The Sandman Season 2 Review

This is a DynaMic Network Podcast. 

Hi, welcome to the DynaMic Duel Podcast, a weekly show where we review superhero films and debate the superiority between Marvel and DC by comparing their characters in stat-based battle simulations. I'm Johnny DC. 

And I'm his twin brother, Marvelous Joe. And in this episode, we are reviewing Netflix's Season 2 of The Sandman series. It's a fantastic series based off of one of the best graphic novels ever made, definitely one of my favorites, so I can't wait to talk about Season 2. Yeah, not just one of your favorites. I'm going to say probably the best adapted graphic novel to television ever put out there. 

And there's not many direct adaptations of graphic novels out there, but this definitely sets a high bar for future ones. We're going to talk about the show later on in this episode. Before that, we're going to break down the comic book movie news from the past week, of which we just got a rinky dink look at the new Spider suit for Spider-Man Brand New Day. 

Yeah, rinky dink is the operative term right there, for sure. As always, we list our segment times in our episode description, so feel free to check out the show notes if you want to skip ahead to a particular topic. Our artificially intelligent dual simulator, AJ9K, has a quick message for our listeners, so listen up. 

Why hello there. Do you want even more from this podcast? Then become a part of the dynamic dual community on Patreon where you can choose from three tiers. The Dynamic 2.0 tier gives you access to our Discord chat server, the Fantastic 4 tier gives you two bonus episodes each month, and the X-Force tier makes you an executive producer of this show. Lastly, the Dynamite Podcast Network tier lets you create your own podcast using this Monte Carlo simulator. Johnny and Joe will help you develop your show, provide graphic support and consultation, and get you simulation results. Pitch the twins your ideas via email at dynamicdualpodcast at gmail.com. Check it out at patreon.com slash dynamicdual. Pip pip cheerio. 

Thanks AJ9K and thanks to everyone who supports the podcast. Be sure to tune in to the other shows on the Dynamite Podcast Network this week, including the console combat podcast where hosts John and Dean simulate battles between popular video game characters. In yesterday's episode, they reviewed Season 1 of Twisted Metal. Over on the Max Destruction podcast, hosts Scotty and Gilly pit your favorite action heroes from film and television against each other. They're taking a brief hiatus during the month of August, so make sure to get caught up on all of their latest episodes. On the Sendro World podcast hosts Zachary Hepburn speculates on fights between fan favorite anime and manga characters. In his next episode, Zach is going to reveal who'd win between Akuto Sai from Demon King Daimo versus Amos Voldigoed from Misfit of Demon Academy. 

Visit dynamicpodcasts.com or click the link in our show notes to listen to all of the shows in the Dynamite Podcast Network. But with that out of the way, quick to the no prize! A no prize is an award that Marvel used to give out to fans. Our version, the Dynamic Dual No Prize, is a digital award we post on Instagram for the person that we feel gave the best answer to our question of the week. Last week we asked you guys, if you could reimagine a Marvel or DC superhero in an ancient culture, what superhero and culture would you choose? This is coming off of the trailer we got for Aztec Batman, which reimagines the origins of Batman in the ancient Aztec culture. We got quite a few answers, we're going to break down this week's 3 honorable mentions before revealing the no prize winner. Our first honorable mention goes to... By Dear Bangura. Who said? 

The character I would choose to change arrows would be Punisher. I would put him in pre-colonial West Africa. He would most likely have a story where his family was killed by the French or another superpower at the time. And he would be there to free slaves to avenge those that were taking and to make sure the freedom had spread out throughout the continent. He would be a power for a lot of other characters, he would be the strength of Africa and he would make sure that his story changes. 

And right out of the gate with a pretty hardcore answer, By Dear suggested a West African Punisher set during the early days of the slave trade. And that would be crazy to watch. I could imagine a West African soldier donning the emblem of the skull and they don't have guns at the time, right? So he'd probably use a sword or a spear and he's just avenging the murder of his family. Now the Punisher in the comic book isn't really altruistic and fight for a larger goal of freeing slaves or anything like that. He just kills because he hates criminals. And this version of the Punisher I don't think would be fighting necessarily just to prevent slavery but largely out of his anger for the people capturing slaves. Right, he doesn't kill out of vengeance, he kills out of punishment. Great answer by Dear, our next honorable mention goes to Scott Camacho who said, Ancient cultures. 

Hmm, let's see. My characters would be the Justice League and I want to see them portrayed in ancient Egypt. Superman is raw, Wonder Woman as segment, the Flash as shoe and Aquaman as sabok. The aesthetic of it would look amazing. 

