‘Lanterns’ Season 1 Finale Instant Reactions, Plus a Talk With Chris Mundy | The Midnight Boys
2026-10-05 02:00:00 • 2:05:25
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Welcome into the ring of verse.
This is of course the ringer's Nexus podcast feed for all things fandom.
We are Steve, the architect almond, the builder and tinker of things.
Jomi, the explainer, Adina Rohn.
You've got questions.
She's got answers.
Old man van.
He of the resurgent guy, gardener, hairline.
Co-baby chucked the 24-care closes together.
We are known as, have a midnight boys.
I'm going to be right back after this.
All right, follow us on socials at the midnight boys pod on Insta, the TikTok at ringer
verse on Insta Twitter, Facebook and TikTok.
You know what I mean?
You know guys, we're really excited.
I mean, I just want to thank you guys for following us through this Greenland recovery.
You guys have been really incredible to see what you guys are saying online.
Man, you guys are amazing.
You guys need to get off our nuts.
Clip in the podcast and all that stuff.
Sharing it, sharing it, man.
What is going on?
What happened?
What I miss?
Oh, you're not on Twitter anymore.
No, wow.
I'm not on Twitter anymore.
It's bad.
Why?
They took part of the conversation with Vanessa and Justin.
Like this, it should be the Kamala Biden conversation.
Oh, yeah, I put that in the group chat.
Yeah, what they say.
I didn't see it.
It's bad.
Who's going crazy?
You know, the Twitter sphere.
They took, you know, I'm saying that right wing section of the online, where they like
these people with me.
Yeah.
So our Dicks.
That's you know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
And Justin are on the show.
And they're great.
They're awesome.
Phenomenal writers who are a part of one of the best superhero shows to come out in
a long time.
And you're not.
Let them talk about what is going on.
You don't have to be a cook.
You can have your opinion.
But the talk city will be met with commiserate disrespect.
Yes.
Any talk city will be met with that thing on a disrespect.
When are you coming back to Twitter?
I'm never coming back.
Are you off the Reds too?
Um, basically, yeah.
Okay.
Never.
That was a very short stand on threads.
Look, I might go there every once in a while to like post about tailgate or something like
that.
But I cannot live in constant reactivity.
I have to be able to think and formulate things that like are building.
So I can't continuously be on anything to where somebody says something and immediately
triggers an emotion in my body.
Can't do it anymore.
So like I understand that like being a part of the conversation on there and the news breaking
on there is still bar none.
Okay.
I'm not trying to be like holer than now.
And just for me period, living my entire life in the state of reactivity makes me less
curious.
And it makes me more like think about me going on already and leaving long ass things
talking to the people that's there ready.
So like for me, I don't need to be in that space.
Like I don't, I don't.
I don't.
I fucking love this.
This is John Stewart leaving the lantern in.
Yeah.
You like Bluska?
You want Bluski?
No, I mean, look, you might see me pop up on these things to promote something and get
to lay at the land, but like being online like that, I got too much shit that I want to
accomplish.
Well, you too, like comment subscribe share.
You can watch every midnight boys and house of our episode on YouTube dot com backslash
at ring of hers.
Thank you.
Like Jummy said to everybody that's running the YouTube going crazy.
That's amazing.
We're going to keep that going by continuing the feed the beast on YouTube.
Programmer reminders.
A Monday house of our finishes.
They're deep dive lanterns coverage.
They have been absolutely phenomenal.
There's a lot of show that lanterns gives us and our sisters over there are doing a fantastic
job at contextualizing all of it.
On Friday, Budmash covers Valor Mortis and forever ago.
Steve?
Yeah, Valor Mortis.
I think that's a that's a soul's like game.
And forever ago, that's like a it's an indie road trip.
You don't know the game.
I don't know.
I don't know.
He said, I'm saying like 80 game.
He said souls like I'm like, I'm as putting me to work.
You like 20 games.
You lie and bro.
Like, oh, but no, he right though.
Valor Mortis is a souls like action.
What souls like?
Souls like it's like, are you familiar with dark souls?
No.
No, all right.
Well, it's a very like difficult action adventure game.
What is it?
It's it's like a very hard game where they kind of like they just stole you in there and
you have to kind of like learn by yourself.
Like it's like Elden Ring before.
Okay.
You know, Elden Ring.
I was like, you die.
You're all of your stuff resets and you got to go out and get more stuff.
Yeah.
Elden Ring though, for the time that I got into like Elden Ring, there was Elden Ring,
but there was a different one though.
There was a game that came out and it's I'm telling you guys I played the game, but I
could not.
I can't remember the name of the game now.
I had to play it for cybernet.
Okay.
And it was a game like Elden Ring.
What was it called?
Skyrim.
I don't think it was Skyrim.
Elder Scrolls.
Elder Scrolls.
So it was Skyrim.
Elder Scrolls Oblivion.
Oblivion now.
Yeah.
Classic.
Yes.
Elder Scrolls Oblivion.
And like I kind of got into.
Oh, that's just Oblivion.
That's just great.
That's great.
That's for y'all.
Y'all got it.
Maybe my cent trails and my yellow markets.
Blue, green paint game right there.
Give me my yellow paint, bro.
All right.
New York Comic Con update.
Who?
Update.
Motherfuckers.
We will be hosting a meetup in New York.
It is Saturday, October 10th at 8 p.m.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
I head to Hill Country and go downstairs to the bar.
Okay.
Listen, I'll say that again.
Head to Hill Country.
Hill Country BBQ.
Hill Country BBQ.
And go downstairs to the boot bar to find us.
Yeah.
The bar.
No badge needed.
No.
If you are a bad teacher, you need it, guys.
New York Comic Con.
Come to our panel at the Javasinnah.
That is on Saturday, October 10th at 4.30 p.m.
Okay.
And then later on, go to Hill Country BBQ and go to the boot bar.
Come see us, man.
Boys with the boot bar.
And y'all better, y'all better act right, you know.
We're not having no San Diego shenanigans.
Right.
Hopefully that guy don't got a new guy list.
I mean, you might need to just put me on the ground.
It's the same, guys.
It's one guy.
You can't come.
But if you in New York, if you in Philadelphia,
if you in Baltimore, if you in DC,
if you in Jersey, come through, come see your people.
Come hang on.
Come hang on with us, bro.
Yeah, man.
I don't know what y'all see that.
I mean, in Comic Con next year.
No.
We got.
No.
No.
No.
We will.
We will.
No, he going to be at the raft.
Bill Reef or something like that.
You can't contain him.
Arcom.
We just got out.
You can imagine getting parole from Arcom.
No.
Because here's the.
Arcom is only for like the worst super criminals.
Yeah.
Also.
There's.
I got.
Prison.
Prison breaks every other week.
So it's kind of like.
So it's kind of like, but like I feel like it that's like a the jet.
There's a gen pop in Arkham, right?
There's not a gen pop.
I don't know.
It's an insane asylum.
So I don't know.
But like there's not like they don't have like 50 jokers running around there.
They only have one.
They might.
Right.
They have.
There's another jail right.
Well, black gate.
Black gate is for like the, you know, the regular people.
You might be like one of the goons might be in black gate.
Yeah.
Right.
But the head guys you take a marker.
Yeah.
It's criminally insane people and also go to Arkham, but you're not like the Joker.
Nah, man.
I mean, you're not scared.
And it's not that man.
Not using an asylum missing out of prison.
Yeah.
So it's less people and more care.
Yeah.
Okay.
Like you said, it's as to black gate.
Are you sending him to our who?
Victors as he's an Arkham.
He's an Arkham.
And you're in Batman's Rogues gallery.
In Arkham.
In Arkham, but like Deadshot would be like Blacky.
Blacky.
But the thing is the problem with spec is specifically with Arkham, maybe breaking
out every week.
If Batman was real, want put your money over there.
Bruce Wayne, give him a couple of, couple of people.
Bruce Wayne, don't give a fuck about mental health.
Yeah.
Clearly not.
He's gonna care about his own.
Yeah.
Therapy could help him with what he's going through, but he chose not to.
All right.
Okay.
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All right.
All today's episode.
I'll need a little tangent.
You guys, please come visit us in New York.
We're going to be there having a great time this next week.
But on today's episode, it was actually this week.
Actually, we leave it once this week.
Today's episode, we react to the season finale of lanterns.
There's been so much talk.
There's been so much speculation, so much discussion.
But now where are we?
The end of this season at least.
Got to get into it, give the streets what they want.
In order to do that, we have to spoil some shit.
We're going to get spoiled.
Everything's going to get spoiled.
Spoiling everything.
All right.
Steve, run a spoiler warning.
We're getting ready to talk about lanterns.
You're listening to a reaction podcast.
The spoilers are coming.
I would also like to say that stick around, because after our discussion, we are going
to have an interview that the four of us conducted with showrunner, executive producer,
and writer Chris Mundy.
Yeah.
Fun time.
Your boy creator and creator of Ozark.
Oh, here of Ozark.
Big deal.
Big deal.
You love Ozark.
Love Ozark.
But we still have to react to this in order to do that.
We need the midnight manifest.
The only person who can give you that is Chuck Wagon.
Chuck, take it away.
All right.
Did your midnight manifest for the season finale of lantern season one, dirt and
stars directed by Aleek Sakharov written by Chris Mundy, dim Lindowoff and Tom King.
The finale begins with the love story between Howling Carey, the sheriff picks Howling
up for prison and they begin their life together in Rushville.
Things take a turn for the worst when House House is attacked and he's burned alive.
Noah saves Howling rebuilt his skin using the same machine that his grandmother did on
John.
The star quarterback reveals how that he's a man hunter.
But demands the disgraced lantern not in form his mother that he's been aware all along.
Back in the present, Sinnesha reveals that Noah broke him out of prison.
John warden waterboards Sinnesha in the fear lake until the villain reveals that he made
a new lantern for the man hunter to use with House decommissioned ring.
John takes the lantern, but refuses to charge it fearful of any booby traps Sinnesha might
have laid into the cracked and yellowing lantern.
Noah ambitious John in Rushville and takes back the ring.
He had missed the killing Howl and asked John to help him with an assisted suicide before
his man hunter programming turns him into a genocidal weapon.
John doesn't believe him and forces Carey to admit that she was Howl's real murderer
when Howl confronts her about Noah.
She panicked and killed him.
Instead of turning Carey in, John says that's not what the real Howl would have wanted.
John calls Guy Garner and forms a green lantern that he'll be taking over the jurisdiction
of Earth while he can have the rest of the sector.
Howl Grim says he loves John before disappearing and Stewart finally charges his ring while
reciting a new oath that has been your midnight manifest for lanterns season finale, throwing
about to you, Van.
Judith finale that I thought was fantastic.
Okay.
I don't know what I expected from a finale.
Obviously, I expected to get answers about the remaining man hunters and wherever they
might be who killed Howl Jordan.
But I don't think that I thought the show would be able to successfully wrap up all of
its conclusions and storylines in such a accessible way.
There weren't very many moments in this show where I was like, Jesus Christ.
Yet, and still, it completely flowed.
It completely worked.
It all came together seamlessly and beautifully.
And to me, put the finishing touches on one of the greatest seasons of superhero television,
storytelling that I've ever seen.
So can I ask, because we've been doing this for a while, this finale kind of circumvents
our expectations of what a superhero show finale should be?
Absolutely.
Oh, yeah.
What are the finales since we've been doing this that have worked when they're bombastic
in that way, when it's a big shootout, when it's a big villain?
Because it's like, Loki.
Loki season one.
But that was just them talking, really.
That was the finale.
Yeah.
That wasn't a big, not a big fight.
Sometimes where they've had, they have gone big, you'd say, one of the reasons, which
is the weakest part of that season.
Yeah.
I would say talking to the winter soldier, that was the weakest part of that season.
I mean, they try to do the whole talking thing at the end, right, with him doing big
in the season.
Yeah, but you got the sue and then there was all the kung fu and all that shit.
And it wasn't the best part of that season.
Well, that's because this show avoids something, and we talk about the surf Dracula thing,
which this show kind of does, but this show avoids something that they'll show.
Those shows didn't.
This show, he gets the ring and then he flies away like at the end.
Yeah.
This was a Daredevil season one finale.
Well, even in Daredevil season one, you're right.
Well, he's got the, he's got a costume and he's fine with people.
And he fights, he fights.
There's the big showdown with Kingpin.
But that season, like this season is very much, if you had to boil it down to a sentence,
we are making this character turning him into Daredevil.
Right.
Like, oh, by the end of the episode, I was like, this was always Sean story.
This was never going to be the thing where John gets the right, because I can't lie.
Deep down in my heart, I wanted John to get the ring and get busy.
I wanted him to steal the ray from Noah, start slinging that shit around.
And they went for something that I think was.
I'll put you this way.
I ended up liking this season finale because Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre are so electric
and the chemistry is so much by the time they admit that they love each other.
I'm like, this is kind of what TV is for.
So, so I totally agree.
Let's think about what the purpose of the season was, like what type of hero they were trying
to make.
We're going to talk a little bit to Chris Mundy about this when he comes on at the end
of the show.
But with Daredevil, if we compare it just to that, because that is a finale that really
works even though they do the big fight thing.
Like that, he finally has the suit.
