Lanterns director Geeta Vasant Patel opens up about some of the dramatic events that happened in Episode 5 this week. Folks, it’s obvious, but here is your SPOILER WARNING for Episode 5. The director is getting into the weeds of some big revelations and actions here. Therefore, if you have not watched Episode 5, go watch it. You can find my spoiler free review of it in the related section below.
*Lanterns Episode 5 SPOILERS Below*
Well, there are plenty of spoilers to go over here that happened this week. John left in a car wreck by Hal which caught on fire. Zoe (Manhunter) watching on coldly and only choosing to save John after he’s been burned badly. Trying to co-opt John to her cause for her help healing. We have John versus Hal with John taking the ring, followed by John choosing to kill the Manhunter anyway using Hal as bait. Then… John refuses the ring and walks away from the Guardian.
Phew…
So, what did episode director Geeta Vasant Patel have to say when she spoke to TheWrap recently?
“The marching orders are always to make sure that amid the action, there are emotional arcs happening,” Patel said. “The action is a given. However, to create action that really is no different than a dramatic scene is always a challenge in these situations when there is so much physicality, and there are explosions and things like that. So my marching order was to execute character, and on some level, character is fate in this episode.”
“It’s tricky when you have so much happening. I think it’s also tricky because you can’t just stop and have a deep conversation about how someone’s feeling. Episode 5 is a litmus test of all the episodes before it, making sure that something so small and quick actually speaks to a lifetime of experience and pain or discovery.”
Hal Vs John
“I looked at it with Kyle, and we started thinking, wait a minute, let’s think about ‘Cool Hand Luke,’” Patel said. “Let’s think about what this means exactly? Who is Hal? Hal is someone who never gives up, and that is his number one blessing and curse. So we talked about how, as the fight goes on, that’s what is going on with Hal. He’d rather die with his arms swinging than go down, and he provokes John, so those last moments where Hal keeps getting up — and then John has his own history there — it’s like two countries fighting.”
“They both press the buttons, because John is tired of being lied to. John is tired of being told what to do, and I think at that moment when Hal doesn’t sit down and stop, he triggers John, and now it’s not about Hal versus John. It’s Hal versus his pain and John versus his pain, and that’s what those last hits are about.”
“It was an awesome fight, but I stood there and I was like, ‘There’s something missing,’ and I remember thinking Hal can’t fight like this. Hal is not 50-50 with John. But do we just lean into it? I remember calling Kyle and being like, ‘Hey, don’t hate me, I don’t know you that well, but what do you think of this?’ And immediately he was like, ‘I was thinking the same thing. He should kick my ass.’ We want the fans to feel like it’s real. It shouldn’t feel like fantasy. It shouldn’t feel like a superhero. He should feel like a man.”
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Patel also spoke about John’s decision to walk away from the ring and the Green Lantern Corps.
“I think that rings in John’s ears the entire way, and that’s why wanted to have that long walk,” Patel said. “We decided that the long walk was going to be through the rubble through the wreckage as a metaphor for John taking survey of everything in his life. So when he’s walking through the wreckage, and then he has this moment where he turns around and looks back, and there’s only half of his face there. That is the moment where we were thinking, he is a broken man. This is all that’s left of him. He’s looking back – ‘No, I’m not going back. I’m not becoming the person I’ve been. I’m going to be someone else.’”
I get the feeling that something is going to happen which will cause a ring to choose John, so eventually he is the DCU’s main Green Lantern. However, now he’s someone with his own mind and not a stooge for the Guardians. I’m not sure how we get there though, yet, which is fun.
What dd you think of Episode 5 and where do you see the rest of Season 1 going? Thoughts below.
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