I love that idea. I think that's a really cool idea. The Egyptian pantheon could very much be like a superhero team. So to translate those characters so well into their Justice League counterparts, like right when he said Egyptian, I already knew like what deities he was going to connect to the Justice League characters. I love that choice. I think that would be a really cool aesthetic as well. And then you could say that Superman was behind the pyramids or something like the Egyptian pyramids were the remains of the ships that were sent from Krypton or something like that. It writes itself. Great answer Scotty, our next honorable mention goes to Lorenzo Valdez who said, 

This is Lorenzo Valdez calling in once again. My idea is basically going off of what Smallville did with Native American culture with the Kowachi Caves, but taking it a step further and setting the story before America was colonized and having a Native American version of Lana Lang and Kal-El arrives and having the story go from there and explore Native American culture even further. Kalana forever and always. Bye-bye. 

Yeah, I'm not sure if the Kowachi tribe was real. I think Kansas was actually populated by like the Osage. Yeah, them and the Wichita and the Pani and the Kansa according to Google. Either way, I think the Kryptonian ship landing in pre-colonial America would make for an awesome story. I'm not sure how it would affect his upbringing and how he would turn out as a character. 

It would be really interesting to explore. Yeah, it'd be kind of dangerous because I imagine he would be revered as a God during that time. And how would he not let that go to his head? 

That's the tricky part. He'd have to have astute parents and maybe he would. Maybe they would teach him about humility. It could be awesome. Kind of like Superman Red Sun, reimagined him landing in Soviet Russia. 

Landing in pre-colonial America can make for a damn good story too. Great answer, Lorenzo. We want to give a quick shout out to Alex Albro and Cade Lehmann for taking the time to visit our website and record an answer. Yeah, Alex was not able to record an answer, but he did write in suggesting an ancient Greek Steve Rogers who fights against the mythical Hydra. I thought that was pretty cool. And Cade Lehmann suggested an ice man who was born in Antarctica. But the winner of this week's No Prize is Travis Herndon, who said... 

What's up, the name of the dude is Travis here. Shout out to my evil twin. So my answer will be Ghost Rider in Nordic culture. Magi is seeing a badass Viking Ghost Rider going around hacking dudes up with dual axes and other Viking style weapons. And that's for his vehicle, a Viking ship. And before you say it, when it comes to land, it's being carried by the souls of the damned while he's on land. So I'm mad at seeing that charging at you. 

Oh, shit. That's hardcore. That is so hardcore. You know, Ghost Rider has always been pretty metal, but I think this would just take that to the next level with a Viking Ghost Rider who wields twin battle axes. 

And I mentioned there will still be chains on those and everything like that. He'd probably have a fiery skull underneath his Viking helmet. But what really sold me on this was Travis's idea for his vehicle to be a Viking ship that rides on the souls of the damned. And I don't know if that would look like it was sailing on fire or if it was sailing off of skeletons carrying it or whatever, but either way, that's fucking badass. That actually needs to be a thing. 

Like, I don't care if it's a toy or a comic arc. That should be real. Yeah, they've explored multiple Ghost Riders throughout history in the comic books, but I don't remember there being a Viking one. 

So yeah, they could totally kind of tack that on there. Great answer, Travis. You win this week's No Price. If you the listener want to shut in winning your own No Price, stay tuned to later on in this episode when we'll be asking another question of the week. 

But now that that's done, on to the news. All right, this past week we got our first look at Tom Holland's new Spider-Man suit that he's going to wear in Spider-Man brand new day, which is being directed by Daniel Destin Cretan and being filmed right now. I believe they're currently filming in Scotland, actually. And the way that Sony went about revealing it wasn't the most exciting. They kind of like showed this animatic of what the suit could look like, but it was mostly in shadow and it was only like a 9 second video. 

That wasn't really worth talking about. And then there was also this other video of Tom Holland coming out from behind a door and, you know, he's like pumped to start filming and he's wearing the suit. I was largely unimpressed by the suit. But since those videos have come out, better high res versions of the suit were taken during the production of the movie and they give us a much clearer look of what the new suit is going to look like. And I will say it's not the same suit that we saw at the end of Spider-Man No Way Home, where that one was like kind of shiny. It had more of a cyan blue color. 

It was pretty basic. This new suit is also pretty basic, but it kind of feels a lot more similar to the suits that he's had in the past. If anything, actually the suit that it reminds me most of is Andrew Garfield's from the amazing Spider-Man 2, although the blue on this suit is not quite as dark as that one was. And that was a great suit. That was a fantastic suit. That one had more like a navy color and this new Spider-Man suit is more like a cobalt blue is what I'll say. I gotta say it's more spandexy feeling than I would have thought. Like I know he made his costume at the very end of the last movie, but this one definitely has that more homemade feel I would say. And I don't know if it's just because of the harnesses that he was wearing on set. Maybe they'll just smooth out all the wrinkles in post, but that was my first impression. 