You have seen Daredevil throughout the entire season get cut, cut up the hand, cut them
all up and you're like, he's not going to be able to do what he's doing unless he adds
a couple of layers of protection onto him.
He's not going to be able to face off against King Pinin, all of this stuff unless he's
the fully formed Daredevil that we know him to be.
This story is about like what makes John a hero.
And when you think about it, what makes him a hero is breaking the programming that he
got, the programming, raising whatever you guys are going to go crazy in the comments
again.
I said what I said and I believe what I believe.
And even he believes it because him becoming a fully formed individual is what had to happen.
That is what made John Stuart.
He can already work the ring.
He worked the ring and made a big fucking drill episodes ago.
He can already do all of that stuff.
What he couldn't do was think for himself, make decisions for himself and worry about
only being a hero from his point of view.
And once everything happened in Rushville, everything happened to how he had to make decisions
on his own by himself.
That is what entitles him to be the Greenland on Earth.
And that is what is completely driven home and tied up with the bow at the end of this
season.
This is this was the first time that John didn't pull the trigger where since he was a kid,
he's always had a weapon in his hand and he always had to shoot the apple.
And it was interesting when he's talking to Noah and reveals that Zoe wanted a mercy
killing.
And like, I do think it was, it's a controversial choice.
I don't know if I fully like it, but story wise, it was satisfying to be like, oh, to
be the Green Lantern.
He has to do the one thing that how couldn't, which he's realized like, who am I without
this ring?
Who am I without this weapon?
And I thought it was very, very interesting that for John, he has to make the choice of
letting Noah live and being, because he sees himself in Noah and I was like, oh, that's
bad.
He has to trust and he has to also learn how to pick his battles to fight his fight, not
somebody else's fight, not how, not to be a good soldier for John Stewart is not now
nine months, mission critical, never leaving until that ends.
It's something disappointing.
It's the way he feels what he needs to do and what he thinks is right.
Yet he let the ball go, right?
John or how was incapable of letting the ball go?
It's what got him killed was that's that's Kerry's son.
She not just going to let you like mess around him and get him hurt or endanger himself
whatever.
Or John, he was, he realized like the Kerry don't want to, he don't want to do nothing bad.
Man, if I, if I leave him, I trust Kerry to make it work.
It's a done deal.
I walk away.
He let the ball go when how did, and it got how killed.
Here's the thing.
I am killing the kid though.
If I'm John, I'm like, hey, bro, I've seen Terminator.
I know how this goes.
Yeah, but I'm sure you're terminated with Terminator.
You got to do with this.
You mean, you've seen, I'm fucking killing machine.
Yeah, so it's a reverse.
But it's not, this is different though.
How is this different?
Well, I'll say, okay, number one, what, I mean, which version of Terminator we talking about?
Let's be precise.
I feel like this is T2.
He didn't look like one.
Okay, the liquid one is not.
That's not.
That's not a feeling he wasn't raised by no nice wife and it lead to one.
It's definitely T1.
If it is T2, you know who it is.
It's actually Schwarzenegger's character in T2.
Oh, it's him.
He had enough programming to end up being like a good father to John Stewart and stuff like
that.
And he had to make this decision at the end of it.
Another chip in his head.
He had to get in the liquid lava or whatever like that.
Yeah, it's very, I mean, my dad, we both did like that like when he did this very suddenly.
But like, to your point, I think there are going to be a lot of people who go, got to kill
a killer robot and got to put Karen in jail.
She killed a human being.
I was so wait, if we stay on Noah, we have to be real.
This little boy broke out the next show at that point.
I'm just like, you got a hot head right in your head.
I wasn't really breaking down how crafty you have to be.
So I'm giving John some bail here because the name of the game is anybody.
I mean, he mentioned it.
He could have called guy overpower guy took guys right?
He could have been dude done that.
You feel me?
I feel like he's like, look, if anybody going to take out Noah, it's got to be me.
I'm the only one who could talk to him.
I'm the only one who can see where he sees.
That's why at the end of the day, he's like, yeah, give me the ring.
I'm a charge that thing because like, I'm a take earth because if guys show up with the
man hunter, it's not going to go well.
I'm the only one that I trust to deal with this man hunter business.
If it does indeed come back, what happens if Noah gets a little freaky and now we got
a bunch of fucking man hunter children running around fucking earth.
Well, he said that that's going to be his problem later.
He's a man hunter children.
He's a man.
He's a man.
He's half.
So like now, I mean, the man hunter vibes, they just go down the biracial man hunter.
Just get diluted by you know, I know how it goes back.
Yeah, I know how you get a quote.
I'm going to put them on the man hunter list.
She knows the certain, you know, the man hunter list.
But no, so, you know, this is a chance.
And that's another thing like John operated with such certainty.
And other aspects of his life, he almost had to be certain in order to do stuff, right?
This is uncertain.
The only thing that he knows is that he wants to try to be a green lantern under his own
rules.
Everything else, he's kind of taking a chance.
You're taking a chance by letting Kerry go.
You're taking a chance.
You're like, Kerry go.
That was, I mean, again, who cares?
Like this, no, I'm serious.
Like the town don't care.
Town town.
Town town.
Like how?
How's dead?
The only people who knew how's dead are Kerry, John, Noah, the town and what's his name
and Carol Ferris.
Yeah.
That's it.
No, but he's going to have a conversation with how like, hey, how?
Now killing him, like she didn't need that was an act of passion.
I think that was like the weirdest part of episode to me because I, because I had to watch
a couple of times because I get why she would kill him like in that moment.
But to be driven like that, but I can't even like that.
Just to be like, one pop.
I was like, dang.
She just seemed very stressed and then just innately shocked.
That's your guy.
I thought they would talk about us some more or something like that.
Yeah.
Or he'd have an ultimatum or something.
Yeah.
That scene was interesting because she has been trying to protect Noah for his entire
life, right?
Against people knowing and everything that's going on.
And John, it is, excuse me, how?
It is in how's directive, in how's makeup to want to take him out.
So the question is, who was going to act in that situation?
But also he, I want to shoot House and Bale.
He saw what happened to Rushville.
He saw what happened when you let a man hunter gain too much power.
So there is a part of me where I'm like, it's not like how could have easily called up
John or a guy and be like, did it?
There's a man hunter.
He tried to do it in a different way.
And that's, maybe that's what got him killed.
He knows how dangerous man hunters are, period, not just Rushville, but in terms of like
the kind of havoc that they wreak wherever they go.
So for him, it was always going to be existential.
For her, it is existential.
And she, at this point, you know, when you think about it normally in this entire show,
how already always has a trick up his sleeve.
He can always, his gut always lets him know that something is going to happen or somebody's
not what they're going to do or what they think they're going to do or what they're
really thinking.
And at this point, I don't think he knew she was capable of that.
No.
I think that he didn't think that his gut, maybe the one time that betrayed him.
He did pick him up out the pen.
That's some, that's the trick.
Draco's his book bag.
Tried to got a little kid back.
Do you think Zoe, I was like, was always fucking around a little bit.
It did this on purpose because Kerry was acting like it was an accident.
I'm like, it though, it seemed like Zoe purposefully put a man under it.
I mean, she definitely knew.
Yeah.
So yeah, it probably was.
But Kerry didn't say it.
Like did I am I misremembering?
No, well, Kerry, I mean, it's immaculate conception, right?
The Bay, basically, Jesus, right?
She had a big name.
You filled other people and they didn't end up pregnant.
That's what I'm saying, right?
It literally, who was she, who else was she with?
She was no nobody.
She got pregnant, hadn't been with anybody in a while.
Right.
So yeah, no, I'm okay.
But she was in the, she was in the, like, this is what I don't get.
You were in the fucking machine that gave you your finger back and you just pop out with
a baby.
Zoe definitely was like typing in a like, but baby, like, maybe because she couldn't have,
she couldn't have kids with a old dude.
Right.
And at that point, she would have indoctrinated.
It would be like, you will be the vessel of carrying on the, I'm wondering more so
why, because at the end, first of all, I was like, Billy, why are you fucking out here?
How you like, what did Billy know?
Billy was just like, Billy, I think was an instrument and a tool for the writers to
throw us off.
Probably.
Because Billy does not have a lot of utility in this show, but he's always there.
Like, what is Billy doing?
Why Billy's popping in, Billy's popping out.
Billy was a way to throw us off.
You know, early on, me having the wherewithal and the genius.
Right.
I'm just shuffling.
I'm just shuffling.
But like, when you, if you had that feeling, the other characters around Noah were the
ones that were going to kind of distract you a little bit from the fact that it seemed
like Zoe took extra special care of her grandson that, for whatever reason, she had the same
type of bond.
It didn't seem like it was a step-grandmom, but they did not look like each other.
So there was some stuff that was going on.
There was always a lot of mysteries surrounding the kid and then it ended up being the
kid.
How do you feel like that was actually reconciled?
The fact that it was Noah all the time.
Do you feel like it was too obvious at a certain point?
I think it was very odd.
I think there was a reason why we were like, you got to keep Noah on the board.
And when it was finally revealed, it made story sense.
But there was a little bit of me was like, this is very convenient.
Like it, part of me is like, oh, the show felt like it was missing a big bad because the
mystery kind of kept moving.
And that's I think where I was like, oh, this was a muted season finale because everything
that John was fighting is an internal battle.
Like it was it an external thing.
I was like, oh, he's going to start slugging the ring at the football game.
I'm like, oh, no, that's the disorienting thing about this season because we're built
around this being centered around a big bad and that ended up being Zoe.
And then once we got the 2026 timeline, we're kind of respawn into disarray with even
the big bad though, because there are people.
I don't know.
I don't know.
John being like, she wanted me to kill her because she did not want to repeat the same
genocidal act she did on the other alien.
I agree.
Like, I don't think so.
And so that's why I'm like really interested to see like what the reception is to this episode
because there is no big CG.
We say like we don't want to CGI bars battle.
Then we don't get one.
We kind of feel like, huh?
Oh, interesting.
I think this episode does a really good job of like ending the show, like threading the
ink any of the threads of these characters in a way that feels fulfilling, even though
there's again no big CGI boss fight.
But even as I'm watching episode, I'm like, once like Noah puts the ring down and he
gives it back to John, like, oh, they really not going to fight.
Yeah.
Okay.
We'll see how they do it.
And I think they did it well.
But I'm interested to see.
Now this is the end.
There was an ending of a Naruto episode, you know, friendship solved everything.
Well, I'm going to be real like I think this is kind of sometimes my frustration with
us because like not just us.
I mean, us as a fan, right?
Oh, right.
Not just us, but us as a fan base.
So if you have a big bad, you have to have the CGI fight.
Yeah.
Sure.
You have to have it.
If you do something more nuanced, then you don't get the big CGI fight.
What you get is characters like resolving story, which is essentially what makes great
television.
We sometimes cannot be satisfied to John.
It's point is like if there is a big bad, if we ended up having a, if Sinistro is pulling
the strings of how all it is and then we get a big Sinistro fight.
Well, does everything have to end in a big CGI fight?
Well, no, it doesn't.
There's another way to do it, which is the way that they did it.
While it is definitely muted, I think it's interesting to explore a world where you
don't have to have the fight where the characters have learned to like solve these conflicts
in a different way.
Yeah.
And so I think that that's actually for me, not just satisfying, but it was almost liberating.
Yeah.
It was liberating to know that it can go away.
I mean, but also if we think about it, the reason why, even if this was in my favorite
episode of the season, the reason why the season as a whole to me is a success is that
we got Obi-Wan.
We got, and like we got everything that we said we wanted and we were still bitching.
And I think a lot of times with like the superhero or sci-fi shows, we were talking to Mundi,
we've talked to Justin and Vanessa about it.
To me, it's more interesting to have the Green Lantern be something that not only is
hard to use, but feels special.
It feels like a lightsaber where it's like the minute you have a thousand lightsabers,
the minute people are back flipping, like, oh, this feels a little less, yeah, it feels
yet a little less special.
And with this show, I was like, the Green Lantern ring still feels like something you can
earn.
It still feels like something that not just anybody can wield.
And we know that John is going to be in Man of Tomorrow.
We're going to get John flying around and doing all of the big stuff.
Is that actually what you want to see on TV?
Because usually it's not done well just because the bunches can't be what they need to be
to make it look how we want it to look.
And what I can do well is wrap up that story.
I think the one, like, even less so than that, I think the one, like, slight gripe that
I would have had with this episode is that like there was a lot of very, very fast table
setting in the beginning of this episode only to get us to that end.
I think like when Sinestro has to explain, like, second and third hand to how a Graham
and John, what how did with Noah to set up what we're going to eventually get to?
I was like, oh, okay, that's like a little feels a little rushed and only just to use
Sinestro for that purpose is odd.
But then again, we're back on track.
I think that if to get that scene in the car where him and Noah are resolving those things
are is all worth it because that was one of my favorite scenes in the entire season.
Yeah.
I guess.
I don't know.
I don't mind like Sinestro needed a utility, right?
Sure.
So like who broke him out?
Why?
He did that in the episode three, right?
He's always like thinking about Sinestro.
He's telling the straight.
He could be and it could be bullshit.
He could be lying.
He could manipulate his how he meant.
How many times did he tell how you got to kill?
