‘Lanterns’ Episode 5 Reveals The Real Manhunter As John Stewart Turns On Hal And Walks Away From The Guardians

Lanterns finally exposes the truth about Zoe Macon in a brutal fifth episode that completely changes John Stewart’s understanding of Rushville, Hal Jordan and the Guardians themselves.

After weeks of uncertainty over the Manhunter’s identity, Zoe is revealed to have been hiding in plain sight — protected not merely by William Macon, but by an entire town built around debts she has spent years collecting.

By the end, Macon is dead, Rushville has been devastated, John has nearly killed his own mentor and Zoe’s secret is finally proven in the most gruesome way possible.

But perhaps the biggest twist comes afterward.

John gets the Green Lantern ring he has been pushed toward all season — and chooses to leave it behind.

Warning: Major spoilers for Episode 5 of Lanterns follow.

Zoe’s Control Over Rushville Started Years Ago

The episode opens in 2007 with a younger Kerry, played by Kelly Macdonald, long before she became a police officer.

Kerry is on the run after her father, who had been an informant, was killed. Two men have orders to dispose of her body and return with her pinky as evidence.

Then Zoe intervenes.

She offers Kerry a way out, but her help comes with a disturbing condition.

Kerry must cut off her own pinky and promise that she will protect Zoe whenever that favor is eventually called in.

Kerry agrees.

Zoe then grows her a new finger.

The scene reveals the method Zoe has apparently used to build her influence throughout Rushville: find people at their most desperate, save them and make sure they owe her afterward.

Poorna Jagannathan, who plays Zoe, explained that the agreement with Kerry is meant to suggest something much larger.

“You really get the sense that she’s made that contract with every single person in town,” she told TV Insider.

That explains why Rushville is prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to protect her.

The Green Lanterns Threaten Everything Zoe Built

The arrival of Hal Jordan and John Stewart threatens that carefully constructed network.

“As soon as the Lanterns come, she has to go into hiding,” Jagannathan explained.

With the Lanterns closing in, Zoe needs them out of Rushville, and the people indebted to her are prepared to help make that happen.

Back in 2016, John remains trapped inside the wrecked car while Hal decides his trainee needs to be removed “off the gameboard.”

Hal is convinced that capturing the Manhunter could prove his value to the Guardians.

From his perspective, John has reached “the end of his training.”

Zoe, meanwhile, is alive and preparing Rushville for a fight.

She warns her grandson that many people are going to die, while William Macon uses the satellite to locate John.

Then John’s situation becomes even worse.

His wrecked vehicle catches fire.

Zoe watches him burn.

Zoe Finally Admits She Is The Manhunter

John survives, but his body is severely burned.

He is taken to hospital, where Zoe finally confirms the truth he has already begun to suspect.

Zoe is the Manhunter.

But John has also discovered something that fundamentally changes his view of the Guardians.

They created the Manhunters.

The Guardians later decided their creations had become too brutal and needed to be eradicated.

For John, it is another reason to question the organization he is supposedly being trained to serve.

The Guardians also expected him to inherit Hal’s ring without telling Hal that he was being replaced.

Zoe then reveals that allowing John to burn was deliberate.

She needed leverage.

She offers to restore his body if John agrees to tell the Guardians that Hal died bravely and then take his ring.

Using her own blood, Zoe heals him. John experiences flashes from throughout his life as his burned body is restored.

But like so many people before him, John has now accepted something extraordinary from Zoe.

And Zoe expects repayment.

Macon Was Never Really In Charge

The episode also reveals more about William Macon’s relationship with Zoe.

Despite appearing to be the dominant force in Rushville, Macon understands that Zoe has always held the real power.

“It seems like I’m the boss, but I’m the first mate,” actor Garret Dillahunt told TV Insider.

“She’s the powerful figure. She saved my life.”

Zoe previously cured Macon’s cancer, giving him additional time and securing his loyalty.

“I owe her for it,” Dillahunt explained.

His devotion becomes particularly important as Rushville prepares for the conflict the pair have apparently anticipated for years.

Rushville Erupts Into War

While John recovers, the town descends into chaos.

Hal activates his Sentury in an attempt to locate Zoe, but Kerry intervenes.

She tells him that the entire town has received a kill order from Zoe and Macon.

Kerry also admits why she remains loyal: Zoe saved her life.

Hal is unmoved.

Whatever Zoe once did for the people of Rushville, he sees them as protecting a war criminal.