Yeah, same here. The material seems a lot thinner than the suits that he's worn in the past, especially the ones that were created by Tony Stark. Those seemed a lot more heavy duty. But that's why I compared this suit to the amazing Spider-Man 2 suit because when Spider-Man was swinging through the city in that movie, like the wind was like ruffling the spandex of his outfit because the material was so thin, right? Here you could also tell that the material is similarly thin. The emblem is not quite as large as Andrew Garfield's was. The mask is very similar to his very first mask in Homecoming. But what's interesting with this new suit is that his web shooters look a whole lot different than they did in previous films. They almost look like steel drinking flasks attached to his wrists. They are very prominent in this new suit. I don't know how I feel about that because they seem like they would make for easy targets for bad guys, right? 

To just take out his web shooters. But they're there and it'll be interesting to see how they look in battle. I'm sad that we're going to lose a lot of the cool features that Spider-Man had throughout his initial trilogy. Where he had the web gliders and the Spidey signal, Spider Tracers, things like that. Things that he kind of developed over time in the comic books and incorporated into his suit. That I thought kind of added to his appeal as somewhat of a tech hero and that he has a lot of homemade tech that he incorporates. 

I hope he has something going for him just beyond the web shooters. Just because I don't know, I just really like the web gliders I always have on his suit. I do think that in modern Spider-Man movies there does need to be at least two or three different iterations of the suits. I mean, look at the last film, how many he had. 

They'll come up with some excuse to make some kind of toy wearing some kind of different suit. So I'd be surprised if this was the only one in the film. I think you're right. 

Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. Although, you know, this is rumored to be more of a street level style Spider-Man movie, so we'll see. That being said, if this is a street level Spider-Man outfit, I'm totally for it. 

It looks very classic in that regard. You'll just have bullet riddled Spider-Man suit full of holes. Battle damaged Spidey. 

That'll be the new action figure they sell. But there's not really too much else to comment on the suits. I'm sure we'll have a whole lot more to say when they start releasing marketing for the film, which won't be for a while because they just started filming. So we probably won't see like a trailer or anything until the end of this year. Or maybe even after that because really the Spider-Man movie doesn't come out until July 31st, almost a whole year from now in 2026. I'm not sure how this particular suit will rank among all of the Spider-Man suits throughout all of his films. 

But on that topic, we have our question of the week. What was the best live action Spider-Man suits? And just for funsies, what was the best Batman suits? And why? 

Yeah, we want an answer for the best Spider-Man outfit and the best Batman outfit. Just a tight DC in there. Jonathan is going on vacation this next week, so we're going to let this question of the week run for a couple of weeks. Please record your answer at dynamicdool.com by clicking on the red microphone button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, which will prompt you to leave us a voicemail. Your message could be up to 30 seconds long and don't forget to leave your name in case we include you on the podcast. We'll pick our favorite answer and award that person a Dynamic Duel No Prize that we'll post to Instagram. 

Be sure to answer before August 16th. But that does it for all of the news for this episode. Now let's go ahead and move on to the main event where we review Netflix's The Sandman Season 2. The Sandman Season 2 Alright, The Sandman Season 2 is the bittersweet conclusion of a dark fantasy epic adapted from the award-winning DC Comics and Vertigo Comics series, written by Neil Gaiman. 

It's easily one of my favorite comic series of all time and I truly loved Season 1. I actually rewatched all of the first season in lead-up to Season 2, which is something I've actually never done before, but I knew I wanted to get the full Sandman experience leading up to the saga's bittersweet end. In my review of Season 1, I said that while it was a faithful and worthwhile adaptation, the books were better, only because the story of Sandman has so many individual threads and yarns to borrow an analogy from the kindly ones that are seemingly separate until, as the series progresses, you realize are part of a much broader and beautiful tapestry. Season 2 is missing a lot of those threads because while Season 1 adapted volumes 1 and 2, Season 2 only adapts 4 of the remaining 8 volumes of story. And while you'd think missing half the story would result in only half a tapestry, somehow the showrunner Alan Heindberg and director Jamie Childs, as well as the cast, were able to weave something together that's a little bit smaller, but still beautiful and still profound. If you haven't seen this season or this series, I highly recommend it. Please don't listen any further because this story, unlike a lot of projects we review, has a definitive, somewhat unconventional end that you don't want spoiled for yourself. No, definitely watch the series. Don't listen to us just talk about the series. 

Go watch Sandman, people. It's so good. There were so many times when I was watching this show, because my wife wasn't able to watch it with me this time, that I just hoped that someone would walk in on me watching it and just be transfixed by everything going on. Because there's so much beauty in this show. It is by far the best made comic book adaptation on television and maybe even the best looking adaptation on film, too. It's incredible. 

And if you like dark fantasy, the story is right up your alley as well. Just go watch it. Go watch the Sandman. Go watch it! 

