'Lanterns' Officially Reveals the Guardians' Greater Plan for John Stewart | Review

Image via HBO Published Aug 30, 2026, 10:00 PM EDT Michael John Petty is a Senior Author for Collider who spends his days writing, in fellowship with his local church, and enjoying each new day with his wife and daughters. At Collider, he writes features, reviews, recaps, and conducts interviews. In addition to writing about stories, Michael has told a few of his own. His novella, The Beast of Bear-tooth Mountain, was released in 2023. His Western short story, The Devil's Left Hand, received the Spur Award for "Best Western Short Fiction" from the Western Writers of America in 2025. Michael currently resides in North Idaho with his growing family. Sign in to your Collider account Editor's note: The below recap contains spoilers for Lanterns Episode 3. If you were hoping that this week's Lanterns would pick up right where last episode's cliffhanger left off, making good on that highly anticipated face-off between Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen), think again. Instead, the third episode of the HBO series, titled "OutKast," travels back in time to John Stewart's (Aaron Pierre) complicated (to say the least) upbringing. The previous episode almost overemphasized John's importance, and this week is entirely devoted to the same. Yes, the past is prologue, but how much of that past is necessary for Lanterns to include? Perhaps that depends on the viewer. 'Lanterns' Episode 3 Dives into John Stewart's Origin Story This episode begins in 2016, only a few months before "Pilot." John Stewart falls onto a bunch of mattresses littered on the floor of an abandoned shopping mall. Signs lead him to the makeshift office of a Guardian of the Universe (Laura Linney). She tells him to wait inside, and that she'll be back, so John waits until the next morning when she returns. “I was told to wait,” he says, when she notes that he hasn't moved, reminding us that John simply does what he is told. But here's where things get interesting. When John inquires about why he's being interviewed for the job — and he's seemingly not the only one, by the way — rather than being chosen by the ring, the Guardian reveals that it's due to the death of one of their kind. "OutKast" doesn't give us time to dwell on the "what ifs," even if that's exactly what John's father, John Sr. (J. Alphonse Nicholson), does. The episode flashes back to years ago, on the night when John Sr. was considered to become a Green Lantern. While an infant John lies awake in his crib, his father is terrified by the bubble of green energy that envelops him, admitting his fear before it departs for good. It isn't long after that that Hal Jordan begins to actively patrol the Earth, causing John Sr. — enraged and slowly losing his mind after the experience — to shoot the television in anger, disgust, and depression. Nobody believes that he could have had the ring himself, not even his wife Bernadette (Jasmine Cephas Jones). After she kicks her husband out of the house for the risk he poses to their children, she's met by the aforementioned Guardian, who apologizes for any distress they may have caused John Sr. before revealing her true form. “Whatever the ring saw in your husband is in his genetic makeup,” the Guardian eventually notes, offering Bernadette a chance to raise her son to be fearless — to be the next Green Lantern. This isn't how Green Lanterns are usually chosen, and from what we can tell, this takes place long before Sinestro's coup. Thus, it appears that (as usual) the Guardians have some sort of agenda. Back in 2016, John tells the Guardian that he became a Marine to get this "job interview" in the first place before recounting his last mission, which began almost a year earlier. When John meets with his commanding officer, he learns that a threat to national security, a target codenamed “Grey Wolf” (who doesn't appear to be related to the DC Comics character), is almost impossible to track — save for his preferred personal retreat in Russia. John is the third Marine to be tasked with this mission after the other two failed, but he agrees to go behind enemy lines without hesitation. 'Lanterns' Reveals John's Upbringing Was More Complicated Than We Thought Image via HBO It's here where "OutKast" begins to get really intense. After meeting the Guardian, Bernadette confronts her husband and informs him that their other sons, Aaron and Marcus, already know fear, but baby John is a blank slate. They vow to condition their son not to know fear with the ultimate goal of training him to become a Green Lantern candidate. “He’s going to hate us,” John Sr. tells his wife. “So be it,” Bernadette replies. At John's (Cairo Cash Lee) fifth birthday party, his parents gift him a Green Lantern uniform (one akin to the character's classic comic book appearance) and tell him about his destiny. They explain to John that the Guardians send birds to watch over him (which explains his construct in the last episode). “They want us to make sure that you’re fearless,” Bernadette says. “You can’t worry about anybody but yourself.” They also give him a rifle when the poor boy just wanted crayons! Back in 2016 (give or take), John embarks on his mission to hunt and apprehend "Grey Wolf." Though he is injured while parachuting into Russia, he cauterizes his wound and sets up surveillance on the target. Nine months pass during John's stakeout. Back in the interview, the Guardian inquires about why John was discharged from the Marines. He reveals he was dishonorably discharged — not because he couldn't follow an order (he stuck around for nearly a year!), but because he failed to complete