‘Lanterns’ Episode 2 Deep Dive
House of R
Joanna Robinson and Mallory Rubin return from a memorable live event at Camden Yards in Baltimore, where they hosted House of R Live during
Key takeaways
- The live event in Baltimore was described as a life highlight, with strong fan engagement and emotional connections to the community.
Main topics
- Lanterns Season 1 Episode 2: Trust Fall
- Live podcast event at Camden Yards
Notable quotes
'It was a life highlight. It was an incredible experience. I'm so proud of you. I cried.' – Mallory Rubin
Conclusion
The episode closes with heartfelt gratitude to fans, team members, and the
Transcript preview
Speaker 5 (0:00) Hello, welcome back to House of R. I'm Joanna Robinson. That's Mallory Rubin. And we're here today to talk to you about Lantern, season one, episode two, Trust Fall. Yes. Mallory. Joanna. We're back from Baltimore. Ah, in the name of Tom Osborne Speaker 4 (0:20) or whoever it is you worship. Speaker 4 (0:23) What a wonderful few days we've had. Delightful to be back here with you at the crack of dawn. Speaker 5 (0:29) Crack of dawn. Speaker 4 (0:30) And Speaker 5 (0:30) we're mere hours away from our midnight screening of essentially of Labyrinth. So it's going to be a full day for us. A lot of caffeine ahead of us. Yes. Probably a couple Advil for me at least. I don't know about you. So let's get into this slightly unhinged podcast. Can't wait. Right after this. Speaker 1 (0:52) The Speaker 3 (0:53) city moves fast, but your vibe, that's different. Sharper, smoother, more alive. Speaker 2 (1:04) The new Speaker 3 (1:08) Honda City isn't just made to drive, it's made to feel. The new Honda City, all new vibe. Speaker 5 (1:31) programming reminders. Yes. It's Monday when you're listening and watching this unless something has gone dramatically wrong in the edit, which I'm sure it won't. Jeez. And so in general, I just want to put that caveat out there in case. Yeah, who knows? Knock on wood, there's a lot of people here today. You Speaker 4 (1:47) think the fantasy guys are just going to pop into the edit bay and take over? Yeah. Speaker 5 (1:50) The Speaker 4 (1:50) Heifetz cut? Could be. Honestly, Speaker 5 (1:52) it would be great. What Speaker 4 (1:54) about the Speaker 5 (1:54) Danny Kelly Speaker 4 (1:54) cut? Speaker 5 (1:54) The DK cut would be Speaker 4 (1:56) elite. Just. Incredible. The fantasy Speaker 5 (1:58) football guys are here. The Watch is here today. There's a lot going on here at Sycamore. But we're here today to talk to you about Lanterns, as we will, hopefully, every Monday going forward. That is our plan. Oppenheimer! Speaker 4 (2:10) Yes. Speaker 5 (2:11) Again, unless something goes dramatically wrong tomorrow, Oppenheimer will be coming out later this week. So, that is very exciting. Sean Fantasy is here to wrap up our Nolan rewatch project. Speaker 4 (2:24) Thrilling. Speaker 5 (2:25) And then Buffy season five, parts one and two are on the horizon. We got a lot at the, I mean, thank you, Baltimore. Thank you, everyone on the Eastern Seaboard. That's right. Thank you to folks from like Florida and like all over the place who came to see you. Florida was wild. Detroit. Yeah, Detroit. To throw out the first pitch at the Orioles-Yankees game. Don't worry about the score. It doesn't matter. Speaker 4 (2:48) But Molly threw out the pitch. It was amazing. We did House of Our Live. It was House of Our Night at Camden Yards. And it was honestly just a life highlight. It was wonderful. It was incredible. The bad babies rule. Thank you to the O's for hosting Speaker 5 (2:57) us. Speaker 4 (2:57) There Speaker 5 (2:58) were hundreds of listeners there. We tried to talk to as many of them as we could. We did not see a lick of the game because we were just a-meeting and a-greeting. Speaker 4 (3:07) But everyone was so lovely. But there was a lot of, Speaker 5 (3:08) like, Buffy enthusiasm among the crowd. There were a few spike shirts, which Speaker 4 (3:12) was great to see. Delightful. A lot of bad babies in their custom. Bad Baby and House of Armour, which also a thrill. And Speaker 5 (3:17) who would you say won the Apple Wars at Camden Yards? I would say that, as usual, Speaker 4 (3:20) Team Green feels more compelled to express support because they know how badly Team Green needs it. Sure. Speaker 5 (3:26) Green Apple after Green Apple enthusiast greeted us in Baltimore, and that's just a fact. So Speaker 4 (3:32) thank you to everyone. Thank you to our entire team who came out with Speaker 5 (3:35) us. House of R Speaker 4 (3:36) squad, Ringer squad, Spotify squad. What would we do without Elizabeth Fehrman? You ever think about it? I cry when I think about it. Elizabeth, astonishing. Elizabeth, Tessa, the best. Who Speaker 5 (3:45) like organizes the whole thing and then also boots on the ground