What are you still doing here? No, yeah, it does not really get better than the Sandman on multiple levels, from production to writing to acting, just everything. It was so good. Now, as we mentioned in our review of the first season, Sandman for the longest time was considered unadaptable because of how dense the source material is. I was pretty nervous going into season one, but even more so going into season two, because I knew how much ground the writers were going to have to cover in such a short time span, considering they announced that season two was going to be the final season. And as I was watching the show, I was legitimately amazed at how well they were able to work in nearly all of my favorite moments from the comics in a way that felt much more organic than I expected it to. 

Like, Amidst Summer Night's Dream, for example, that was something of a standalone issue in the comic, but they worked it into a flashback for the show. There were a lot of smart choices on display here that came across as very well thought out and planned at length, and I appreciated that as I was watching this season. Yeah, it's kind of a master craft in story weaving on behalf of the screenwriters here. And, you know, we have some veterans like Allen Heinberg, David Goyer. Neil Gaiman himself was involved. Yeah, we don't want to talk about him, though. 

No. But, yeah, they did a really good job. I mean, you got to think about just how much story they had to condense. Well, again, there's a lot left out because they only adapted four of the remaining eight, but they did a fantastic job adapting those. 

It's like you said, a masterwork. I'm assuming the remaining volumes focused on the new Sandman. No, the remaining volumes were essentially anthological stories, though one of them was Amidst Summer Night's Dream. 

So they still were able to sneak some of those in their different ways. Now, one of the great things about the story of Sandman and what drew me to the comics back when I read them in high school is that because it's essentially a story about stories, it's not necessarily bound to any particular setting or time, genre, or even cast of characters. There are seemingly entire volumes of the Sandman comic series that are simply a collection of anthological short stories. That is, until you get closer to the end of the entire series and you begin to realize that it's all connected, that really every story was part of a much bigger picture. You're kind of just along for the ride for most of the series under the impression that this is a story that could be endless. It's kind of the promise made at the very start that dream stories can and will go on forever. That is, until you realize that this whole thing was really a setup for how and why an endless being, a God essentially, would come to accept death. And not in any kind of macabre way, but in a way that makes you feel like you truly lived an entire life with a character and understand his decisions. 

Yes, the story of a selfish God growing and changing and in a sense becoming more human. Right, exactly. Yeah, that's a great description of it. It's a very existential work. 

And while I wouldn't exactly say season two concluded with the same level of existentialism as the books where you finish the last page of the book and look up and you're like, wait, I'm in a bookstore. I'm not in the dreaming. I will say that because this television adaptation is so hyper focused on dream story, which is a story about life. It still manages to transcend and be almost unbound by theme. It's not only a story about life, but about death and mortality and grief and responsibility, love and relationships, personal growth, destiny and free will. It's literally and literally about everything. Yeah, I think I mentioned in our review of season one that the whole Sandman series kind of seemed to be a grand experiment by the author Neil Gaiman. 

Every time I say his name, I do want to make sure I clarify that the dude is a fucking dickhole. But yeah, the Sandman series was, I think, his grand experiment regarding the topics of life and death and love. Yeah, there's a lot of aspects about it that feel experimental and indie in that way. 

Very creative in a way that is unconventional, I think, for the medium. Now, while I'm sincerely impressed with how well they were able to wrap up dream story in a single season, I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish this show could have gone on for another four or five seasons. It would have been better, but also pretty damn expensive. 

Each episode of this season cost about $15 million to make, making it one of the most expensive shows ever produced. But it shows even more so this season compared to last, in my opinion. I agree. Like, I thought the cinematography and costuming were noticeably better this round, having watched both seasons back to back. 

And the visual effects, for sure. Merv Pumpkinhead, he felt so real. For me, I think the best visual effect throughout the entire course of this season was actually the underworld. The Greek underworld ruled by Hades and Persephone. There were so many moments throughout the course of this show where I felt truly transported, and the whole adaptation of the Orpheus and Eurydice story was such a perfect translation of the Greek myth that I think someone even like Christopher Nolan, who's currently shooting the Odyssey, is going to have a run for his money in how well these Greek tragedies appear on screen. There's just something so transportive about the Sandman. Yeah, there's very few people who could do mythology as well as Neil Gaiman. Even with his other books, like American Gods and stuff like that, a lot of that spills over into his Sandman universe. 

And yeah, it's captivating. We see multiple pantheons here. We see a lot of different characters. 

There's so many characters in the Sandman saga, but let's dive into a few in our character breakdown. Starting with Dream, played by Tom Sturridge. Now, I think Tom was born to play this role. I know you mentioned in our last review that his voice was too theatrical, but like I also mentioned, I think the choice to make his voice consistent while leaving the subtle emotions to play out on his face worked really well. I saw an interview where Tom said he asked Neil Gaiman how Dream should sound, and his response was that Dream should sound like the voice in your head when you're thinking. Quiet, but also with an authoritative tinge as well as one of seduction and terror. 