the mission. At first, the Guardian replies by asking what John knows about Sinestro, but the conversation quickly pivots to Hal Jordan. “Sinestro was Jordan’s teacher, a father figure,” the Guardian reveals, though she believes that Jordan's continued affection for Sinestro is troubling. Speaking of parental figures, the Guardian then inquires if John resents his own parents due to his rigorous upbringing. He tells her that "rigorous" comes with the territory, and what we see next begins to unpack that a little. Remember that scene in "Pilot" where John Sr. shot an apple off young John's head? Well, Lanterns flashes back to John's youth to reveal that the whole thing was his idea in the first place, an idea that Bernadette pushed her husband to entertain. After the test is successful, his father takes him to get a cheeseburger. This scene is bookended by another question by the Guardian, who asks if he loves his parents. John responds in the affirmative, adding that he’s entirely confident that he will get the job as the next Green Lantern. In another flashback, it's emphasized that young John and his brothers don't exactly get along. They grew up in the same home, but John was raised quite differently from Marcus and Aaron. In some respects, he's something of an outcast, and to drive that idea home, his brothers get him to sing along to OutKast's "ATLiens" from the backseat of the family car. What seems like a bonding moment at first adopts a more somber note when one of his brothers likens John's pronunciation to a "white boy named Henry," and then the car stops in a rough neighborhood, where John's parents force him to get out and walk the rest of the way home for the sake of his "training." When he gets home, Bernadette has been waiting for him, but leaves before the boy breaks down, refusing to comfort her son. "OutKast" Reveals the Real Reason Behind John Stewart's Tension with Hal Jordan Image via HBO As John tells the Guardian, “Humans are not programmed, we’re raised,” though the alien doesn't understand the distinction. John insists that there is one, but in his case, that may be a stretch. As a boy, John watched his mother go crazy, wondering about the Guardians and their lack of response. She believes it must be due to John's fear, but the boy calls the birds liars, insisting that he's not afraid. So, his mother turns the tables on him the next time he fearlessly survives another apple-on-the-head target shoot. Instead, she wants John to shoot an apple off her husband. Unsurprisingly, John can't do it — how has nobody called the cops after years of backyard target practice? “Guess the birds aren’t liars, after all,” his mother tells him. That evening, Bernadette tells John that loving his dad isn’t something to be ashamed of. “It’s normal not to want to hurt the people you love,” she says before admitting that she made the bird thing up. It turns out that the Guardians don't answer at all. In her mind, she insists they’re giving John the gift of privilege that Hal Jordan has. Inspired by his mother's emotional manipulations, John tries again, successfully shooting an apple off her head instead. This whole time, John has been dancing around what got him discharged from the Marines in the first place, but the Guardian insists he talk about it. As it turns out, "Grey Wolf" arrives after John has been scoping out the retreat for nine months, but before he can pull the trigger and complete his mission, Green Lantern arrives, destroys the entire compound, and leaves with the target. As John later discovers, apprehending "Grey Wolf" had all been a lucky break on Jordan's part, but John is forced to take the fall for the international incident. John speaks with his mother afterward and is frustrated that everything he worked for is gone. However, she's applied to art school on his behalf: “The path hasn’t changed; this is just a detour.” At art school, John is eventually sought out for a very special project: the Green Lantern Corps. After sketching the building they’re in to prove his imaginative power, John is asked to use a Green Lantern ring to create a replica of his father’s watch. When he succeeds, the events are set in motion for his interview, bringing the episode full circle. The Guardian asks John whether Hal’s actions have caused him to harbor ill will toward the current Green Lantern. As it turns out, the Guardians have asked Hal to stop using his abilities to interfere in terrestrial affairs, and he wasn't following orders when he captured "Grey Wolf," after all. “Would you be comfortable replacing Hal Jordan?” she asks. John replies that if those are his orders, it doesn’t matter if he’s comfortable with it. When he heads home to share the good news with his folks, Hal is already sitting at the kitchen table, spoiling the surprise. It's all good at first, but when Hal and John are alone, the Green Lantern insists that he doesn’t want a sidekick or a backup: “The only way you’re going to get this ring is over my dead body.” New episodes of Lanterns air on HBO and HBO Max every Sunday. Release Date August 16, 2026 Network HBO Showrunner Chris Mundy Cast Aaron Pierre John Stewart Pros & Cons Aaron Pierre really shines in this episode as we begin to understand the complexities of John's feelings toward Hal Jordan. The whole episode (in particular each time shift) is well-paced, which can be difficult to do properly in stories like these. This episode breaks up the momentum after last episode's exciting cliffhanger. Longtime DC fans may not love the direction Lanterns is taking with John Stewart, especially as it makes Hal Jordan out to be the orchestrator of all his personal and familial turmoil.