The Reel Rejects - LANTERNS EPISODE 8 FINALE REVIEW – DID THEY NAIL THE ENDING?! – DC STUDIOS

Starting point is 00:00:00 Citizens of the Reject Nation, it is time to clear my throat. Citizens of the Reject Nation, it is time to watch the finale of lanterns. I am losing my voice again, but I'm very excited to watch how this show ends. We got a lot of information in the last episode, but there is a lot more still to learn. How are you this week? Greg. I'm doing good, Coy. I'm so excited for this finale. I'm so excited for the internet's reaction.

Starting point is 00:00:28 Inevitable joy. It's coming. I'm excited for a landing stuck. Nothing more, nothing less. What are you excited for, Coy? I'm excited to see if it feels it needs to connect a man of tomorrow and how that sets up or not, because I feel like John Stewart's pretty fleshed out now. So that's my only real curiosity.

Starting point is 00:00:47 All right. Let's find out together in three, two, one. This week's videos are sponsored by Price Picks, the easy-to-use fantasy sports betting app. More on them in just a bit. Well, this concludes our lanterns. That was lanterns, presumably season one, I hope. If you want to watch us watch it in its entirety, please sing up with your own copy and tune in to the Patreon.

Starting point is 00:01:15 You can also check out exclusive watchalongs from these gentlemen, as well as discounts on teas like these. So much to say, and I love that this last episode still had some twists and turns. We always finish with Greg, but now that we're at the last episode. We're going to start with Greg. Greg? I appreciated how most of this was play-like and how it was mainly a lot of scene work.

Starting point is 00:01:40 Most scenes were just characters confiding or telling truths to one another that were emotional and plot developments. It wasn't just solely, you know, information to speed up the episode. In fact, this is like kind of antithetical to the way a lot of finalities in television, but especially in this medium go, where it feels like a lot of quick, wrapping up succession and you got to like get a lot of answers done and I appreciated the patience and how deliberate everything was the choice that John Stewart lands on by the end I appreciated that a lot too and also the understanding of programming nature versus nurture essentially or programming versus nurturing as well as understanding that not feeling fear quote unquote is

Starting point is 00:02:31 really just suppressing fear and that suppression of fear in some ways can overtake you and will somehow it will overpower come through in the way you think or feel or act if you do not feel your feelings essentially so it's like a kind of cool tale that deconstructs what the lantern mantra is and the whole point of being a lantern is in a very human sense so I love that they decided to take Manhunter's lanterns this whole thing like Android and then break it down to this whole thing is about human experience and connection and relationships and such. Overall, I feel like it's a really good season of television.

Starting point is 00:03:12 I do have some gripes that I will go into later. Things that I don't fully just, you know, sometimes I think about some of it. But overall, it's a pretty solid finale. And for what the show is and what it's aiming to do, it really, really succeeds in that realm and I feel like this sticks the landing and like wraps up the story they wanted to tell in this season. There's other things outside of it that I would like to kind of discuss some things within. But for the most part, for the season of the show, lanterns, it's a solid finale. And I really liked it. John? I would echo all of those

Starting point is 00:03:56 sentiments for the most part. Getting all the personal tie-ups here and like you said, just the way they let so many things breathe. Letting some long takes roll as you watch, as I think you said to you could just feel people thinking and responding to each other. And yeah, just like a really nice flavor to apply to something like this and to show that you can have your cake and eat it too.

