HBO Max may have spoiled Lanterns' biggest twist ahead of time

Warning: The following article contains MAJOR spoilers for the first five episodes of Lanterns and potential spoilers for the remaining three episodes.

Whenever the main setting of a mystery show is a small town where unexplainable events start to unfold, you know something horrifying will happen. That's exactly the scenario audiences were presented with in HBO Max's Lanterns, the latest DC Universe project that has been taking the world by storm thanks to its gripping narrative, likable characters, and captivating mythology.

The show has introduced no shortage of mysteries throughout its first episodes, such as: Who are the aliens trying to kill the Manhunter? Why did the Guardians want the shape-shifting android to live? And why has only one of the Guardians appeared so far? However, there's one specific question that has been asked since the very first episode of Lanterns that overshadows all the others: What truly happened to Hal Jordan?

The iconic DC hero seemingly died under very mysterious circumstances in 2026. But while the teaser trailer for Lanterns episode 6 suggests we're finally diving deeper into this storyline, we may not have to wait until Sunday to get an idea of what's really going on in Rushville, Nebraska. After all, HBO Max itself may have spoiled the big Hal Jordan twist ahead of time.

The Spanish subtitles for Lanterns episode 5 reveal that there is a "clone" of Hal Jordan

Episode five of Lanterns features a fight scene between Hal Jordan and John Stewart near its end. While the clash between these two heroes was unavoidable, there may be more to this confrontation than meets the eye. After all, the Spanish subtitles dub Hal's character as "Hal's clone," which is something that had not happened up until that point in the episode.

If there is truly a clone of Hal Jordan out there, then maybe it was his corpse we saw earlier in the show, whereas the true, original Green Lantern is still alive and well. Of course, this "big revelation" may simply be a mistake, given that it only happens with Spanish subtitles. Meanwhile, English subtitles simply refer to the character as "Hal." But if we were to assume there's really a copy of the hero, then we need to ask ourselves: where did it come from?

Perhaps the easiest answer would be to assume that we were watching the Halogram take over during the final fight sequence of Lanterns episode 5. After all, it's important to remember that the real Hal chipped a small part of the ring and left it on the water tower. The structure was eventually destroyed, and the explosion could've sent the fragment flying all the way to the cafeteria.

However, this theory opens up a couple of new questions: Could a "holographic security copy" of Hal interact with physical objects, much like a construct does? Could just a small fragment of the Green Lantern ring (that couldn't be recharged) keep a construct alive for ten years? Can constructs "die" if shot in the forehead by a bullet?

Since there are plenty of holes in this theory, it's also worth considering other possibilities: Maybe Hal learned how to manifest physical constructs without the ring—much like John Stewart—and simply kept the secret to himself.

There's also a chance that the Hal Jordan clone was simply an alien in disguise. Since the Manhunter already died (or at least, it seems like it), maybe one of Antaan's followers was the one to transform into Hal just in time for that final confrontation. While it remains a mystery why the alien would do that, perhaps it could tie into a larger plan to truly destroy the last Manhunter alive (because there's a chance Zoe wasn't the last one).

Of course, it's also important to consider the slight but real possibility that Hal Jordan truly died in the opening episode of Lanterns, no tricks involved. The only thing we know for certain is that there has to be something more to his death, even if it is just an explanation of why it happened. Fortunately, it appears that episode six will finally start unraveling this mystery, and we can't wait to see how it all pans out.

New episodes of Lanterns are released every Sunday on HBO Max.

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