The TV Cave Performer of the Week: Aaron Pierre Shines in ‘Lanterns’

Every week, television gives us plenty to talk about, but sometimes there is a performance that makes you stop watching the show around the actor and simply watch the actor.

Welcome to The TV Cave Performer of the Week, where each week we'll spotlight the performer who made us laugh, cry, scream at the television or simply sit there thinking, damn, that was good. We're heading straight into the DC Universe.

The TV Cave's Performer of the Week is Aaron Pierre for his performance as John Stewart in Lanterns Episode 3, “OutKast.”

After spending its first two episodes establishing John as the disciplined and relatively controlled counterweight to Kyle Chandler's Hal Jordan, Lanterns finally pulls back the curtain on John in “OutKast.” The episode takes us into his upbringing, his complicated relationship with his parents and the years of preparation that ultimately shaped the man we've been watching. Suddenly, Pierre's performance in those first two episodes hits a little differently.

John's restraint isn't emptiness, and it certainly isn't a lack of emotion. This is a man who has spent practically his entire life learning how to control what he feels, how he reacts and, most importantly, his fear. “OutKast” finally gives Pierre the opportunity to show us what's been simmering underneath all that control, and he doesn't waste it.

Pierre is particularly effective because he doesn't suddenly turn John into an entirely different character just because the episode is focused on him. The restraint remains, along with the posture and that guarded quality we've already come to associate with John. Instead, Pierre allows little cracks to form, and through them we finally see the anger, hurt and exhaustion John has been carrying. That's where the performance really gets me because Pierre understands that he doesn't have to scream for us to know John is hurting.

This is superhero television, but Pierre isn't playing John Stewart like some larger-than-life superhero waiting for somebody to hand him a ring. He plays him like a man trying to understand whether the life he's spent preparing for was ever really his choice, and there is a huge difference between those two things. It makes John's journey feel deeply personal before Lanterns ever gets around to the superhero of it all.

“OutKast” also asks some uncomfortable questions about what it means to raise a Black boy to be “without fear.” John's parents believe they're preparing their son to survive and eventually fulfill an extraordinary destiny, but that preparation leaves scars. Pierre carries those scars into adult John without needing a giant monologue explaining every single one of them, allowing his performance to connect the boy we meet in the flashbacks with the guarded man we've been watching in the present.

By the time we reach John's opportunity with the Guardians, we understand exactly why the moment means so much to him and why everything surrounding it is so complicated. We've seen plenty of actors put on superhero costumes and save the world, but what Pierre accomplishes here is much more interesting: he makes us understand the man before the superhero.

Three episodes into Lanterns, I'm no longer waiting to see Aaron Pierre become John Stewart because, friend, he's already there. For giving us a quieter, complicated and deeply human look at one of DC's most beloved heroes, Aaron Pierre is The

TV Cave's Performer of the Week.

Honorable Mentions

Jasmine Cephas Jones and J. Alphonse Nicholson — Lanterns

Pierre may take the crown, but “OutKast” doesn't work without Jasmine Cephas Jones and J. Alphonse Nicholson. As John's parents, Bernadette and John Stewart Sr., the pair give his childhood story much of its emotional weight. Their performances help us understand that John's upbringing wasn't simply about cruelty or impossible expectations, but fear, trauma, love and two parents convinced they had to prepare their son for something extraordinary.

Tabyana Ali — General Hospital

Tabyana Ali continues to make Trina Robinson one of General Hospital's most compelling younger characters. This week gave Ali another opportunity to showcase Trina's vulnerability while also allowing the character to step into the spotlight during her Cat's Eye Lounge performance, adding another layer to a character who has already been through more than enough. Seriously, can Trina get five minutes to enjoy herself?