Lanterns Episode 2 Ending Explores the Roles of Sinestro and the Manhunters

HBO’s Lanterns takes a grounded approach to DC’s cosmic peacekeepers. Set primarily in the dusty town of Rushville, Nebraska, the TV series leans into buddy-cop dynamics and murder mystery tropes over typical superhero spectacle. In episode 2, showrunner Chris Mundy and writer Vanessa Baden Kelly expand the lore by introducing two major threats from Green Lantern history.

Spoilers follow for Lanterns season 1, episode 2.

Who are the Manhunters?

Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) sends his trainee John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) to Coast City to recharge his power ring and tend to a carnivorous alien plant. Outside Hal’s house, an alien faction abducts John. The group ties back to the mass shooting that originally drew the Green Lanterns to Rushville. Their leader, Antaan (Paul Ben-Victor), reveals they are hunting a Manhunter, calling the creature “one of the most dangerous beings to ever exist.”

Antaan explains that Manhunters are synthetic lifeforms capable of constructing organic bodies to infiltrate any civilization. They manufacture advanced technology and practice an extreme version of justice that includes eradicating entire populations. To prove his point, Antaan projects a memory into John’s mind, showing how a Manhunter wiped out the population of Antaan’s home planet. A Green Lantern captured the android and marked it for execution, but Antaan tracked its radiation signature directly to Rushville. That Lantern was likely Abin Sur, whose transport ship crashed on Earth and led to Hal receiving the ring.

Because the fugitive Manhunter currently inhabits a human form, it can be killed like an ordinary mortal. Antaan threatens to obliterate Rushville in 48 hours unless John locates the android first. Antaan also questions John’s preparation, noting that Hal never commended John for holding a bird construct without wearing his ring. Antaan expresses shock that John knows nothing about the androids, asking, “You think the Green Lanterns came first? You really don’t know?”

The Guardians of the Universe, an ancient race based on Oa, created the Green Lantern Corps and forged power rings driven by willpower. Before establishing the Corps, the Guardians built the Manhunters as automated enforcers to police the cosmos. Over time, the androids concluded that organic emotion was the root cause of all crime. The machines slaughtered whole civilizations before the Guardians dismantled the army. A fraction of the androids survived in hiding, a history Hal himself barely understands.

Who is Sinestro?

After being shot while trespassing, Hal wakes up under anesthesia in the Rushville hospital. Sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald) mentions that Hal spoke the name Sinestro while unconscious. Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen) was once a premier Green Lantern who led an insurrection and killed a Guardian before Hal stopped him. At the end of the episode, Hal puts on his uniform and enters a maximum-security space prison to question his former mentor about the Manhunters.

In DC comics, Sinestro mirrors a fallen angel figure. He was celebrated as one of the finest Lanterns until the Guardians condemned the tyrannical methods he used to control his home world. Sinestro subsequently formed the Sinestro Corps, outfitting soldiers with yellow rings that harness fear.

Sinestro trained Hal early in his career, and that betrayal left lasting scars on the veteran hero. Hal was enthusiastic about his role in 1996 and 2006, when he created an artificial intelligence backup known as the Halogram. In 2016, Hal appears disillusioned. He recites the Green Lantern oath without conviction and avoids contacting the Guardians about the Rushville incident. The Halogram expects to train recruits, but the modern Hal resists taking on a student because of his bitter history with Sinestro. The gap in Halogram updates suggests Sinestro staged his revolt around 2006.

During their prison reunion, Sinestro calls the Manhunters “the second greatest threat” Hal faces and inquires about John Stewart. The existence of the androids proves the Guardians often conceal dangerous errors. The decision to assign Hal a trainee directly, rather than letting the ring select an independent successor, hints at hidden motives that will unfold in future episodes.

Source: Polygon