I think that's a lot to ask of an actor, but I think Tom did a great job. That's not what the voice in my head sounds like. The voice in my head sounds like this. 

I wonder what's in the pantry for dinner. What does your voice sound like? My inner voice, just like my regular voice, but I wouldn't describe my regular voice as any of those things. I feel bad for you. 

My voice is hella seductive. Regarding Sturridge's performance, I think I did criticize it saying that it was too operatic, I think. And so it kind of came across as forced and maybe even a little bit corny at times for season one. 

But I think having seen season one, I totally understand what he's doing. These are larger than life characters. He's the fucking embodiment of an abstract concept. 

He shouldn't really humanize his performance. Maybe it should be larger than life, and so I definitely had less issue with it. I agree. I think maybe the guy was born to play Dream of the Endless. He had the look down better in this season than I think even last season, which I didn't think was possible. And plus, it was really easy to see his growth in his performance going from someone who is so emotional, yet so completely lacking empathy. He's basically a sociopath who really comes to humble himself and better himself throughout the entire season. You see that. 

Right, exactly. Dream's arc is ultimately about accepting responsibility. He was this godlike being who was incredibly humbled in the first season in which we saw him work to regain his power and restore his realm. But in season two, now that he and his realm are back to full power, we see how the events of the first season have changed him and caused him to recognize that he doesn't just have a responsibility to the dreaming, but for his past hurtful actions that he would have otherwise overlooked as a prideful and all-powerful deity. Humility fosters empathy, and with his newfound empathy comes newfound emotions like regret, but also love. Yeah, I think early on he largely confused desire with love, which may have been in part due to the machinations of his sibling desire. But through the course of the story, he really comes to understand what actual love is. And that is something worth dying for. 

Absolutely. You know, not a told him 10,000 years ago that she doesn't believe his kind is capable of love, and he punished her for it because I feel like he was afraid that was true. In the same way that his parents didn't love him because when you're that powerful and that important relationships and love get in the way of duty and responsibility. But dream realizes the season that he does love and has hurt the ones he loves and in an effort to make things right, willingly puts himself in the position of undergoing the ultimate act of love, which is to sacrifice yourself to protect your loved ones. 

I believe that's what love really is. Attention and sacrifice. And dream found himself incapable of ignoring those that truly matter to him, whether it was Nada in Hell, Delirium, sulking in her realm, Orpheus on that Greek island, or his staff in his palace being destroyed. Dream chooses death not only out of love, but because dream is bound by his identity by function rules and ritual in a way that he sees others of equal station are not Lucifer gives up on her domain and so does destruction. But dream cannot do that. He's seen what happens when his realm is abandoned and he refuses to have that happen again, taking steps to ensure the dreaming will survive and be cared for after he's gone. And yet, he also refuses to bear the burden of killing another innocent in Light of Hall. His death is both destiny and free will, both bound to happen, yet also a conscious choice made by dream, because he refuses to change back to the kind of being he once was. 

And now has the courage to let go of selfishness and pride, which is not easy and something I think we'll all have to face one day on our own deathbeds. It's such a profound arc, like we talk about the themes in these superhero movies and shows a lot in our reviews, but none of them quite come as close to the profundity of what dream goes through. His arc literally is the end all be all arc, I feel like. And it shows what really matters. 

That being said, I think I still have the same criticisms of the story that I did from season one in that Neil Gaiman's rules that he has set up for this Santa Man universe do still seem arbitrary. Like, oh, the spilling of familial blood by the antelists will result in their destruction by the kindly ones. It's all very convenient to his story. You know, to me, like, why couldn't dream just bring his son to live with him in the dreaming and like give him a new body and even recreate a facsimile of Eurydice and just support him in that way and decline the boon of killing his only son. It seemed like there were other options for an all powerful entity like dream. 

I can answer a few of those questions. I mean, dream is not all powerful. He has most control in his realm and to be in his realm, one has to be sleeping. Orpheus is still alive in the waking world and it wouldn't matter if dream created him a new body in the dreaming because once Orpheus woke up, he would still be headless in his world. Well, he could put him into an eternal sleep and then it wouldn't matter. That's fair, but that's still him not fully taking responsibility for his actions. His son asked to die specifically, not live with him eternally in the dreaming. I think his son asked to die because his love had died, but if you remove like his loneliness, I think maybe that desire to die goes away partly. 

