Lanterns Episode 6 Finally Returns to 2026, but DCU Series Struggles to Maintain Momentum in “Bad Optics”

Lanterns Episode 6 Finally Returns to 2026, but DCU Series Struggles to Maintain Momentum in “Bad Optics”

HBO Max’s Lanterns returned Sunday night with Episode 6, “Bad Optics,” finally bringing the story into the present-day 2026 timeline after five episodes mostly set in 2016. But early reviews suggest the DCU series is struggling to maintain its story momentum as it shifts into the mystery-driven plot introduced in the premiere.

Lanterns Episode 6, “Bad Optics,s” aired September 20, 2026, on HBO Max, finally bringing the story to the present-day 2026 timeline, where Hal Jordan is dead, and John Stewart is investigating his murder. The episode does introduce Guy Gardner and deals with the fallout from the Rushville incident. Still, critics consider it a disappointing follow-up that suffers from pacing and narrative consistency issues.

Lanterns Episode 6 leaps ten years ahead of the 2016 timeline where most of the first five episodes were set, in which Hal Jordan reluctantly trained John Stewart, to 2026. The episode continues the mystery thread started in the series premiere: Hal Jordan is dead, his Green Lantern ring is missing, and John Stewart has returned to Rushville to investigate.

Episode 6, “Bad Optics,” reveals that Hal Jordan served a ten-year prison sentence following the cataclysmic events in Rushville, but what charges, if any, could have been legally filed against him? The episode finds John Stewart living in Midway City, where he has become an architect who designs high-end panic rooms, an ironic detail considering he has spent his whole life being trained to overcome fear.

Although the return to the present-day timeline was long anticipated, critical reception for Episode 6 has been mixed. IGN called the episode “a fairly disappointing follow-up to the stellar ‘Lights Out,’” but the review hoped the series would pick up steam in Episode 7.

“Lanterns drops the ball in Episode 6, as the series finally returns to the present day but struggles to keep its narrative momentum going,” IGN’s social media commentary observed. This conclusion touches on broader issues about the show’s tonal consistency and narrative direction in its first season.

In a detailed review, Tom and Lorenzo said that they were initially disappointed by the episode, writing, “An episode that doesn’t really show its cards until the last minute after 52 minutes of weirdness left us confused on first viewing. The episode’s weirdness, in some ways, holds up on a second watch, but the pacing and character decisions are testing credulity, the reviewers say.

The episode begins with John Stewart in Midway City, where he has set up a lucrative business supplying panic rooms after the events in Metropolis seen in the Superman movie. John’s mother calls and says Hal Jordan wants to apologize, but he is living in Rushville, spending every night at the local diner.

When John goes to the diner, he learns that his mother had lied about Hal wanting to apologize. The situation escalates when Hal mocks John’s past, leading to a brawl in which John strikes Hal and fractures his nose. It turns out these injuries are consistent with the ones on Hal’s body, meaning this fight took place mere hours before his death.

Sheriff Kerry Kane calls John with the news of Hal’s murder. She tells him that she and Hal became a couple after the Rushville incident, a turn of events reviewers had a hard time accepting considering the town’s animosity toward Hal. The episode also welcomes Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), who has taken over from Hal as Earth’s Green Lantern.

John activates the Green Lantern signal in Rushville, and Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner shows up in Episode 6. “That gym teacher,” Hal says, is not willing to get involved in investigating Hal’s death because of the “bad optics” of a Green Lantern investigating the death of another Lantern.

This episode explains how the Guardians took Hal’s ring after Rushville and gave Gardner a new one. Gardner’s appearance establishes the central tension in the episode’s title: the political and PR problems the Green Lantern Corps faces as it grapples with the fallout from Rushville and Hal’s death.

Reviewers have pointed out several structural problems in Episode 6 that compound the series’ momentum struggles. Much of the episode focuses on setting up John’s new life in Midway City, his strained relationship with his parents, and his complicated history with Hal Jordan.

Tom and Lorenzo’s review criticized the believability of several character arcs, including Sheriff Kane’s romance with Hal and John’s mother’s friendship with him. The review said: “She’s the sheriff of the town. “Dating the most hated man in town, how does she keep any order, or get the respect she needs to do her job?”

The episode also depicts John making reckless decisions like digging up Hal’s grave for his ring and using a Hologram to get into an alien storage unit. While the plot rationalizes these actions, reviewers say they require John to act in “incredibly stupid” and “clueless” ways that are inconsistent with his established character.

In its first season, Lanterns used a dual-timeline structure to switch between the detective story in 2016 in Rushville and the investigation in 2026. The main 2016 plotline wrapped up by Episode 5, “Lights Out,” with the death of the Manhunter Zoe Macon, so Episode 6 was entirely the 2026 timeline.

This structural change has created narrative problems. Though the first half of the season focused on the Manhunter mystery, “a murder mystery feels like a better fit for this particular Green Lantern story than what we have gotten so far,” said Forbes’ Erik Kain. The change has not been smooth, however, and the episode struggles to sustain the tension and coherence of earlier episodes.

Episode 6 is a crucial moment for Lanterns as it tries to deliver on the murder mystery that was hinted at in the series premiere. The way the episode is received could have ramifications for the DCU’s television strategy, especially as James Gunn’s DC Studios continues to build its interconnected universe across film and streaming.

The series has been lauded for its casting, with Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre earning praise for their performances despite narrative inconsistencies. But the tonal inconsistencies of the show, swinging between prestige drama and superhero spectacle, have made people wonder if it will last.

With only two episodes left in season one of Lanterns, the show needs to solve the Hal Jordan murder mystery and find a cohesive direction for the series. The introduction of Guy Gardner and Sinestro’s escape from prison in the episode set up possible storylines for a second season.

John Stewart continues his investigation into Hal Jordan’s death in Episode 7, with the season finale airing October 4, 2026. Key outstanding questions include:

Who killed Hal Jordan? Why did they do it?

• What is in the alien storage unit that John is trying to access?
• What will the Green Lantern Corps do if Sinestro breaks out of prison?
• Will John Stewart get back the Green Lantern ring he turned down?
• The series has ordered eight episodes for Season 1, with new episodes airing on Sundays through Oct. 4.