Lanterns Episode 5 Puts Kerry Kane's Marriage Under the Microscope
Lanterns episode five, “Lights Out,” puts Sheriff Kerry Kane’s marriage at the centre of its small-town murder case. It aired at 9 PM ET on Sunday, September 13 on HBO and HBO Max, according to Decider.
Written by Justin Britt-Gibson and directed by Geeta Vasant Patel, the episode shifts focus to the Kane and Macon families. The two families share a house, a history and a secret.
Kelly Macdonald plays Sheriff Kerry Kane. Jason Ritter plays Billy Macon, her attorney husband. Poorna Jagannathan plays Zoe Macon, Billy’s stepmom. Garret Dillahunt plays William Macon, Zoe’s rancher husband. The actors discussed the episode with The Hollywood Reporter.
The episode opens with a flashback to 2007. Kerry is then a runaway from Gotham City. Zoe steps in to rescue her from an organised crime outfit at Rushville’s central diner.
The backstory is brutal. Kerry’s father informed on a Gotham crew to avoid serving his own prison sentence. He was then killed.
Zoe has her own hidden past. She is a Manhunter in hiding, meaning a synthetic shapeshifter in the show’s mythology. She is wanted for intergalactic war crimes.
That link raises a question for comic-book viewers. Kerry shares a surname with Batman ally Kate Kane. Macdonald said the series “doesn’t go too much into” where her Sheriff Kane fits into that family tree. Macdonald is known for playing Carla Jean Moss in the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men.
The marriage is the emotional core. Both Macdonald and Ritter said Billy and Kerry married out of genuine affection. It was not a calculated pairing to serve Zoe’s interests.
Ritter drew a contrast with the older couple. He said there is a transactional element to Zoe and William’s relationship. Billy and Kerry had something genuine, he said, even if it started to fall apart recently.
What makes this stand out is the way a domestic story is tied to an off-world one. A struggling marriage in Rushville now sits next to a fugitive trying to stay buried.
The wider series follows two Green Lanterns, the ring-wielding space police of DC Comics. Kyle Chandler plays Hal Jordan and Aaron Pierre plays John Stewart. Nathan Fillion plays Guy Gardner, another Lantern, and Ulrich Thomsen is also in the cast.
HBO launched Lanterns on Aug. 16, after setting the date in May, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Episode five leaves Kerry with two cases to solve. One is the murder in front of her. The other is her own family.