Starting point is 00:04:18 I mean, I found this to be a pretty satisfying and a pretty resonant episode and I liked their philosophical musings and, yeah, debates and whatnot, especially between John and Sinestro. and John and Noah and John and Carrie and all the different ways, yeah, that he kind of uses what he,

Starting point is 00:04:37 his own training, his own experience, and his own knowledge of these people, his heart, all these things, to kind of see who's doing what for what motivation, and then to make his own choice, you know, beyond that, not to, you know, sit there with this leverage of like, you know, Noah's making this impassioned plea. Like, you know, he's, yeah,

Starting point is 00:04:57 he wants something to, grim for a good purpose and and you could even imagine leaving that scene going like well yeah i guess but you know i don't know i like the way that it brought all these impossible sort of what do is into yeah like just you have to own the moral choice of it and you know follow your best instincts follow your gut i liked as gregg was pointing out like how much of hal's gut uh especially ring hal's gut you know, was sound and true to the end, uh, which I think too,

Starting point is 00:05:31 given the unique sci-fi-ness of a show like this, you get to have a, uh, an additional sort of like wise, sage quality that's able to like slip on over the sort of rascalliness of a character, like how Jordan in either, uh,

Starting point is 00:05:47 you know, iteration of him. Uh, and I, I do appreciate that they dangled like, they, he said the possibility of bringing how back to life exists. at all so like I'm sure if they ever want to they can hit the switch yeah but I really like this

Starting point is 00:06:03 as a completion of the journey for John I really liked I mean you know I'm curious to see how this whole like independent contractor thing applies I feel like that's going to be a thing for people to swallow maybe I don't know I don't know if that applies to the source material so much well it's interesting because there's so many lanterns on our you know that there's kind of a running joke about the volume of lanterns in our one sector sure sure sure So I feel like it's a more emotionally resonant way to acknowledge that and just like, you know, we got a bunch. So I think it's a, you know, it will be depending on people's level of like to the tea. But that was always going to be a conversation in a show called lanterns and in the mythology.

Starting point is 00:06:43 One thing that I was really impressed by was, you know, they really set out to have programming be the theme of this episode and how perfectly that's a good last episode. but looking at every single lead going against their programming in this one episode was amazing. That was a comic cover. Yeah, yeah. Great call. I was like, oh, the profile.

Starting point is 00:07:03 Well, then. With hell on that outfit in the background. Yeah. But the programming element of, I mean, every single character. Noah, his programming as a manhunter would be to kill and his programming as a good kid

Starting point is 00:07:18 is to basically do what is right and, you know, try to help others. and then that's obviously what he goes towards but uh anyone's programming is to survive so going against all of his nature in some way and then john stewart is just following orders he is taking a mission and if he's told like we see him and meet him as a man who doesn't want to hear the human element he literally says i don't want to know about the man i want to know about the mission and then he does the opposite he invests in the people and doesn't want to do what the mission would require he has the conversation um you know uh sheriff kane is

Starting point is 00:07:53 is a lover that wants to save that is always trying to help and she accidentally kills out of protection that is like very against her programming. Even Hal Jordan, who, you know, has been someone that didn't know how to love that is so guarded that he has all these walls up says, I love you. So this episode very, very pointedly gave everyone their counter programming and that ties beautifully into the yellow mixing with the green and the lantern at the end. The programming of what the oath is and modifying that to incorporate fear. the idea that, you know, fear is a necessity. Sinestro is not wrong. And I love that John Stewart is wise enough to understand that just because he's saying it in manipulation doesn't mean it's not still true. So incorporating fear even into the oath and incorporating fear into those concepts.

Starting point is 00:08:40 I said it last week, but there's a lot about the lantern lore that I like, but I don't connect emotionally to the characters often, which is ironic because they're so founded in emotion. and one of the things that's always kind of been a struggle for me is, you know, the yellow is fear and avoided at all costs, but there is, and there is certainly some comics that do commentary similar to this, but there is the element of human nature

Starting point is 00:09:05 where we need fear to survive, and I think this show really addressed the yellow in a positive way well, because that is a tricky concept. That is addressed in the comics, but not usually in one episode. I would say this episode almost singularly handled yellow

Starting point is 00:09:16 as a blend of positive and negative, which is much more like how emotions are. So really impressed the programming elements, really impressed the emotionality, really impressed with the feeling I got when he finally did take the oath and like, you know, you build up for eight hours. That really needs to be a moment. I did feel a profoundness when he took off and flew. It makes sense to me. You know, we save the suit for Man of Tomorrow because, you know, we just took the oath. And unless they want a Green Lantern, Ryan Reynolds, it.

