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DC Studios' Lanterns - Episode Five Review · The K.B. Radio Network

• 0:03
  hello everyone and welcome to the concession stand here on the kb radio network i am your host kevin reed and welcome to the review of dc studios lanterns episode 5 entitled
• 0:21
  lights out this has been an exciting season thus far the first four episodes i thought were premium
• 0:30
  television at least some of the best television we've received in 2026 thus far uh whether you're a comic book lover or just a fan of detective stories on television you know like
• 0:45
  true detective that this show is uh compared to this is the show for you so we arrived to episode five and let me just say off the bat,
• 0:57
  this was probably
• 0:59
  just me just for me i gotta give it a little more time to kind of let it simmer but just for me this was kind of the weaker episode it is weird to say because it was action-packed a lot of story went forward a lot of resolution came out of this episode but
• 1:22
  the reason being i was left with more questions than answers you
• 1:28
  by the end of this episode.
• 1:29
  And look,
• 1:31
  it's not necessarily a bad thing.
• 1:32
  We have three episodes remaining in this season,
• 1:36
  and I'm pretty sure we're going to get a resolution to the end of them.
• 1:40
  And as I review this episode,
• 1:44
  I'm going to express what my concerns are.
• 1:48
  Not so much concerns,
• 1:49
  but questions that I have going forward.
• 1:52
  But up to this point,
• 1:55
  it has been great.
• 1:56
  uh this was a good episode i would say the first four episodes were great episode five was just good i'll leave it at that i wasn't mad at it i didn't leave away like man this was this man they dropped the ball on this one or did i feel it was a filler episode no it's
• 2:15
  kind of it's weird it's just a weird place in this in this uh season so far i i just don't know where we're going Whereas I kind of knew.
• 2:26
  in the first four episodes and i i assume that's a good thing that that's a good thing uh to keep us on our toes but you know selfishly i wanted to be on top of things you
• 2:42
  know to have a somewhat of a clear picture going forward that's not to say that i was predicting everything that was going to happen the first four episodes because i didn't i didn't
• 2:53
  but it was good to speculate and kind of be in the ballpark as it stands right now i'm i'm not even in the stadium uh that that we're hitting but this episode episode five entitled lights out it begins with a flashback yet again to 2007 and now we get not
• 3:14
  the origin of carrie kane but her origin in rust field and so we find out that she's on the run
• 3:24
  She's running from Gotham.
• 3:25
  We don't know what the whole story is,
• 3:28
  but the little tidbits that we did get was her father was in prison.
• 3:34
  He was a snitch.
• 3:36
  Apparently,
• 3:37
  whoever he snitched on ordered a hit on him.
• 3:40
  They got him,
• 3:41
  but the contract extended to his family as well,
• 3:46
  meaning her.
• 3:47
  And so to hit men,
• 3:49
  follow her to Russville.
• 3:52
  She gets cornered in this cafe,
• 3:55
  and before the hitmen can execute their contract,
• 3:58
  Zoe pops up and saves the day,
• 4:02
  kills one of the hitmen,
• 4:04
  and leaves the other to bring back the message that they have indeed executed Carrie.
• 4:13
  The evidence they needed was her pinky.
• 4:15
  So Carrie had to cut off her own pinky finger and hand it to this guy.
• 4:21
  And that is a sacrifice that I don't know if I could do.
• 4:25
  I would probably give up my pinky,
• 4:27
  but somebody else will have to do it.
• 4:29
  I mean,
• 4:29
  you know,
• 4:30
  your pinky and your life,
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  of course,
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  you're going to choose your pinky.
• 4:34
  And so,
• 4:34
  well,
• 4:34
  your life,
• 4:35
  I should say.
• 4:36
  And so you're not going to go in a different path than she did.
• 4:41
  But I would I would not have done it myself.
• 4:46
  And so this is where we get the.
• 4:50
  first meet up with chloe and and carrie and there's an exchange there where uh not chloe uh zoe
• 5:01
  Zoe tells her that,
• 5:04
  look,
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  you seem like a person that's willing to make big sacrifices.
• 5:08
  You know,
• 5:10
  give up a part of yourself.
• 5:12
  And that's who I need to protect me.
• 5:15
  And that's where the bargain comes off.
• 5:17
  And that immediately sets up the weight of this Manhunter in Rustville and what she holds over the people in Rustville.
• 5:27
  That's why they are so protective of her.
