'Lanterns' episode 5: What in the world just happened, and where do we go next?

If you need to take a breather after Lanterns' fifth episode, I don't blame you.

Episode 5 saw Green Lanterns Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) face off with Manhunter Zoe Macon (Poorna Jagannathan) in a battle that left Rushville in ruins. On top of that, it also pitted Hal and John against one another, leaving the role of Green Lantern in flux.

Between these game-changing confrontations and a number of key character deaths, episode 5 truly felt like a season finale. What do you mean, we still have three episodes left? How could Lanterns possibly top this? Let's take a look at what the show still needs to wrap up, and what it's already resolved in its biggest episode to date.

What happened in the Rushville fight?

A better question might be, what didn't happen? Zoe healed John from the wounds he sustained from Hal crashing their car. She then announced a town-wide kill order on Hal, causing the citizens of Rushville to gear up to protect the Manhunter in their midst. She also began obliterating chunks of Rushville with the laser satellite introduced in episode 4.

Meanwhile, Hal went Manhunter hunting in the hopes of delivering Zoe to the Guardians himself. First, he sent Antaan (Paul Ben-Victor) and his vengeful alien crew on a wild goose chase to William Macon's (Garret Dillahunt) compound, claiming Macon was the Manhunter. While Macon put on a convincing performance thanks to some language and backstory coaching from Zoe, Antaan figured out the ruse and killed him. (RIP to Lanterns' resident exhibitionist wife guy.) He tried to go after Zoe next, but Hal tossed him away from her, leaving him to blow up in mid-air. (RIP to the "Antaan is Atrocitus" theory.)

All this is just the prelude to the heart of the Rushville battle: the knock-down, drag-out fight between Hal and John at the motel. The two duke it out over the power ring, unleashing months' worth of resentment before Zoe blows the motel to smithereens. (In a sweet move, or maybe just a practical one, Hal manages to bubble John along with him for protection.) In the aftermath, John uses Hal's prone body as bait for Zoe before sniping her, therefore wiping out the second-greatest threat Hal is facing.

John, Hal's greatest threat, remains alive, and he takes both the ring and the lantern from Hal. But instead of reciting the Oath and taking over as Green Lantern, he tells Guardian Lianna (Laura Linney) he wants no more part of this. After all his traumatic childhood training, all his discipline, all his sacrifice — in the end, putting on the ring feels like nothing. To answer the question Hal poses after their fight: No, it wasn't worth it.

Now, Lanterns is both Lantern-less and Manhunter-less. With these two key elements wiped off the board, what's next for the series?

What comes next in Lanterns?

Now that Lanterns has gotten its Manhunter mystery out of the way, it can focus on its next big mystery: Who killed Hal Jordan?

Remember, episode 1 ended with John and Sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald) examining Hal's corpse at the football field in Rushville, right back where all the Manhunter shenanigans began. Episode 6 will likely pick up in the 2026 timeline, examining what John's life has been like post-Green Lantern training — please let him be an architect now! — and his quest to solve Hal's murder. Hopefully, we'll also find out what Hal was up to in the last decade. Did he stay in Rushville? Did he continue to woo the very married Kerry? Did he remember to feed Earl?

Since Lanterns takes place in 2026, that means that Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), first introduced in Superman, is now this sector's Green Lantern. Fillion is confirmed to be starring in Lanterns, but will he be appearing in a goofy cameo, or as an active participant in the investigation of Hal's murder? Plus, will we get more time with Lanterns' more extraterrestrial characters, like Lianna or Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen)? Or any face time at all with the cosmic fear parasite Parallax, a Green Lantern franchise staple?

The answers to those questions await in Lanterns' last three episodes, but until then, I think we all need to take a nice, relaxing nap to decompress from the madness of episode 5.

Lanterns is now streaming on HBO Max, with new episodes premiering Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.