Lanterns Premiere Recap: HBO's Green Lantern Series Kicks Off With A Shocking Death And A Huge Mystery — Plus, Grade It!

It ain't easy, being Green Lantern.

That's the takeaway from the premiere of HBO's "Lanterns," a drama about the DC Comics superhero and his new trainee. Kyle Chandler ("Friday Night Lights") plays Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern assigned to the quadrant of the galaxy where Earth resides. Aaron Pierre ("The Morning Show") is John Stewart, the former military man whom Hal is supposed to train in the fellowship of the ring.

Sounds simple, right? Except aliens have infiltrated humanity, and what the heck is that weird rich guy up to, and wait — Hal's dead in 2026? In a moment, we'll want to know what you thought of the premiere. First, though, read on for Episode 1's highlights.

The hour begins with a flashback to 1996, where some boys are watching Hal Jordan being interviewed on "60 Minutes." "I'm a regular person, like you," Hal says, clad in the uniform we know from the comics. He explains that Green Lanterns are like beat cops spread throughout the galaxy, and the test for entry consists of one question: "Are you afraid?" Hal goes on to say that his father died when he was a child, and "once that happens, there's nothing to fear anymore."

The kids watching TV scatter when their father, who is wearing military fatigues, comes home. He makes one of them go outside, stand against a wall, and put an apple on his head. "Are you afraid?" the man asks. "No, sir!" the boy replies... moments before his dad shoots the fruit off his noggin. Then they hug. To confirm: Yeah, that was weird.

Twenty years later, that boy is now a man, John Stewart, who is irked when a disheveled Hal in a squealing sedan picks him up to go training. As they talk, we learn that John has been learning how to be a backup Green Lantern for two months — two weeks of which Hal apparently has been incommunicado — and "I haven't even worn the ring yet." Hal is rumpled and hungover yet unbothered as he admonishes his charge: "Don't get hung up on the jewelry, Junior." But then, on an impulse, he takes off the ring that gives him his Green Lantern power, puts it on the dashboard, and says he'll meet John at the taco stand up the road... then Hal tucks and rolls out of the car while the vehicle is in motion.

John manages to get the ring on his finger before the car runs off the road and crashes. He survives, but he's MAD. As he walks toward the taco place, he calls his dad and grouses, "Jordan just tried to f**king kill me." His father advises that he take a breath: "Just stay the course, and this job is yours." After they hang up, the ring shines, and a younger, less worn-down Hal appears in front of John. The hologram is a backup of Jordan's consciousness combined with sentient, and "I'm here to give myself a message," it says. That message? "'There's hail in Rushville, Nebraska.' I'll know what it means."

Current-day Hal does, indeed. When John delivers the missive, Hal drops all of his grandstanding goofiness. "Pay the check," he orders, immediately serious, and flies away.

John gets to Rushville the normie way. After arriving in the rural setting, he finds Hal at a high school football field where something bad has happened, judging from the police and emergency vehicles present. The local sheriff, Kerry (Kelly Macdonald, "Boardwalk Empire"), isn't happy that the guys are there — they have no jurisdiction — and she's REALLY not into Hal's current theory that the mass shooting that's just taken place has something to do with aliens. Hal and John single out one looky-loo on the scene as a potential alien, and Kerry grudgingly concurs: The dude starts running when he realizes he's being scrutinized. After an extended chase, John knocks him out, and Kerry cuffs him.

Afterward, Hal and John hang out at a bar in town and chat about the ring, which Hal calls "a dangerous weapon: When and if to use it, that's the whole ballgame." When John asks, Hal explains how he came to be the jewel's wearer: He was a test pilot who suddenly found himself in a green bubble, hearing a voice that asked if he was afraid. An alien pilot had crashed its craft; the being put the ring on Hal, saying it chose him. Hal has always felt the crash wasn't a fluke; on a related note, the Hal-ogram was designed as a sentinel.

