Lanterns, episode 3 challenges the audience to pay attention in ways we may not be used to no matter who we are. In service of a superhero story, we are asked to wrestle with questions about what makes a hero, what renders that hero heroic, which path is a justifiable road, what is acceptable behavior from anyone in service of the greater good, and how what we’ve come to expect from such stories can be used as slight of hand in the service of entertaining and engaging an audience.

However, the answers Lanterns have provided are all close-up magic.

So far in this show, we’ve been shown an allegedly reckless, possibly careless, defensive “hero” in Hal Jordan. He’s repeatedly shown breaking rules, disrespecting authority, and playing the fool when he should be acting like a hero. This space-travelling hero who has dealt with aliens of every shade of the rainbow, is also presented as someone guilty of at least white privilege, at worse racially obtuse pop culture references.

This is all slight of hand.

We’re also shown John Stewart, a second-generation candidate for Green Lantern, who, on the surface, demonstrates every quality we might think of as heroic. He’s brave, stoic, intelligent, serious, well-trained, fearless, patient, and is not going to break for anyone. He’s willing to take the hard road for the greater good, even if it diminishes his own standing (dishonorable discharge), and he has no quit, whether it be in the face of clearly abusive parental training, clearly abusive manipulating from the military to cover up uncomfortable politics, or clear abuse from his alleged trainer, Hal Jordan.

This is all slight of hand.

And we’ve seen the Guardians are a flawed species (they made the Manhunters, and recruited humans without any read on the complexities of human cultures. for examples) who present as in control, corporate, and privileged, appearing as a green light and disembodied voice in the middle of the night, elevating humans without introduction, and asking if they’re scared, not understanding that past experience defines how that question will be answered. The result? The show would have us believe the Guardians do not approve of Hal Jordan, misread those who “failed”, especially the Stewarts, and want to use one (John Stewart) to replace the other (Jordan) as a better fit for their organization.

This is all slight of hand.

We are also led to believe there are two or three opposing forces —the ranch militia, the angry survivors of a massacred planet, and the Manhunters themselves, all gearing up for a battle that, by 2026, will leave the ranch leveled and Hal Jordan dead from a bullet to the head (the latter known in this column as the Tom King turd).

Most of this is slight of hand, I think, with the exception of the turd, which is a tragic self-own any way we look at it.

How is all of this slight of hand?

Think of Hal Jordan as Space Columbo (some youngins might have to Google Columbo) playing the fool to distract everyone from what he’s really doing — his job.

Here’s my take on the “evidence” provided:

Hal’s going to a strip club and “running into” a Congressman who drunkenly tells him the location of a notorious gun lord or terrorist or whomever John Stewart was staking out for nine months? All a ruse to take that guy off the board before he could do more harm.

Dropping that international criminal off at Guantanamo? An eye poke to the governments allowing such a threat to run around free.

Manufacturing money to play a juke box? Rather than an abuse of power, it puts into action an unorthodox plan that, eventually, got Hal in a room with an alien and allowed Hal to save the entire town for Rushville, and maybe more. Stupid plan, huh?

Hal’s ill-considered comment, “You’re like the mid-west Huxtables”? He made that comment in 2016. Bill Cosby’s crimes became widely known in 2014-15. There is a valid interpretation that Hal was saying the Stewarts present as a perfect family, but Hal saw the bullet holes on his way in, he’s done due diligence on John Stewart and he knows how the kid was trained. He’s saying there is a darkness to that presentation (which we witnessed all through episode 3).

Less of a racist comment and more of a Columbo-esque compliment that reveals the crime.

And his abuse of John Stewart. He knows the Guardians selected him and, like John, he knows why. Hal knows he’s a pain in the ass to the Guardians because he is the one thing they cannot stand, independence. He does what he believes is right and get the job done his way. Not theirs. It may very well turn out to be that Hal knows John Stewart is his replacement, or at least that is the plan, but he’ll be damned if he’s going to let them mold John into their preferred kind of Lantern, especially since they have repeatedly demonstrated they do not have a sensitivity for culture, human or other wise (Need proof? See the Stewarts and the other candidates questioned, and, ahem, their creation of the Manhunters).

That makes him a Green Lantern.

And John Stewart?

He’s more than the pliant, chain-of-command following servant the Guardians believe him to be. He’s more than the fearless warrior his parents abusively made him to be. He’s more than the asset-turned-pawn the military trained him to be. John Stewart knows he can work within any system to become what he wants, and who he wants, to be. And that is someone who does the most good in even the most difficult circumstances no matter the weight that puts on his shoulders.

That makes him a Green Lantern.

Yes, they are on a collision course. That is almost dried up superhero trope at this point. Yes, they are almost polar opposites. That makes them perfect foils for each other, as were Green Lantern and Green Arrow in the classic Hard Travelin’ Heroes run by Denny O’Neill and Neal Adams. And yes they are going to fight side-by-side, having each other’s backs when whatever opposing forces descend on the ill-fated ranch.

All of which makes for a great slight-of-hand trick/tremendous story.

But what about Hal being dead in 2026, and “Guy Gardner has Hal’s ring”, both told to us by Tom King? Well, he is either going to resolve both in great plot twists so satisfying we consider forgiving his dropping of turds on this promising season, or his stank will ruin it all and we’ll hate him forever.

No pressure, Tom. The CIA might take you back. I hear their desperate.