Lanterns – Dirt and Stars review S1 E8
Lanterns reaches its season finale with Dirt and Stars wrapping up what’s been a richly rewarding eight episode journey.
The ratings for Lanterns have been so strong that it seems more likely that Dirt and Stars was the season finale and not the series finale, but the real question was “Did it stick the landing?” That’s an emphatic yes with just one very extremely unnecessary subplot (oh so slightly) gumming up an otherwise highly satisfying wrap up of the season’s big mystery.
Dirt and Stars kicks off with a flashback — like the series has been wont to do. This time it’s 2016 with Sheriff Kerry checking in on Hal after he lost the ring to John and Zoe’s been murdered. She’s sorry that the Guardians are going to hang him out to dry over this incident due to his reckless and selfish actions and that he’s going to have to answer for the Rushville tragedy.
Following his 10-year prison sentence, Kerry’s at the prison gate to greet him with a six pack and flowers — until she decides to ditch the flowers. Hal has had a rough time in Rushville and the citizens are giving him the serious stink eye while he’s at a restaurant with Kerry. To possibly relieve some of the tension for him, Kerry stands up and says that Hal served his time and deserves peace. Anyone that wants to threaten that peace will have to deal with her.
That’s a nice gesture, but it doesn’t amount to much as someone firebombs Hal’s house. At least he was able to get to Earl before falling through the floor. Hal awakens and Noah informs him that he’s got new skin and insists that Hal can’t tell Kerry that he healed him. That covers one big question for the season. Noah is (half?) Manhunter.
Dirt and Stars shifts to the present as John has questions for Sinestro, who’d rather talk to Hal…er, the Halogram. Noah broke Sinestro out of prison to learn how to kill a Guardian. To that end, Noah had Sinestro forge a lantern. John notices this lantern has been forged in a realm of fear. John might not be afraid, but the lantern might be. Sinestro suggests that fear can be the most powerful tool since it can be harnessed by a user who is aware, not blindly devoted to fearlessness. And bonus: this lantern can also charge John’s ring, but it comes at the cost of Halogram disappearing.
Halogram rightfully doesn’t trust Sinestro’s motives especially when Sinestro swears he can bring Hal back to life. Whatever fantasies do you want to peddle oh brainiac stuck in the fear planet? Sinestro says that Noah is struggling with his nurture vs nature upbringing, which is the green light John needed to hear to know there’s still a chance.
That theory gets tested when he emerges from the portal, which is no longer in the water tower wreckage, but Zoe’s old lab. He incapacitates John and takes the ring. Dirt and Stars sets up an actual important discussion. The series writers didn’t spend enough time with John and Noah, but they did have a few meaningful moments, so this moment didn’t feel so unearned.
Given the importance of this interaction, the writers really should have had some more scenes with them even if it meant tipping their hand with the big reveal to come. Noah asks why John killed his grandmother. Aaron Pierre has constantly delivered in the season, but he had so many stellar moments in Dirt and Stars.
John lets Noah’s question linger for a moment before explaining that Zoe knew she couldn’t stop herself or her nature — as evidenced earlier when she killed Abin Sur or raining satellite laser fire on Rushville — and needed John to kill her. And with her dead, no one would come looking for Noah.
Noah calmly states that he didn’t set the fire to Hal’s house but does confess to killing Hal. He asks John if he thinks Noah can overcome his programming. There’s some key irony in Noah’s question since John was programmed that his destiny was to be Green Lantern since he was a baby. Noah couldn’t have asked a better person about this dilemma.
Most times he just envisions a normal life while other times he just sees an endless nightmare. He puts the ring on the dashboard mirroring Hal’s actions so many times right before he was about to put John in a precarious position. As Noah walks over to the field to play with his friends in the big championship game he asks John for a favor — kill him, out of mercy like John killed Zoe. And please don’t let Noah see it coming.
In essence this does put John in another major decision. Eliminate the threat of the Manhunters once and for all, get some payback for Hal’s murder and save Rushville from another potential calamity. John calls on the Halogram, which doesn’t show up to offer any advice.
After more deliberation, John knows what he needs to do — confront Hal’s actual murderer. Kerry is watching the game from the entranceway. She tells John that Noah delayed his commitment so scouts could keep coming to the school and maybe some of his fellow students would get recruited.
