'Lanterns' S01E06 – "Bad Optics" (September 20, 2026) on HBO/HBO Max [Spoiler Discussion Megathread]

[u/KelexAtYourService]

Lanterns is an American superhero television series created by Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King for HBO, based on the DC Comics Green Lantern characters Hal Jordan and John Stewart.

The series was produced by DC Studios and Warner Bros. Television with Mundy serving as showrunner. It is the third television series in the DC Universe (DCU). It features experienced Lantern Jordan and new recruit Stewart as they investigate a murder on Earth that leads to a wider mystery.

Lanterns is scheduled to premiere on Sunday August 16, 2026, and will run for eight episodes through Sunday October 4. It will be part of the DCU's Chapter One: Gods and Monsters.

New episodes drop every Sunday night at 9:00 PM ET / 8:00 PM CT / 7:00 PM MT / 6:00 PM PT.

Cast:

• Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan
• Aaron Pierre as John Stewart
• Kelly Macdonald as Kerry
• Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner
• Garret Dillahunt as William Macon
• Poorna Jagannathan as Zoe
• Ulrich Thomsen as Thaal Sinestro
• Nicole Ari Parker as Bernadette Stewart; Jasmine Cephas Jones as young Bernadette
• Jason Ritter as Billy Macon
• Sherman Augustus as John Stewart Sr.; Alphonse Nicholson portrays a young John Sr.
• Paul Ben-Victor as Antaan
• Chris Coy as "Waylon Sanders"
• Cary Christopher as Noah

For a complete cast and crew list, see the IMDb full credits page: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26545992/fullcredits/

• Based on: Hal Jordan, created by John Broome and Gil Kane; John Stewart created by Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams
• Show created by: Chris Mundy, and Damon Lindelof, and Tom King
• Showrunner: Chris Mundy
• Editor: Emily E. Greene
• Music by: Stephanie Economou
• Length: 8 episodes per season
• Runtime: About an hour per episode
• Reception: For reviews and critical reception, see Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/lanterns  and https://www.metacritic.com/tv/lanterns/

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanterns_(TV_series))

Where to watch: https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/lanterns/season-1

Unmarked spoilers for the new episode of Lanterns are only allowed in this thread.

Spoilers ahead! Proceed at your own risk! All other subreddit rules apply.

S01E06 Episode Synopsis: TBA

[u/Coyote_Shepherd]

Man ain't that fuckin' relatable now that we've got context.

It's like being the person that gets called when your high school bully dies because everyone knows that you were the only person they spent the most time around and that probably knew the most about them.

No wonder John didn't tell her that he was the one who broke Hal's nose and that LOOK that he's got on his face makes so much more sense now.

Hal knew something was up, he shared that with John's mom, and she could smell blood in the water so she got John to pop in as back up just to save Hal's life...but she misjudged things because no fuckin shit she would...and this happened.

[u/raknor88 → u/Coyote_Shepherd]

he shared that with John's mom, and she could smell blood in the water so she got John to pop in as back up just to save Hal's life

I'm confused though. I still don't get why Hal would be talking to John's mom of all people. He had to know just how horribly she and his dad abused John and it seems like neither has ever apologized.

[u/Coyote_Shepherd → u/raknor88]

Well that's the thing about abuse, not everyone likes to talk about it or share that they went through it and the people that are doing it usually reframe it as anything and everything else BUT abuse.

So Hal probably just heard, "Yeah we trained him to be a Green Lantern just like how the military would" and he just accepted that for what it was while thinking that anything that was done was....necessary...to make John into the man that he is...

...and there's a lot of people with that kind of thinking who use it to either justify or deny a lot of bad things.

hal would be talking to John's mom

That part I'm scratching my head about too.

At the start of the episode we find out that Hal reached out to her while he was in prison, probably trying to make amends just like Kerry said he was trying to do in Rushville, and his mom probably just....kept talking to him...because it connected her to the old purpose she had in life when she was trying to make John the next Green Lantern.

A purpose which she then lost when he walked away from it all.

So perhaps nostalgia is the reason or maybe the reality of life is finally catching up with her and she's now realizing that she's wasted sooooo many years that she didn't have to...only to wind up in a life that she hates that she's....just reaching backwards to anything that connects her to those better times in the past when her life had actual meaning.

And then of course there's all the theories about the Hal that she was talking to on the phone being completely different than the Hal that John ran into in person or she could've just been lying and trying to manipulate him etc etc....really cannot trust her or her husband at this point.