As Hal provokes a local hothead into a bar brawl with the sole purpose of getting arrested and thrown in jail next to the alleged alien, John flirts with a woman (Poorna Jagannathan, "Never Have I Ever") at the bar. He explains that Earth only has one Lantern at a time, and he's being trained in case something happens to Hal. After a grinning Hal is hauled out by the authorities, the woman asks John to walk her to her truck, where they have sex.

The next morning, John retrieves Hal from the sheriff's department — where Kerry kept him in a broom closet, because OF COURSE she saw through his ruse — and Hal is arraigned. A local lawyer steps up during the proceedings and offers to represent Hal, who hires him on the spot; the lawyer is Billy Macon (Jason Ritter, "Matlock"), and he happens to be Kerry's husband. After Billy gets Hal released, he invites them to his father's ranch that night for dinner. His father is a huge Green Lantern fan, he explains, and really wants to meet the hero himself.

The vibes at the dinner are weird from the moment Hal and John arrive on the property, where armed men guard the road in. Kerry and Billy are there to greet the pair, though she seems less into the evening than her husband is. Inside, John and Hal meet Will Macon (Garret Dillahunt, "Raising Hope"), who exudes an insane amount of self-assuredness. As they talk, Will says he's a caretaker for the property, which belongs to someone he can't name thanks to a non-disclosure agreement. Hal thinks perhaps something more sinister is going on — like maybe they're amid a militia that's about to get raided by the government — but Will scoffs: What he's really concerned with, he finally says, is that aliens are coming to take over Earth as we know it.

Will is convinced that the man in the holding cell is part of an alien advance team, and he's willing to clear the path so that Hal can interrogate him. But when Hal wonders what Will wants in exchange, Will is vague.

Meanwhile, John is showing Kerry and Billy's kid how to throw a football when the boy yells, "Grandma!" And sure enough, he's referring to John's hookup from the night before, who's sauntering up to the house. She introduces herself as Zoe Macon, Will's wife, giving John a knowing look as she does so.

By the time the awkward night is over, all Will will cop to is that he and Hal share a desire "to protect the planet from anybody not born on it." Oy, this guy. Then he makes a veiled comment to John that hints he knows what went on between him and Zoe. As the Lanterns leave, Hal wonders what's up, and John fills him in on his parking lot dalliance with Zoe. "Jesus Christ, we've only been here 24 hours!" Hal crows. "I"m impressed!"

At the sheriff's department the next day, Hal speaks with the suspect. We learn that there are 14 alien species that can pass for human, even with tests. While Hal quizzes the guy about football (which the supposed alien nails) and Harry Potter (which he doesn't), Kerry and John watch through the two-way mirror. She infers that John doesn't respect Hal, but he claims he does, because Hal is "fearless." Kerry smirks. "He's not fearless," she observes, "he's lonely."

But their conversation is cut short when the suspect starts talking in hypotheticals that prove he's exactly what Hal thought he was. The guy says that maybe he's an extraterrestrial who's on a mission that "concerns the opposite of peace" and that just maybe he has a biometric explosive device in his skeleton that he can activate with a thought. Also: He knows that Hal's ring needs to be recharged with the lantern, and the piece of jewelry might not have a lot of battery left right now.

"Are we talking or exploding? Because it's almost lunchtime," Hal quips. But his calm is destroyed when the man states that Hal wants to die, then mocks the Green Lantern oath. As Hal throws him against a wall, the alien starts beeping. There's just enough time for Hal to toss the guy in the corner and put up a green bubble around him before the alien explodes. The blast rocks the building and everyone nearby.

"Told you he was an alien," Hal says in victory as he surfaces from the rubble.

Then the story skips ahead to 2026, where John (now sporting a goatee) is driving on a snowy night. He passes the ruins of... something, then pulls up next to Kerry's car. It's been a while since they've seen each other; she hugs him and tells him he's barely aged. They're back at the football field... where Hal sits, dead, in the bleachers. He's not wearing the ring.

Now it's your turn. What did you think of the premiere? Grade it via the poll below, then hit the comments with your thoughts!