You got to kill John.
You got to kill the kid.
Oh, yeah.
He's always trying to move stuff at the table.
I was going to say he's bad at it.
He's actually not because he actually did influence how and like the first and the first,
but he didn't get John in this one, right?
I think like Sinestro's utility was used pretty well in this episode.
But I do like that conversation with Noah and John and the conversation that John has
with Kerry.
You guys are like, man, should have should have turned Kerry in man.
I don't know man.
She was being a mother, man.
Yeah.
You know, at the end of the carry is a fucking murderer.
Yeah, she killed how it's tough, man.
We all make mistakes, right?
She feels guilty.
She going to live with the rest of her life.
It's always different when a white woman kills somebody.
People like act differently.
Let it be.
Let it would have been like Latisha or somebody like that that killed the slammer.
Okay.
It would have been slam.
Crink.
Slammer.
Fox News.
News in 11.
I'm not killing black winch.
Like goes crazy in Nebraska.
Filming it like today on Hannity.
This was the Zach Fox.
This was the Zach Fox.
Like, it was all hung in at the end.
Billy was like, oh.
And by the way, by the way, shout out to Kerry, man.
Kerry looks at him like I guess I'll turn myself.
You know he wouldn't go turn you in.
He wasn't going to turn it.
He like, he knows like, it's not what I want it.
Telling you, bro, sometimes as brothers, we go, we go further for these white ladies
then we do fall on since we got a man.
We got to make sure this was a episode.
They healing because John, he's just like, hey, yo, Kerry, I forgive you.
He walks through his own house.
Okay.
Everybody.
Everybody who was mad at us.
How do you know that his brother was a rapper?
How do you know his brother was a rapper?
That nigga had all the fun.
How do we know his brother was rapper?
He said it.
Oh no, he could have been a singer.
Is what?
Yeah.
Oh, okay.
That nigga look like a rapper.
What do you want?
To me, look, give me the R&B.
Can we talk about, it could be a, it could be R&B.
It could be Afro beats.
Niggas is rappers now.
I don't know what to tell you.
Not even what it's like to treat or so shit like that.
It could have been me.
He would have been a bad man.
You know what?
He would have been a rapper.
The brother is a classically trained opera singer.
That's what he's doing.
He's putting out five.
It's the three tenors featuring him.
So look, how do you feel like this episode attacked or addressed?
The love story between Carrie and how, that kind of preceded all of the stuff that happens
in this episode.
We go back to 2016, how get out of jail.
I'm definitely allergic to this wig.
How get out of jail, right?
And then we get to see a little bit of how they came to have feelings for each other.
How well was that executed for you?
I think it was executed very well.
The diddler seed was hilarious to me though, because I was a little bit like, come on,
you are ruined in everybody's Friday night.
If this man don't kill a dozen people, fuck you in your garlic.
Okay.
I would have been like, I feel what you're saying, my brother died.
Yeah.
So I'm missing a leg.
Carrie was essentially like get over it.
Get over it.
But you know what?
Shout out to the people.
They wouldn't have a nice shit.
You traded here.
They traded here.
They traded him exactly like they would have treated John.
If John's family would have moved into the neighborhood.
Oh god.
Yeah.
1913.
1913, at least 1960, maybe even 1975.
No, this was remembered.
It's like, hey, yo, fuck you.
You're back to where you came from.
They pooped on his front lawn.
Yeah.
Pooped on his front lawn.
But then I'm talking about the fire bombing.
The fire bomb was like civil right.
That's why I said, that's evil.
No, it wasn't just one.
It was like get angry.
You go, what?
Yeah.
Check it every window burnt up everything.
No thought or regard for Earl, which by the way, who's not.
That was our brain.
That was crazy.
Wait, was that wait?
Was Earl okay?
By the way, no.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh yeah.
He said, oh, John's parents.
John not shit because he dropped Earl off with his parents.
And then it's left.
He's like, yo, take care of Earl.
Yeah, I got him.
And then come back.
Okay, hugs.
Yeah.
So, but I thought that they kind of got us into their relationship and made us really
kind of believe that these two people that was always some sort of attraction have found
something special in each other, particularly after Rushville was obliterated.
Oh, yeah.
The scene in the, the scene in the bed was really touching when, you know, she like,
don't look at me.
He's like, no, come to the game.
I'm like, wait, I gotta call a foul on that play as well.
But now this your son, this is game, whatever, I'm not trying to see you bring your new man
into my fucking game, who don't killed
No, no, no, no, no, it's not about the game.
It's not about you all.
This is about me.
No, no, no, no, no, come on, come on, man, you know, it went out and out like that.
No, you know, you don't have them same hands.
He's a man.
Now, this is baby boy, like you know, I keep going like that would be funny baby boy, baby boy,
grab them and blend River, you lick this head.
Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick Nick
the bra.
I have a recent piece, John Singleton, big up being Rames and Tyres.
I remember being in the movie theater when he walks away and then he, ah, youngster,
then he walks back and he grabs them up.
I'm like, oh, she didn't get in trouble.
He's taking fun.
Like, V. Rames was crazy.
I remember that.
I remember it was going crazy.
It was hitting himself.
V. Boy's one of my favorite movies all the time.
Baby Boy is dramatic, man.
Baby Boy was, uh, if they do a no one's been off of a baby boy's personality.
I've been off with Noah.
I will watch that shit.
Like, when Noah is the trouble key because one day Noah, how can you raise a man under
the, what if you tell Noah, a Noah, I don't the fuck you, man.
You want me to take over this whole bitch?
Wait, when did Noah learn that he was a man, huh, too?
I think I really told him because Kerry was under the impression that he didn't know for
a while.
When, right?
Literally.
No, she, when she's talking to how she's like, yo, like she tries to play it off and he's
like, no, he knows what he is.
She tried to, but she's like, I tried to protect him from that, hoping that I could raise
him in a way.
No, I think she tried to protect him from his potential to do harm, but I think his grandmother.
No, that's what I'm saying.
Yeah.
Like back when, like in that first episode, do we feel like Noah at that age was like,
I'm, well, the only reason why I think that that could be the case and you guys can tell
me if I'm wrong is because with all of this stuff happening in Rushville, she was so forthright
with him about it.
She was basically saying like, this is the kind of thing that I told you was going to
happen.
Like this, the day the man got it.
Right.
And so I think that she had already let him know like what he was and what that meant
and how people would come after her.
So she had to protect him.
Yes.
I think that's, that's right on the money.
If we can pivot to like just comic book, lore, shit.
When Sinestro makes the fucking lantern.
Oh my God.
That has all of the cracks of yellow in it.
I was wondering, I'm like, okay, they did not show us this in this episode.
Is how a green lantern is how going to be a yellow lantern, right?
Or is he going to be a green lantern that literally has basically a dark side in him?
Yeah.
Like I was like, I tried to be like, Mace Windu.
Yeah.
I try to look at like any comic precedent for that because I'm like, can the yellow lantern
charge a green ring?
And like they didn't really, it didn't happen that often.
I love the idea of that there's like this seed laying because there's a couple of things
that this episode does that's like table setting for either another season or whatever we
have story-wise with John that the idea that there's a technically yellow lantern charging
a green lantern constantly is fascinating.
I mean, because like I was wondering when John shows up in Man of Tomorrow, is that something
that we get a little bit of that or is this completely lantern season two?
I think the big idea is like, I think the lantern is a metaphor for the whole season,
which is like, you don't have to be afraid of fear, right?
Like, household thing was that he's fearless, he's fearless, he's fearless.
In the day, like, it got him killed, right?
Like, if you find a way not to like not be afraid, per se, but to like, channel your fear
into a way that's productive, right?
Like you said.
Like being fearful is like a, it's pro-evolutionary, right?
Something that you like have to be to survive, right?
And so you can't just ignore it.
You have to use your fear in order to like, you know, overcome something.
I think that's like the big idea of the fear in the lantern at the end.
Also, and this is like the thing that I was bugging me, you've talked about comic book
lore stuff, Guardians top one worst organization ever, right?
Because guy come down, guy cedar ring, guy cedar lantern.
And guys just like, I guess I gotta go explain this to the folks at Oa.
Brother, man, take the lantern or take the ring, take one of the other.
And like, go make a call big dog, take him to Oa, like, I know you guys don't want those problems.
Yeah, guys really stare them down there.
Well, guy, guy for some reason, I thought that that was actually sort of almost like,
the fact that guy didn't just straight snitch and try to assert his authority on
John made me like guy a little bit more.
Not that I necessarily had a huge problem with guy, but when you think about it,
you know, guys got the lore tech logo on his chest.
He's kind of a corporate green lantern.
You see him and, you know, you think I'm your arrow board and all of that stuff like that.
So the fact that he didn't mark him out or try to like dominate him in that situation
because he had a fully charged ring and John didn't that actually kind of made me respect
guy a little bit.
But do you think part of this is the fact that like if we look at how, how is basically
discarded by the guardians by the time he's in the last few years of being a green lantern
and guys basically get in corporate money.
So as part of guy probably is just like, yeah, I am kind of just a messenger for them.
Like I have had to kind of sell myself to be popping on earth, but you wouldn't stand
up and be like, actually, nah, man, I'm the big dog here.
I'm a cook a little bit.
Yeah, I got brand deals clearly.
I know you wouldn't just take that, bro.
If John, if you were to green lantern earth and a dude came up, it was like, yeah, man,
actually, this is my spot now.
You got to go up in space.
You be like, hell, not lonely.
First of all, yes, this wouldn't happen to me.
I'm not letting fucking trader Joe's ghost fucking talk to me crazy.
Right.
You know, I'm the real fucking green lantern.
Fuck you.
I don't know where was that for.
And I do love the fact that they don't like each other.
Come the end of that.
Yeah.
Look, look, here's the thing.
That all could be true.
But in that situation, it's interesting about his character that he did not leave with
ego.
I saw what I'm saying.
I'm saying it's interesting that he didn't go, oh, you're the green lantern.
I'm the green lantern.
It's really the whole show is about the fact that the worthiness of that mantle is
kind of synthetic.
Like there's not a right way to be a green lantern.
You're not right if the guardians choose you.
You're not right if your parents choose you.
You're not even right if the ring choose you because that's not what makes you a hero.
What makes you a hero is understanding the intricacies and the vulnerabilities of human
nature and wanting to help.
And trusting yourself and having your own moral compass for what you believe is good.
Any organization or group of people that have to make decisions about heroism probably
has an agenda that's anti-humanistic.
So to me, when he's standing there, I think that not only is he probably to y'all point
a little scared of John for whatever reason.
True.
But I also think that he probably thinks he's got a point.
Like he's got a point.
He's around the guardians.
He knows he like he's got a point.
There's a lot of red in his ledger already.
There's something about God that went, huh, I get it.
I mean, but also the and this is what Monday brings it up.
This show was always litigating.
All right.
If the green lantern core is real and we have a green lantern on earth, they say it one of
the previous episodes.
There's no this not the army.
There's not a bunch of green lanterns running around on earth.
All of this shit to your point is fucking made up.
So it is like for John, I do think it's like a very interesting and smart choice to be
like, no, I'm going to be the green lantern of earth.
Why would I give a fuck about the other sectors?
Like, I know what I want to protect.
And I was like, oh, that's interesting because like, yeah, why would you give a fuck about
the rest of the sector?
Yeah.
Saturn.
I mean, we've only been to one other planet.
Earth first.
Oh, good.
We're earth first.
We don't send where earth, we're earth first here.
We're we're all we're not eventually all around the galaxy.
They try to build that green wall.
I didn't say that.
I didn't say that.
You say what do you have against John reinvesting in his own hood?
I don't have anything.
Well, his earth is his hood.
That's what I meant to.
I'm an earth is his hood.
We got to keep it.
We got to buy back the block.
No, and that's and he wouldn't he wouldn't give a shit about that because a, we've only been
to one other planet this entire thing.
And John wouldn't care about that since like he's kind of still getting his wings and like
if he's popping around other planets, the Guardians are going to keep catch wind of that.
Well, they said he said he's going to send an army.
And I was just like, hey, first of all, because like he caught his like, hey, bro, not only
do I got the battery from Sineshtro, I feel like John's like, I could kill you.
Like I could kill a guardian.
Yeah, maybe I, but my thing is like to to guys point like when you go to oh and you like,
hey, I don't know if you'll notice, but John dug up Howe's ring.
You don't ask him how he got it.
It's crazy story.
Not only this, but he also has a power battery.
So there's just another thing in our, I just feel like somebody's got to, like somebody
got to make a call.
Like hey, yo, yo, John man was going on.
I thought you didn't want this life, you know what I mean?
Like, but the one bit of leverage that he has over the Guardians is the fact that he
knows that they were covering up man hunters because with the search their hearts.
Yeah.
What did that make?
Like what?
I just feel like I think I mean, and that's like kind of where I landed on.
Ultimately a little, I don't think you feel flimsy.
Really?
I just, no, no, because he's going to be like, they're going to know he killed a guard
or he killed a man hunter.
Right.
He's not somewhere to be truffle with.
Amen.
Maybe we just let him be.
He already, like he learned, he learned from the best of the best, which is how.
How's already probably know what if I'm John, no.
I'm going straight to Metropolis.
I know where Superman is.
