Who is the Manhunter? It’s the question that’s been floating over Lanterns for two episodes now. One that informs everything else that has been happening. There’s a powerful, genocidal alien living in Rushville, posing as a human, and because of them, Hal Jordan became the Green Lantern, the town has endured tragedy, and now Hal and John Stewart are on the case. Plus, we know from last week what Hal getting the ring did to John’s family.
And so, in the fourth episode of the show, “The Weenie,” that question was finally answered. But not before our heroes went through a whole lot of crazy and did a whole lot of talking. Let’s recap.
It took an extra week, but DC fans finally got a nice, big dose of Sinestro. Things picked up where episode two left off, with Hal asking Sinestro about Manhunters and Sinestro countering with a question about John Stewart. It’s a very dense conversation, which would be an ongoing pattern throughout the episode, but ultimately a few things come out of it. Hal admits to Sinestro that he knows John is more than a trainee; he’s a replacement. Sinestro tells Hal a few things about Manhunters. He also offers Hal a few options on how to manipulate John, so he won’t have to give up the ring. Sinestro reminds Hal that Hal chose not to see Sinestro’s ambition, which led to major problems. He should not make the same mistake with John.
Back in Rushville, John buys a rifle scope (with some difficulty) to spy on Macon’s ranch. Don’t forget, he has only a day or so to figure out who the Manhunter is or the town is going to blow up. John figures out that Macon’s property has “a weenie,” a term Walt Disney coined for a centralized structure. Only, on Macon’s ranch, it’s not a castle. It’s an expertly hidden place where he thinks the Manhunter probably is. Hal returns from space (and lies about it, saying he was having sex and not seeing his former mentor) and says that if they’re going to go on to the ranch, they have to tell the sheriff. He promised, after all.
Sheriff Kane is rightfully terrified when John lays out everything that has happened since they last spoke: the Manhunter, the people who want to kill them or they’ll blow up the town, etc. She’s also confused about this idea that anyone can be the Manhunter. Do they think it could be her? Well, according to Hal, if the Manhunter didn’t arrive on Earth until Abin Sur brought them there, it couldn’t be someone with a history before then. And her history, originating in Gotham, checked out. Eventually, after another long conversation, she okays them invading Macon’s ranch but says they’ll only have one chance and not to mess it up.
Back at the motel, Hal tells John they’ll invade the ranch at nightfall, so they have some time to kill. Once John closes his door, Laura Linney shows up. Throughout the episode to this point, we’ve watched John ignore calls from his parents, which were them trying to connect him with the Guardians. And this Guardian is upset about it.
She tells John that Hal lied to him about where he went in space and that by visiting Sinestro, he broke his oath. The Guardians have decided to accelerate their plan for John to take over. All he has to do is, the next time Hal gives him the ring, say the oath and it’s over. He’s the Green Lantern. John doesn’t love this plan because it requires him to betray Hal face to face, which disappoints Linney. She goes off on a very hurtful rant about how maybe he isn’t the person his parents promised, how they lied, and aren’t good people. That Jordan has filed reports to them, talking about how unsuited to this job he is. Basically, she says everything she needs to to challenge and refocus John. He retorts some pretty negative things about Hal and says the ring has always been his; Hal has just been holding it. This pleases the Guardian. “Go get it, John Stewart,” she says.
Meanwhile, we should also notice that John hasn’t told her anything about what’s happening in Rushville. Nothing about Manhunters, other species hunting them, etc. Not all is as it seems.
John’s opportunity to take the ring comes sooner rather than later. His plan to get on Macon’s ranch is to tunnel through the ground, and Hal lets him create the drill with the ring. John takes the ring and knows this could be the moment. He can do it. Only, he doesn’t. There’s a very long pause, though, as he contemplates the importance of this decision to defy the Guardians.
Instead, John just creates the drill, and they head towards the center of the ranch. Along the way, there’s some small talk, and we learn that Hal’s parents are both dead. The conversation is just about to get revealing when they hit their target. They come up through the ground, enter the building undetected, and realize two things. One, the Manhunter isn’t there. But two, the Manhunter is certainly Macon’s benefactor because the Weenie is filled with all kinds of super high-tech weapons. One of which is a pressure alarm Hal sets off, alerting Macon’s men to their presence.