• 5:30
  because not because they love her or cherish her so much yes she she cured cures them uh they're very profitable there uh uh in macon's case uh rid him of his cancer and so on and so forth yeah all that's great but
• 5:49
  it's not without his sacrifice you know they have to pay a price for this luxurious lifestyle that they live and you
• 5:59
  I thought that was fascinating because more often than not in TV and movies that you get these stupid reasons why people will protect certain people.
• 6:11
  It isn't just because the kind is a goodness of their hearts or whatever.
• 6:16
  It's just dumb reasons that a normal human being wouldn't do it.
• 6:22
  And you want to turn this Manhunter on his head.
• 6:26
  And the only way you can turn it,
• 6:28
  make the change.
• 6:29
  to being a sympathetic figure to somewhat of a villain or an anti-hero is to portray them like this that they're really out for themselves it's not it's not so much that she's there to help the people she's
• 6:47
  there just to save her own butt and if those people are you know get killed or are sacrificed and for her sake
• 6:59
  So be it,
• 7:00
  you know,
• 7:00
  so it was a nice switch.
• 7:02
  That was that's brilliant writing.
• 7:04
  I really did like that.
• 7:06
  And it was all explained away fairly simple and easy and quick.
• 7:10
  You know,
• 7:10
  we didn't need a whole episode or two episodes to flush that out.
• 7:16
  Good,
• 7:17
  good stuff there.
• 7:17
  Good writing here from the team behind Lanterns.
• 7:21
  So we flash forward back to the present time.
• 7:25
  We see Jon Stewart.
• 7:27
  He's in the car that we left.
• 7:28
  off on in episode four that uh hell crashed into a pole to not kill john but just just take him out of the equation for a while unbeknownst to him uh that it was devastating because it ultimately
• 7:46
  was going to kill him if it wasn't for zoe but once again zoe had arterial motives for saving john you know she left him in there purposely until the car exploded
• 7:58
  Just so she can have leverage over him.
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  I thought once again,
• 8:03
  another another nice nugget,
• 8:05
  a nice a nice little log to put on this fire.
• 8:11
  That is the villainous turn of Zoe,
• 8:15
  the manhunter.
• 8:16
  So she does let him burn in there.
• 8:20
  We see that everybody in Rustville is starting to mobilize and become.
• 8:27
  these protectors now now they're they're awaiting the arrival of this hit squad with uh antoine and so uh hal jordan he tries to strike up a deal with antoine uh that to whereas he'll
• 8:43
  go after making and hal while they're fighting it out hal can go get zoe and bring her to the uh guardians because hal's whole motivation here is not
• 8:56
  to be replaced and if he brings back the manhunter he would be irreplaceable at that point you know because he is still doing the lord's work if you will so that's his motivations he don't want to be replaced and it becomes this this this
• 9:13
  selfish thing when that becomes because he's been selfish the entire series but uh great plan unfortunately didn't work out in his favor in the end
• 9:26
  So,
• 9:28
  John,
• 9:28
  he's in the hospital.
• 9:29
  He's bandaged from head to toe from the burns and scarring from that explosion.
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  Chloe,
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  I keep saying Chloe,
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  Zoe,
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  somebody somebody named Chloe must be talking about me.
• 9:42
  I don't know anybody named Chloe,
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  but if you're out there,
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  hey,
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  but Zoe,
• 9:49
  Zoe,
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  that's when she gives the ultimatum to save his life,
• 9:54
  to restore him.
• 9:55
  In exchange for hell.
• 9:58
  So...
• 10:00
  of course john does it but john is always two steps ahead of everybody he's two steps ahead of pal he's two step ahead of zoe and making and he's also two steps ahead of the guardians and so john
• 10:17
  is truly the alpha here and that's why zoe chose him you know uh antoine said that told uh hal that the man hunters always go after the alpha you
• 10:30
  always goes after the alpha so uh there immediately when we first met zoe in episode one she never did converse with hal she went straight at john because she she already knew that this was the one i needed to get
• 10:48
  out of the you know take out of the equation meanwhile we have hal confronting carrie uh carrie
• 10:57
  she unloads two clips at john because she she's telling him that look she can't uh zoe can't hear us but she can see us and i gotta show that i'm i'm fighting fighting fighting you off you know and so carrie
• 11:14
  is trying to employ hal to leave we was at peace before you showed up just leave and hell is i can't do that i just can't leave here without the manhunter and so Hold up.
• 11:27
  Ultimately,
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  we have
• 11:29
  Antoine and his squad.