Starting point is 00:09:46 And I'm excited to see the person designing. it that's going to be that going forward. So I'm very intrigued by that. And what I think is really interesting about this is this is probably the best example I can point to of the most polar opposite as its last iteration that exists in comicdom. There is about the furthest distance between the Ryan Reynolds movie and this. And I'm sure there are people that are going to prefer the Ryan Reynolds movie. But there is so much truth. That's a strong assertive.

Starting point is 00:10:16 They don't have good taste. Guys, the amount of people that are that's. say Spider-Man 3 is better than anything that's come since. It's crazy out there. This video is sponsored by Price Picks. Football is officially back. And if Daily Fantasy is your thing, Price Picks has a lot going on this month.

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Starting point is 00:11:22 But the element of truth in the lantern core being that broad of a spectrum is really fascinating to me because there are some truths in that Ryan Reynolds movie. The movie doesn't work and it's crazy because it's the director of like one of the best Bond movies, but when you have enough problems, it just falls apart. There's truth in there. And then there's so much truth in this. And this is arguably the most you can make the truth of the core of the lantern core without a lot of lanterning.

Starting point is 00:11:47 So I just, I think it's really cool as a fan of the comic book. medium to see something that is the spectrum of, you know, success and failure where the thing that has the least amount of lanterning, I think captures the emotion and core more than the thing with the most amount of lanterning and how some people are going to be drawn to different versions of those things. So I thought that was a cool little thing to just experience at the end of this journey. Did you guys like the flip on the oath? I did because there are flavors to the oath. I also, you know, darkest night. It's traditionally blackest night, but there are some people that right it as darkest night so it's cool to hear that as canon as well and then obviously the remix

Starting point is 00:12:24 after that but but brightest day darkest night is how it is in my head but blackest night is technically correct but then the rest is obviously uh you know there are elements of those odes in the comics um so it's cool to hear that take for john stewart getting to be unique yeah so some of your qualms now that i've monologued yeah yeah my biggest quam and this has nothing to do with even having some familiarity either with cartoons or comics is I don't know why anyone would want to be a

Starting point is 00:12:55 Green Lantern. This show does not do anything to sell the wonder or the heroicness or the privilege or the joy. And for a guy who is the bird was about the most

Starting point is 00:13:12 and for a guy who wants who seemed like he was conditioned in program to be a lantern that was the part that kind of missed the arc for me in that point was like uh i mean it seems like it's it's the responsibility like okay with this power of responsibility like i understand all that what they're getting at i do feel this was the one case this whole experience i've heard this said about the superman movie and i've heard said about the supergirl movie points that i do not feel i would actually apply it more to here though even though i really really really really enjoyed the hell out of this whole season

Starting point is 00:13:49 of television is people will say like I feel like Superman was a sequel to a movie we never got I feel like Supergirl was a sequel to a movie we never got and in a lot of ways I kind of feel that way with a lot of aspects of this show that is when the

Starting point is 00:14:05 being aware of how Jordan does seep into my brain more where I'm like fuck man we didn't really like Sinestro was like the bad and we didn't get much of synest like the Sinestro elements I he was never really threat a threat or scary and you they allude to parts of the past and I kind of feel like they just threw away a lot of Hal Jordan and to get to this point here

Starting point is 00:14:30 when I'm like oh man so that that's the Hal Jordan side that we've talked about several times already but my biggest quam with the whole experience is I've never sold me once on why anyone would want to be it seems like it'd be fucking awful to be a Green Lantern just seems like you're controlled you got the guardians who've or just like it's draconian rule and then just this is like a burden you don't want to carry at all everything about it just seemed like awful to be a lantern so I'm like why would you anyone want to be a lantern it's like even when there's when he's a lantern al he's barely lanterning you know so that's like my biggest issue with the show is I think it they did have a responsibility in some

