Well, Manhunter’s out of the bag.
In its fourth episode, Lanterns solves one of its biggest mysteries: Who is the Manhunter hiding out in Rushville, Nebraska? The episode cycles through several red herrings — Hector Hammond (Jason Manuel Olazabal), real name Hector Gutierrez, and William Macon (Garret Dillahunt) — before landing on the truth. The Manhunter is none other than Zoe Macon (Poorna Jagannathan), William’s wife and John Stewart’s (Aaron Pierre) occasional confidant and hook-up.
How did Lanterns hint at Zoe’s pivotal role while she was hiding in plain sight the whole time? Let’s take a look.
What were the biggest hints that Zoe is the Manhunter in Lanterns?
Poorna Jagannathan in “Lanterns.”
Credit: John Johnson / HBO Max
The biggest clue about Zoe’s true nature in Lanterns was her immediate intimacy with John. Clearly, seeing two Green Lanterns waltz into Rushville poses a threat to her. But instead of trying to force them out with brute strength, she chose a more strategic approach: Getting close to John in order to gain his trust. Surely he would never suspect the woman he was entangled with, right? (Based on how John and Hal [Kyle Chandler] constantly use he/him pronouns when talking about the hidden Manhunter, it’s unlikely they suspected women at all until the reveal.)
Episode 4 of Lanterns saw Zoe putting even more pressure on her relationship with John. When she visits him at his motel, she emphasizes that this is the last time they can have sex, as his only two options following his confrontation with Macon are leaving or dying. She leans hard on pushing him to leave, and when he stands firm, she takes the nuclear option: faking her death to send John and Hal on the wild goose chase to Hector.
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Notably, when Antaan (Paul Ben-Victor) tells John about his own experience with a Manhunter, he asks, “Have you ever been deceived by someone you love?” While I wouldn’t go so far as to call John and Zoe’s relationship “love,” Antaan did have a point that the Manhunter would take the romantic route, and that John would be deceived by someone he’s intimately close with.
Zoe’s relationship with Macon offered more foreshadowing about her being the Manhunter. Clearly, Macon was aware of Zoe and John’s relationship, yet he never retaliated against either Zoe or John, beyond the occasional verbal jab. Does Macon, Mr. Private Militia, seem like the type to take infidelity lying down? No way. Not unless Zoe held the upper hand in the power dynamic, and he understood that her cheating was all part of a plan to lure the Green Lanterns off her trail.
In episode 4, Macon also recounts the story of how he and Zoe met. She was a nurse who treated him while he had cancer. The way he tells it, that was when his mysterious, god-like benefactor showed up and cured him. But what if that benefactor and his nurse were one and the same?
As Hal tells John (before casually driving him off the road), Manhunters are programmed to latch onto the weak points of societies. A nurse treats people when they’re at their weakest, meaning that Zoe’s job put her in a prime position to establish relationships with Rushville’s community. Based on the town’s empty hospital, she cured everyone of everything, proving her power and putting Rushville’s citizens in her debt.
Beyond Macon and his men, and likely Sheriff Kerry Kane (Kelly Macdonald), how much more of Rushville is aware they have an alien benefactor in their midst? And what lengths will they go to to keep her safe, now that her cover is blown?
