Lanterns Episode 2 Introduces Sinestro as Imprisoned Killer in 1-Minute Backstory Reveal

Q: What dark secret does the imprisoned Sinestro hold regarding the rogue Manhunters currently threatening a small Nebraska town?

Sinestro’s secret appears to be knowledge about the surviving Manhunter at the center of the Rushville, Nebraska case — specifically that one rogue Manhunter is still alive, hiding on Earth in human form, and may be tied to Abin Sur’s death and cover-ups within the Green Lantern system. Episode 2 does not yet reveal the full details of what Sinestro knows. What it establishes is that Hal Jordan believes Sinestro has inside information about the Manhunters because they are a buried, dangerous part of the Guardians’ history. The imprisoned Sinestro tells Hal that if a Manhunter still exists, it would be “the second greatest threat” Hal is facing, making clear that he understands the scale of the danger. The wider evidence in the episode points to a dark chain of events: a Green Lantern, likely Abin Sur, captured the Manhunter after it engineered a genocide on Antaan’s world and was supposed to have it executed. Instead, something went wrong during transport, Abin Sur crashed on Earth, and the Manhunter apparently escaped into Rushville. That suggests Sinestro may know not just that the Manhunter survived, but why it was never destroyed and how deeply that failure implicates the Corps and the Guardians. So the secret is not yet fully spelled out on screen, but it centers on the identity, survival, and hidden history of the last rogue Manhunter now threatening the town.

3 articles · Updated · Yahoo! Voices · Aug 24

Episode 2 brings Thaal Sinestro into HBO's "Lanterns" by having Sheriff Kerry read a phone-note summary of Hal Jordan's mentor-turned-enemy while he recovers in a hospital bed.
That brief scene frames Sinestro as a defeated, imprisoned supervillain who killed a Guardian of the Universe, letting the series add major DC lore without breaking its grounded, detective-style tone.
Ulrich Thomsen plays the character, whose comic-book history is far broader: a former elite Green Lantern, later a yellow-ring foe whose fear-based power made him one of the Corps' most dangerous enemies.
The streamlined introduction leaves room for the show — and potentially the wider DC Universe — to expand Sinestro's role later in Season 1.