****SPOILER ALERT****THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS****
Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart has spent most of “Lanterns” standing in someone else’s shadow. In the HBO series’ season finale, the actor finally gets his moment in the light.
The first season of “Lanterns” has been built around the relationship between Stewart, a young Green Lantern recruit, and Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler), the veteran hero whose complicated history and mysterious death drive much of the story. But as the finale makes clear, the series was ultimately about Stewart figuring out what kind of hero he wanted to become.
In its examination of the finale, The Hollywood Reporter describes the series’ central dynamic as one built around Pierre and Chandler’s relationship, with the show using their partnership to explore mentorship, responsibility and the weight of becoming a Green Lantern.
And that emotional investment is what makes the finale work.
Rather than simply delivering the kind of CGI-heavy superhero spectacle audiences might expect from a DC series, “Lanterns” puts its characters first. The finale spends much of its time dealing with the consequences of everything Stewart has learned, particularly about Jordan and the circumstances surrounding his death.
The result is a finale that is as much about letting go as it is about taking on a new responsibility.
Pierre has been particularly effective throughout the season at giving Stewart a quiet intensity. John isn’t a character who needs to announce his power. He carries himself like someone who understands that being a hero means making difficult choices, even when there isn’t an easy or obvious answer.
That makes the finale’s transition especially meaningful.
John’s journey toward becoming a Green Lantern has never been presented as a simple destiny story. As co-creator Damon Lindelof previously explained, the creative team wanted Stewart’s arc to involve “coming to terms with the fact that he doesn’t really want the ring — or he doesn’t want the ring on those terms.”
By the finale, those questions have evolved into something much larger: What does John Stewart want his own version of heroism to look like?
That question allows Pierre to carry the episode without needing to overpower it. His performance gives John a sense of restraint, vulnerability and purpose that suggests this is only the beginning.
And that may ultimately be the most important takeaway from “Lanterns.” The season may have begun as a murder mystery involving one of DC’s most famous heroes, but it ends by making a different hero impossible to ignore.
Aaron Pierre’s John Stewart isn’t simply the next Green Lantern.
He is the future.
