After the explosive, propulsive “Lights Out”, it’s no surprise that Lanterns‘ sixth episode “Bad Optics” is a much quieter hour, one that feels the narrative weight of the show shifting away from 2016, and into the central mystery that’s been sitting (quite literally) since the end of the first episode. And though “Bad Optics” is a weird, sometimes discordant mix of exposition and character work, it’s certainly an effective hour in observing what has become of John Stewart in the decade since he left the Green Lantern ring on a bar in Rushville, Nebraska – and more importantly, doesn’t completely surrender itself to the larger DCU as it begins to incorporate itself back into its present-day story.
“Bad Optics” follows John Stewart in the hours and days following his first return to Rushville since the Manhunter’s violent little protective bubble was burst, and finally starts to push past the haunting image of Hal’s lifeless body as it sets up the third, conclusive act of its story. When we first see him in 2026, he’s pitching Midway City officials on $80 billion of panic rooms, while still facing questions about turning down the Lanterns and dodging calls from his seemingly-estranged parents (he’s started a company with one of his brothers and is funding the other’s music career, in attempts to mend some familial bridges). But as we see through the hour, more has changed about John besides his career; he’s more on edge, he curses a lot more – and he’s eating meat for the first time in his life. In other words, John has compromised; though he still clings to his choice to turn down the title of Green Lantern, there’s a sense John Stewart has lost something about himself, seemingly at a time when Hal Jordan was just beginning to find himself.
As we learn from a distraught (and now-divorced) Kerry, Hal spent ten years in prison writing letters to her, going so far as moving to Rushville after his release to atone for his sins. In the episode’s smartest move, it’s what we don’t see from Hal that resonates the most; his rejected attempts to reconcile with the community, his courtship of Kerry – and, of course, the eulogy he left for himself (delivered to his funeral by Carol Ferris, an old flame who clearly grew tired of his shit alongside everyone else). Through John’s few days in 2026 Rushville, we learn a lot about what happened to Hal as he retraces his steps through the town that changed John’s entire perspective on life; as we see, John’s whole strategy is selling shit to rich people he knows don’t need it (or wouldn’t have the chance to use, should a The Suicide Squad-like situation occur), trying to convince a city of 4 million people to protect their citizens by purchasing underground bunkers that, in total, would hold 800,000 people – in the time he’s had to himself, John has given up on the idea of protecting, or really even caring that much, about people.
Though “Bad Optics” probably spends a bit too much time talking about all of this, when it pulls back to show the effects of “Lights Out” on the town of Rushville and its two “heroes”, Lanterns remains a surprisingly palpable series about the powers of the emotions that drive the rings; willpower, anger, and fear. The best of these is probably when Kerry and John go to the coroner’s office to see Hal’s body; the dismissive, insulting medical examiner who can’t even muster up a bit of empathy for a man who met a violent death alone, going just short of spitting on his corpse in front of his girlfriend – and not sparing any love for John, either, refusing to talk to him out of anger and fear for what other hells he might reign down on their community, still reeling from their violent pull back towards reality (bet all that medical equipment gets used now!).
Less effective is the tacked-on subplot about the girl we saw John walk past as the dust began to settle in Rushville, who in 2026 tries to extort him for $300,000 when she realizes he’s lied to Kerry about seeing John before his death. With Sinestro apparently on the loose (as is casually mentioned to John when he’s visited by Guy Gardner), and the mystery around Hal’s death taking up so much space, this feels like a story literally taking place in a vacuum of a lesser series, one foregrounding a character who exists more as an idea, than something Lanterns has time to tangibly establish and build. It’s certainly a step down from horny super-robots and the intergalactic intrigue underlying the events across the four decades of Lanterns in its first five hours – and with two episodes left, is there really time to add on another story of false redemption for John and Hal?
But for the most part, “Bad Optics” keeps itself incredibly close to John Stewart, only letting the world and the other characters of Lanterns filter through to provide moments of perspective on just how much John has changed under the surface – I mean, this is a man who prepared himself to protect all of humanity, only to build doomsday bunkers for governments and the elite. John Stewart clearly has spent the last decade struggling to move past the events of Rushville; as Hal notes to him when John surprises him at the local diner, Hal’s not the only one who “fell” (you can tell this is a Lindelof script with all the religious connotations) the day the Manhunter died. Even when larger plot points go into motion (like the casually-announced news that Sinestro broke out of prison, or the glossed-over fact that Guy stole a Lantern ring from under the noses of the Guardians), “Bad Optics” refuses to move its lens away from Stewart – which makes for an intentionally myopic hour, as it both shrinks and enlarges the scale of the series on the fly.
It remains to be seen, of course, where Hal’s death will ultimately take Lanterns – but with only two episodes left (one of which I assume is going to incorporate the Hal backstory scenes we’ve seen in trailers all season), there certainly isn’t a whole lot of time to get there. Which either makes “Bad Optics” either an incredibly confident or arrogant episode of the series, with its absolute reluctance to push anything forward on-screen, all of its movement either coming in the void between 2016 and 2026, or as opening mechanisms of story to come (hell, even Guy takes flight offscreen… a budgetary note, no doubt, but befitting the theme of the hour) – only time will tell, of course, but “Bad Optics” certainly suggests the series is putting its best foot forward as it simultaneously wraps up its story and transitions into being a smaller piece of the larger DCU.
Other thoughts/observations:
- At least John is trying to convince people to not buy more guns with $30 billion, I’ll give him that.
- “I took the fall.” “No, you fell.”
- Hal barely reacting to John breaking his nose is one of those little signs of Hal’s infinite willpower, even when he’s at his most defeated. Just another terrific character note Kyle Chandler brings to life with such subtlety; his performance as Hal (and as Hal-ogram) continue to be such a highlight.
- Guy Gardner was an athletic director – not a gym teacher.
- So the show is very much setting up Noah to the Hal’s killer… but I’m not so sure. Though him “liking politics” and looking like a manosphere podcaster in waiting isn’t encouraging.
- Another subplot we don’t need: John’s brother Aaron being a recording artist, let’s hope it doesn’t turn into a Highest 2 Lowest situation.
- “Maybe it was just easier to fly than it was to stay on the ground… I hope I mattered.” Hal’s self-eulogy, where he imagined a big, important funeral for himself, is sad enough – those final lines are real stingers, though.
- Love the contrast of Guy complaining about the Lanterns image, after we saw him selling gas station energy drinks.
- “That gold tooth should be a fucking hate crime.”