Lanterns by The Upstairs Lounge
Sep 20, 2026 · 23 min · 7 segments
What happened to Hal Jordan in the ten years between 2006 and 2016 is one of the big questions the show is asking, but suddenly, in the last scene of the pilot, Pilot, the question of what happened…
Upstairs lounge is closed tonight.
It's 2026 and it's deep into the night.
John drives past the remains of the Macon property.
Whatever happened there during the missing decade, the huge fortified ranch that seemed designed to withstand whatever was coming appears to have failed at the one thing it was built to do.
At broadcast, we had no idea what destroyed it, or whether Will Macon was even right about the nature of the danger, but visually the episode gives us legacy in its most basic form.
This is what remains of his efforts.
Then John pulls up to a waiting Kerry, face obscured in shadow because of her massive hat, which might be suggesting she's a malign force in the story , and the tone changes completely.
She tells him he has barely aged, which is potentially concerning for a man who ends up being rebuilt by Manhunter technology without understanding if or how it may have changed him, a man who threw Hal around like he was a doll and didn't care about broken glass in the gun shop when he had bare feet.
He calls her a liar and they hug.
Eh? John and Kerry have a history now, apparently, more than we've seen from where we currently are, between episodes 5 and 6.
Whatever happened after 2016, they are now people who hug.
Okay.
We have skipped the entire relationship and arrived at the residue, the legacy.
John's first question makes that even more apparent because he asks about Noah.
The little boy from the barbecue is now tall, playing quarterback, and apparently very good at it.
That gives the tire scene from earlier in the episode a little payoff without needing to turn Noah into anything more exotic.
Yet.
John spent perhaps a minute helping him throw a football, and ten years later the kid has become All-State.
Like 200-yard rusher, I confess I have no clue what All-State means and no particular desire to find out.
I hate all sports.
We obviously can't credit his entire sporting career to one piece of advice from a bloke he met at a barbecue, but it gives us one of the scene's clearest examples of legacy.
John passed something on, and Noah built on it.
There's also something going on with the football language around John.
Zoe has already described him as Hal's quarterback, the man waiting on the bench in case something happens to the starter.
Upstairs lounge is closed tonight.
It's 2026 and it's deep into the night.
John drives past the remains of the Macon property.
Whatever happened there during the missing decade, the huge fortified ranch that seemed designed to withstand whatever was coming appears to have failed at the one thing it was built to do.
At broadcast, we had no idea what destroyed it, or whether Will Macon was even right about the nature of the danger, but visually the episode gives us legacy in its most basic form.
This is what remains of his efforts.
Then John pulls up to a waiting Kerry, face obscured in shadow because of her massive hat, which might be suggesting she's a malign force in the story , and the tone changes completely.
She tells him he has barely aged, which is potentially concerning for a man who ends up being rebuilt by Manhunter technology without understanding if or how it may have changed him, a man who threw Hal around like he was a doll and didn't care about broken glass in the gun shop when he had bare feet.
He calls her a liar and they hug.
Eh? John and Kerry have a history now, apparently, more than we've seen from where we currently are, between episodes 5 and 6.
Whatever happened after 2016, they are now people who hug.
Okay.
We have skipped the entire relationship and arrived at the residue, the legacy.
John's first question makes that even more apparent because he asks about Noah.
The little boy from the barbecue is now tall, playing quarterback, and apparently very good at it.
That gives the tire scene from earlier in the episode a little payoff without needing to turn Noah into anything more exotic.
Yet.
John spent perhaps a minute helping him throw a football, and ten years later the kid has become All-State.
Like 200-yard rusher, I confess I have no clue what All-State means and no particular desire to find out.
I hate all sports.
We obviously can't credit his entire sporting career to one piece of advice from a bloke he met at a barbecue, but it gives us one of the scene's clearest examples of legacy.
John passed something on, and Noah built on it.
There's also something going on with the football language around John.
Zoe has already described him as Hal's quarterback, the man waiting on the bench in case something happens to the starter.
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