• 11:32
  They converge on the Macon compound,
• 11:36
  take out everybody,
• 11:37
  blows up half of the compound,
• 11:40
  and there's the confrontation between Antoine and
• 11:45
  Macon, where Macon was disguising himself as the Manhunter.
• 11:50
  And eventually,
• 11:53
  eventually,
• 11:54
  he couldn't put up to act too much more.
• 11:57
  Antoine killed him,
• 11:59
  cut out his heart,
• 12:00
  and in all of HBO glory,
• 12:02
  showed him pulling out Bacon's heart and seeing that it didn't crystallize and that it was all a ruse.
• 12:10
  Now,
• 12:11
  he's coming after Hal and Zoe to find the real Manhunter.
• 12:16
  And
• 12:17
  Hal, he's protecting or trying to protect the city from these onslaught of...
• 12:26
  satellite laser bombs and uh while doing that he is uh going after zoe he finds her in the field is about to apprehend her and take her uh they
• 12:42
  they detonate the water tower which is really a disguise for this weapon or this this darkness cloud thing that we saw teased in the last episode
• 12:54
  That kind of neutralizes them because they can't see.
• 12:58
  And so while this cloud is covering them.
• 13:02
  Now,
• 13:02
  this was an awesome scene.
• 13:03
  I love this POV style action sequence here when Hal does manage to grab the night vision goggles off of one of the men and puts it on.
• 13:16
  And we get to see from his POV as he's dodging bullets and taking out soldiers and watching.
• 13:23
  where zoe is still handcuffed to the helicopter and uh then he notices antoine coming and he's beeping that's meaning he's about to come and detonate and kill everybody there uh he takes out antoine in awesome awesome little sequence there goes back after chloe noticed that she uh i keep saying chloe zoe uh cut cut off her own arm to get away from the cuffs um
• 13:52
  He goes back to the hotel where he needs to charge his ring.
• 13:58
  And then we get the confrontation with Hal and
• 14:02
  John. And we get our
• 14:05
  Frodo and Gollum fight on Mount Doom dedication here.
• 14:12
  That was a Lord of the Rings reference,
• 14:14
  people.
• 14:16
  We get them battling over the precious,
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  but in this case,
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  it's the ring.
• 14:21
  And...
• 14:22
  It was a brutal fight.
• 14:24
  Very,
• 14:25
  very brutal fight between those two that was bound to happen.
• 14:30
  It had to be that brutal.
• 14:33
  I enjoyed it for that much.
• 14:35
  Of course,
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  John overpowers and just beats poor Hal half to death.
• 14:42
  While they're fighting,
• 14:43
  Zoe sends another laser,
• 14:46
  satellite laser bomb to the motel,
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  blows up half the motel.
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  Hal is trapped under the debris,
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  whereas
• 14:55
  John, he scurries off.
• 14:58
  he runs off and so when zoe comes into the room and sees hal under the debris uh about to kill him uh hal tells her that look uh john didn't john john wasn't gonna kill me if he wanted to kill me he would have just killed me you
• 15:13
  know there's one thing i know about him he's not a coward he wouldn't just run off and so zoe is like well why did he leave you under the rubble for me to get you and he's like as a decoy as bait
• 15:27
  And then we see that
• 15:29
  John ran to this billboard where he can get the flank or get the good vantage angle to pop
• 15:38
  Zoe.
• 15:39
  And this was a really good scene from
• 15:42
  Aaron Pierre after he shot her.
• 15:47
  Just that one single tear to roll down his eye.
• 15:50
  That was powerful,
• 15:51
  man.
• 15:51
  I felt that because he did have feelings for her,
• 15:54
  of course.
• 15:54
  You know,
• 15:55
  they had.
• 15:56
  a connection and but he know this is this is what he had to do and he shot her and so he goes back retrieves the lantern retrieves the ring from hal and and leaves him there but hal tells him before he go look they're replacing me they
• 16:16
  also gonna replace you and he walks off and uh he meets up with laura lenny the guardian at this bar
• 16:25
  uh gives her the crystallized heart of zoe and puts the ring back on the table and walks out and that's how the episode ends this was this is where i was like okay where are we going like
• 16:43
  where are we going with this uh all this was interesting all this was good all this was real written the action sequences was amazing the the annihilation you
• 16:55
  of rust field was beautifully shot i thought that was bananas crazy awesome all of it was great it all it checked all of kevin reed's boxes it's just moving forward once the episode ended i was like well okay here's
• 17:12
  my questions this is where i have more questions okay we established the manhunter thing okay the manhunter is now gone so now i'm asking myself
• 17:24
  well what's going on in 2026 why was hal murdered in rustville in the stadium sitting in the exact same seat he sat in when he first arrived in rustville in 2016 why
• 17:42
  is he in rustville that's question number one why was he in rustville in 2026 it it didn't make any sense
• 17:51
  And of course,
• 17:52
  the second question is,
• 17:53
  well,
• 17:53
  who killed him?
