Lanterns Episode 7 Reframes Hal Jordan as Tragic Hero, Reveals Family Legacy

HBO's Lanterns penultimate episode pivots sharply from its early depiction of Hal Jordan as a reckless aging pilot to a sympathetic portrait of generational trauma. Titled "The Jordan Boys' Legacy," the episode traces Hal's character back to 1975, when young Hal refused to leave a baseball game despite his coach's orders, fighting his entire team rather than concede. His father Martin arrives to defend him—later revealing to Hal that this stubborn refusal to surrender is a family trait passed down through generations, alongside a hereditary cycle of depression. Martin tells his son that his own father, Hal's grandfather, struggled with the same mental anguish and that Martin himself believes the Jordan men would "be better off" removed from the equation. Hal's Halogram later discloses that Martin ultimately took his own life, leaving behind a note and unresolved trauma that shaped Hal's entire life.

In the 2026 present-day storyline, John Stewart has exhumed Hal's decommissioned power ring and reactivated the Halogram—a digital backup of Hal's consciousness from a decade prior—to help unlock a mysterious storage unit containing Hal's final legacy. The Halogram, initially suspicious that John killed Hal, gradually becomes John's partner as they open a lockbox revealing a dark matter portal to another world. That world belongs to Antaan, the alien whose entire civilization was systematically destroyed by the Manhunters through a psychogenic gas that drove his people to mass suicide. When John inhales the same gas and nearly kills himself, the Halogram saves his life—a moment that underscores the unshakable bond between the two Green Lanterns despite their fractious relationship in life.

The episode's emotional core emerges when the Halogram reveals Hal's self-awareness about his condition. "I'm not fearless because I'm brave. I'm fearless because I'm broken," the digital Hal tells John, acknowledging the psychological inheritance that drove both his father and grandfather to despair. This confession recontextualizes Hal's earlier ruthlessness and refusal to relinquish power as symptomatic of a man fighting against hereditary darkness rather than simple arrogance. Sheriff Kerry, when reunited with the Halogram, shares that Hal once described John as his "favorite football team"—impossible to stop rooting for despite constant disappointment. Actor Kyle Chandler's performance in the flashback scenes, combined with the episode's narrative structure, positions Hal as a victim of multigenerational mental illness rather than the antagonist many viewers perceived in earlier episodes.

The episode leaves Hal's death officially unsolved, though it provides strong narrative evidence against the theory that Hal took his own life, despite his family history. The Halogram makes clear that neither version of Hal would murder anyone intentionally. John's blackmail debts, Sheriff Kerry's grief, and the mysterious presence of Sinestro on Antaan's dead planet remain unresolved threads heading into the season finale. The discovery of the portal and the devastated alien world suggest that Hal's final mystery may extend beyond Earth and Rushville's small-town secrets into the broader cosmic stakes of the Green Lantern mythology.