Poorna Jagannathan Breaks Down 'Lanterns' Episode 5's Zoe — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Poorna Jagannathan plays the Manhunter Zoe Macon in "Lanterns" Episode 5 — an identity she says she didn't learn until receiving the Episode 4 script, joking "Everyone saw it coming except me!"
- Zoe operates through "Faustian" bargains with Rushville citizens, opening the episode by snapping a gangster's neck to save a young Sheriff Kerry in exchange for future protection.
- Zoe deliberately waits for John Stewart's car to explode, then offers to heal his near-fatal burns in exchange for him letting Hal die — what Jagannathan calls a pattern of "waiting for people to be at their most vulnerable point, near death."
- Zoe explains she chose to appear as a South Asian woman because "outsiderness" provides a "higher vantage point" to infiltrate society; Jagannathan personally connected to the line, saying "You can hide in plain sight, and that's the tactic she chose."
- John Stewart ultimately shoots Zoe with a sniper rifle — she is "the only person he has ever encountered that she didn't predict" — then takes the ring and lantern from Hal and walks away from Lianna (Laura Linney), who was waiting for him at the bar.
- Antaan kills Will Macon by cutting out his heart after Zoe coached Will to pose as the Manhunter, proving Will was human and that Zoe's deception had held — until John broke the contract no one else ever had.
Why it matters: The Manhunter reveal restructures the show's central conflict: Zoe tells John the Guardians themselves created the Manhunters, reframing the season's villains from external threats to institutional ones. With Hal's ring now drained and John walking away with it — and from Lianna — the series has set up a succession of Green Lanterns that turns the Guardians' mission against them.
Ask SkimNews