I know where Supergirl is.
I know where Crypto are.
What the fuck the Green Lantern?
Like I've seen these batteries.
They can't hold the charge for shit.
What the Green Lantern court really going to do when they come to earth?
That's true.
What's your name?
You're going straight to them into what?
No, I'm saying he's like, oh, our army will come down to you.
I'm like, we saw what the ring could do.
It could barely do shit.
Like this shit.
Like, we haven't seen John, we're gonna get cooking with the ring yet, bro.
I'm just saying if it's Superman, Supergirl, Crypto, a couple of my fuckers,
Metamorphos, we got Hawk Girl, Hawk Girl, like, Hawk Girl.
They're taking them over the court.
I mean, nobody is gonna, if you have Superman, if you have two,
Crypto, Tony and your fucked, right?
It's gonna be tough.
It's gonna be hard.
Wait, how many Green Lanterns do you think it would take to take down Superman?
I mean, how many you got?
Like, I mean, are we, are we, we're power scale?
We're, I mean, are we, we're at a place with a yellow sun?
Yeah, you're fucked.
I think no, well, it depends how much willpower.
I think how John Guy Kyle,
could, could in the right circumstances get Superman?
At least this, this universe is Superman.
Maybe this universe is Superman.
You saw what he was not carrying his money.
But also, but also to be real, this universe is Green Lantern.
Oh, I'm sure.
I significantly less pop.
Sure.
But if you take those four guys against the moon,
and the comic books is done.
If you take those, they're fucked.
Like, yeah, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's,
but the whole court can take down Superman.
Maybe, maybe, I mean, I don't know.
It's like, Mogo is a plan E.
I know, but like, why I'm trying to say is,
how many are in the court?
Like 50?
There's 200.
200.
No, it's a, I think that 1000s, 1000s, 1000s, 1000s.
That's the, yeah.
The universe is, yeah.
Infinite.
So I mean, I guess if you had all of them,
I mean, the question is, how do you go?
You got I on, you got that.
Yeah, I mean, I'm saying it all, but I'm saying,
it's gonna take a lot of, there's nothing that they can do
to Superman.
Nothing, what are they gonna do that's going to work on you?
Could you create like, kryptonite from the ring?
Maybe.
I mean, if you could do that perhaps, I'm sure there's been
some comic somewhere where the green hand was able to,
but like Superman's going to destroy any of the constructs
that they're done.
Like what can you do to them?
Interesting that Superman can beat up Greenlander,
but Batman is where we draw the line.
What?
Batman's where we draw the line.
Psychologically, Batman has a different set of,
excuse me.
He's a certain set of skills.
That's it.
That's the crazy part.
Every other way we're like, yeah, Superman.
Like the court.
Now, hold on.
Batman, hold on.
Hold on.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
there's the difference.
No one thinks that Batman is going to roll up on Superman
and square off and be Superman.
That's what we're saying about the Greenlander.
No one thinks that Batman's,
but if Batman has time to plan,
even the press I think, like, time to plan,
it's going to be tough if we've already seen it.
Okay.
So,
Noah's the man, Hunter.
John Stuart your Greenlander.
Guy Gardner gets cut out again.
Guy Gardner is now off of Earth.
It seems like,
I will see how much he honors that.
We'll see how much he honors that.
How do we feel like the rush feel reparation
gets her back?
Okay.
How do we feel like everything in rush feel was tied up?
This is a community that has experienced devastation.
Devastation.
There was just a murder.
And now there is like one one girl,
the soul of a killer alien leading their team
to a state championship.
Which by the way, shout out Noah,
he only didn't make the decision
because the scouts could take a look at his other.
Bullshit.
Or like what?
When they did that to be like,
yes, he this man Hunter got a heart of gold.
He tried to put his niggas on.
I'm like, all right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's what you gotta do.
That's what I'm going to do.
You know, to stay true to God.
You know what you gotta do though.
If you know if we're real, right?
There's got to be one guy.
There's got to be one dude.
Wait, like, it happens with like brothers and stuff like that.
But it's going to be one dude like,
yo, man, you put the Nebraska head on.
You like, listen, man, like I really do want to come to Nebraska.
I really do love this, but you got to take my home.
He need to scholarship man.
Like, you know, they did that.
That does happen.
They did that with Romeo back in the day.
Remember that with the Mara de Rosin at SC.
They did that was a package deal with Romeo and the Mara de Rosin at SC.
So you gotta take you gotta take my home.
That's all right.
Let's say we're in rushville.
And you got to kill shot on Noah.
The minute he's played his fellow teammates on not picking the school,
you're like, this is why I'm not gonna kill.
Right.
I don't know as if he was a kid, right?
So there's something else that you've known.
No, no, no, no, no.
I mean, you knew, you knew him.
John,
fucked his grandmother got a little overattached to the family.
By the way, talk to do what needed to be done.
I'm gonna tell you something right now, man.
If I'm like, all right, I got this shot lined up.
I got to kill this kid playing football.
And I see him spin out of a spin out of a tackle,
you know, go across his body and throw a dot to the tie it in for 15 yards.
We might need that.
He's like, hold on.
Wait, hold on.
The cold seat, the quarter bag man.
I'll be like, no, you can receive this.
I was like, I'm at least with the gun down.
I was seeing what you got.
You gonna shoot the husband?
Yeah, like my need that.
Hold on.
I'll say this.
Okay, so a couple of things that happen.
Number one, I don't think that John can let Noah live if we find out that Noah
killed hell because at that point, he's giving it to his nature.
As much as he did do because he did whoop the shit out of like a couple of people,
as much as he did do, he broke the nostril out of jail.
I know he broke the nostril out of jail.
I would have really loved to have seen that because even that, even that, like, there was,
that was a means to an end.
There is an idea here that you can't indict him yet for the evil that he hasn't done yet.
Exactly.
And that's a really interesting thing to explore in this particular show because this show
continuously delves into how much of your nature should you be held responsible for.
The moment that we learn that this brash, arrogant, Phil was microaggressions nature
that how Jordan has is something that's not just a part of his lineage, but that is a
part of his formation and his programming.
The question is, what can somebody be if you free them of their programming, if you free
them of what they're supposed to be?
What if they choose to want to fight it?
Right.
When they are fighting it, why are you allowing if your John know to go into politics?
I'm like, you got to.
No, I mean, that's why he takes the ring, right?
It's ultimately like if something happens with this kid, I'm going to be the one to
deal with it.
But if you go to the major, I'm like, nigga, go be it.
You go talk to him.
It's like, if you saw if he's there and you see him, he's a turnip for you.
Yeah.
Okay.
You just flashed the ring.
What's up, man?
You see no all campus somewhere like, what is it, woman?
Like, nope, got come here.
You don't know.
Like, like, like, like, like, that's right down.
You're like, don't listen.
That John come to a you better go take some basket.
We what the fuck is wrong with you?
You're not supposed to be doing this.
I hear with these people.
What are you, here's the thing with the programming.
I can't say it.
Oh, I'll say it.
Hello ring of verse fans.
I regret to inform you that due to the initiation of deep saddle protocol, this bit had to
be edited out of the pod.
I know.
I'm just as disappointed as you are.
Thanks as always for listening and the midnight boys.
Pew pew.
We'll get back to you shortly.
That's the worst thing.
That is one of the deepest shadows.
That is the end.
Yeah, we ever do it.
So, so, Devin and them, I want to make a note.
We're not going to take that whole part out, but that little part that is a deep, I want
we're back.
Well, we've been back for a second.
I want you guys to know what Charles is.
Was the deepest of shadow.
Oh, yes.
That'll never come out.
Yeah.
That's probably too bad.
That's tough.
Yes.
That's tough.
Slip him 100 in New York.
Maybe he'll tell you.
Oh, my God.
That's tough.
I want to know what, I'm censored in silence on this podcast so much.
Hey, bro.
Oh, no, you guess what?
If you want to rock with it, be my mother for the time.
Yeah.
I want to love it.
Because you're two for two.
Guess what?
Back on the filter.
Because you're two for two in jokes that were devastating.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, that was.
But that week, that other one was one.
That was amazing.
That was amazing.
That was amazing.
You're two for two.
Okay, that wasn't.
Well, I wouldn't have been no tours on the office hat.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You're two for two.
If you wanted it, I would love it.
That was some shit.
But no.
So, yeah.
So I think kind of trusting the community around them,
caring to a degree, trusting Zoe, which you don't have a lot of reason to trust her, is
kind of something that John, this is a part of what John has chosen.
Well, really quick, though.
It was a very bold choice and I'm so glad they stuck with it.
They don't give Hal an easy out.
I feel like a lot of people I saw like, oh, maybe Hal was a clone.
Maybe he didn't do this.
This is the, like, till the end, they were like, no, Hal and John are culpable in what
happened in Rushville.
And that's why I'm like, I am not.
Even if this was a mutip finale, I'm like, oh, they didn't take the easy way out.
No, yeah.
Can I get a galaxy brain this also in a way that like, I'm sure the riders weren't intending.
Okay.
Okay.
To John doing what he did with Noah is essentially what you would have to do as a superhero.
Like the nature of human beings and who we are is so uncertain, depending on where we are,
the type of environment that we've come from, like the trauma that we've undergone.
And so if you are a superhero, then part of your job is to believe in the uncertainty
of calamity, evil, but also of good.
And so you're legitimately monitoring human beings for the time that they go bad.
And then you step in.
If you can't do that with one person, how are you going to do that with everybody?
How are you going to trust everyone to do that?
That's the difference between like Superman and Batman.
I believe in the good and people like Captain America and Iron Man.
I believe, and those heroes always have to learn that free will and the ability to make
a choice and letting people do that.
And then acting is like what a belief in humanity actually is.
So he legitimately demonstrates a belief in humanity by believing in a robot.
But even what I think the the writers and creators is such a good job of is they were
constantly asking what would happen if these rings and these aliens came to earth.
And at every single point, whether it was John's father, whether it's Carrie, you are
seeing people in real time have to create like with moral and ethical dilemmas, that would
happen if aliens came to earth.
It's not easy.
Like in the comments a lot of times, like, oh, we got the ring.
Everybody's used to it.
I'm flying around and you're like, oh, no, Carrie had a life before.
She ever ran into a man hunter.
John's father.
Of course, this is something that is going to have echoes and reverberations to his entire
fucking lineage for years and years and years.
And that's where I'm like, oh, the show was successful in kind of building a scaffolding
for the DC universe where it's like, oh, this world is still trying to come to grips with
what a metacumids mean, aliens demons.
And I was like, oh, these are really good job.
But it's not just on a like global, immediately, at least on a like global, like, what are our
psychovia cords?
What are our like broad sweeping, like humanity level protections against superheroes?
It's just people in small towns, reckoning with those levers of power that are way beyond
their imaginations.
I wish the MCU, because like, I feel like because the MCU didn't have the TV shows at
the first, they could only really be macro.
And to me, I'm like, oh, it's so interesting.
I hope the DCU does more of this where I'm like, the DCU, historically in the comic books,
everybody has a city.
So you're, you're used to these heroes, like the Flash or Batman dealing with problems
that are a little bit smaller.
And I kind of want the DCU to stay here for as long as possible, where it's like, it
was very smart to pick Rushville as a place.
And I'm like, oh, wherever these other things go, it's a really smart choice for John to
be the green lantern of Earth.
Since you brought up the MCU, so I watched, I went to the theater to watch encore, right?
What did you think of it?
I had a fantastic time, you know, had a great time.
The, the new scenes or whatever the cutscenes, they were whatever, like they, I get it, like
it was whatever.
I have no idea.
I have no idea.
It was whatever.
But I went to the theater to see in-game again.
And the thing that's still a triumph about in-game is just a tremendous amount of care that
was put into wrapping up everybody's story, right?
And the fact that they could do that, that movie is dense though.
That is a dense, dense movie.
That movie has time travel, multiple versions of people.
That movie has a homicidal maniac going around killing people.
It has like every time, you know, think about it, you know, the big screen, every time
you think you're at the point that that movie has stopped moving, it moved some more.
Yeah.
And then at the end of it, you get an old-ass version of Steve, that's a lot of movie.
I think the MCU sometimes felt like they had to give us that experience with everything
that they made.
Yeah.
Like that they, that they had gotten to a point to where they couldn't slow things down
just a little bit to have us focus on really examining why we love these characters so
much.
And that's the thing that they did work on television.
But they're getting back to it in terms of Spider-Man, Wonder Man, Thunderbolt.
Totally agree.
They got the most, that's the R when it's like, okay, even if lanterns, people might be
a little bit like, damn, we didn't get the big spectacle fight.
I'm like, they gave us Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre.
They literally helped birth a new hero that people are invested in and want to see going
forward.
That's not nothing because most of this shit for the past like decade could not do that.
And I'm like, I would rather you start slow and build than try to be like, all right,
in one season, this is going to be the huge fucking shit you ever.
Yeah.
The MCU is constantly impatient with itself to want to give us something that they know
we would like to see, but is constantly unearned.
Like, I don't think Sinatra should have gotten the yellow ring in this.
I feel like it would have been rushed and it would almost be like, Sinatra was so good
in this finale and throughout the season.
It gives the universe somewhere to go.
Right.
