Do you buy it?

One thing the show has really done well is shoot straight. When they say a thing happens — it happens — it’s just the context we understand it in that ends up being the issue. I don’t think she THE Manhunter, I think she is A Manhunter. John doesn’t have all the information so he’s not acting... yet. And that’s the big problem with Hal, here, he acts then thinks... and he’s shown that several times both in the moment, AND in flashbacks.

Yes, did you see the preview for next episode?

SPOILER

It looks like she saves him from the car fire.

19 hours ago, Websnap said:

One thing the show has really done well is shoot straight. When they say a thing happens — it happens — it’s just the context we understand it in that ends up being the issue. I don’t think she THE Manhunter, I think she is A Manhunter. John doesn’t have all the information so he’s not acting... yet. And that’s the big problem with Hal, here, he acts then thinks... and he’s shown that several times both in the moment, AND in flashbacks.

I agree, but I would also add that John holds on too long before talking and acting, which causes a different set of problems. I absolutely love these two working together and being flawed for opposite reasons.

I'm not sure there's more than one manhunter though, just because we're halfway into the season and we know that we'll learn the origins of Guy's ring, have a flashback episode about Hal, and solve Hal's murder in 2026. There's a lot of ground to cover, so we need to be wrapping up the 2016 plot soon.

The problem with this theory is that Hal knew that he should treat John as his trainee. He shows up right when John gets the job, and he tells Sinestro that he thinks John is his replacement. If Lianna is a fake Guardian, then why are Hal and presumably the other Guardians playing along?

On 9/9/2026 at 8:32 AM, Marco Vito Oddo said:

I agree, but I would also add that John holds on too long before talking and acting, which causes a different set of problems. I absolutely love these two working together and being flawed for opposite reasons.

I'm not sure there's more than one manhunter though, just because we're halfway into the season and we know that we'll learn the origins of Guy's ring, have a flashback episode about Hal, and solve Hal's murder in 2026. There's a lot of ground to cover, so we need to be wrapping up the 2016 plot soon.

Yeah, my comment wasn’t praise (per se) about John’s method — just pointing out their very different approaches — which I feel adds to their disconnect since they aren’t communicating motives. They could actually learn a lot from each other (both for this case, and how to be better Lanterns) had they not been played against each other by Lianna.

Personally, I don’t think time matters (narrative-wise) in relation to one or several Manhunters. They have no real individual personality or motivation outside their human cover, and since we’ve already been introduced to who they are and what they did, having one, three or ten hiding in the town, or hell — the whole town — would need little more setup. All the things you mention can be covered easily in the remaining four episodes, while also revealing half the town (for instance) are Manhunters seeking refuge from those searching for them. What If that is what Abin Sur discovered? Not one, but a colony of them — having Zoe as the narrative’s “representative” for them — and that way providing their exposition.

9 hours ago, Kyle Rayner said:

The problem with this theory is that Hal knew that he should treat John as his trainee. He shows up right when John gets the job, and he tells Sinestro that he thinks John is his replacement. If Lianna is a fake Guardian, then why are Hal and presumably the other Guardians playing along?

We don’t know how Hal knows — the ring could have told him. We DO now that Hal is not in the habit of checking in, and he goes “with his gut”, so he could just be reacting to his perception of the information he has. The ring could have detected another ring being used when John has his test, and knowing he hasn’t exactly been a model corps member and his age now being more and more a factor, plus his ego... it’s more than likely his behaviour is all driven by assumptions (they are trying to replace me) that just happen to be partially correct, therefor (in his eyes) reinforcing the prospecting telling him all he thinks he needs to know.

What I do love about this show is it leverages the Rashomon storytelling style of telling one even from the perspective of different characters (sometime unreliably), and every time we are told what we “already know”, we actually learn more about what really happened. The answers are most likely right in front of us, it just hasn’t clicked (by design) from the right perspective yet.

“Atrocitus” huh LOL