‘Lanterns’ Episode 5 Drops a Shocking Zoe Manhunter Twist — Who Dies?

Lanterns Episode 5 finally pulls back the curtain on Zoe Macon (Poorna Jagannathan), and it turns out her influence over Rushville goes back much further than John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) realized. Warning: Spoilers ahead for Episode 5 of Lanterns. 

The episode opens in 2007 with a younger Kerry (Kelly Macdonald) before the badge, on the run. Her father, a snitch, was killed, and two men have been ordered to get rid of her, bury her body, and bring back her pinky as proof. Zoe intervenes, but there’s a catch: Kerry has to cut off her own pinky and promise Zoe protection whenever she eventually calls in the favor. Once that promise is made, Zoe grows Kerry a new finger. A nifty little trick.

The scene establishes exactly how Zoe has built her network over the years. She saves people, gives them something they desperately need, and collects favors she can cash in later.

“There is a real sense that Zoe is who she is and is comfortable in this town being who she is,” Jagannathan tells TV Insider. “That first scene in Episode 5, where she makes that contract with Kerry, you really get the sense that she’s made that contract with every single person in town. So every single person in town owes her, which is why they are willing to take up arms for her.”

Her life changed with the arrival of the Green Lanterns. “As soon as the Lanterns come, she has to go into hiding,” Jagannathan explains. “We have to get the Lanterns out of here, right? Everyone knows they are onto me, so the whole town galvanizes to get the Lanterns to leave.”

Back in 2016, John is trapped inside the wrecked car as Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) decides his trainee needs to be moved “off the gameboard.” Hal believes catching the Manhunter could prove himself to the Guardians, and as far as he’s concerned, John has reached “the end of his training.”

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Zoe, meanwhile, is very much alive and preparing Rushville for war. She warns her grandson that a lot of people are going to die, while William Macon (Garret Dillahunt) locates John through the satellite. As John remains trapped, his car catches fire — and Zoe watches him burn.

Luckily, John isn’t dead, but he isn’t great.

His badly burned body is taken to the hospital, where Zoe finally confirms the truth: She is the Manhunter. John had already figured it out, along with another important piece of the puzzle. The Guardians created the Manhunters.

The Guardians then decided that the Manhunters needed to be eradicated for being too brutal, giving John yet another reason not to trust them. After that, they expected him to take Hal’s ring without even telling Hal that he was being replaced.

Zoe deliberately allowed him to burn because she needed leverage. She offers to heal him if he agrees to tell the Guardians that Hal died bravely and then take his ring. Using her own blood, Zoe heals John, triggering flashes through his life before his burned body is restored.

Her relationship with Macon also becomes clearer. Macon loves Zoe and is willing to protect her at any cost, especially after she previously saved his life from cancer and gave him more time.

“It seems like I’m the boss, but I’m the first mate. This whole time, I’ve been first mate,” Garret Dillahunt tells TV Insider. “She’s the powerful figure. She saved my life. She set me up, and I love her for it. I owe her for it. And this is what we’ve been waiting for. This is what we’ve been rehearsing for all these years.”

While John is recovering, Rushville erupts into war. Hal activates his Sentury to find Zoe, but Kerry tries to stop him. She reveals that the entire town has received a kill order from Macon and Zoe and admits she owes Zoe her life. Hal isn’t moved. As far as he’s concerned, the town is protecting a war criminal.

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Then Antaan (Paul Ben-Victor) arrives with another twist: He and Hal are essentially on the same side. Neither trusts the Guardians, and both want the Manhunter. The problem is that Antaan believes Macon is the real one.

That mistake proves fatal for Macon. As human bombs attack his compound, Antaan reaches Macon’s office, where Macon attempts to convince him that he is the Manhunter. He has learned Antaan’s language, memories, and history, but there’s one thing he can’t fake: Antaan knows a real Manhunter wouldn’t fear death. He rips Macon’s heart out to see whether it crystallizes like that of a Manhunter. It doesn’t. Macon is dead, and Antaan realizes he got the wrong person.

Outside, Rushville is being torn apart by lasers as John escapes the hospital, steals a gun, and sets out to find Hal’s ring. He contacts his father and has him connect to Guardian Lianna (Laura Linney), but John has one thing on his mind: Getting that ring.

With the ring down to just 5% power, Hal desperately tries to save Rushville while tracking Zoe. He eventually gets back to his motel to recharge, but before he can recite the oath, John takes the ring.

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And then teacher and student finally come to blows.

John nearly kills Hal during their brutal fight, only for Hal to use the ring’s last remaining power to protect both of them from a deadly red blast. The motel is destroyed, with many of its occupants killed. John walks through the rubble, passing the collateral damage from this fight, as he lingers on the wails of a small girl who lost her father. John takes off with the ring, and Hal is left powerless with Zoe.

It’s all part of John’s plan. Hal tells Zoe that John didn’t abandon him… Hal is bait.

John shoots Zoe, breaking his oath to the Manhunter. He breaks down over what he’s done just before he rips out her heart. This time, the heart crystallizes, proving that Zoe was the Manhunter.

But Zoe’s final reaction to John is important. According to Jagannathan, Zoe believes she’s already won because she has made the same kind of bargain with John that has kept the rest of Rushville loyal to her.

“When she meets John Stewart, and she makes that contract with John Stewart, she’s got him. Game over!” Jagannathan says. But Zoe doesn’t account for John’s willingness to break that agreement. “She’s blinded by the fact that John goes against that contract and kills her at the end. She’s never met a person like that. She’s never met a person with so much integrity.”

That also explains Zoe’s surprising final reaction. “At the end, she smiles,” Jagannathan says. “It’s a moment of deep respect.”

John returns to Hal, sees the familiar green bird, and takes both the lantern and ring. Hal leaves him with one final warning: “They replaced me. They will replace you.”

But John isn’t interested in becoming the Guardians’ next obedient Green Lantern. After Kerry gets Rushville’s residents to stand down, John brings Zoe’s crystallized heart to Lianna. She acknowledges that the Guardians made a mistake, telling him, “Even we make mistakes. All we can do is correct them.”

John has reached a very different conclusion. He tells her that Hal betrayed everything to hold onto the ring — his code, his oath, and ultimately himself — and that it broke him.

Then John leaves the ring sitting on the bar.

Lanterns, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO Max