is taking every single photo with our listeners. You know what I mean? Just like doing everything. Arjuna, Carlos, Jomie were Speaker 4 (3:53) there. Carlos had to miss the whole game because Speaker 5 (3:55) he was editing the podcast. Speaker 4 (3:57) Jordan from Spotify was there. And then for the O's, I mean, Patrick. Incredible. You got to meet Eve and Kevin. Kevin Brown crashed the live event. That was wonderful. Voice of the Orioles. And Danny Heifetz was there. Heifetz was, I would say, inextricable from the experience, which was one of the most memorable days of my Speaker 5 (4:13) life. Danny Heifetz was giving us like mother bear energy. And it was just like incredibly sweet and kind. Speaker 4 (4:20) Mallory, how are you feeling? Genuinely, Speaker 5 (4:22) it Speaker 4 (4:23) was a life highlight. It was an incredible experience. I'm so proud of you. I cried. There were some glistening eyes. Speaker 5 (4:30) Yeah, it was lovely. Speaker 4 (4:31) I was very much in a state of like, until the last second, you know, is this real? Is this happening? Is this legit? Is this a big prank? And I was very stressed for various reasons heading into it. And then the day itself was just euphoric. Just a joy to be there with you, to get to bring you and our house of our family home. You got to meet my family. You got to meet so many of my best buds who were there. You got to see part of my hometown. And you got to go to Camden. You know, one of the genuine sacred temples and spaces, not only in baseball and in sports, but in my life, certainly. A Speaker 5 (5:07) beautiful Speaker 4 (5:07) field. Wonderful. Gorgeous. To be there, to get to do the live show, to get to do House of R at the Warehouse before the game, and then to get to go down on the field and we got to take a bunch of photos. The O's gave us custom jerseys. That was insane. Incredible. And I got a pair of the City Connects. Yeah. Which I had missed the drop for. I mean, I tried for the drop, but I didn't get it. That Speaker 5 (5:25) was just like such a perfect gift for you. You were just sort of like, wow, you guys know me. You guys really know Speaker 4 (5:30) me. I felt seen, known, and understood. Thank you, Patrick. And the bad babies were... Just as always, a delight during the pod itself. That was so fun and wonderful. Go down and do the pitch. Just incredible. Speaker 5 (5:45) really cool and great and fun. Speaker 4 (5:47) And then we got to hang with the bad babies in the Pure Wager Pavilion out in Centerfield for the whole game. And it was just like a delight. It was really surreal and wonderful. And I'm thrilled that we got to do it. And I hope that we're invited back in 2027, 2028, 2029. Frankly, as long as we're making House of R. We would like to make this an annual event. Let's just throw this out there to the Baltimore Orioles, Patrick, if you're listening. We heard from a lot of people who were like, I wish I had been there. I know. The tickets were sold out. Speaker 5 (6:13) I Speaker 4 (6:13) would have come. Yeah. Speaker 5 (6:14) Let's do it again. Let's run it back. Round two. Yeah. Bigger, slightly bigger venue. Speaker 4 (6:19) Than the warehouse. Oh my God. So it was just incredible. Thank you for doing it with me. I won't truly remember it until I die. I'm right now, you know, I'm not like often posting on social media, but I am like how many Instagram posts is too many before it becomes embarrassing. We're going to find out. Speaker 5 (6:34) We're going to find out. I feel like I've done more than you have. And that's incorrect. You were there right Speaker 4 (6:39) away. That's incorrect. But this is how I know you're like Speaker 5 (6:43) flood the feed. You're a creature Speaker 4 (6:44) of the internet. You know how it's done. I'm like, no. I gotta go hit Pickles Pub and then, oh no, in 24 hours it passed. You were there too. I haven't been to Pickles in a thousand years. That was also fun just to be home. We Speaker 5 (6:57) had some obstacles also in Baltimore. Anyway, Speaker 4 (6:59) we should talk about lanterns. There's a lot to talk about. We'll probably keep talking about this Baltimore Speaker 5 (7:05) experience until we die. Will we do Speaker 4 (7:07) a live show at some point? Speaker 4 (7:10) In Rushville, Nebraska? Speaker 5 (7:12) No. Speaker 4 (7:14) I'm open to it. Okay. I am open to doing a live pod from the field. Give us some Pioneers Speaker 5 (7:20) merch. Is Rushville, Nebraska a real place? I think Speaker 4 (7:24) so. Speaker 5 (7:24) Is it? Speaker 4 (7:25) Okay, Speaker 5 (7:25) maybe then. I thought it was fictional. Okay, spoiler warning. A little different this time than last week. Speaker 4 (7:30) In general, we say comics canon is Speaker 5 (7:34) fair game. We will talk about it. To give context, we're not going deep, deep, deep, deep