Babel

Babel is the 21st episode of the first season of Green Lantern: The Animated Series. It aired on February 9, 2013.

Overview
Hal, Kilowog, and Razer crash land on a planet with a poisonous atmosphere. With their power rings nearly depleted, their only hope is to seek refuge in a nearby domed city, completely overrun by thieves and hooligans. But teamwork’s a little tougher when no one can understand anyone else!

Synopsis
The Intercepter drifts far in space, after they were blasted by the attack of the emotionless Aya. The members of the crew Hal Jordan and Kilowog worry that they are soon out of energy for their power rings. Razer arrives in the bridge noting unbelievably that there is still power left in theirs. He proceeds to report that the main battery of the Interceptor was empty. They recollect why Aya attacked them, but Hal quickly changes the conversation in repairing the ship to go searching for Aya. However the Interceptor drifts to a planet's gravity well, endangering the crew.

Razer quickly devises a plan to use his red battery as fuel to pilot the ship. With the approval of the Green Lanterns, Razer prepares to connect the cables of the main battery to the red battery, after Razer gave his farewell statement to the Green Lanterns, he connects the final cables of the batteries, refueling the Interceptor with red energy. Hal immediately begins to pilot the ship, crashing the ship on the surface of the planet. Hal checks on Razer, who responds that his battery was damaged. Kilowog wonders what to do while the main battery will be recharged in 10 hours, with Hal replying that they wait until then. Though Razer informed them that the planet's atmosphere consists mostly of methane. The window of the Interceptor breaks, exposing themselves to the lethal gas, though the Lanterns were saved by the protection of their rings.

They decide to explore the planet, discovering that there is a dome-sealed citadel 25 km away and starts to fly over there. However the rings doesn't have enough power to fly and they fall down to the ground. The Lanterns then begin to pace themselves towards the city. After a while, and several attempts to cheer up the team through chanting motivation rhyming lines, when Hal tries to make a motivation rhyme, Kilowog explains to him that the rings only translates the words and does not make them rhyme, though Hal ignores as they reached the city. Hal calls out the citizens of the city introducing themselves as Lanterns. An alien appears and identifies the Green Lanterns and orders to shoot at them. The Lanterns escape from the barrage of fire by hiding behind large rocks.

Soon afterwards, Kilowog's ring loses all of its remaining power, leaving him in his native clothing. Hal's ring depletes soon after, as they both bend their knees to the ground and suffocate due to lack of oxygen. Fortunately Razer creates an air bubble around them that allows them to breathe. They immediately have a hard time communicating, having to use Razer, the only one with a working ring, as a translator. Kilowog spots three tanks moving down a path near the rocks they are on, and decide to sneak beneath the last one. They agree to jump out on the count of three, but Hal jumps early due to not being able to understand Kilowog. They eventually grab onto the back of the third tank, as the tanks move into the city agreed by the alien to let them pass. The tanks get through the ventilation room that sucks the methane outside and enters into the city without the watch guards suspecting a thing.

Inside the city, the Lanterns take cover from the aliens. As they figure out what to do for the time remaining, but Razer's ring ran out of energy, losing the only way to communicate with each other, letting Hal try a way to communicate with Razer's native speech, but to no avail. Kilowog takes Hal and Razer, to hide from several aliens coming out of a corner, in a bar where they discover that it's crowded with the aliens. The Lanterns run away from the aliens who chases them in pursuit, and eventually escaped their eye sight by hiding behind some boxes. The Lanterns were called out by a suspicious alien who offers them a getaway vehicle, in exchange for payment. The Lanterns empty their pockets, with Kilowog taking out a handful of worms (which Hal said "gross," to), Razer takes out several white weapons, and Hal gives up his keys, half a pack of gum, and his cell phone with a picture of Carol on it. The alien takes the cellphone and points the picture of Carol Ferris on the phone, demanding that they give her to him. Hal refuses the demand, asking Kilowog to negotiate further with him, but instead smacks him out of the way. The Lanterns are then discovered by the pursuirs and steal the vehicle.

