From the beginning, Lanterns has used the town of Rushville to tell two connected mysteries set 10 years apart. Most of the series so far has followed Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) as they investigate an alien conspiracy in 2016. But the last scene of episode 1 jumps forward to 2026, when Sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald) brings John to Rushville’s football stadium to show him a body sitting in the bleachers.
Lanterns episode 6 finally catches up with that mystery, but we still don’t have the solution.
Warning: Spoilers follow for Lanterns episode 6.
With three episodes left, Lanterns has moved squarely into the DC Universe’s present day. Back in 2016, John and Hal identified Zoe Macon (Poorna Jagannathan) as the Manhunter hiding in Rushville, and exposing her turned the town into a war zone. John killed Zoe, briefly took Hal’s Green Lantern ring, and then surrendered it to the Guardians. In episode 6, we learn that a ringless Hal “took the fall” and spent 10 years in prison, only to wind up dead not too long after he moved back to Rushville to be with Kerry and try to set things right.
Episode 6 explores the fallout from Hal’s murder as John joins Kerry’s murder investigation. He even convinces her to deputize him so he can attend Hal’s autopsy and examine the evidence himself. The medical examiner determines that Hal was shot from the front at point-blank range. There are no signs that he tried to fight back, suggesting that he knew his killer or never considered them a threat.
So who killed Hal Jordan? Here are the possibilities, ranked from least to most likely.
5
John Stewart
John is the episode’s most obvious red herring, but it’s all but certain that he didn’t do it. John now runs a successful architecture company in Midway City. Early in the episode, his mother calls to tell him that Hal wants to apologize, so he drives to Rushville and meets Hal at the diner, only to learn that his mother was stretching the truth.
Their argument ends with John punching Hal and seemingly breaking his nose. John storms out, and Hal is killed that very night. Kerry assumes that whoever broke Hal’s nose also shot him, which makes John suspect number one if their meeting comes to light.
The episode never makes it clear exactly how far Midway is from Rushville, but when John first drives there, it seems to take him at least several hours to get there. John leaves Midway seemingly close to sunset, reaches Rushville after dark, drives home, and then goes back while it is still nighttime. John simply wouldn’t have time to kill Hal, especially since we see him get all the way back home.
4
Sheriff Kerry Kane
Kerry confronts this possibility herself over breakfast. “Ask me if I killed Hal,” she tells John. He refuses to, saying that she is “too real to fake cry.” He’s probably right, but Kerry has already fired her gun at Hal multiple times. And yet, everything in the episode suggests their love was genuine.
Hal began writing to Kerry from prison and returned to Rushville “for her” while trying to make amends with the rest of the town. Kerry reveals to John that she and Billy Macon had been separated for three years — mainly because of all the letters that Hal sent her — and says she never told their son Noah about it. They’d probably only been dating a few months at best, and she had no motive whatsoever, especially considering how much she helped Hal and John back in 2016, despite being supposedly loyal to Zoe.
3
Maggie
Maggie (Hannah Christine Shetler), the waitress who witnessed John and Hal’s confrontation at the diner, pours coffee for John and Kerry the next morning and deliberately dodges Kerry’s questions about Hal’s final hours. She claims Hal was alone, then gives John a wink. Maggie later approaches John at Hal’s house and demands exactly $314,536.27, saying that’s what the destruction of Rushville cost her. She also reveals that she was the little girl John encountered while walking through the wreckage after Zoe’s death. Back in episode 5, Maggie’s father lay dead on the ground, John said sorry, and then he handed her a watch he found.
Maggie has the motive and opportunity to kill Hal, but if she actually did it, then why not just tell Kerry everything she knows to set John up to take the fall? It makes more sense for her to be just a witness, but she also might know something else about who actually killed Hal. Then again, maybe her intentions are sinister enough that she killed Hal and wants to punish John as much as possible.
2
Billy Macon
Billy Macon (Jason Ritter) has nothing but hatred for Green Lanterns, especially Hal. After John activates Guy Gardner’s beacon in the town square, several angry locals confront him, and Billy quickly joins in. John easily beats up the entire group, ultimately leading to his arrest. So we’ve got a motive here, but much like Maggie, this is just indicative of the fact that everyone in Rushville hates Hal because their town was destroyed. Compare that to the bliss, peace, and prosperity that the Manhunter brought them.
Billy has every reason to despise Hal even more, however, since Hal and Kerry’s romance led to the end of their marriage. Doubly so because Hal and John’s actions led to the death of Billy’s father and step-mother. Billy almost seems like the too-obvious choice, however, and he’s always come across as a bit of a coward. Is he really capable of murdering someone in cold blood? Probably not.
1
Noah Macon
That leaves us with the prime suspect: Noah Macon.
Kerry and Billy’s son, Noah Macon, lost his grandfather and step-grandmother during the 2016 disaster. His town was partially destroyed, and then years later, Hal returned and began dating his mother. Over dinner with John and Kerry, Noah seems remarkably calm about all of this — he’s friendly and charming for someone his age. He is welcoming toward John, even after John beats up his father. He also appears unbothered by Kerry’s relationship with Hal. Isn’t all that… a little weird?
Hal was also killed in the bleachers of Rushville’s football stadium — and Noah has become some kind of hotshot on the town football team. That would make the location of the murder oddly poignant. Episode 5 also gave Noah two ominous moments. When Zoe says goodbye to Noah, she tells him, “Promise you’ll remember everything I told you.” One of her lessons is to “see without being seen,” which is the Manhunter philosophy in a nutshell. That is also kind of how Noah functions within the show. He is always nearby without drawing too much attention to himself, at least in any ways that would raise suspicion.
Why else make Zoe’s goodbye to Noah feel so loaded in episode 5? Noah has the strongest combination of access, motive, and thematic importance. Hal would also probably allow him to get close enough to pull the trigger, not perceiving any kind of threat. If Noah is half as smart as his step-grandma, then he’ll know that the best way to get away with murder is to never let anybody think you’re actually capable of it in the first place.