into comics lore. There are some storylines that we were just sort of like, huh, do we want to, like, does the casual listener want to know about what happened to Hal Jordan in this particular storyline? We weren't sure. We're actually quite. we're wondering if it's going to be a key part of this season. Right, and genuinely don't Speaker 4 (7:57) know, but if it is and then we've talked about it, it's like... Yeah, then does it feel like a spoiler for people? Right, when it wasn't intended to be. Speaker 5 (8:02) So we're being Speaker 4 (8:03) cautious. So we're going to do like a Speaker 5 (8:05) rapid fire sort of a comics lore, really more of a listener theory corner because we got a lot of listener emails about these comic storylines. So we will have a section at the end where we will give you fair warning that... If you want to be hypervigilant about spoilers, this section is coming. We're not going to have, we may or may not have our usual sort of like horn sound, but we will definitely with our brains and our hearts and our minds and our mouths give you warning to leave if you Speaker 4 (8:35) don't want to know. Speaker 5 (8:36) Anything else? Speaker 4 (8:37) No, I think that sounds exactly right. Maybe we'll expand that section as we go across the season. We'll see. Who knows? Who knows? Let's go now to our opening snapshot. Speaker 5 (8:51) Quick facts. Episode two, Trust Fall. Yes. Directed by James Haas, written by Vanessa Baden, Kelly, and Chris Monday, or Bodden, maybe. Anyway, Vanessa is also, I believe, a producer on this show. Week two reception for Lanchers. Just really quickly checking in on the old unreliable tomato meter. The critic score has gone up 94 % from critics. Wow. Fan score has gone slightly down 82 % from fans. Still quite good. Yep. Still quite good. And then we didn't have numbers when we recorded our podcast for episode one. But with the usual caveats when they're like, best HBO Max debut on a Sunday when the rain conditions were this or whatever. But like quite a good debut. Speaker 5 (9:37) Outperformed It, Welcome to Derry, The Penguin, and True Detective Night Country. So, like, pretty solid numbers. And with every expectation that they'll sort of, like, go up and up from there. But, like, a pretty good start for True Detective in general. Mallory Rubin, Episode Speaker 4 (9:52) 2. You loved Episode 1. How did you feel about Episode 2? I quite enjoyed it. I really did. I think that... Speaker 4 (10:00) splitting because so much of there were a lot of things that worked for me about the premiere but so much of what worked about this as not only about the first episode is not only an episode of television but as a like an onboarding into this experience of this series was the the energy between the rapport between Hal and John and so to split them up at the beginning of this episode could have gone so wrong. Ballsy. Yeah, I thought it was really bold and really effective because it not only shows us how they're each navigating life and what they're pursuing and how they think, how does Hal go and conduct an investigation, do some true detecting, right? It allows us to understand, you can only really understand a relationship if you understand the people inside of it, right? And so to have glimpsed them as a duo first and then get to see how they navigate the field and their circumstances on their own, but still find creative ways, like the phone call when John has arrived at Hal's house. And not only are they interacting by saying things to each other, even though they're not in the same physical space, you know, as we'll talk about more when we get to that scene. That's like such an intimate thing and such a revealing and illuminating stretch to have John walk through Hal's nearly empty home. What does that tell him? You've Speaker 5 (11:20) not been Speaker 4 (11:20) to my Speaker 5 (11:20) home yet. Well, I haven't been invited. You have. The door's open. Oh, Speaker 4 (11:24) the old standing invite book. That's what I do and we all know that's bullshit. I know. Speaker 5 (11:30) Turnabout's fair play. Speaker 4 (11:33) So I really loved... splitting them up. I thought it worked quite well. And then obviously they're brought back together at the end. And not only are they brought back together, they're brought back together with a ticking clock. This new 48-hour circumstance, the Manhunter, the hunt for the Manhunter is on. I thought once again, the way that this episode found the balance between the grounded, rooted Rushville, Oracle City stretches and... the glimpses and peppering in of comic book elements. You know, we end this episode with not only Hal Jordan in the suit after seeing John find the suit, find the lantern, power charge the ring, we get a rushed, hurried vow. Hal suits up, flies into space, and is talking