Updated

Updated · The Ringer · Sep 21

John Stewart Reopens Hal Jordan Murder in Lanterns Episode 6 as Guy Gardner Enters 2026 Timeline

Updated

Updated · The Ringer · Sep 21

John Stewart Reopens Hal Jordan Murder in Lanterns Episode 6 as Guy Gardner Enters 2026 Timeline

Q: What dark secret put John Stewart in jail, forcing him to rely on Earth's most arrogant Green Lantern?

John Stewart is in jail because he assaulted several Rushville locals after reactivating the town’s Green Lantern beacon, while also hiding a far more damaging secret: he had been one of the last people to see Hal Jordan alive and had punched Hal hard enough to break his nose shortly before Hal was murdered. Episode 6 makes clear that John returned to Rushville in 2026 after his mother told him Hal wanted to apologize. Instead, their meeting turned hostile. Hal accused John of being afraid of the ring and of sharing blame for the deaths tied to the 2016 Rushville disaster. John responded by punching him. Later, after Hal turned up dead from a close-range gunshot, that confrontation became potentially incriminating evidence John chose not to disclose. John’s immediate arrest, however, came from the public fight in the town square. After he switched on Guy Gardner’s Green Lantern signal, several men confronted him and tried to shut it down. John beat them up, and Sheriff Kerry Kane later arrested him over that assault. That left John in a weak position at exactly the wrong moment. With Hal dead, his own connection to the victim concealed, and Rushville hostile to Green Lanterns, he had to call on Guy Gardner — now Earth’s active Green Lantern — for help. Guy initially refused, but John forced the issue by reminding him that he only has the ring because John once walked away from it.

3 articles · Updated · The Ringer · Sep 21

A 10-year jump to 2026 resets Lanterns around John Stewart’s return to Rushville, where he digs up Hal Jordan’s body and revives Hal’s holographic backup to investigate the former Green Lantern’s murder.
Episode 6 widens the show’s DCU footprint by referencing Metropolis and Starro, then brings in Guy Gardner—now Earth’s Green Lantern—after John summons him with a beacon in town.
Guy’s arrival sharpens the rivalry: he mocks John’s role in the Rushville disaster and resists helping on optics grounds, but also delivers key fallout including Sinestro’s escape from space prison.
Hal’s sparse funeral, attended by John, Sheriff Kerry Kane and Carol Ferris, underscores how far the disgraced hero fell after Rushville and frames the murder as a reckoning many locals might have wanted.
The episode points to a crowded suspect pool—from Billy Macon to blackmailing teenager Maggie and possibly Noah Macon—while shifting the series from its finished Manhunter arc back to its central whodunit.