It's not a Thanos level event, but you are like, damn, he's there.
You can he's there.
What's going to happen?
You can't just stuck on fear planet with nowhere to get out.
Stuff.
It's stuff he earned it.
I mean, I don't know.
Yeah.
What is what is the best show really though in this universe?
Kill the guardian and I don't know if you can quibble with that.
That was just like that kind of bullshit.
We didn't see them.
No more guardians.
Lower Lennie.
I didn't.
Did you expect to see more guardians?
I think we needed to see the guard.
I didn't see Lennie.
I we had to see Lennie come down, but I, hey, man, so this is how you're really going
to do it.
Okay.
Like we're not going to stop you.
And guy, poor kid knows those ghosts.
You know what I mean?
Like he goes to all of his snitches and then lower is like, hey, man, what you did was
kind of crazy.
I'm not going to hold you, but you are kind of right though.
So he's what we're going to do.
You don't say nothing.
I don't say nothing.
We good.
My guy.
All right.
I'm going to see you.
Yeah.
Like that would have been nice, but ultimately, I mean, I'm like, if you see Philly and say
that to lower Lennie, I don't need Philly.
I do you feel you in the fly off and then lower Lennie comes down as a bird, whatever.
And it's like, hey, listen, you say no, right?
However, you did kill a guard and you did do me a favor.
So I'm going to just turn a blind eye.
Little like edit to that final shot.
You see like a just a bird fly across the sky.
Yeah.
But I mean, at the end, I mean, I'm, that's like good point to the end.
Like him flying at the end because we talked about this last week.
We got to talk about that.
Yeah.
We talked about it.
Like one of the things that's going to happen is going to fly.
I think that moment is really like point in the sense of like, he let all this stuff go,
man.
It was two way down by his bag.
It's with his family with brush, with how, right?
So now that final moment in, I love you.
I love you to junior.
Oh, he finally, he finally takes the ring and flies off.
I'm like, he's fine.
I've been too positive.
I needed to see John at least in the suit.
Where was he going to see?
He just became a man.
First of all, he constructed.
How should have been, how, because like, how was watching him?
Like that was his favorite football player.
He should have been like, hey, junior.
I left this for you.
No, I really need to see him in the suit.
I wonder how, I didn't need to see him in the suit.
Him flying was good.
Uh, I, when it happened at the end, there was a part of me that was almost hoping that
it didn't happen.
That they just did something where he grabbed the ring and he looked up and then just
to pitch y'all off.
No, I just needed to fly.
He didn't need to fly.
Yeah, he needed to.
Come on.
I, I needed more ring slinging.
I just did.
I like, I needed to see John get a little busy.
So he just wanted, but then again, it's just like, I didn't even know I need to do much.
So there's a thing though, right?
Remember first try to came out and was like, hey, man, if I just was slinging them rings,
I was like, yo, you want to get some ring slinging?
Don't worry.
And we, we, I'm like, we didn't get no ring slinging, right?
Episode five was a ton of ring slinging, but I, I'm sorry to that, man.
It was kind of light on the green.
All right, so here's the thing.
I agree.
This isn't, all right, let's have the debate.
I don't think this is a full surf Dracula.
I feel like this has always been the show that they wanted to make.
Right.
Like if you like watch it from episode one to episode eight, I always, I always felt like
they are making a grounded universe and this will never be the show where the constructs
are the point.
Right.
With that being said, in a green lantern show, do we need more
green lanterns?
I agree.
I think so.
So this is my deal.
I don't need anything in a show.
Right.
So do I understand the criticism?
Of course.
I don't need anything.
The only thing I need in a show is the only one thing I need in any show is I can't wait
to see the next episode.
Yeah.
That's the only thing I need.
If the show delivers on that, then there's some reason why I'm into the show.
I want a second season.
And that to be is the.
I want a lot of these shows where I'm like, I don't know.
I don't know if I can get all the way behind that in the sense of, again, speaking to
speaking like MCU Daredevil.
It's a Daredevil show and Daredevil not find the hand like the original born again thing
was like, he gonna be in doing a new stuff.
He gonna speak a lawyer for episodes.
He's not gonna find nobody.
He gonna be alright, man.
Yeah, but here's the thing.
Daredevil to me is different because I agree with you, but Daredevil is just a fucking
ninja that lends itself to TV and choreography and everything.
We remember secret invasion.
We remember when Daenerys had all the fucking powers and it looks fucking crazy.
Little drags.
So we said, I was big.
I was powerful being in the air.
All I'm saying is we say we want this shit.
We say we want Anthony Mackey and the suit and then we see the suit and we're like,
I know.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying about the ring sling.
I'm like, if it was even a little bit too much or not executed the way that you would
have wanted, you would have complained.
So, but that's the part that's the paradox of all this stuff.
Yeah.
We have been, I think ultimately what it comes down to is we have been conditioned in a
superhero story at the end.
It's going to be the good guy versus the bad guy.
If I good wins or maybe sometimes evil wins, but at the end of the day, they're still,
they got to get the hands.
It's all this is all how you do it, bro.
Yeah, I loved the smallville.
It was a Superman story.
It was great.
There was no suit.
There was no cape.
There was none of that until the last.
You talk about serve Dracula.
Yeah, the very last.
That was the.
I would argue that, you know, we can, I mean, it's a rice thing.
There was never go Batman never showed up on the show because they're not going to put
Batman on the.
No, I'm not talking about whether or not they could or could not do the thing.
I'm talking about the fact that they didn't do it, but it was as much of a Superman story
as anything.
I was as much as a Superman of a Superman show as I've ever seen.
Like, there was, remember the episode where there was the teacher and she was too fine.
Yeah, he started getting his heat vision.
Shit like that is just inspiring to me because it's like he a freaky ass young man.
And that's what's making it.
That's inspiring.
That's inspiring because, you know, the story of when did Superman's heat vision first
manifest itself?
Like how can you take something that we already know and love and make us interested in it
in a way that's very, very grounded and accessible?
It's so he's a god, right?
And watching his power was meant because I think that lady in that episode was also like
some kind of demon because she had Marylux.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, she was like some kind of like the meteor had given her some kind of power.
And just to take that mythology that we all know and make the meteors, the source of
all these crazy happenings and small, so move legs Luther and Luther core to small all
of that stuff is not about what you have to have.
It's about how well they do the thing that they are doing.
I mean, also if we're going to be real, the constructs to me will always kind of look
goofy in live action.
So you have to be very careful of how like the coolest thing that how did this entire
season had nothing to do with the constructs.
It's like point junior and he just goes.
Boom.
He's way cooler than because I was just like, oh, so I give a little bit of grace because
I'm like, they still have not gotten the green constructs right to me.
And I don't know if you can just because it is.
It's a common good thing.
And technically they're relancering the whole time because how was the construct the last
three episodes?
Yeah.
Let me ask you this.
Do you feel like they got the come before we get to the midnight meter?
Do you feel like we got they got the constructs right and Superman in the movie?
No.
I thought it was fun.
It wasn't bad.
It was like kind of like marble texture to it, which looked kind of cool.
But then again, like in contrast to this, which is like just a little bit of a shade of
green on it, but like you can make tornadoes and stuff.
Like I could have gone for a little bit more than a bubble from how.
I thought that guy is a big fan of the bubble.
I thought that guy was cool in in in Superman.
Yeah.
The way he was just at the end.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think that's cool.
Yeah.
But the contract itself still looks a little goofy where you're like, oh, yeah.
A real way to make something big and fucking green.
Yeah.
Looked out.
Yeah.
The Hulk just cried somewhere.
It was like, even with the Hulk, if you think about it, the Hulk didn't stop looking
cool.
It's like that.
And it was basically great.
He was like puke cream.
When that first movie, not the not the Ang Lee joint.
You talking about Eric Banna?
Yeah.
No, not the Eric.
That's Ang Lee.
No, I'm sorry.
Everybody were in Northern.
He was a super fucking green in that shit.
He was like dirty brown.
I can't see.
I was talking about really.
I like the way he looked in the Avengers.
I think I think he looked better than the Avengers that you didn't incredible Hulk.
He did.
But I don't think he looked Armonger like I think he looked best in Spider-Man.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He looked great.
Yeah.
Yeah, look great.
He looked great.
We living in the Spider-Man world.
We watching the entire movie of in game.
Spider-Man comes on the screen.
This is about this is the battle of not the battle in New York.
This is the battle of earth.
The battle of earth.
At the end, when Spider-Man came on that screen and on core, that audience went fucking
crazy.
In 2026.
Like, if you want to see it, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that,
the Spider-Man swings onto the screen.
He takes a thing off.
Spider-Man!
They went nuts.
Your crowd went crazy too, man.
At every point where like, when you watch it the first time, when there was a moment,
somebody go crazy.
Catching the hammer, portals open.
Catching the hammer.
Crazy.
Portals open with Chagwick showed up.
Everybody, everybody in my, I'm about to cry now.
Everybody started crying.
What?
Avengers.
Avengers.
A simple.
It really, it really was like, that was the one of one feeling.
It really was.
It really was.
It was a piece of shadow with BuzzFeed.
Okay, midway.
Wait, really, really quick.
Is it bullshit that they were like the little hammer clink from Tony at the end of the
original end game?
They're like, that was always Tony making the Doom back.
That's a black line.
They did it in the movie.
They did it.
They did it in an awkward way.
I know.
I was like, I, yo.
Okay, real quick.
Don't act like that was the plan.
We talking about scene, we talked about those scenes real quick.
The, the one, rank them real quick.
By the way, spoilers for Avengers on core apparently.
If you haven't seen that in the, okay, can y'all rank the four joints we got?
I'm dead last is the, the Doom one.
It's like barely not even seen.
He's about to clink in the end.
That's dead last.
That's dead last.
Third is the, the, the scene with Loki and, uh, and Captain, no, I beg you.
And Captain Peggy.
That's what I was dumb.
Well, it's not one of his dumb.
It's just like, you could have done that later.
I think you could have showed him at any time.
I think you don't need to do that.
Like the second that their dance thing.
Exactly.
You don't have to do that, right?
You could have like had that have them come later, right?
Second is the scene with Hulk and Doom because not only does that propel you to brand new
day or from brand new day to Doom's days.
Just like it's cool to see Doom.
Now the problem with that scene in particular is that that should have been in brand new
day.
Right.
It should not have been.
But they were going to do that in the Sony joint.
They could have.
It would have been fine.
But like, whatever reason they was selling.
They really like enjoyed the most.
Was it TVA scene with Morbius and Casey, which is the one that you could tell, which is
the one that you could tell all of those scenes are oriented around.
Because to me, that's the that's the longest one.
And that's the one where it honestly feels like it holds actual.
The other ones are brand crimes that like actually feels like dessert.
That's what you're seeing after seeing on court.
Because like, I feel like Marvel is trying to do this thing where they're like, oh,
no, this we were planning this.
Don't worry.
Blah, blah, blah.
After seeing that TVA scene, are you kind of feeling like, hey, you guys don't have to
convince us that end games connected to this or what?
Just make your story.
Just tell you.
They really did.
I mean, obviously would have gone to see it either way, whichever.
They're really trying to do some like, what's it called them?
Some backlogging.
Yes.
So yeah, which like I kind of understand the end of the day, brother.
You could give us that TVA scene.
I would have got it.
I didn't need like all the other stuff.
So the only thing I'd say about it is, everything has to have a point and a purpose.
And so being that we're going to get this whole multiversal thing, I think or these
these incursions, I think it does make sense to show us like how the TVA is looking at
it.
I mean, they've taken the entire, it's like, it would be like, that would be like if the
movie had taken this entire time to build up a bunch of lifeguards and then something's
happening in the ocean.
And then we don't fucking see the life right.
These guys are the lifeguards of this.
So I didn't have a problem with like seeing their deal.
We know that there was a meeting in 2023 where they got together and decided to pivot to
do.
We read it and puck.
Okay.
So like we know that that's what happened.
So do they need to backfill some story?
Yeah.
At this point, they do have to be careful about how much time they spend doing it.
The funny thing about like the opportunity we've seen.
So like they confirmed some universes get destroyed.
And universes at least confirmed the Eric Banna Hogue verse, the 2015 Fantastic Four
Verse.
The X-Men verse allegedly and you guys is favorite.
The what at first gone all of it.
Tough all of it.
They're all they're all they're the watcher.
Encouraged you incur a debt of guilty.
Encouraged.
We'll see what happens.
But this is about lanterns.
And so we have to do the midnight meter.
All right.
Y'all know what it is.
The midnight meter one to 12.
One is the worst 11 and 12.
I reserve for true game changers.
I will start with you then where you going 11.
It feels right.
It feels right.
And 11 and 11.
Speak on it.
It's a truly, truly immersive.
It's a truly, resonant and impactful season of television.
I give it an 11 both on the quality of the show.
But also the fact that this show.
This show occupied the Sunday night on HBO slot.
Very true.
And lived up to that slot.
What's supposed to do that?
That's supposed to be a slot that's succession bullies that gave a throw.
Oh yeah.
And this show did Sunday night on HBO and lived up to it.
That is cultural.
I will also say House of the Dragon post super girl.
My fuckers was digging the gray for DCU.
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
It kind of I did not expect lanterns to be the thing where people were just like, okay,
we're back in.
