Did Kerry Kill Hal Jordan in ‘Lanterns’? Why the Sheriff Is the Mystery’s Biggest Question Mark

‘Lanterns‘ opens its story by showing Hal Jordan dead and ringless on the bleachers of a football stadium in Rushville, Nebraska, where Sheriff Kerry calls John Stewart back to town. Ever since, the question hanging over the HBO series has been who pulled the trigger. And with each new episode, the finger keeps drifting back toward the woman who made that call.

So did Kerry kill Hal Jordan? The penultimate episode does not name a killer, but it reshapes the investigation. Here is what the show has laid out so far, and why Kerry sits at the center of the suspicion without being proven guilty.

Why Kerry Kane Is a Prime Suspect in the Hal Jordan Murder?

Sheriff Kerry Kane, played by Kelly Macdonald, is the one who phones John with the news that Hal is dead. She tells John that nearly everyone in Rushville hated Hal, so she reached out to the one person she thought might care. It is a generous move on the surface, but in a murder mystery, the person who finds the body is always worth a second look.

Kerry’s closeness to Hal also raises the stakes. She reveals that the two eventually began a relationship, and that Hal’s persistence slowly won her over. One outlet notes that no one else had as much access to Hal as she did.

Her position as the town’s lawman matters too. Kerry knew Hal intimately and holds a role that gives her access to the investigation into his death. That combination of intimacy, opportunity and authority is exactly what makes viewers squint at her every scene.

How the Halogram Became Suspicious of Kerry

The strongest push toward the Kerry theory comes from Hal himself, or at least his Halogram. After the pair escape to John’s truck, the Halogram becomes convinced that Kerry killed him. Considering the Halogram is a construct of the dead man, that suspicion carries real dramatic weight.

Yet the reunion between Kerry and the Halogram is not played like a guilty woman meeting her victim. When the Halogram appears behind her and she hears Hal’s voice, her face goes ashen. The Halogram is not the Hal who died, but a version of him that stopped changing before those final years.

John does not buy the murder angle either. He suspects Kerry might have hidden the weapon rather than used it. Kerry herself refuses to treat John as a murderer and defends him as someone who kept trying to solve a case that had hurt everyone around him.

The Jordan Family Secret and the Suicide Theory

Everything shifts in the penultimate episode, which digs into Hal’s childhood. The story opens in the 1970s with a young Hal and his father, Martin, who hands down what he calls the Jordan boys legacy. The episode reveals that Martin died by suicide when Hal was still young, and that the family had a similar history before him.

That reveal opens a very different door. The Halogram tells John that Hal’s grandfather also took his own life, and the revelation leads both of them to wonder whether Hal did the same. Under this theory, Kerry may have concealed evidence because she believed she was protecting him.

If that sounds like a stretch, it was seeded early. One critic argued after the premiere that Hal’s fearlessness could be read as someone wanting something to end him, and floated the idea that he killed himself. It is a heavy turn for a superhero show, and it reframes Kerry from possible killer to possible cover-up artist.

Who Else Could Have Killed Hal Jordan

Kerry is far from the only name on the board. Her son Noah is listed among the suspects, along with his father, Billy Macon, who has his own tangled history with Hal. Carol Ferris, Hal’s great love, turning up just as the investigation begins has also struck some viewers as suspicious.

John is in the frame too, even if he hates the idea. Earlier episodes worked hard to establish him as a possible culprit by showing how much resentment he carried over Hal. John also punched Hal before his death, which Kerry knows and wants him to explain.

For now, the answer to whether Kerry killed Hal is a firm maybe leaning toward no. The season finale arrives on Sunday, October 4, and fans will have to wait for it to confirm or bury the suspicion. After the penultimate episode, do you think Kerry pulled the trigger, protected a secret Hal took to his grave, or is the show about to blindside us with a name nobody saw coming?