Starting point is 00:15:10 extent to sell you on oh you know what I kind of get why you would still like you have to present make it look a little cool this is gonna be a little wonder a little wonder and uh I understand because that's what I mean by this where I feel that sequel element that people have said for Superman Supergirl was like we're kind of what you've said with like Batman v Superman and stuff yeah of oh this is but the point where we need like a deconstruction

Starting point is 00:15:33 or it's like we're this feels like a deconstruction we have no construction when we don't know but there's like barely in construction like I could see why you might do that for Man of Steel or Batman v Superman because we've had so much of them in life action I mean in this show I'm like we've only had that one Ryan Reynolds movie that everyone hates and that was a long time ago So then to immediately swing into we're gonna skip over so much of Hal Jordan We're like the Hector Hammond is not even part of his past really At the sinestro elements and and then we're not even gonna sell you on YB like need to be a lantern. It just seems like awful

Starting point is 00:16:07 So yeah, those are my qualms of this thing I got two things one thing I just thought of I don't want to forget I'm so sorry Did Hector Hammond that was Hal young 10 years ago program ring Hal right so there's a chance that Hector Hammond met him after that right no that was no no he Stewart didn't know who he was but he young no he confronted that's when him and John Stewart

Starting point is 00:16:30 were they first living how well yeah I was living how and he didn't even recognize that guy wasn't you're right you're right no I caught that but I was wondering I was hoping that it was the program how but it wasn't you're right because I was trying to piece together because there's so much chronology yeah and the other thing I was thinking was was I did not put that together at all. I completely understand where you're coming from, but I'm wondering if it's my comic look,

Starting point is 00:16:50 like comic book like we'd be fun to be a land. Like I wonder if my programming is, of course it'd be great to have powers. So I didn't feel the lack of it because of how much I've read. Do you know what I mean? Like I don't, I never considered that the show itself did not give us the joy of it. Because I'm so aware of like why I've felt it in the,

Starting point is 00:17:09 but I think about that with like public office too. Like I can't, as I get older, there's not a single thing that would get me to want to be an elected official or a cop or a fireman or a EMT. A lot of my family is in EMT and firefighting and it's like so heroic. But like I cannot imagine what would call to me. Do you know what I mean? Sure. I think it's pure responsibility.

Starting point is 00:17:33 Like like there is nothing. Firefighters get the glamour being like I'm a goddamn hero. This is space sci-fi comic book cost. This is not. No, that's what I mean? I'm wondering, I'm trying to dissect I'm doing a deconstruction. But like I think...

Starting point is 00:17:46 I'm imagining if it was my real life. But like that's the point. The show is supposed to be like if it was. Yeah, I understand. That's what you do later though is my point. I'm trying to figure out if I feel like this because of the eight episodes or if I feel like this because the comics gave me the fun.

Starting point is 00:18:01 Or if I feel like this because I don't understand why you want to be a regular cop, much less a space cop. Like I don't get why anyone would be like, I'd like to do that in the terrestrial version. So it's a very interesting. to eight hours I can consider this. I hadn't either, but I think they could have patched that whole. Like you can't patch certain characters or certain like important arcs of the past.

Starting point is 00:18:23 But I feel like if they had done some stuff in the past when John's a kid, they have them on TV. So like why not? And two, that's a way to hide bury some of your effects and striations and quality stuff. Like you like show some green lanterning from afar in that way when John's a kid maybe like a little bit more to give us that sense of like, oh wow. the potential the possibility and you know they bother to be like oh he's he wants to be an artist he wants to like leave his vocation as a you know as a you know elite agent of sorts and become you know the kind of opposite of that and so i feel like they could have thematically just yeah harped that there like they had an opportunity that they could have used but i don't yeah i hadn't considered that that's

Starting point is 00:19:04 really interesting me no it's a totally fair it's just opened the whole door in my mind but that's what i mean but like the execution of this episode was the season itself is like a great season of television like i i can definitely plant myself in the perspective of what this show wants me to watch it as and i enjoyed it i feel like the writing in this episode in particular was interesting because it was probably the most on the nose they've been but i think what they're writing like they really like laid yeah they literally like laid out every thought and feeling and theme that is going on here And I'm like, that's final episode.