We're.
I would not be surprised if when we go to see men of tomorrow, John Stewart gets the
biggest applause.
I'm going to get a pop for sure.
Mm hmm.
I got to go 11 to I was a twin like, I was a twin to 10 or 11, but I think there is a level
of game change in this in the show to your point of this is what this was culture feeling.
You know, like people were really rocking with this show for the last eight weeks.
And yeah, to your point, man, John Stewart is like, you don't see the man that's Marley
get worried.
I don't mean what we mean, talk to money, like a bunch about like whether it's season
two or not.
There's no way you don't bring this.
You bring in this character back, but you got to bring this character back in either
in his own movie or his own another TV series.
He don't only him and Black Panther, the only two black superheroes standing.
They got played out of here.
They got one man out of here.
You know what I mean?
So like, yeah, I got to go to 11 for this one.
I'd say 11 as well.
And it's also the, I also got it got like the alien earth feeling of this where not only
were we talking about the show itself, but the bigger ideas that the show is clearly like
chewing at and like consuming us with the discussions around it.
But like we got so much substance of talk around this show and what it meant to be fearful,
love versus programming, all of this stuff.
It did the canon of comic books like amazingly well.
And this show had it ending unlike alien earth season one.
Very true.
Very true.
Here we go.
What you got?
The raw chuck.
Let's see.
Let's see.
Before you say those new, new here, before he says it, what do you think?
I think he's going to the nine or 10.
I think it's a nine.
Things giving eight.
I will have to award Lantern season one.
Very, very strong.
Seven.
Nine.
Nine.
There we go.
All right.
Okay.
That's good.
You take them.
We take them.
It's always minus two.
I'm not.
I'm not.
I know it's always a very very.
I'm going to say this.
And we guys, what did Chuck give Schoegin?
12.
But I say that he now the week.
Okay.
I can't end the words.
We saw it.
I don't know why.
I think I was saying Japan, I would have given it.
The same show, but in Japan, you know, you know, one of my least favorite modes of conversation
is you got to see this.
Nika went to sweeten up.
And when I went to sweeten, the seven and elevens in Sweden is what I'm talking about.
It's cool.
They have fresh baked.
My one there, the seven and eleven in Sweden, the lady behind the thing, she was like a
kindly old barkeep.
She was there.
It was like a complete request.
You were a question.
But I did see, I just see your video though.
Black people not doing the head nod.
What the fuck went.
What?
No.
They weren't doing it.
That's us.
That is a uniquely American.
They're saying this right now, but I have to tell you that there's a lot of people who's
mad about this.
A lot of people who are saying that I was being like a typical American, expecting everybody
to do what we do.
It's interesting.
I'm going to say this and I'm going to let it go.
Sometimes it's difficult for me because sometimes it feels like people want to have
shit both ways.
I tell you what I mean.
What I mean is, yes, I realize that I'm a black American and not all customs and stuff
like that.
Like escape America.
I get that.
I understand that.
But at the same time, if I were to say that I'm a black American and this is black American
culture and blah, blah, blah, then you get pushed back where people go, hey, we're all
black.
Black is the same.
It's a black diaspora.
It's all of this.
It's all of that.
I understand that.
We all black.
We together.
All I'm saying is, if I'm walking through the Grove, where it's a lot of white people and
I see a black person, I look at them.
I do like that.
They look, that's a lot of you.
You good?
And Niggas come in.
We're going to podcast.
What's happening?
What's happening?
That's the outside.
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
Rachel, come on.
I just want to see it in the first.
No, come on.
What are you doing?
Come on, you got to come on.
Rachel, come on.
Rachel, come on.
Rachel, no, Rachel.
No, Rachel.
What are you doing?
Lenters.
Lenters, Rachel, Rachel.
Rachel, Rachel, Rachel, Rachel, you got far.
Because you were also a sweet.
I'm always, why does it be one of the midnight boys?
Rachel's here, guys.
Give it up for Rachel.
Rachel, Rachel, ladies and gentlemen.
Yeah.
Thank you, guys.
You were also a sweet.
What did you think of the 7-Eleven and or black people not nodding to other black people?
I didn't see black people like that to be even be.
I mean, not in advance.
Yeah, we nodded to each other.
We saw.
I didn't see black people like that.
You didn't see no black people in Sweden?
Like, just walking on the street?
I maybe saw two.
But look, I'll say this though.
I'll say this though.
I didn't see black people in Sweden.
But there were mad black people that reached out to me.
Like, on Instagram, I was like, hey, if you're going to Sweden, like, came out, come
so the black side was getting stuff like that.
So maybe they're not in Stockholm.
Yeah.
This would have been great for you and sweet.
Yeah, it would have worked.
This is.
It would have worked.
It would have worked.
It would have worked.
It would have worked.
It would have worked.
Yeah, maybe.
Did you like the 7-Eleven and the sweet?
I looked at it.
I didn't go inside.
It was beautiful.
They had a silent fog.
You did go for 7-Eleven?
No, no, no.
I just, I wasn't that curious enough.
I asked the question.
I knew it was, I knew that they were nicer there.
I was impressed with the salad bar.
Then I just kept it moving.
No, we can't do the salad bar.
Did you do the salad bar?
I did not.
But I did what the story we have to go.
This is probably post-credits.
But what I did say, what I did see though, is I was walking down the street.
I told this story before.
And I saw everybody had a hot dog.
I'd say, oh man.
I was like, yo, when a hot, I mean, like, when a hot, you were gobbling the glizzies?
I was not.
But everybody got their hot dogs from the 7-Eleven.
Oh.
Everybody, like, everybody.
It's so exciting.
I'm coming down the thing.
Everybody got a hot dog.
And when I'm saying people standing around and they dressed up and like Hugo Boss and they
like, these are people they're having a hot dog.
I'm like, oh my god, is there like a street fair somewhere?
They was going into the 7-Eleven to get down there.
The 7-Eleven was beautiful.
I mean, it's so clean.
So clean.
I also appreciate the white man got up, gave me a seat.
Let me sit down with the boys.
We got this podcast for three years and a half.
There you go.
Silma Steve is back.
Silma Steve is back.
Silma Steve is back.
All right.
That's post-graded.
So let's close out the show for Steve from City.
Bye, Ray.
Good to you.
Yo, guys, the guests keep a flow in on the midnight boys.
We were honored to interview Chris Mundy, executive producer, show runner, writer of Lanterns
and Shornair.
Please stick around.
We ask him all of the great questions.
All right, the season is over, but our conversations about Lanterns are not over yet.
We are here with writer, show runner, and executive producer Chris Mundy to continue the Lanterns
cowbell.
Before we do anything, 321, you got to give us a pew, pew, Chris.
That's what we do.
321.
All right.
I'm getting right into it right now, man.
I'm getting right into it.
Okay.
Before we even talk about the show itself, tell me about the how and the why.
The Green Lantern is a character that we are so familiar with that is part of the fabric
of the DC universe and really the overall superhero universe.
This was deconstructed.
This was humanistic.
This was story first.
Like why this approach to this character and how did you get it done?
Well, I don't know how we got it done.
You guys can tell me.
But I mean, the idea from the beginning was just like, okay, let's take this at face value.
Let's take it that these people have these jobs and they live in the world and they're
real people.
What would that look like and feel like?
If you're the Green Lantern, how Jordan's the Green Lantern, he's doing that job a short
amount of the day in a way, do you know what I mean?
We just talked about them as people and then we talked about what would happen.
What do you do as you start to age out of a job?
You know, it's like, what does that feel like?
Because it's also your identity and I think all of us can relate to that in certain ways.
You watch it.
You definitely watch it in sports all the time, but we have it in our own jobs.
So we just started there and said, let's talk about these people as these guys as people
and see where we get.
Yeah, it's interesting.
I got this from my dad, but my father used to say that athletes are born twice and
they die twice.
You're born, you're regular self and then you get reborn as magic or MJ and then you legitimately
die in front of everyone.
You go to something with an unveiled statue of you or you go to a professional funeral.
It's like, didn't you used to be?
Didn't you used to be that thing or that person?
And that he goes, that afterlife is hard.
That's why you see people struggling and stuff like that.
And it was interesting to see that happen on screen to a superhero because we never
get that side of their life.
Was there any pushback from attacking it like that because a lot of people aren't used
to not looking up at superheroes and looking at them like that?
Yeah, I think because we went in, there was buy-in from the beginning.
It was like, this is the way we're going to try to do it.
And so those things kind of happened before it.
And then it just became about, okay, how well are you doing the thing you said you wanted
to do?
I was saying when we were talking about before this, my thing on the show was always, okay,
if this is a good idea about the way to do it, I think we can do it well.
But the question just is, was this a good idea?
And then you go from there and you cross your fingers and you work as hard as you can?
So with the finale, I feel like I was surprised because this entire time I was like, okay,
Jon's going to get the rig, everything's going to explode, he's going to be making all
these constructs.
And in a way, you guys sidestep that a little bit.
So in the beginning of the process, where you always like, something radical happened
where it's like, Jon is like, I'm the green lantern of Earth.
Guy, you can be the one in space.
Is that always something in the beginning where you're like, this is the story we are
telling?
It was pretty close, pretty close.
I mean, you know, you put up like tent poles in the storytelling and then things shift
a little bit, but those, the big ones were always kind of like, they stuck, you know?
And so we knew at the end, Jon was going to take the ring.
Then the existence of Guy, that we were like, okay, what do we do?
We were about, I don't know, a third of the way through breaking the whole thing when
all of a sudden we were like, it's more of like a, he's almost like a ronin in a way.
Jon, I mean, it's like, and once we did that, we're like, okay, good, we're going, we
know we'll get there.
And we trust that we can get there in a meaningful way, but like, it helps to know where you're
, where you're heading.
It was, it was interesting as well in this episode because we see the new lantern that
Sinestro creates.
We see the yellow cracks and fissures in it.
And to me, I'm like, oh, this opens up so much storytelling, like possibility.
How much of that was a push and pull of like, how much do we reveal?
How much do we save?
Because that's a comic fan, my mind was going crazy.
Well, I'm a big believer that like in any season to TV, you need to end your story because
that it's, it's like, you need otherwise, it's like, you made a promise to the viewers
and you didn't fulfill it.
So like, we needed to answer our mysteries and all, but at the same time, there needs to
be things that you know you can build on or go back to.
And some of them could be like, oh, that lantern looks sus, you know, or it could just
be emotionally shits going to go down between these people in the future.
And you just, you know that there's possibility and it's always, it's always part of your
world.
Then you might get back to it in a season two.
You might get back to it in a season three, but it's, but it's there.
So you build that stuff to have places to go that are organic and are always inside
your story.
But hopefully you end your story too.
You know, the thing that people started like, because it's like you're asking for people's
time.
What?
Yeah.
How does that work though with knowing that your character has to go on exist in a larger
universe?
I mean, when you're doing Ozark or you're doing a different show, you're telling the
life stories of these characters, sometimes with this devastating brutality that they have
to go through.
So remember to see where where she, where she flips out in Ozark.
I'm fucking killed.
I was like, shit.
What?
You know what I mean?
You're existing through that.
I was out.
You fucking mad.
I knew when they killed that boy.
I'm not going to get that.
But, but with this one though, you're taking care of your story.
But also, we know that John's in Manit's Mark.
Did you know John was going to be in Manit tomorrow when you're breaking this season of TV?
At a certain point we did.
Not initially like when we were right in the pilot and started in the room.
But we knew that part of our job was to launch John as a character.
And we know that world exists.
So I mean, like, you know, we're not done.
We can do.
So how do you split the baby on that?
It's in terms of ending your story, but preparing him to be useful to somebody else's.
I know.
I really, we just tried to end our story and then say, here he is.
Go with God.
Go with God.
And if there's any problem with it, let us know if we need to tweak anything, but we didn't
need to tweak anything.
You know, but it was really just like, okay, trust that we created hopefully a character
that's a 360 degree character.
And then, you know, it's storytelling.
It's like, okay, you're turn.
Like, I want to watch that.
I want to watch that.
I want to watch John, right?
Like the whole point of the show, so launch John into this large universe.
But part of that, you give him his own oath, right?
And like, in the comics, like, multiple characters have like different oaths.
So that's not new.
But like, what was the thought process in like, this is going to be John's oath?
Like, why was it written away that it was written?
It's funny.
Like, Justin always said in one of our writers that it's like, okay, we're not rewriting.
We're just remixing it.
You know, it's a, but it's like, John's whole path to it wasn't the same as that.
It's anybody else's path.
Like, the ring didn't choose him, you know, he got interviewed for it.
But then he needed to choose that he wanted the job.
He turned down the job and then came back and needed to want it on his own terms, not
his parents, you know, not just because of the guardians.
And we'd sort of, we talked so much about fear, obviously, because it's a big part of
the mythology and the canon.
And, and we really landed on, there's a line in the, in the finale.
It's like fear is actually just emotional intelligence.
You know, show me a species without fear.
I'll show you something on the extinction list.
And it's like, it's true.
So it's like, you can use it.
You can, you want to be fearless, but like, you want to be intelligent too.
Fear is probably a solution here.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So, so we're like, all those things, we can't put him through this thing and have him
learn all this stuff.
