My Review of Lanterns: "The Weenie"

 

Written by Breannah Gibson

Directed by Geeta Vasant Patel

John (re Hal): "The ring's always been mine. That asshole's been keeping it warm."

Lianna: "Then go get it, John Stewart."

Oh boy. This episode really did seem determined to have a wedge between John and Hal and I think it might have succeeded. It's like everyone around them who isn't Kerry seems determined to get the pair of them at odds with one another.

Let's start with Sinestro, huh? He's only given one scene but when he wasn't being cryptic about the Manhunters, he was dripping paranoia into Hal's earlier about John being his replacement. It also worked rather well.

Then there's both Lianna and the Stewarts. If John demonstrated any sympathy or pity for Hal, they were determined to stamp it out. Bernadette, John Sr and Lianna went the extra mile to make John turn on Hal. The quote I selected for this review also came back to bite John.

Hal wasn't best pleased when an encounter with Not Hector Hammond (Jason Manuel Olazabal) had that particular exchange between John and Lianna played back to Hal. On the plus side, this episode almost went out of its way to tell us how wrong everyone else was for wanting Hal to retire. Hal was figuring things out that everyone else wasn't.

For example, he clocked that Hector wasn't Hammond but Gutierrez and he clocked John's lack of emotion when Zoe was blown up. Yeah, Zoe turned out to be a Manhunter and she's definitely not dead. Hal also then left John to crash into a pole. 

Hal might not hate John but he was definitely angered by the latter keeping too many secrets from him. Did Hal maybe overreact in that last scene? Of course he did but it made for a great end to this particular episode.

- John ended up having to draw William naked before he slept with Zoe again. Does William know he failed to kill Zoe?

- I'm hoping the name drop for Hector Hammond means that we'll be seeing him in the finale, if not earlier.

- Kerry really was from Gotham. Hal double checked. Billy also owned the local bar as well as being a lawyer.

- There's a genuinely funny moment in this episode with John telling Hal his Disneyland story. Less funny was what happened to that poor cow.

- Standout music: Wunderhorse's Midas during the closing credits.

- Chronology: 2016 for the whole episode and we're still in Nebraska.

The Weenie provided some answers and raised a lot more questions as it went along. It was also a true test with Hal and John as a team and right now, things are far more tense between the pair. Great ending though and next week's episode looks chaotic.

Rating: 8 out of 10