HBO's Lanterns closed out its eight-episode first season with a finale that answered the show's central questions and gave its lead character a Green Lantern oath unlike any other. Aaron Pierre's John Stewart ends the season as a fully realized Lantern, but one who operates entirely on his own terms, and the series marked that distinction with a new oath written specifically for him.
In the finale, John takes up Hal Jordan's old ring and pairs it with the fear-infused Lantern that the villain Sinestro, played by Ulrich Thomsen, had forged for Noah, played by Shea Pritchard. The result is an unsanctioned Lantern who effectively blackmails his way into taking jurisdiction of Earth from Guy Gardner, portrayed by Nathan Fillion. When John activates the ring, he recites his own version of the famous oath: «In brightest day, in darkest night, I'll embrace my fear, I'll do what's right. I choose this ring, I choose this fight, In service to this lantern's light.»
Executive producer Chris Mundy explained at a press conference attended by IGN that the new oath grew out of a look back at the season as a whole. «John's path was not the normal path,» Mundy said. «The ring didn't choose him, he was interviewed, he was kind of raised for it.» He noted that John had to choose the ring for himself, first declining it and then deciding he needed to take it up on his own terms. The producers wanted the oath to stay true to and respectful of the original while reflecting the season's themes, particularly fear, and framing the ring as a choice rather than an obligation imposed by his parents or the Corps.
Fellow executive producer Damon Lindelof added that John's story arc makes it difficult to imagine him in full alignment with the Green Lantern Corps and everything it represents. For a man who pledged loyalty to the military and to his parents, Lindelof said, the idea of moving beyond service to other organizations meant any oath he formulated had to be his own. Executive producer Tom King pointed out that John is no longer entirely a standard Green Lantern, carrying a Lantern with a trace of yellow and a trace of fear. Because he is not like every other Green Lantern, King said, he does not say the same oath, just as Yellow, Green, and Orange Lanterns each say something different. John's version, King added, is an utterly unique creation that was not given to him or chosen for him, but that he chose for himself, and it fits the lore and the direction of the story.
The moment John becomes a Green Lantern is bittersweet, because charging his new ring purges all traces of Hal from it. That process erases the Halogram and ends the tumultuous bond between the two men. Just before the Halogram dies its final death, the pair share a final, poignant exchange in which both characters tell each other «I love you,» a testament to the connection that survived Hal's years of pushing his trainee aside.
Kyle Chandler, who plays Hal Jordan, described the difficulty of performing that pivotal scene. He said the characters fell in love through their actions and their friendship, rocky as it was, and that the moment carried a deeply human factor. Chandler compared it to the restraint of mid-century film, when a character like the Duke would never say such words, and said it was nice to be able to express them on screen even though it felt painfully exposed. He called the scene a purely honest, open moment for an actor and said it was easy to perform opposite Pierre.
Pierre, for his part, noted that much of the dynamic between John and Hal across the series is tumultuous and volatile, with no certainty about what will happen from one moment to the next. That volatility gives the finale's quiet declaration its weight, arriving after a season of conflict between the veteran Lantern and the recruit he was assigned to train. The finale leaves John as a Lantern of his own making, bound to a ring that carries both Hal's legacy and a measure of fear, and speaking words no other member of the Corps would say.