• 17:55
  Who killed him at this point?
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  You know?
• 17:58
  So now you're like,
• 18:00
  OK,
• 18:01
  but I have a theory on that.
• 18:03
  I think I do have an answer to that question,
• 18:05
  but I'll get to that at the very end.
• 18:07
  The third question is,
• 18:10
  OK,
• 18:11
  being as though this happened in 2016,
• 18:15
  John left the ring.
• 18:17
  John's gone.
• 18:18
  So nobody has the ring.
• 18:21
  is this where guy garner gets the ring because like the hell said he's the only human the only man from earth to have the ring so guy garner has to come into play at some point continuity rise it only makes sense and if you saw the trailers for this
• 18:40
  show you know that guy garner is set to appear i didn't see the uh trailer for next week's episode so he's probably in that one but uh
• 18:50
  He has to play a role here.
• 18:51
  That's probably how he gets the ring.
• 18:54
  But that brings up another question.
• 18:57
  Why would John be searching for the ring?
• 19:01
  You know,
• 19:02
  when he came to Rustfield in 2026 and found Hal dead in the stadium,
• 19:08
  he immediately went to his hand looking for the ring,
• 19:11
  and it wasn't there.
• 19:14
  So
• 19:16
  I would think John would know.
• 19:18
  that guy garner has the ring he's been doing superhero stuff all around the world he's been helping uh he's been with the justice game he's been helping uh uh superman and all this other good stuff so he knows about guy garner so that doesn't make any sense that doesn't quite add up there i'm
• 19:40
  confused i'm just i'm just a little confused how they're going to wrap this up how they're going to tie all this together.
• 19:49
  That's where I'm kind of thrilled off at.
• 19:52
  Now,
• 19:53
  the murder of hell of it all.
• 19:56
  there are a lot of theories going around and i pretty much can buy in with all of them really because they all uh that i've seen online and whatnot they all kind of make sense uh number one yes hal is dead the other theory was okay that wasn't hal that was the manhunter
• 20:16
  taking hal's place well that's been thrown out the window the other one the one i just came up with of course somebody else
• 20:25
  probably came up with it but i didn't hear it so i'm gonna take credit so the other theory that i i i've conjured up is that it was carrie kane that killed him but
• 20:43
  to to kind of poo-poo on my own theory why was she called john why would she call john there you know so
• 20:54
  That's what I'm just I'm all over the place.
• 20:57
  I'm just throw it off and it could be premature.
• 21:00
  And just remember,
• 21:01
  let's not forget in the first episode,
• 21:04
  I was thrown off by that.
• 21:05
  I was thrown off by the fact that John was dead.
• 21:08
  Not John.
• 21:08
  Hal was dead at the end of that episode when they flash forward and it just threw me off.
• 21:15
  But later on,
• 21:17
  it kind of is set better with me after I thought about it for a while.
• 21:21
  And so.
• 21:23
  those concerns were gone but now those concerns are back you know because i don't know how we're going to get to that point but i'm excited to experience it uh like i said this was a good episode it doesn't tarnish the show this was this still is an awesome show all
• 21:42
  of them are way above average including this one this one is just slightly lower than the other ones in my humble opinion but that's just my opinion
• 21:53
  just my i'm a lowly old man i don't know anything i don't know much you know but i want to know your opinion did you enjoy episode five of lanterns uh what do you think i want to know your theories what what do you think is going on what's more to come there's three episodes it's three more had this been the penultimate episode okay
• 22:16
  i kind of would have felt a little better because I know that they're going to start.
• 22:21
  chugging along with you know full steam ahead and getting some of these uh plot holes filled but with three episodes that's that's some scratching going on you know you're gonna have to scratch this alone or
• 22:36
  is the next three episodes gonna take place in the present the present present like 2026 uh solving this hal jordan murder we'll see i want to know your theories
• 22:50
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• 23:02
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• 23:11
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• 23:12
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• 23:13
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• 23:17
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• 23:20
  to the concession stand here on the kb radio network everybody thank you for joining me for this review of episode 5 to dc studios lanterns oh man what a show i want you all to know that i love you continue
• 23:37
  to love everyone and until we speak again you all be blessed