I don't know, man. After thousands of years as a decapitated head, I think I would want to be done. I think after thousands of years living as a decapitated head that couldn't move if you gave me the illusion of a body and an entire realm to explore, I suddenly feel less shitty. Well, that's not what Orpheus asked of his father, is it? It doesn't matter because that was dream's workaround that he could have done. I think it would have satisfied his arc. I think it would have satisfied his soul and I think it would have satisfied his son as well. Again, it comes down to responsibility. 

He didn't want to have to leave his son in the care of priests only to be risked, stolen again like he was during the French Revolution. Who cares if he's stolen? He's an eternal sleep. He's of no use to anybody while he's in an eternal sleep. You just don't want to accept the fact that I thought of a better solution for a dream situation than dream could think of himself. 

Well, here's the problem with your solution. It fails to recognize the fact that dream wanted to die. Well, I guess that was one of the things that Joanna Constantine posited to him, right? I'm not entirely convinced that was true though. I mean, he seemed rather reluctant to die by the very end. I mean, he's the one who had Matthew retrieve his sister's death to begin with. He was willing to make that sacrifice. Yeah, but he also asked the kindly ones if there was nothing else that would satisfy them besides his life. Those were some of his last words. Yeah, and this was already after he had killed his son. 

Which I'm saying he didn't have to do, okay? Anyway, we could go on and on about this. Just know that I'm right and that this is likely a plot hole in the whole damn story of the Sandman. 

It is not. You don't know what you're talking about. You don't understand the characters at all, apparently. Okay, okay. Read a book! 

Moving on to Delirium. She was played by Esme Creed Miles. I looked at her filmography. 

I have not seen a single thing she's been in, but Delirium was one of my favorite characters from the Sandman comic series. And her personality is really all over the place, but always in this haze. So I was curious to see how Esme would approach the character. And while I expected something a little more absurdist, I guess, I thought she'd perfectly capture Delirium's innocence and vulnerability while still adding a level of quirkiness that helps capture the dichotomy of both sanity and insanity that Delirium should have, and I noticed in this performance that she did. One thing they never addressed in the course of the show is why she became Delirium after being delighted for so long. 

She brings it up, but can you answer that question? No, because it's actually never been answered in the comics. Oh. 

Lame, I know they filmed this scene where it happened, but they cut it from the show. Okay. I think because it's better off being a mystery. Well, she says she knows things about the endless that no one else knows, not even Destiny. And it's a really vague line that is left intentionally vague just for the sake of it. 

I feel like if they're going to bring it up, they may as well discuss it. It's a Chekhov's gun situation that never goes off. Well, potentially Delirium is the most powerful of the endless. So that line was not surprising to me. But again, she's all about mystery. She's insane. So she probably doesn't even know what she knows or doesn't know. 

Sure. We do know that Delirium is the youngest of the endless who used to be delight, but was something of a cosmic afterthought and wasn't as stable as her siblings. At some point in the past, she had a breakdown and became Delirium. She's a tragic figure who's dismissed by her siblings, who see her as naive, unstable, and even annoying. 

But behind her erratic speech and fractured behavior is this deep, unwavering drive. She wants to find her brother destruction and not out of duty or curiosity. But because she misses him, she remembers what it meant to be whole when she was delight and she wants her family to be whole again. 

Dream realizes during the journey that they share that Delirium is not the fool he thought she was. She's just different. And she feels everything because she's kind of everything else. All the cosmic aspects and emotions that her siblings aren't. And Dream comes to recognize, respect, and even love that about her. 

He loves her because she's so sincere in her love in a way that none of the other endless are. Moving on to destruction, he was played by Barry Sloan. Now, like Esme Creed Miles, I was not familiar with Barry Sloan's work prior to this, but I thought he brought something really grounded and unexpectedly warm to destruction. Which matches the comic, actually, where destruction, surprisingly, comes across as much more chipper and less edgier than his siblings. There's still this quiet sadness beneath Sloan's performance, though, like a man who carries a heavy truth but tries his hardest not to let it harden him. I would say he's the most human of the endless, and I thought that was easy to see in Barry's performance. Yeah, it's interesting how the members of the endless that you would assume would be the darkest and edgiest, like death and destruction, end up being some of the more human-like characters, whereas some of the more whimsical aspects like Dream and Desire end up being the more edgy and closed off ones. Yeah, I guess that is true. 

It kind of circumvents your expectations in a way. Yeah, I did like the character of destruction. I guess I don't quite understand how a member of the endless can kind of give up their responsibilities without everything just turning to shit, but the characterization of destruction as he was portrayed here was like very grounded, very level, very understanding. 