And then just say an oath to people that he's not entirely pledging allegiance to at the
moment.
So, we just want him to be his own man, but at the same time, it definitely nods toward
the, the original earth.
We don't know if we don't want to disrespect it, but like, we just want John to be his
own man.
I'm curious how you, because like it, it's reflected very well in house final line to
him.
Don't be afraid to be afraid.
The growth and like slight regression of how, as he's giving the, this mantle too John,
What was the best balancing point that you needed to find after how passes and yet giving
John the how he needs post mortem?
Yeah, it was really tricky.
You can write to it, which we obviously tried to do, but it's really part of it is just
like what Kyle's doing because there's a warmth and an openness to the hologram that
there wasn't to how later.
So we just tried to find those moments where all of a sudden John glimpsed how as an open
him being like, oh God, well, he ended up this other thing kind of beaten down a little
bit by things because it's a hard job and it's lonely.
And I don't want to glimpse my future and be a little beaten down.
Does that answer the question?
It does because I'm just curious about like the idea like were you ever afraid to know
that he's getting this catharsis effectively from a ghost or somebody that isn't real?
Yeah, really how?
Yeah, no, we did.
We wrote right to it in seven, that numbers changed at one point, but on the boat, and
he was like, you know, John's like, I want his apology.
He's like, I said, I'm sorry, he's like, I want his apology.
And some of the heartbreaking thing in this is that he doesn't quite get, he comes to understand
how.
So in that way, there's some closure, but I think there's a sadness in the fact that
he didn't.
In those two actual characters didn't get that moment, you know, in your headcaded for
the greed letters of so interested now because house ring, it seems a little bit different
from Guy's ring.
It seems a little bit older.
He has all these tricks.
You don't do all of the comic book stuff where it's like, oh, the suits are actual rather
and stuff like that.
So when you are making this world, how are you guys trying to figure out what to take
from the comics, what to keep, how to keep it grounded, but also expensive?
Yeah.
Oh, God.
No.
It seems like some shame.
No, I mean, really, I mean, we wanted everything to feel like a tool.
Okay.
The ring is a tool.
The lantern is a tool.
The suit is a tool in a way.
Even like, even things like the gun that Anton uses, the shoot the memories into John's
head, we wanted to feel like an actual thing that would be in someone's like, you know,
tool shed.
So that like, you always felt that like the job and the mission of it in that way.
We always felt tethered to things.
So we really just leaned in that direction all the time.
Do you know what I mean?
We wanted it to be like, this is a job and it's like, it's a cool job and you're a superhero
but like, it takes a toll and the suit gets scuffed up.
You know, and the lantern gets scuffed up and the ring gets scuffed up, you know, because
we wanted to believe it as much as we could that the wedding.
We're going to get a suit.
Do you guys ever have gov stations where you've like, we got to see him in the green
lantern suit?
We did at the beginning.
I mean, yeah, they're drawings out there in the world.
That's for sure.
Oh.
Yeah, we talked about it a lot at the beginning.
But just by the evolution of the story that wasn't when we could have had him take a get
a suit at the very end, but it felt more like him flying on his own as his own man, meered
howl in a way.
That doesn't mean he won't have a suit.
But like in where our story ended, that just felt like the most poetic.
Yeah.
I'm so glad that Vanessa and them in the room too, because the bad version of that is that
like he gets his suit and his suit be like Foubu.
Oh, right.
Like Carl.
You know what I'm saying?
But look, I've asked you something just about how I actually have a couple of howl questions
before we move on to John number one.
Have you guys decided what manner you will resurrect Hal Jordan because you will.
And then number two, Hal Jordan is an interesting character because he is a classic comic book
character that still has enough anonymity that you can do different stuff with him.
Right.
Like if you guys were trying to do this with Bruce Wayne or with Clark Kent or with someone
like that, they'd have been pitch force out for you guys.
Totally.
There was some of that with Hal with people going, that's not my howl Jordan, that's not
my howl Jordan, that's not my howl Jordan.
But how did you guys decide just how much you could take this character and challenge the
audience with it?
We wanted to, we just tried to find things that were interesting to us and the things that
were real things you could talk about, about real people that aren't perfect.
There's nobody that's perfect in this show.
Do you know what I mean?
You know, it's Hal and Kerry and John and John's family.
I mean, everybody, you know what I mean?
They're just like kind of like constantly, they're just people.
You know what I mean?
So they're all, they're all flawed.
So we, we just wrote what was interesting to us and waited if there was pushback from
the people that we were making it for, they could tell us and we'd respond.
But like, I mean, Damon, I used to talk a bunch of just like, we're like, in the tradition,
someone does the, does their comic and then they put it out in the world and then the next,
the next run, somebody else does it.
Yeah, and it changes.
Yeah.
Like we're super aware that like we're the keepers of this story for a minute.
And then if some of the sticks, people will take some of it and run with it and change
it.
And I'll be psyched to see it.
You know, I think that's what's kind of cool about the forum.
It's like, it's shared storytelling.
You know what I mean?
And I, I, I.
I told Kildt College.
I don't know.
Like you, you're getting the game.
You're like, fuck.
Kildt College.
Like they're going to be something.
The last thing we've seen of Hal Jordan.
What?
Is this the last, you heard me.
Is this the last thing?
Is this the last thing that I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, is this the last thing that I'm sorry?
I have absolutely no idea.
You don't know, okay?
You're thinking of season two, so you actually,
I mean, there's a million, there's a million Wadefs.
That's a good thing about fiction, right?
You did not allude to some of those things
in this finale itself.
Like we have Sineshtro talking about,
bringing him back to life for real.
And the idea that, again, we know that he's in,
Man, it's tomorrow.
Is there any sort of idea in your minds of like,
are we gonna table set for a possible season two?
Are we gonna have something that is gonna,
like, at least allude to some other ideas?
Cause you see that a lot in other shows
that are almost too reliant on waiting for a second season
to kind of give us some big, oh shit moments.
We didn't write toward platforming for our season two.
We always wrote, assuming there would be a season two.
We didn't think of it as a limited series.
We thought of it, this is the show just gonna keep going on.
But it wasn't like, like, we were just trying to,
we were trying to buy the skin of our teeth
and finish this season, you know?
It wasn't like, oh, we've got a great idea for two and three.
So let's like, let's layer in.
Okay.
Some of it is just, you take a look at what you made
and what's interesting to you and what's useful
and then you go from there.
And hopefully you created characters
that you could do different things with
and put them in different situations.
Let's talk about Noah for a second.
You know, we were early adopters
in that Noah wasn't mad on him.
Like the man I was and it took me a second.
But the man had to carry things.
Peeped it from the first scene.
The moment that he walks over to him
and teaches him how to throw it all.
I was like, watch that kid as the man hunter.
I'd be convert them.
Yeah, I was.
You have to convert me.
I think they were on the board.
They were on it.
It took me a second.
And they have the conversation at the end with John.
That's like really point it and he's like,
you got to kill me.
I thought it was incredible.
But like what I really want to ask is,
why did you give him an online like that, man?
Oh my God.
I can't.
I know it.
I switched it though because in the actual game.
64 was the big.
I have some visa.
So I could say about that.
Yes.
I mean, it's lucky he's a man hunter
because of that online.
He's not getting any of your attention.
Yeah.
That's, I wasn't on set that day.
I was on set.
I would just say it's unfair to our incredibly talented,
lovely Russian director who I don't think
has ever watched a minute of American football.
When they put the extras out there,
one kid was like, 5'9", 1'30".
And he was like, it was what?
With number 29 and number 40.
I was just like, oh, shit.
And you can't really cut around it.
Like this.
I'm just like, he's scrambling for his life.
Like that.
He's just for this.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't feel like we, I feel pretty good.
And we didn't mess too many things up.
But like, it's so funny.
You said that because we've been talking about that internally
forever, like in the editing room.
I'm just like, oh God.
I'm telling you, it worked though,
because in the last episode,
but he's running for his life.
He is running for his life.
That's always good out the fling.
Yeah.
Exactly.
No, but like as him as a man,
like you guys are like seating that plot line.
You get to that conversation with John in the car.
And I can't remember the actress name for the life of me right now.
But he like really sells it about how.
Shae, who plays now.
Yeah.
How he's like, I want to be an omelcut.
I want to play football.
I want to do this.
But I have this like deep inside of me
that wants to take over the world.
Like when you are creating that character, again,
we're not supposed to know this until episode eight.
How do you like thread that needle?
So when we get to that moment in the car,
we're like, oh snap,
this is the kid who just wants to do good,
but has these internal demons inside.
Yeah, we tried to like have like tiny little hints at it.
You know what I mean?
It's like the day when all the shit goes down in Rushville
and Zoe comes over to him and just like remember everything
I told you, like those kind of things.
But then we also, you know, and him,
like I'm interested in politics when you know,
that first night, the time comes over to dinner.
So we wanted those little things.
But you don't, if you layer in too much
than everybody, I mean,
Vance not coming from the beginning,
but like, but like,
but like, then everyone sees it coming.
And they're like, why are we looking at this kid?
I'm like, oh, we're looking at this kid
because he's the murderer in the end, you know?
So it was a little tricky.
And for me, we talked so much about parenthood
and nature versus nature and programming for the manhunders,
but also John's upbringing and like what's,
what's me and what's just,
what my parents want for me and what's the difference
and all those kind of things.
And so for us, some of what layers into that conversation
that he did such a good job on in the car is knowing carry
and knowing like, is knowing like, she raised him.
And she's part, humanity's part that,
it's like, oh, she says the line in the,
in the final scene with how it's like,
I just thought if I loved him enough,
and like, is that enough?
And it's the gamble that John takes at the end, you know?
So we were, I was kind of hoping you'd see a little bit
of it from Noah, but then you'd feel the other from carry.
And even her fear for Noah,
mirroring Bernadette's fear for John,
and John's realization of like, oh, my mom was like,
scared every day of my life, you know what I mean?
She was teaching me to be fearless,
spending like, she was terrified of about what she was doing.
So we wanted it to kind of live inside those two moms
in a strange way.
That's an amazing balance.
I'm very curious because like to orchestrate that level
of narrative precision between characters,
it's a lot of time to make sure that you're spending it
adequately.
There's not a wasted scene.
Was there anything in the development of this
that you're like, I unfortunate,
we don't have time to lay this groundwork for something else?
Like, it's not maybe not so much a storyline,
but like, were there any beats that you missed
that you wish that you could have had?
No, there's actually a scene for,
no, not for the most part.
I mean, like there are a couple scenes that we shot
that aren't in that were,
there's a scene with another scene with Noah and John
that preceded that dinner scene,
where he talks a little bit more about that
and he talks about going maybe going to the Naval Academy
and all these kind of things.
That we were afraid might just might have just tipped it.
And there is a scene actually in the finale
where Kerry's there to pick up hell.
Right.
There is a scene where Bernadette's there too in the script.
Oh.
And there's a whole scene between them.
And then Bernadette's,
because Bernadette didn't know the Kerry was going to be there
and then said so she leaves and then there's Kerry.
And that we thought was going to help explain
the Bernadette hal thing, because it's weird thing,
like that they're friends, you know.
And it's all off.
You've just got to take our word for it
because I have enough screen.
So we had that, but it just felt cleaner
on the emotional line with just Kerry and Hal.
In true detective fashion, you know that detectives change.
I got to ask Kilowag, Kyle Rainer,
Simon Bez, you know, Hal is dead right now.
If you had to choose who were some of the lanterns on the board,
they're like, I would like to play with these people.
Vanessa's been talking a big kill log game for a long time.
Kilowag should be a long time.
You know, it's funny.
It's like we've tossed out a lot of different things.
I mean, again, we want to treat it all.
You know, we won't be back in Rushville,
most of all, unless something crazy happens in Rushville
every 10 years, but like, but you're going to be,
it's going to be an earth based story that we continue,
most likely.
I mean, we've shown that you can leave the planet.
So that's good.
But because of that, we want to make whoever's here
as sort of grounded and real as possible.
Our idea was just to like ground everything
and then layer on the other layers.
It's like, okay, you with us?
Great.
We're going to layer a little bit more in.
You know what I mean?
It's like even in the pilot and the constructs,
it's like the first thing Hal uses,
it makes us a $20 bill.
And then he makes, you know, a bottle opener.
By the end, he's like stopping that explosion,
but it's just like, it's like, okay,
are you with us?
Great.
Now we can expand.
And it's the same thing with introducing
like all the other lanterns and stuff.
But John Story.
Is John the character that you're like,
this is still what kind of grounds us
and the world is around him?
Yeah, I mean, I think all of them, but yes,
I mean, I think so.
You know, it's like, I mean, we set out to make a story
about John Stewart and we set out to make him
a fully dimensional character.
You know, there's a reason why the origin episode is John.
You know, I mean, you get a glimpse into Hal
at the top of seven, but like,
and he talks about it,
so hopefully we added a lot of depth to Hal too.
But like, we worked really hard to try to make John
a real fully fleshed out human.
So for John, in a way to create him,
the entire archetype of a superhero was subverted, right?
Before he becomes a superhero, you could argue
that he is at least partly responsible
for the deaths of dozens of people.
Before he even ever makes a save, right?