Starting point is 00:19:43 Fuck, I just put it all out there. So no one misses the point here. So that was one part. And I liked the reveal of the kid, but I wasn't super connect to the kid prior to this episode. So it was like, it's like weird.

Starting point is 00:19:56 I really like the scene in the car with him and everything and the choice he makes and what he stands for. I like all that. But I wasn't as perhaps connected to the moment as I hope to be. I feel like they didn't want to do that too much because then we would have guessed. But I'm definitely aware that I don't feel like we spent enough time with him other than that one yeah I feel like a character like that would be more interesting if

Starting point is 00:20:15 this show took place on one timeline yeah or what if we watched it chronologically yeah well but even still like the totality like you have one episode from before where I really remember being like yes noah is a character and then this so like so many hours of past I guess that he would be involved in this somehow as a joke early on just because I was like well he's important enough that he's got to amount to something but he's not come back yet so like that's got to be somehow like you know I still thought it was great season television overall still things really great Is this what the fourth DC studios release

Starting point is 00:20:48 Creature Commando's Superman? You should know I know that's why I'm trying to say it a lot Creature commando Superman Supergirl this Am I missing? Oh Peacemaker. Season 2 Okay technically season 1 I guess But yeah season 2 So this is like the fifth

Starting point is 00:21:01 The fifth I think this is my second favorite Second only is Superman Yeah Oh yeah I think creature commandos is a close third for me Oh yeah, Creature Command is my... Your second?

Starting point is 00:21:14 It's not my first or second. Wow, he won Superman. I like Creature Commandos way more than everyone goes to. Oh, that's awesome. Hell yeah. I have a great time of this. I love Creature Commandos more than like the average individual. It is a close third, but I...

Starting point is 00:21:25 All right, I respect. Dude, first or second. All right, dude, it's a blast. It's so much fun. And you'll love the music. There's like a weird northern, Northeast Block ska. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:21:35 It's got like a flavor to it. Hell yeah. For sure, Peacemaker Season 2 is for. For sure, Super. girl is last. Alas. That's for sure. Same. The three though, I really enjoy a lot. Yeah, the top three. I mean, I really enjoy it. Squeakin. Uh, I feel like, you know, at three out of five, I'm very confident in. And then the other two, I'm like, we're figuring it out. Yeah. But I had a great time at that. I really, really, uh, I was so impressed that they

Starting point is 00:21:59 landed it because that's always the concern with a long form show. Uh, that the ending will try to set up too much or it'll just be like, and the twist doesn't really resonate. So I, I'm very happy at the finale would love to know what you lovelies think in the comments below did you like lanterns as a season did you like lanterns the finale are you excited to see john stewart in a man of tomorrow do you think how jordan is coming back because sinestro left a hanging chad let us know what you think in the comments below please like this video if you haven't already please subscribe if you're somehow watching 15 minutes in clearly like some of what we have to say we appreciate you very much rejection we'll see you for the next

Starting point is 00:22:40 thing very very soon bye i brought you wonder vision i was an avenger but i'm not a hero anymore on october 14th the vision returns for the final chapter of the groundbreaking trilogy that family wasn't real you sure about that i had a father called vision how is this possible don't miss the two-episode premiere of marvel television's vision quest nothing bonds a family together quite like mortal jeopardy streaming october 14th on on Disney Plus.

The Reel Rejects - LANTERNS EPISODE 8 FINALE REVIEW – DID THEY NAIL THE ENDING?! – DC STUDIOS

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