"Lanterns" episode 4 finally lets Hal and John be partners

Four episodes in, and this is the first one that felt like the show actually wanted to be fun. “The Weenie” is my favorite hour of the season so far, and it’s not close.

What actually happens

Episode 4 picks up where the story left off in Episode 2, with Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) continuing their investigation into a missing manhunter, with the threat of an entire town being destroyed still looming overhead. Before any of that, though, the episode opens in an off-world prison, deep in the cavern of a frozen planet, where Hal stands face to face with his former mentor, Sinestro. Sinestro doesn’t just talk manhunters — he warns Hal that John is nothing more than “a contingency plan, a backup,” before escalating and warning him, “You really will need to kill John Stewart.”

Back on Earth, Hal and John reunite in Rushville, Nebraska, working the same case from two different angles. That evening, John knocks on Hal’s motel door and suggests tunneling into Macon’s compound from underground, complete with designs for the type of device he’s imagined. Elsewhere, John ducks a call from his father and goes in search of a scope — a small detail that pays off later. Meanwhile, the show’s Guardian, Lianna, keeps testing John’s resolve: John expresses his hesitance, but Lianna accuses him of not being as ready as she was led to believe, pushing all the right buttons to test his mettle.

The episode’s real gut-punch lands late. Poorna Jagannathan’s Zoe Macon was revealed as the Manhunter in the closing moments of episode 4, a twist that upends nearly everything the show had suggested about who the real threat in Rushville actually is. That reveal came right after Hal and John broke into Macon’s compound using a giant drill fashioned from John’s Green Lantern ring, hoping to dig up clues about who was really pulling the strings — and it recontextualizes a moment earlier in the episode where Zoe visits John, urges him to leave town, and is seemingly killed when a laser beam from the sky blows up her truck as she drives off.

The episode, titled “The Weenie,” was credited to writers Justin Britt-Gibson and Damon Lindelof, and it’s the first one all season that finds its voice by being the loudest, the craziest, and the smartest episode so far — a bold and creative take on the mystery genre that simply works.

Why it’s my favorite so far

This is the episode where the show finally let itself breathe. My read:

The perfect mix of action, suspense, and humor.

That’s the whole engine of “The Weenie” — the drill heist plays like a set piece, the Zoe reveal is a legitimate gut-punch, and there’s still room for the two leads to needle each other like actual partners instead of two guys circling a case file from opposite ends of a table.

That last part is the one I keep coming back to: getting a glimpse of Hal and John having a genuinely good moment together, even if it’s only temporary. Let’s be clear, though — these two aren’t brothers. They’re not close. The season’s been building toward the idea that they don’t fully trust each other, and Sinestro spends this very episode trying to convince Hal that John is disposable, a backup plan he might have to kill. But seeing them work a case together like they don’t actively hate each other, before that manipulation fully kicks in, is the emotional hook the show needed. It’s not brotherhood — it’s a flash of the partnership this show is eventually supposed to be about, one good stretch between two guys who still barely know each other, and it lands harder because you know it’s not built to last.

Not every critic is there yet — some are still asking when the “Green Lantern show” actually starts inside the crime drama. Fair. But judged as its own hour, action, suspense, and humor all firing at once, with a twist ending that actually recontextualizes the season? That’s the best version of this show yet.

Verdict: 9.6/10. “The Weenie” is Lanterns finally trusting its own buddy-cop DNA — and it’s the first episode where Hal and John actually feel like partners instead of strangers stuck in the same jurisdiction.