It's almost like you got subverted
and you really leaned into this guy starting off as a guy
as somebody who has his own vision and version
of what his destiny should be,
and then he will become this thing.
Is John Stewart of this world even a superhero?
Is this even a superhero show?
Because what we've seen recently in this mythology
is people grappling with things as human beings
and stuff like that.
And so I'm wondering,
do you see John Stewart?
Yeah, it's a really good question.
As a superhero.
I mean, yes.
But like, but I also,
and this is not me like evading the question,
but like I see superheroes as people too.
Okay.
And so like, so I think absolutely yes.
I don't think you can be someone that has that power
and puts that power, and can use it, you know,
but like, okay, well, how do you use that power, you know?
And those are very human decisions.
You don't like get blessed with full clarity
the day you get the ring.
Right.
You know?
So I think it's really interesting.
It's like, how do these real people deal
with these real powers?
But I think absolutely he's a superhero.
So to that point, I don't know if you know this,
but he's black.
All right.
So he is a black superhero.
And there is a lot of tension within even our community,
the community of nerds about the idea
of black superhero and black heroism, right?
The reason why Superman and Batman almost look
like they could be brothers is because
when America conjures a version of a hero,
that's what they see, right?
Right.
Um, this guy got a fate.
A crispy one at that.
Like, you know what I mean?
So we've obviously had brilliant people
from your right of room on this show of Vanessa and Justin.
What did you guys think of the challenge
of introducing a black superhero to the world?
I mean, it's sort of daunting
because it is like it does feel like a responsibility
and it's a real responsibility for whoever's gonna play it.
You know, it's gotta, it's gotta own it.
So, um, I mean, we talked a lot about, it's weird.
He's a hero, he's a superhero, right?
But we also wanted him to be,
we didn't want him to be perfect.
Like we didn't, he wanted him to be able to like make mistakes.
I mean, let's like, even like sleeping with Zoe in the pilot.
That's not a mistake.
That's what I said.
You got to get busy.
Sometimes you got to get busy, Chris.
I don't know.
Exactly.
Sometimes you got to get busy.
It was a long day.
Yeah.
What, did you guys see that John, he likes, he likes a milk?
He likes, he likes some older.
Was this like, this seems like a great place
to put this character?
Yeah, well, we were just like, okay,
we want him to make a very human, like maybe a mistake,
maybe not a mistake.
We were just like something complicated.
Something complicated right away.
And then we could use it and call it back
and it could be funny and all those things.
But like from the beginning, there was a lot of talk about like,
it's like, we don't want to, and I would talk to Aaron about,
it's like, look, you're a marine,
but marine is a job, not a personality.
You're also an artist.
You're also an architect.
And all those things are in there.
So like, you know, and so we wanted him to be,
we wanted him to get into making an imperfect person.
But you also, it was a real trick in the pilot, especially
because it's, you've got Kyle, who's, you know,
a guy in his late 50s and a white guy,
and John, who's like 30, and John's very yes or no, sir.
And there's a real danger in that, like right off the bat.
Right, because of the power dynamic.
By the power dynamic.
And it's in the Marines, but you also wanted to be able to be like,
like, it's why I had him say, like, how come every time you say,
yes, sir, it's more and more like, fuck you.
Like, you have to find that balance in there
and you always felt like you could sort of like, trip over it.
But the microaggressions that some people perceived coming from how to
John, real, do you see how Jordan, because this is a big deal about,
anytime you, there's a racial dynamic in the show, people are going to ask,
is race a factor here?
Race is always a factor.
Right.
So do you, from, from how Jordan to John Stewart, do you think part of the reason
why he was a little growing him is because there's something inside of him
is this character or racist?
I think, I think probably, I don't think he's a racist.
Okay.
But, but I think he's not fully educated in terms of,
how Jordan probably wouldn't know what a microaggression was.
Right.
Do you know what I mean?
And I think would have go to dinner with all his black friends and have a
really good night and not think anything of it, but also like, doesn't understand,
you know,
if, if you, if you've, if you've had privilege, you just accept it.
You know what I mean?
You don't think it's weird and default.
Yeah.
And so, you know, how needs to be taught a little bit just about,
you know, it's not his fault, but like, but also learn.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
Let's like listen and learn.
Like, you know, and like even in the writer's room, as we talk about this stuff,
I mean, I have ideas about stuff and Damon S ideas stuff about stuff and
Bri has ideas about stuff.
Vanessa and Justin are both black people in the world that they say something.
And it's like, oh, no, that's what you think.
But, but I think this is like, oh, great.
I just, weren't like, just listen.
You know what I mean?
It's like, it's like, it's sometimes, I mean, it's not that simple because, of course,
you know, but like, but some of it is just like, we all listen to each other and
the character like how like, I think hopefully would evolve and listen a little bit more.
Right.
Because I think he's got a good heart.
Yeah.
My last question for you is like, you guys started this process, I believe two and a half
three years ago.
And superhero culture, superhero movies, things have changed.
Obviously, this is a big hit.
What have you kind of learned about what it takes to make a show that like,
maybe you avoid a lot of those pitfalls that other superhero shows are other
super media, superhero media might fall into.
I don't know if I will.
That's I don't know if you learned anything.
That's a terrible thing to say.
No, but like, I think for what I learned is what we thought going in, which is like,
we're not making a superhero show as much as we're making a show in which
they're superheroes walking around inside it.
And, and so just think about it like eight episodes that tell a story about these
people and inside it, all those other things exist.
Yeah.
But like, we're just trying to tell a story about people.
I mean, I know that sounds silly and stupid, but like, that's what we tried to do.
And then we're smart enough to know that we're inside this canna that has all
these things.
And like, you can do all sorts of cool weird things with it.
And we're not so dumb that we might use them.
And stuff were in the room.
So like, are you guys having that dynamic where it's like, okay, what are the things
in this world that we can use?
Is this too much because you have the Green Lantern movie where it's like,
yeah, that's a whole, that was just never going to happen.
I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, just in the movie, but just like,
there is never, it's never like, oh, let's get all the stuff.
It was like, what's our story?
Yeah.
You know, I mean, you know, it's like, I mean, we would talk about like, I talk
about ring charge another five minutes in my life.
I'm like, that ring was never charged.
Yeah.
Well, just how I look like the kind of person is like going to be able to keep on the ring.
I'll tell you what, the while we'll say about that ring is it holds on to that one
percent better than my phone.
Yeah.
Because I'm like, it's like, we got seven minutes left, 20 minutes later.
Yeah.
Use the ring one more time, right?
But, but no, but I actually appreciate the fact that the story was grounded.
I think the last thing for me is the last thing that John says to how is,
or at least, you know, version of how as I love you.
Yeah.
And I have to watch it.
I have to watch the scene like three or four times to get it.
I'm like, he's tricking him in the saying that, right?
And even in death, his craftiness is still there when you guys like, when you're like,
this is the last time we'll see how, but I mean, like, I mean, we talked about like,
they killed it.
They killed him.
He's dead.
He's, uh, his hologram, like, you know, vanishes it there.
I feel like, like, after everything you've dragged these characters through, I would,
I couldn't have imagined them at the end being like, I love you.
I love you too.
Right.
When you bring it to that, like, apex in your head, do you like, are you like, hopefully,
the audience understands what that means?
Or are you just like, they gonna say, let's let it fly.
No, we want it like, we want to do have earned that.
And even like in a little way, like, the whole time the hologram never called him Junior.
He always called him trainee.
Ha.
I mean, the last line is, I love you too, Junior.
And so it's like the closest thing he's going to get to real how in that thing.
And to us, it's like crazy.
But we talked about the movie Ghost, a bunch.
Really?
Yeah.
And because in Ghost, there's like literally like, it's a love story between Demi Moore and
Patrick Swasey and like, but by the end, like, he's, he's gone.
Yeah, he's still dead.
You know, we didn't have them make a pot together.
You know, right?
It's like, I think in the second half, maybe in the end of the book.
Yeah, yeah.
Ghost, you know, how Jordan is the specter in the comic.
I hope so again.
I don't know, a visiting spirit.
So I've heard, we just love Kyle Chandler, man.
Like, that's what it is.
You can't leave that one.
I'm not.
How can you not?
How can you not?
I mean, we also got, especially like, with how being a little grumpy, like, if Kyle wasn't
so likable at his core, like, you couldn't get away with it exactly.
I mean, he's, he's so good.
And he's also like, I think just because he's Kyle Chandler, he's like, oh, yeah, he's
just like, you just forget how good he is.
Yeah.
And how much skill he has, you know?
Yeah.
But, uh, but some of that too is just like, oh, like, because it's like, he can be a bit
of an asshole, the John, because like in the end, like, you know, he's kind of playing.
He's kind of hazing him, but it's also like, Kyle just like, yeah.
That's perfect.
Chris, we're gonna get you out of here, man.
We really appreciate your time and also a thank you to you for creating a world where a
light woman can kill her partner with absolutely no consequences.
Hey, she's just trying to line his head and she, she's got brunch at the cafe on Sunday,
the police, the cops, ball, I tell you what, man, you get some good, you get some bad
things.
We appreciate your time.
We really appreciate the show.
I was so glad you guys appreciate it.
I like, it hasn't been so thoughtful about it.
Like, it's incredible.
Like for real, it's like, it's cool.
You guys like really get inside it and like, it's awesome.
Well, thank you so much.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you, James.
All right.
Monday was fantastic.
By the way, shout out to the cast and crew.
Not the cast.
We haven't had none of them.
It was on so I'm just, no, just joking.
Shout out to the crew of Lanterns and everyone who's been really, really involved in this
conversation.
We haven't really enjoyed covering this show.
Yeah.
And not because of any relationships that we have with anyone, just because this was
a good television.
It was really good.
We actually like, we didn't know that Lanterns was going to become what it became.
I don't want people to think like, oh, shit, we were so, I was like, no, the show,
we liked the show and people were reaching out.
Best seasons of Super Out Television.
Ever?
No listeners though.
No, the best season.
Oh, new listeners.
No listeners.
Guys, if you found this for Lanterns, we should give them a little bit of a taste of
what we doing for the rest of the year.
We got Dune's Day coming up.
Dune's Day.
Vision Quest.
Yeah.
Godzilla.
Playface.
Oh, yeah.
Street Fighter maybe.
Street Fighter.
Why not?
We got a lot of concept.
We got a lot of content coming and you guys are more, more than welcome to revisit any
old episodes.
If you're new to the Midnight Boys and you want like, a idea of how this all got started,
which episodes do they listen to?
The Black Superheroes draft.
The Black Superheroes draft.
The Black Superheroes draft.
Number one, go back.
That was our origin story.
That was our surf track.
They are, they are out there.
Is that on YouTube?
Yeah.
I think that was our first, that was our first video.
What a debut.
First video pie.
We appreciate all the support and this show is hugely successful for HBO and also for
our own videos.
Oh, yeah.
Okay.
Okay.
All right.
Programming mind is on Monday.
The House of R continues their lanterns coverage, which is going up.
He's going up over there.
Easter eggs.
Breadcrumbs.
Theories.
All that stuff.
You're not going to want to miss the finale.
as covered by Malinjo on Wednesday.
Rearrest recommends his back.
Big Coal Limber.
Big Coal Limber.
Big Coal Limber putting it down.
Big Coal.
We got a check in.
On Friday, Budmash covers Valor Mortis and Forever Ago.
Yeah, that's one.
That's the weird one.
Valor Mortis and Forever Ago.
Forever Ago.
I can't not wait to play Forever Ago.
You're not gonna play that.
You will play Galactic Grace or though?
Galactic Grace or I will play?
You will love that.
Yes, Rachel.
Our producers today are Devin Broldy, Jamie Eukits and John Jones.
Jomey Adinner on on social.
That's the old one.
I was gonna go Bob.
Additional reduction from Arjuna Ram Gopal.
Hashtag.
It was gonna be Bob and Weave Jomey.
Woo, Bob and Weave Jomey.
Hashtag.
Bob and Weave Jomey.
Bob and Weave.
There you go.
Bob.
Check, take us out.
We're not gonna do the oath.
Oh God.
I think I'm not doing a we didn't talk about that.
Fuck that, do oath.
Don't wait for it.
You're not a special nigga.
You just say the regular oath though.
Well, he can't say the regular oath
because he's not a Green Lancer.
You didn't like his new oath.
We didn't talk about it.
We should talk about it.
It's actually a hold in the show.
You didn't like the you didn't like his new oath.
No, Nick is trying to remix it.
Like just don't be special.
Before we do, we make we make it our own.
He is special.
He's not he's he said that old.
The judge where he wrapped fucking outcasts.
Right.
So you didn't like the oath.
Can anybody remember the oath off the top of the head?
I cannot.
I wrote it down, but I don't have enough time.
Okay.
What was it?
And black as day and nigga night.
No white man will ever steal my light.
Hey, you do it.
You're gonna get it now.
You're gonna get it now.
Baby, bring it home.
Bring it home.
Bring it home.
So I take that light.
Black as day and nigga night.
No white man will ever steal my light.
Let all these crackers that think they right.
Whoa.
You got it.
We all got it.
We all got it.
We all got it.
We all got it.
We got it.
One more first.
One more first.
Let all these crackers that think they right.
Bitware of black power.
Mother fucking right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
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