HBO's Lanterns reveals Hal Jordan's origin and opens alien portal in episode 7

The 1975 flashback and the Jordan inheritance

The penultimate episode of HBO's DC series Lanterns, titled "The Jordan Boys' Legacy", explores the psychological history of Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler). Written by Damon Lindelof and Tom King and directed by Alik Sakharov, the seventh installment opens with a flashback sequence set in 1975. Hal's father, Martin Jordan, is summoned by a youth baseball coach after young Hal refuses to hand the ball over to his teammates. After getting into a physical fight with the coach, Martin nurses his bruises with his son over Popsicles and hands him the key to a family lockbox. Martin explains that the box represents an inheritance from his own father who never returned from war, telling Hal that the burden is not something his mother can carry. Martin's mannerisms and squeaking leather jacket mirror the habits and stubbornness Hal later displays throughout his career.

Awakening the power ring backup in Rushville

In the present-day storyline, John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) exhumes Hal's corpse to retrieve a decommissioned power ring. John activates an artificial intelligence projection of Hal, known as the Halogram, whose memories were last updated in 2006. John originally traveled to Rushville after his mother told him that Hal wanted to make amends for his past actions, only to discover Hal already dead. When John attempts to placate the backup by claiming the sentient planet Mogo attended Hal's funeral, the Halogram identifies the claim as a lie. The encounter reveals that the power ring duplicate lacks a decade of memories, leaving him unaware of the events that led to the original Hal's demise.

Pierre described the conflicted partnership between the two Green Lanterns:

“We used to describe each other as these characters, like two dogs who lived in the same household, who, at home, they would maybe fight and tear each other apart, but when they were going for maybe a walk, and another dog entered the equation, bam, they were a unit, and there was nothing you could do to to to disrupt or destroy that unit.”

The dark matter portal to Anton's devastated world

John relies on the Halogram's voice authorization to open a secured lockbox inside Hal's storage unit. The container holds a dark matter manhole that transports the pair to a destroyed extraterrestrial planet. John deduces that the desolate landscape is the home world of Anton (Paul Ben-Victor), which was wiped out by the Manhunter. During their investigation across the wasteland, John inhales the same airborne gas that previously forced Anton's population into mass suicide. The holographic backup intervenes directly to save John from the lethal atmosphere, keeping him alive as the investigation into Hal's death nears its conclusion.