to Sinestro at the end of this episode. So I thought that was also really smart. We're only two episodes in, largely in our canvas jackets. in the small town in Nebraska, and then we end in space with Sinestro. So we're signaling we are still in a Green Lantern story, even though this has been so deliberately crafted in this kind of tonal space. So I'm just really great. There's a lot of interesting shipping fodder here for the Carrie Halheads out there. Oh, I thought it was for the Sinestro Halheads. That as well. And then obviously the most important thing in the entire episode is that we meet Earl Jordan. You know, Hal Jordan Peck guy. You thought I was in before, folks? My God. Speaker 5 (12:58) Are you a good gardener? Can you keep plants alive? Speaker 4 (13:02) Wouldn't know. I haven't really tried. Speaker 5 (13:04) What if it required a lot of Tupperwares of beef and bison? Speaker 4 (13:10) As you know, our fridge at pretty much any time is mostly just full of leftovers. Beverages? Beverages, usually. We don't have a lot of food in the house. We have a lot of snacks in the pantry and a lot of ice cream in the freezer. And the fridge is mostly just beverages. And then we order a lot of food. So I think I could clear the necessary space for some beef bison. blend. I have this in the notes Speaker 5 (13:27) later, but I just need to get, like, address it Speaker 4 (13:29) right now. Do it. Really shocking setup, honestly. Like, delighted to meet Earl Jordan. Wonderful, I am. Speaker 5 (13:34) Delighted to find out that Hal not only has a carnivorous plant, alien plant that's Speaker 4 (13:40) his, Speaker 5 (13:40) like, pet, his pal or whatever, but has given it his last name. It's Speaker 4 (13:44) so Speaker 5 (13:44) sweet. It's very sweet. So to see the stacks of Tupperware that say Earl Jordan. He's meal prepping for Earl. It's very charming. From a food storage point of view. You've got concerns. I am someone who does like regularly like cook meat in the house and you have to rotate it between the freezer and then defrost it and then heat it unless you're buying fresh all the Speaker 4 (14:03) time. Speaker 5 (14:04) That much thawed meat in the fridge is such cause for alarm for me. And I know that Hal didn't know necessarily that he was going out of town, but even if he was in town, that much raw thawed meat. right next to where you're keeping your bottle of Coke and your ketchup. And Speaker 4 (14:21) your Speaker 5 (14:21) Coors Speaker 4 (14:21) Light, Speaker 5 (14:22) yeah. Is a no. Well, Speaker 4 (14:25) there are, I think, two possibilities. One, Hal maybe not thinking so much about food safety. That strikes me as possible. Two, and this would be a little bit of an asterisk on the Hal Jordan peck. I'm Hal Jordan. Speaker 4 (14:41) Does Earl possibly just need to eat like 12 times a day? Like, Speaker 5 (14:45) is that maybe just two days worth of food? Yeah, sweet little sunfire needs to devour people. Exactly. And then Speaker 4 (14:50) I shift into... Speaker 5 (14:52) It's irresponsible to leave your pet like that. Speaker 4 (14:54) What was the plan? Yeah. Hal, you're popping all over the galaxy. Nobody on call to check in and feed Speaker 5 (15:00) Earl. Yeah, he's just supposed to be going out to tacos with Johnny. And then he, like, you know, fucked off to Nebraska. So he didn't, like, have a plan in place. But, yeah, I understand that he doesn't have a lot of attachments. We understand that this is a key part of his character. But you need to have, like, a pet sitter that, you know, someone, a person. Someone's definitely cleaning that house. That Speaker 4 (15:19) property is immaculately kept despite being devoid of possessions. The grounds are manicured. The grounds are stunning. Someone's cleaning Speaker 5 (15:24) all of the empty rooms. There's a little Speaker 4 (15:26) robot snake in the pool. Speaker 5 (15:27) Like someone Speaker 4 (15:28) is checking it. So maybe someone's feeding Earl, but Hal wanted John to go check in still. Anyway, I just have food Speaker 5 (15:34) safety Speaker 4 (15:35) concerns. Speaker 5 (15:35) Listen, in Speaker 4 (15:36) our era of constant food recalls and food parallels, I think this is a good flag on your part. Speaker 5 (15:40) Okay, great. Here's what I want to say. I also really enjoyed this episode. I appreciate it as like... a piece of entertainment, a piece of storytelling, and then also as like a, not to like say something kind of douchey, like someone who like studies how TV is put together. Sure. I thought this was really masterfully crafted because when you are launching a world like this for people and you need to introduce a lot of rules, this episode is heavy with exposition. really heavy. You mentioned the suit. We get the suit, we get the lantern, we learn the rules of different