Usually, a battle between humans and a Green Lantern is no problem. But these humans have a very specialized smoke gun that renders Green Lanterns powerless. It makes their capture very easy. They’re taken to Macon’s office where he, oddly, strips naked and asks John to draw him. Why is he doing this? Is it to make them uncomfortable because John slept with Zoe? Maybe, but even an intergalactic space cop like Hal is creeped out by it.
It’s another tense, crucial conversation where we learn Macon was not just healed by his benefactor, but the benefactor has made it so everyone in town can’t get sick. (Hence the empty hospital in episode two.) To Macon, and the people around him, the benefactor is more than just a benefactor. It’s his boss. His savior. His god. And it was that person who made it so he and Zoe could meet. She was the nurse while he was mending.
Tensions rise, and just when it seems Macon is going to kill John to get them to stop investigating everything, the Sheriff shows up to save them. She says that Zoe called her and that she’s very close to figuring out the identity of the benefactor/Manhunter. All she needs is a little more time, so she implores John and Hal to just stay put. Which they do.
John gets a visitor, though. It’s Zoe, and the two quickly fall back into bed together. She tells him it’s got to be the last time, though, because if John doesn’t leave town, he’s going to be killed. John says he can’t leave because he wants to find out why everyone is lying. That includes himself, Hal, Zoe, everyone. During the conversation, though, she also drops an interesting tidbit. Zoe says that she is the one who saved Macon, which goes up against his story. He said the Manhunter saved him and Zoe was the nurse. So, wait, could it be? Is she the Manhunter?
Probably not. Zoe leaves the hotel and is zapped from the sky by giant lasers, blowing up her car. Hal flies up to grab the satellite and, with the help of the Sheriff, they figure out where it came from. This feels odd to John, though. It’s too easy. He thinks whoever blew up Zoe wanted to be caught and that they should approach with caution. Hal agrees and is impressed with John’s detective instincts.
Time for yet another one of those long, dense conversations. The first was the one with Sinestro. Then between John and the Guardian. Then with Macon. Then Zoe. Just so many crucial conversations in this episode. This one happens on the drive to the person who made the satellite, whom they believe to be the Manhunter. Sparked by Zoe’s death, Hal tells John that losing people is part of the job of Green Lantern. The best advice he can give him is to avoid all real relationships.
The pair arrive at the address their detective work brought them to, which happens to be a high-tech slaughterhouse where we watch a cow get cut to pieces by lasers. Eventually, they find the man in charge, and he has one of the lasers focused on John’s parents’ house. If John and Hal kill him, John’s parents die too.
This man hopes to prove he’s the Manhunter by revealing that he’s been watching them and plays the conversation John had with Laura Linney to Hal. Hal now knows that John was supposed to take the ring. But Hal is Hal. He kind of sidesteps that and traps the guy. He asks him a simple question that only he and the Manhunter would know: what color is Abin Sur? The man says he doesn’t remember, so Hal keeps pushing. He explains that Sinestro told him the only way to prove a Manhunter turned into a human is to kill them and take out their heart, which would be crystallized. Hal threatens to do exactly that, so the man relents and stops the countdown on John’s family. The man tells them the Manhunter is none other than Macon himself.
The car ride home is more than a little tense (and, you guessed it, another one of the episode’s long, important conversations). Pretty much everything is now out in the open. Hal knows John has been talking to the Guardians and is set to take the ring. John just watched Hal almost get his parents killed. But they seem to get over it. John calls the aliens to let them know who the Manhunter is. And just when you thought that was it, Hal jabs at John again.
He’s confused why John wasn’t upset that Zoe died. And he thinks it’s because John knows she isn’t dead. She’s the Manhunter. John agrees and tells Hal he didn’t mean to keep that from him. He just wasn’t sure. Hal doesn’t like the mistrust and proceeds to jump out of the car again, letting John smash into a phone pole.
As the episode ended, something didn’t feel quite right. Every single conversation or scene in the episode was 100% clear, except that last one. John did react to Zoe’s death. And if he didn’t, it would have been perfectly in character not to do so. Hal’s suspicions and the reveal that Zoe is the Manhunter (presumably) just didn’t quite land as cleanly as everything else before it. Plus, can we trust it? Either way, it wasn’t the best end to an otherwise very eventful episode.
What did you think of “The Weenie?”
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