Then Antaan, played by Paul Ben-Victor, arrives with another complication.

He and Hal actually share an important objective.

Neither trusts the Guardians.

Both want the Manhunter.

Unfortunately, Antaan has identified the wrong person.

He believes Macon is the Manhunter.

Antaan’s Mistake Costs Macon His Life

As human bombs attack Macon’s compound, Antaan reaches his office.

Macon attempts to convince him that he really is the Manhunter.

He has learned Antaan’s language, history and memories well enough to maintain the deception.

But there is one detail he cannot imitate.

Fear.

Antaan knows that a genuine Manhunter would not be afraid to die.

To test Macon’s claim, he tears out his heart, expecting it to crystallize if Macon is truly a Manhunter.

It doesn’t.

Macon dies, and Antaan realizes too late that he has killed the wrong man.

John Takes Hal’s Ring

Outside, Rushville is being ripped apart by laser fire.

John escapes from the hospital, steals a gun and sets out with one goal: finding Hal’s ring.

He contacts his father and gets him to establish a connection with Guardian Lianna, played by Laura Linney.

Meanwhile, Hal’s ring is running dangerously low on energy.

With only five per cent power remaining, he continues trying to protect Rushville while hunting Zoe.

Hal eventually reaches his motel and prepares to recharge.

Before he can complete the oath, John takes the ring.

The trainee has turned on his teacher.

John And Hal’s Fight Has Devastating Consequences

The confrontation quickly becomes physical.

John and Hal fight brutally, with John coming dangerously close to killing his mentor.

Then a deadly red blast forces Hal to use the last remaining power in the ring to protect both of them.

The motel is destroyed.

Many people inside are killed.

Walking through the rubble, John is confronted by the consequences of the battle, including the cries of a young girl who has lost her father.

John leaves with the ring.

Hal remains behind, apparently powerless and trapped with Zoe.

But the apparent betrayal is not what it seems.

Hal tells Zoe that John has not abandoned him.

Hal is the bait.

John Kills Zoe And Finally Proves The Truth

John returns for Zoe.

He shoots her, breaking the oath he made to the Manhunter.

The decision devastates him.

John breaks down over what he has done before ripping Zoe’s heart from her body.

Unlike Macon’s, her heart crystallizes.

There can no longer be any doubt.

Zoe was the real Manhunter.

For Zoe, however, John’s betrayal is something she never anticipated.

She believed healing him had created the same bond that had kept the rest of Rushville under her influence.

“When she meets John Stewart, and she makes that contract with John Stewart, she’s got him. Game over!” Jagannathan explained.

But John proves fundamentally different from the others.

“She’s blinded by the fact that John goes against that contract and kills her at the end,” the actress said. “She’s never met a person like that. She’s never met a person with so much integrity.”

That explains Zoe’s unexpected reaction in her final moments.

“At the end, she smiles,” Jagannathan revealed. “It’s a moment of deep respect.”

Hal Leaves John With One Chilling Warning

After killing Zoe, John returns to Hal.

He sees the familiar green bird before taking both the lantern and ring.

Hal leaves his former trainee with a warning about the Guardians:

“They replaced me. They will replace you.”

Everything John has learned during the investigation gives those words considerably more weight.

The Guardians created the Manhunters and then ordered their destruction.

They were prepared to replace Hal without telling him.

And they expected John to simply step into the role.

But John no longer appears willing to play their game.

John Makes His Choice

Kerry eventually gets Rushville’s residents to stand down, bringing the immediate conflict to an end.

John then takes Zoe’s crystallized heart to Guardian Lianna.

Confronted with proof of what happened, Lianna acknowledges the Guardians’ responsibility.

“Even we make mistakes,” she tells him. “All we can do is correct them.”

John does not accept that explanation so easily.

He has seen what Hal’s desperate attachment to the Green Lantern ring did to him.

In John’s view, Hal sacrificed his code, his oath and ultimately part of himself simply to hold onto it.

And John refuses to repeat the same mistake.

After everything he has endured to reach this point, he finally has the object that could make him a Green Lantern.

Instead of putting it on, John leaves the ring sitting on the bar.

Zoe is dead. The Manhunter mystery has been solved. Hal has lost his power, and John’s faith in the Guardians has been shattered.

Episode 5 therefore ends not with John Stewart accepting his destiny as their next obedient Lantern, but with him walking away from the very thing everyone expected him to become.