things. We learn about Manhunters in the first place. There's just a lot to learn inside of this episode. And it is really deftly deployed. And we'll talk about some screenwriting tricks that they used to make sure that it all felt like it moved at a quick pace. And there's a lot of showing, not telling. But there's also a lot of telling in this episode. And oftentimes, that can go very poorly. But to your point, they didn't really bog down the premiere with a ton, a ton, a ton of exposition. There was a lot, but like, it wasn't like, here's the lantern, here are the rules of lanterns, here's that, this, that, and the other thing. So I thought that was smart to wait till episode two to do that. Episode one focus, as you pointed out, was really on that, like, Hal-John relationship. And then, yeah, I just really enjoyed, not just the two of them separated to see how they work on their own, but also to see how both of them work without the ring. Like, who are they depowered? Who is Hal after the last 5 % of the ring kicks off and he falls and he spits out gravel and he has, like, all those naked alien corpses around all just by him. So just, like, grit and ingenuity, you know? And Jon... So jealous. Jon, who's not a, like, superhero without, you know, he doesn't have, like, superpowers necessarily, but he holds his own in a fight with, like... like obviously super powered aliens. Yeah. You know, and the fight on the freeway and... Speaker 4 (17:43) I Speaker 5 (17:43) was listening to the official podcast and they were talking about how I had already noted like what a good onscreen runner Aaron Pierre is, but they noted that like. The stunt performer spot. That he was like a track star. And they shot it with a double, a stunt double. And they're like, actually, Aaron goes faster. That's amazing. So they swapped Aaron in for that. And I was just sort of like. Incredible. You could tell because the camera doesn't have to hide his face and it's actually him. So like this is this is such a promising action star in the making. Like so the you know. know, the places he could go after this. I've also been having a really fun time in the last week. You know, I mentioned that I was like familiar with the Green Lantern basic lore, but I've been having a really good time sort of like when I can grab time between Trust of Baltimore and stuff like that, digging into sort of the Green Lantern comics history and like what the character has meant over time and how that has changed the different, of course, people have had the monikers, but also just thinking a lot about how uh the green lantern no matter his moniker or her moniker um is uh is a superhero that really engages uh writers and artists because you know john stewart hal jordan whoever they are that character is like a collaborative storyteller with the person who's making the art. So because the comic writers and artists are crafting the story, they're drawing the story, and they're writing the story. But let's say Hal Jordan is also actively participating in the story because depending on what he decides to create, that determines, like, where the story goes from there. So, like, Speaker 4 (19:17) Green Speaker 5 (19:18) Lantern as a storyteller superhero and why that has really engaged the creatives behind this character. Speaker 4 (19:27) It's a great show. Speaker 5 (19:28) And then there's, like, a bunch of other stuff that I will talk about as we go. But, like, that's just been, like, really fun for me to educate myself a bit more on this character and what this character has meant to the various people who have written. him and occasionally her over the years. It's a Speaker 4 (19:44) great flag early in the pod. And like, we got a few fun little nuggets on that front, acknowledgements of that idea in this episode. Something like at the end, you know, obviously everything with John manifesting the bird and what that tells us about his prodigious abilities. But, you know, something at the very end, like, you know, we talked last week about the glimpses of John's sketching and through the two-way interrogation mirror, et cetera, and like the idea of perspective and artistic ability and John Stewart as architect and artist. But just more broadly, you know, you have a moment at the end of this, like Hal saying, well, that like, what's up with that bird? You know, we'll talk about that scene more when we get there. And the bird, a wonderful bird. We talked about it all, but I loved the bird. That was just delightful and so rich in terms of what it tells us about everybody who's observing that, but also John who is making it and then letting it go, right? There's so much to parse there. But the note from Hal of like, well, what's that about? That came from your subconscious. Exactly. You know, so what that tells us about, there