‘Lanterns’ Review: Episode 4 Is All About ‘The Weenie'(s) — Spoilers — SkimNews
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- 'Lanterns' Episode 4, 'The Weenie,' written by Breannah Gibson and directed by Geeta Vasant Patel, ends with Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) wrapping their rental car around a telephone pole and flying off to meet an alien hit squad expecting only the other Green Lantern.
- Hal opens the episode visiting Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen), who advises him to manipulate John by 'making him believe you're embracing his worthiness as your replacement' — a tactic the reviewer leaves deliberately ambiguous as to whether Hal actually follows it.
- The titular 'weenie' — a focal-point term coined by Walt Disney after watching how his dog followed him for hot dogs — turns out in the episode to be a decoy filled with otherworldly weapons where Hal and John get trapped and dragged before William Macon (Garret Dillahunt).
- A fake Hector Hammond (Jason Manuel Olazábal) identifies Macon as the Manhunter, but the reviewer argues this is a misdirect — building a case that Zoe (Poorna Jagannathan), who approached John his first night in town, is the real Manhunter.
- Macon earns praise as a 'perfect figurehead' — a wealthy rancher running his property like a military compound who deflects scrutiny through charm and plausible ignorance until Hal and John expose the operation.
- The episode lands at the halfway point of Lanterns' eight-episode first season, with the closing car wreck sending Hal and John 'backward, not forward' and resetting the partners to a distrustful status quo.
Why it matters: At the halfway mark of Lanterns' eight-episode first season, the review reframes the Manhunter mystery: Macon was a deliberate decoy, the real threat is Zoe (who approached John his first night in town), and Hal's closing betrayal resets the partners to distrust — collapsing the trust arc the episode was built around.
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