Maybe, yeah, but that came with the cost as well. Now, Destruction's arc is about the burden of inevitability and the moral weight of choice. He's the only member of the endless to walk away from his function, which has changed specifically, though he didn't do it out of neglect, but explicitly out of love. In a flashback scene to 1675, during a conversation with Dream, he reveals his growing fear of mankind's increasing mastery of science and rationality being used not for understanding, but power and control. He sees the dissected apes, the splitting of light and the probing of nature's most sacred mysteries with the knowledge of what it inevitably has always led to, the destruction of the planet, of those he cares about, and eventually the destruction of everything, including himself and his family. Rather than bearing responsibility of guiding change in the universe to that fateful conclusion, Destruction abdicates his cosmic role to let change happen naturally. But I mean, he's not an arbiter of unnatural change either, so I guess the fact that everything kind of continues going on without him makes it seem like the function of all the endless characters is largely unnecessary. Well, no, I think the implication is that he is the guide of change, and when he abdicated his role, that's essentially when we got the Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, the Industrial Revolution, like it's kind of speeding up and kind of going out of control because he's not there to foster it. 

Well, that's a dick move then. It's like by leaving his responsibilities, he's just turning his fears into a self-fulfilling prophecy that much faster. Well, it's going to happen anyway, and he didn't want to be responsible for that, which is why he just kind of gave up on everything and found his own kind of peace in that way. He's not bound to this world and its people. 

He could literally traverse the universe. Now, when Dream and Delirium find destruction, he challenges the very idea of duty and identity, reminding Dream that just because someone has a role doesn't mean that it has to be a prison. Where Dream clings to form and function, Destruction chooses freedom, even if it means stepping away from the people and realms he loves. Though Dream ultimately doesn't follow Destruction's advice because he's not willing to sacrifice the ones he loves like Destruction is, both of them find their own path to peace. 

And that's the cost I mentioned earlier, the destruction of the ones you love. I mean, is it going to happen anyway so that Kostas is going to be buried regardless? So I'm not sure that's something that he actually has to pay. He feels responsibility for it is the whole point. He doesn't want to see his loved ones like his family be destroyed. He'd rather just ignore all of it and ignore it's his bliss essentially with Destruction. 

So the cost is lessened. Right, exactly. He's a good guy, but he's not exactly a good guy. I guess that's a good way to put it. 

I did like his wisdom regarding the advice he gave Daniel at the end when he said that there's no such thing as a one sided coin. Oh yeah. And that each of the aspects of the endless somewhat define their opposites in that death in her role has come to define life and despair has come to define hope, desire, hatred and dream, I guess, reality. That was just an interesting aspect because I've always wondered why those other aspects never existed as members of the endless. Why was it limited to these D words? I was just about to say, I was because they don't start with D. But yeah, I guess in a way those opposite entities are represented through the existing endless, which I thought was pretty neat. Yeah, he also said destiny defined freedom. 

Well, he didn't see what he defined or delirium defined, but if I had to guess, destruction defines meaning and delirium defines reason. Sounds about right to me. Makes me wonder what I represent. Taco Bell? But what's the opposite of Taco Bell? Not shitting your pants. Yeah, you define those two things. 

Nice. Now, I wanted to touch on these three characters specifically because they're my favorite of the endless. And I really think the endless are one of the most interesting aspects of the Sandman series. But there are a lot more characters here, as I've mentioned, many of whom are static archetypes who don't really grow or have their own arcs. You could say Dream really is the only one except for maybe Lucifer and I guess Johanna Constantine and maybe Daniel. But they're really not in the show long enough to touch too much on. So we'll do that in the story highlights. 

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Episode one was titled Season of Mists. As Dream rebuilds the dreaming, he is summoned by his brother Destiny to attend a family gathering of the Endless in Destiny's realm, where a dream meets his other siblings, death, desire, despair and delirium. As they mentioned their absent brother who broke off contact with them centuries ago, Destiny explains that the fates have revealed a cryptic prophecy to him that would start to unwind with their meeting. Desire aggravates Dream, reminding him of Nada, a human queen whom he fell in love with millennia ago, but condemned to hell after she ended the relationship, claiming the Endless and mortals cannot live together after their affair led to the destruction of her kingdom. After a discussion with death, Dream resolves to save Nada from hell, making sure to secure the dreaming and meeting with Lightahall and Hobgadling in case he would not return. As Dream enters hell, Lucifer Morningstar calls on the demonic legions intent to execute revenge on Dream for the humiliation suffered during their last confrontation. Now, if the Kindly Ones never visited Destiny, it's likely Dream never would have died. 

That is correct. What did the Kindly Ones have against Dream? They're the ones that put this whole thing into motion. They knew what would happen. Well, so does Destiny. Now, he only knows what happens. He doesn't see the future. 

But the Kindly Ones do. And they knew what was going to happen. So they set in motion what was already going to happen. 

You have to think about it fifth dimensionally. But if they don't set it into motion, then it likely wouldn't happen. So why would they have set it into motion unless they wanted Dream to die? 