is often in the field in a moment of need something very practical, something utilitarian about a construct. A Speaker 5 (20:46) bottle opener Speaker 4 (20:46) if you Speaker 5 (20:46) want to, you know. Something very Speaker 4 (20:47) flirtatious Speaker 5 (20:48) like a bottle Speaker 4 (20:48) opener. But yeah, then there is the deeper rooting in what you carry inside of you and how what you project into the world, what that conveys about who you are and what you think and how you feel. And given the through line that we're tracking and that is, you know, inherent to Lantern's canon, but that we are both so interested in like, what is this show, a prestige TV drama on HBO interested in mining on the emotion front, right? Fear and will. anger and other emotions and how they inform each other. Like, what do all of these, you know, there's a really interesting aspect of this episode where, you know, Anton says, like, have you ever had somebody, you ever been deceived by somebody you love? John's just like, yes. Yes. And we're like, what, who, Speaker 5 (21:29) when, how? And then, Speaker 4 (21:30) not only is that such an intriguing note to give us for John, feels very intentional that this is in the episode where we meet Sinestro. Yeah. And we're thinking about what is Hal's version of that. So to your point about structure. The fact that this is such a meaty and intriguing episode for them as individuals, but those parallels are Speaker 5 (21:51) there. Speaker 4 (21:51) Beef and bison meaty. Beef and bison, homemade meal prep, really great. I agree with what you said about the what do they do without the ring. It's very, we talked about this recently in the context of covering another property, but it's very if you're nothing without that suit, then you shouldn't have it, right? What does the ring and the power of the ring and being chosen do Speaker 5 (22:10) for you? But also, you are the person. person who is wearing it or suiting up. And what I like about what they show us in this episode is like, there's so, you know, from the beginning, and again, you outlined this theme for me when you had watched the episode before. I had this idea of like, what is earned versus what is given to you. And all of what the show has already told us about. how John has had to like work and train his whole life to, you know, feel like he deserves to be here, has earned this spot or whatever. And then how it was just given to him. Like that dichotomy is there. But also. Hal is not useless without the ring. And I think that that's like a really fun like complication because there could be a version of the story where he is like the privileged white man who was given this thing and then he's nothing without it, you know, and he and the thing that is so interesting is like he believes he is nothing without it. But we watch him in this episode. Yeah, he gets shot. That's not great. But like do so much. Through and through. Glad you're Speaker 4 (23:06) a Speaker 5 (23:06) fan of his work. Yeah. Do so much like ingenuity wise without the ring. Right. And so. To see him, you mentioned, you flagged this last week, but to sort of like, to see his competency. Yes, it's crucial. Is important. It's crucial. Okay. Speaker 4 (23:20) Let's go now to the deep dive. Wonderful. Speaker 5 (23:27) All right, before we start with sort of the opening of this episode, I do want to just have like a little pre-chat about 2016, this entire episode. And so we had talked about the various, you know, 10 years apart timelines that we might explore. 96, 86, 2006, you know, 2026. Were you surprised to see that this episode was just in 2016? Speaker 4 (23:54) I don't, yeah, maybe a little, but I don't, I think just like reflecting on it now after the fact, I don't know if I was honestly even consciously thinking about it while watching it. Like, oh, we're not moving through time. I think that the split of the two primary leads of the show would have made also moving through time feel maybe a little full, a little overly full, overly stuffed. So I think keeping us rooted in the present, the present not of our lives here in 2026, but the primary, what seems to be the primary timeline of the show, makes sense given that we were in multiple locations and that our primary figures were apart. Some people don't like to watch the previews for next week on. So if you don't want to hear this, hit fast forward like once or twice. We'll keep this quick. They showed the preview for episode three at the end of it. Certainly appears like we're moving through time next week in a very John-centric episode. So that's exciting. So I wonder if each episode will function a little bit differently about where we are on the map, where we are in time. And maybe we'll get all of it at some point. I Speaker 5 (24:54) think Speaker 