With the vehicle, the Lanterns try to escape the citadel, but as they near the exit, they are intercepted by a tank and crash into it. The Lanterns are surrounded by the alien, Hal orders Kilowog and Razer to attack from each flank, but Razer and Kilowog doesn't understand and attacks them, but they are quickly knocked out. Hal gives himself up, but is then knocked out by an alien.

The Lanterns wake up in a cell, where they discover that they are going to be put for a gladiator match. They noticed that the shady alien from earlier was released on the field, which made Hal believed that he is the one who they must fight and feels insulted to be underestimated by them. However the alien is attacked by a large monster, shocking the Lanterns. They are released on the field, to fight against the gigantic creature. While they can't understand each other, they try to fight it, but their are attacks are futile against the gigantic creature who uses its whip to attack them.

During the fight, as it seems hopeless for them, Hal finds hope when he discovers that there is a Manhunter head on the belt of the monster. As the several floor blocks rises from the ground for the second round, Hal recollects memories of the fight against the Manhunters on Odym, he tries to tell Kilowog that they can use the Manhunter's head to recharge their rings since they run on the same energy. While the monster attacks them, Hal gives a pep talk to them of why they are Lanterns and decide to attack the creature. Kilowog throws Razer towards the monster, and he punches his eye making him release his whip. Kilowog and Razer binds the monter's feet together with the whip, making the monster lose his foothold. While the monster is preocupied by Kilowog and Razer, Hal runs towards the monster and takes hold of its belt and grabs the Manhunter head. While Hal chants the Green Lantern oath, the monster grabs him and eats him. However Hal finishes it and with his recharged power ring takes on the monster and tosses the Manhunter head towards Kilowog.

Kilowog grabs it and chants the Green Lantern oath, recharging his ring. He throws the Manhunter head towards Razer, forgetting that his ring is not compatible with the green energy. The combined efforts of the Lanterns quickly take out the monster, crumbling it to the ground. The aliens then mourn for the monster, who they identified as "mother", for the harm they caused on it. The Lantern decides to take off towards the Interceptor.

Inside the Interceptor, Kilowog fixes the window of the ship. Razer arrives in the bridge, noting that his battery fixed itself. Hal congratuled on their victory when they couldn't understand each other and believes that his pep talk motivated them to fight against the monster. Kilowog and Razer are confused what he means and compliments Hal for it. When Hal went to the control system, Razer and Kilowog confirm each other that they couldn't understand what he was saying during the arena fight. The Lantern then departs from the planet's surface with the Interceptor.

Cast
For full credits click here.

Appearing in "Babel"
Heroes: Villains: Other characters: Locations: Items: Vehicles:
 * Hal Jordan
 * Kilowog
 * Razer
 * Goblins
 * "Mother"
 * Aya
 * Carol Ferris
 * Unknown planet
 * The Citadel
 * Green Lantern Power Ring
 * Red Lantern Power Ring
 * Red Lantern Power Battery
 * Interceptor

Quotes

 * Kilowog: Wait. What now?
 * Hal Jordan: No time for goodbye speeches. Fire up the engine.


 * Hal Jordan: All right. Any landing you can walk away from, right?
 * Kilowog: You say that a lot, but I don't think it's true.


 * Razer: That Citadel is easily 25 kilometers away.
 * Kilowog: Nothing like a brisk mid-day run for our lives.Try and keep up.


 * Kilowog: Our rings just translate other languages. They can't make them rhyme.
 * Razer: Or make them less irritating.
 * Hal Jordan and Kilowog: Who's irritating?
 * Razer: Anyone wearing green, apparently.

Series continuity

 * The episode continues from the previous episode "Cold Fury".
 * Hal recollects the time they were on Odym fighting against the Manhunters, whom ran on the same energy as the Green Lanterns, in "Blue Hope".

Trivia

 * The episode's title and premise is a reference to the famous story of the Tower of Babel, in which God confused the united language of humanity.
 * According to producer Jim Krieg, both he and Giancarlo Volpe wanted to use the language barrier as a gag, but Bruce Timm suggested it be used as a plotline.
 * Co-writer Kevin Rubio created three new languages for Kilowog, Razer (varied off of Swahili), and the Goblins.

Goofs

 * Razer's power ring is missing for several minutes in the middle of the second act. It reappears when they wake up in the arena.