John can relate to Kerry from a certain point of view as he’s come to understand that his mother — note, he doesn’t say Bernadette here — held her breath his entire childhood. Fear and love make people scared and scared people do anything. Kerry slightly disagrees. She was terrified.
She tells John that Hal came to her explaining that he knew about Noah. And wanted to make sure he was the only Manhunter before he could get Kerry away from Rushville. She had no desire to leave. Zoe imprinted some offspring DNA into Kerry via her replaced finger, which eventually led to Noah. Both Hal and Kerry are panicked with him insisting they have to leave because of how dangerous Noah is and Kerry gets even more rattled and shoots Hal just as he says he loves her.
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Kerry being the killer isn’t the big shock. A mother wanting to protect her child even to that extreme is hardly the most outrageous outcome. Throughout the series, Kerry had been portrayed as an unreliable ally — one who lied to maintain the status quo. As a sheriff of a town run by an alien and a militia protection force, being the sheriff was pretty light work. More than anyone, Kerry would do what was necessary to preserve it since she knew the alternative thanks to her time in Gotham.
The one thing John can’t make sense of is why Kerry called the one person who might discover what she did leading to one of the standout lines in Dirt and Stars: I ran away to Rushville to escape a monster. I needed to know if I was raising one.
John has already made his mind up. He’s not going to kill Noah, since he rightfully is concerned about becoming a monster and giving in to his worst instincts. John also knows the world is going to need someone who could stop him if that ever happened. And that person doesn’t have to be John since he doubts Hal would want her to spend the rest of her life in prison. Of course, if it’s a Rushville judge, she might get a medal for killing Hal.
Noah throws the winning TD and celebrates with Billy and Kerry before committing to Nebraska. At least Noah deserves a chance for a happy life.
Now it’s time to start resolving some subplots starting with the reason why this episode was titled Dirt and Stars. John uses the signal to summon Guy. Since John has a ring and a lantern, he’s a freelance Green Lantern. Guy is the lantern for Sector 2814, but John has Earth, or more appropriately, John has the dirt and the rest of the sector, the stars, goes to Guy.
Gardner isn’t thrilled with that arrangement and thinks the Guardians will come after John. Of course, John is the lone Green Lantern who knows the Manhunters are the creations of the Guardians, and he has Guy deliver a precise message that they will clearly understand. John doesn’t need to worry about them.
After Guy flies off, Halogram returns. He had been there, but letting John make his choices. After all, Hal’s gut tells him that John is going to be better at this than Hal. Halogram tells John to charge the ring and to not be afraid to be afraid. In a surprisingly touching moment in Dirt and Stars, Halogram asks, “for prosperity’s sake,” what was Hal’s final words and responds to John with “And I love you too, Junior.” I wasn’t expecting that moment to land as strongly as it did, but it was a perfect farewell to Hal and the incredible season long performance of Kyle Chandler.
John charges his ring with his own oath leading to a montage to wrap up some dangling subplots. He drops the money off to Maggie and it’s treated like some feel good moment when it was really a waste of time subplot with an undeserving side character blackmailing the main character. How again was John on the hook for Maggie’s life being ruined due to Zoe and Hal’s actions? Every scene spent on Maggie was less time devoted to establishing John having some bond with Noah.
In a much better subplot resolution, John returns to his family where he’s warmly greeted by his brothers as they’re smiling and laughing in a way that didn’t seem possible when they were children. Bernadette starts crying when he embraces her in a way to suggest that he’s no longer mad and resentful for the way she and John Sr. raised him.
John has a cool oath that makes sense for him. The flying CGI looks a tad dated, which maybe could have been hidden if he had a green glow around him. Or a costume — the main annoyance with Dust and Stars. The guidebook on these superhero origin seasons “clearly” states the hero’s final shot must feature the costume. Or at least teases it.
There wasn’t a post credit scene, which was disappointing especially since we didn’t get a montage showing what John did with Earl. Overall, Dust and Stars was an excellent conclusion to this season that should have DC Studios fans excited to see John make his big screen debut next year in Superman: Man of Tomorrow.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
Photo Credit: HBO Max
After watching Dirt and Stars, check out Green Lantern Rebirth on trade paperback at Amazon.
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