4 (24:54) some people, Speaker 5 (24:55) and it doesn't matter, but I think that some people thought with this sort of True Detective idea that it would be more closely hewing to what some seasons of True Detective have been, which is like. we're splitting time sort of evenly between these two things. And that is not the case here. We're still, we were primarily in 2016 in the first episode and we are entirely in 2016 in this episode. So we'll see, as you said, where we go from here. But I thought that was interesting. I Speaker 4 (25:22) will say like, because we had speculated about the possibility last week based on where the premiere ended with, you know, Hal bullet hole in his forehead on the snowy bleachers. To that point, will we have that kind of tandem investigation across time? Maybe that still happens. It's possible that still happens. We talked about like the number of shots and then this season on where John has a goatee and seems to maybe be set in that future Guy Gardner's appearances, et cetera. I was happy to come into episode two and be with Kyle Chandler. Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre. For sure. So if that is more a like this is looming in the distance, but we are largely operating in 2016 with them together. or maybe glimpsing the past versus spending a ton of time in the future. I mean, I'm open to all possibilities. I think that would be my preference given my deep and abiding enthusiasm for Speaker 5 (26:14) HowlTree. A HowlFull story. Speaker 4 (26:15) Okay. Exactly. Speaker 5 (26:16) Are we shifting from Alien Watch to Manhunter Watch, or do we have room for both inside of this episode, inside of this series? You know, we were doing, like, we're talking about Secret Scroll Watch, which is a leftover from, you know, Marvel and Secret Invasion. And yeah, great show. So as we shift into, and we got a lot of emails about Manhunter, watching Manhunter theories, which we'll talk about a little bit later, but I'm still open to like, anyone can be an alien. Anyone can be a Manhunter. Anyone can be, I mean, we meet other aliens. Exactly. I think that given that we Speaker 4 (26:53) meet Anton. And still to this day, I'm like, Spears from the Wire. Oh, yeah. Definitely Spears from the Wire. Until the day I die, that'll be just, it's like, I can't help Speaker 5 (27:02) it. That's like when I go, oh, it's Frank Sabaka. Frank Sabaka. Always. Chris Bauer. It's always a Frank Sabaka. Always a Frank Speaker 4 (27:08) Sabaka. You know, Tina's whole crew are like, we're here for, we're hunting the hunters. So, yes, it's all in the mix. We're in Rushville, Nebraska. Speaker 5 (27:20) Yeah. We got our eye out for a manhunter. Yes. I'm not. content to say that's all we should be looking for in Nebraska. Speaker 4 (27:28) I quite agree. Who else has taken off a hoodie and is standing there in short sleeves shivering on a snowy field like Waylon loves? It's Speaker 5 (27:34) a Speaker 4 (27:34) great question. Speaking of Waylon, we got a lot of emails from Speaker 5 (27:36) listeners with suggestions for names of aliens. I put most of them in here in the document. I was curious if any stuck out to you as particularly delightful. Should you Speaker 4 (27:45) do a dramatic reading so that we can hear out loud how many of them actually really sound like aliens? I Speaker 5 (27:49) don't think Speaker 4 (27:49) we have the time. Obviously, it varies like accent to accent. Alan, Haley, Haley-Ann. Haley Speaker 5 (27:56) -Ann is Speaker 4 (27:57) pretty good. Haley-Ann is tough to top. Gabe said Speaker 5 (28:00) Haley-Ann, nothing like a good old Southern double name to give you that Hugh Mann energy, and I agree. Speaker 4 (28:05) Haley-Ann is probably the winner. There's a lot of great ones here. Jacob suggested Elon. Would Speaker 5 (28:11) that be so surprising? Elon the alien? Oh, man. Our listener, Alan, who's not an alien probably. wrote in to let us know, and I know this is true for a lot of people, that Jon Stewart in the animated Justice League is like their Green Lantern. And they grew up with Jon Stewart, very important person, and a very important person for a lot of people in terms of like, this is the first time I saw a superhero look like me. It was Jon Stewart in this animated series or in the comics or whatever. Speaker 4 (28:38) Yes. But Speaker 5 (28:39) Alan wrote it not only to say that, but also to share a photo of himself. This is incredible. Where he worked at Six Flags over Texas back in the 2000. I did it because DC had a partnership to put costume characters in the park. So I could audition to be Jon Stewart, one of the coolest experiences of my life. And it's a photo of him with his mom. I love it. this so much. And he looks amazing. This is so good. It's very sweet. So thank you for that photo. Thank you, Speaker 4 (29:00) Alan. We also got several emails from listeners talking to us about Jessica Cruz, who is a person who's had the Green Lantern moniker inside the comics, and a character with social anxiety. And Speaker 5 (29:14) to really dig into that character as an example of how the comics has over the decades Veered from this idea of like we were talking about this idea of emotional absolutism. So veered from this idea of fear, no fear, fearlessness to this idea of overcoming fear and the distinction between those two. So it's not just an absence of fear. It's like you feel the fear, but you do it scared anyway. Right. And so. Speaker 5 (29:42) there's this section where she's talking about her social anxiety and she says, the rain doesn't fix it, right? I don't get better from this. I fight anxiety every day. It's the biggest battle I have. Then also, when a new Green Lantern is chosen, they're inducted to the core with a specific phrase, you have the ability to overcome great fear. So again, it's just this idea. And like, And I understand that, again, to go back to last week's episode, I understand that was not the point you were making, that it was just like a complete binary like that. But I do think when we think of something like John Sr. shooting an apple off of his child's head in order to like make sure his child feels no fear. And we got a great email about that that I'll read a little bit later. But like that there. maybe have been some versions of that. Or if Hal feels like he's not allowed, you know, he has no attachments, he doesn't know anyone, he lost a parent, that's the scariest thing one can experience. And so he will not connect or he lost Sinestro and that's the most traumatic thing that someone can experience, his mentor. And so he will cut himself off from people and that is a way to avoid fear. But to avoid fear completely feels like the thing that is... leaves you the most open to Speaker 4 (31:02) influence and Speaker 5 (31:04) warping. Yeah, Speaker 4 (31:05) I mean, yeah, this is what I was saying last week. It's so interesting to me about this version of the story from these creators who are obviously, you know, we're Damon super fans. That's no secret to anyone. But, you know. Speaker 4 (31:21) Ozark, True Detective, you know, Tom King's work, you know, what Mundy has made. Like, I think with these performers and the HBO Sunday night slot and just also, like, what we got right away in the first episode, that line from Carrie about, you know, these lonely, like, signaling in a number of ways to us right away that the show was going to be interested in interrogating what it means to have to tell yourself. I'm not afraid. Like, that is just such an interesting place to find any person, but particularly somebody in a very visible position of carrying the burden of being the chosen one or trying to seek out that mantle and saying, like, I'm the one who can do this thing. Everybody's eyes are on me all the time. So... I also think that, like, those burdens of expectations, you know, that Mundy and Speaker 5 (32:10) all the rest have talked a lot about in terms of, like, how being the first human Green Lantern, there's no blueprint for this, having to deal with the burden of expectations. But, again, I think back to, like, the Jedi and, like, this really unreasonable expectation of, like, perfection and purity and how that leads to the fall for so many of them because you cannot be that perfect paragon of Speaker 4 (32:32) what have you. Certainly not. Speaker 5 (32:34) All right. We open with what I'm calling the Maddie Saracen in a shower. Tim Riggins running in the rain. Ice bucket challenge. Coach Taylor tough love special. I don't know how they did in the caption. Yeah, he wrote cold open. There you go. That's that's that's close enough. Speaker 5 (32:50) We saw this at Comic-Con. You and I both were like, it's Matt Saracen in a shower time. John wants to know why Hal hasn't alerted the Guardians about the dead aliens. We are also curious about why Hal is reluctant to reach out to the Guardians. He looks quite nervous later in the episode when he asked John if he's told the Guardians about the Speaker 4 (33:10) Manhunter. What, if anything, do you want to say about this? In terms of the... at the end of the episode, you know, their conversation in the parking lot. I think in general, there's a lot to parse and read on Hal Jordan's face in every conversation he has in this episode. You know, it's just, he's so expressive. And because so much of the question of, like, what is Hal carrying and how much of, like, what he's saying to other people is something he's forcing himself to believe and how much is he just, like, lying to himself? What is he not ready to really, like, stare plainly in the face? You know, I think the, like, the conversation