return promises a finale with real stakes. But the Maggie blackmail thread and Noah's Hat Day sequence feel like they belong in a different show entirely, and the featureless alien desert undercuts a milestone moment. With one episode left, the series has set up a finale that could either stick the landing or collapse under the weight of its own mysteries. For now, the Halogram experiment works — but it's a crutch, not a cure, for Hal's absence.