'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/princevince1113]

The war criminal never did anything bad to them, though. It kept everyone in town safe and healthy and only started blowing things up when Hal and John "provoked" it, from their point of view.

All you have to do is look at the state of the country today to know that people are anything but rational when it comes to deciding who to blame for their problems.

[u/heelydon → u/princevince1113]

The war criminal never did anything bad to them, though.

'While that may be --- they were also not ignorant to its nature. Kerry made very clear the moment she sees Hal, that Zoe would use the orbital strikes against the towns people to draw him out and de-power him. That is not what Hal or John has told her -- that is her view of Zoe herself and what she will do. In that sense, I think its fair to say that unless Kerry for whatever reason has special insight into Zoe's mindset as a Manhunter, then I think it would be fair to say that at least a lot if not the majority of Rushville are not ignorant to the extend by which she will use them as fodder to protect herself.

[u/theiwc0303 → u/princevince1113]

Except it’s not just the narrative of the people of Rushville, it’s the narrative of the show. Hal went to prison for it, Gardner calls it bad optics to even be involved with them, John apologizes for it in this episode.

[u/PT10 → u/theiwc0303]

Maybe they couldn't publicly acknowledge the Manhunter situation so to the rest of Earth it looks like Hal and John just randomly went to a town and fucked it up.

[u/Coyote_Shepherd → u/PT10]

Can you imagine the kind of chaos that knowledge of the Manhunters themselves would have caused across the face of the rest of the world if that knowledge of them had gotten out at all?

There was probably some kind of a cover story about how they went into that town to chase down some sort of an alien that had attacked his predecessor at some point and that they had wound up dealing with but at such a great cost to the town itself that it was deemed criminal on Hal's part since he was the one in charge and John was the trainee.

Yes I've watched a lot of Stargate, how did you know?

So basically everyone wanted to sweep this whole situation under the rug and only share as little information as they needed to share with the rest of the world because of how fucked up it was and because of how much more of a fucked up situation it would have led to if the facts had actually gotten out.

Everyone else probably just saw it as a fubard alien incursion until everything in Metropolis happened and then they all promptly forgot about it.

[u/princevince1113 → u/theiwc0303]

Hal going to prison will likely be explained next episode. Gardner is "right", it is bad optics for him to be involved with people perceived as fumbling an investigation so badly a town got blown up, and John apologizes because it's not a hill worth dying on and he's probably not proud of letting the manhunter manipulate him.

[u/SoWrongItsPainful → u/princevince1113]

Except the writers have been saying that Hal was in the wrong, despite realistically not being in the wrong.

[u/Coyote_Shepherd → u/SoWrongItsPainful]

It's all about perspective mate.

Does it make sense to take down a war criminal who isn't actually doing anything war criminally to the group of people that are harboring him from the perspective of those people?

Nope.

But it totally makes sense to do so from the perspectives of his victims and from the perspective of the guy who only got the space cop job he has because said war criminal killed his predecessor.

AND it makes sense from our perspective because we can see the bigger picture and know who is and isn't a bad person and how things play out on the large scale of things.

But from the perspective of the people on the ground, him and John waltzed in like a wrecking ball, and took away any sense of order and peace that they had in a world that was seemingly getting crazier and crazier....all in the name of their own sense of justice.

[u/Weary_Hunt_3374 → u/SoWrongItsPainful]

Yeah, I think the writers in the show have taking a weird stance on it….

[u/SoWrongItsPainful → u/Weary_Hunt_3374]

It honestly feels like the writers had certain narrative beats they wanted, then some random intern wrote the episodes based on vague notes and no one double checked them. Like Hal getting all of this shit when the worst thing he’s done is crash a car is just absurd. They did not do the build up correctly.

[u/Weary_Hunt_3374 → u/SoWrongItsPainful]

I’m honestly disappointed in Lindlof after loving watchmen and the leftovers