Because they're all about telling stories and they wanted Dream to complete his story. Fucking assholes. I agree. Not a fan of the Kindly Ones, though I thought they did a fantastic job adapting them in this show. Episode two was titled The Ruler of Hell. Finding hell eerily empty upon his arrival, Dream is confronted by Lucifer, who, weary of her duty, has abdicated the throne and released all souls and demons to roam other worlds. After Lucifer persuades Dream to ceremoniously cut off her wings, she gives Dream the key to hell, making him its custodian in revenge. Returning to the Dreaming, Dream soon finds a flooded by delegations of supernatural beings seeking dominion over hell, among them being the gods Susano, Odin, Thor and Loki, a pair from Fairy named Chloracan and Nala, representatives of both order and chaos, and the demons Azizal, Corinzon and Merkin, who demand to return to hell. Two angels, Remiel and Yuma, descend from heaven as observers for God. Dream welcomes everyone in his palace as guests and throws a banquet to watch all decide who to give the key to hell to. Aside from the Knights entertainment provided by Kanan Abel, several guests approach Dream with bribes, among them Azizal, who reveals he has captured not a soul and is willing to exchange it for the key to hell. Now, as I mentioned earlier, one of the themes of this season is free will, and the abdication of hell by Lucifer, played very well by Gwendolyn Christie, is sort of the ultimate act of rebellion. She, like death or any of the other cosmic entities, don't really have free will unless they choose to abandon their role altogether. She's a great foil for Dream, in that sense, because he struggles to separate his duty from his identity. It is interesting thinking about all the different ways Neil Gaiman's version of Lucifer has been adapted throughout various shows and movies over the years. 

Like this is the same version of Lucifer that was in the Constantine movie with Keanu Reeves. Yes. And the one that had his own show on Fox or was it CW? I can't remember. Maybe it was both the Lucifer show. 

I think it even went to Netflix for a time. And I think even in like Good Omens, it's the same character. And thinking about how this is how it all ends for the character with Lucifer's wings being cut off by Dream. And then, you know, them going to a beach just to live out the rest of eternity is kind of fascinating. 

Well, Lucifer doesn't spend the rest of eternity on the beach. It was just something she wanted to do at that moment. Gotcha. I did think it was hilarious how inferior the show's versions of the Nordic gods were compared to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What? 

You heard me. This Thor was a fucking joke compared to Chris Hemsworth. And Chris Hemsworth would kick his ass. No, this Thor is way more Thor than Marvel's Thor could ever hope to be. Same with Loki. 

I don't know what that means, but you're wrong. He's more true to the mythical character that is Thor. His hammer was tiny compared to Chris Hemsworth's. Hey, man, it's not about the size of the hammer. It's how you use it. 

And he used it well. I did think Odin was cool, though. I thought Loki was cool throughout this whole series. Was awesome. Yeah, I really like the kind of Billy Idol David Bowie approach they took to Loki. 

As much as I love Tom Hiddleston, I think this version of Loki comes pretty close to his performance. Fuck yeah. When he set that chick on fire with his cigarette, I was like, damn. 

Yeah. Moving on to Episode Three, it was titled More Devils Than Vast Hell Can Hold. In The Dreaming, Nala runs into Dream and they recount their first meeting. In a flashback to England in 1593, Dream inspires William Shakespeare to write A Midsummer Night's Dream and makes him play it for King Oberon, Queen Titania and their court in an attempt to heal a rift between the Dreaming and Fairy by making mankind forever remember the Fae through the play. Oberon and Titania like the play and make a bends with Dream. In the present, Dream discusses his dilemma with Hell's key to Nala. 

And the next morning, everyone assembles to hear his decision. Dream ultimately decides to return the Lordship of Hell to God, provoking Azizal into attacking him. However, being in the Dreaming, Dream easily overpowers Azizal and saves Nala. Before his departure, Clericun reveals that Nala is a gift to Dream from Titania, and Dream reluctantly accepts after Nala herself agrees to stay. Dream finds out that Loki, trying to escape imprisonment by Odin, swapped appearances with Susano against Susano's will. Dream, in exchange for a promise of future service, agrees to keep Loki's escape a secret. After meeting with Lucifer on a beach, Dream and she peacefully part ways and later, Dream apologizes to Dada. 

She does not accept his apology, however, and leaves for the waking world instead. So this episode had the adaptation of the Midsummer Night's Dream issue in the comic book, which ended up winning a World Fantasy Award. So I was really expecting a lot from this episode. And I guess the whole play within a play aspect was surprising to me because I thought it would go deeper into that story of Shakespeare. But you know, that whole thing really isn't relevant to the story of Dream. 

So I guess that's why it was left out. Well, the play within a story played out just like it did in the comics. It was actually a pretty faithful adaptation. Like where you had Robin Goodfellow take on the role of Puck within the play. Yes, I got to say that King Joffrey, I don't know the actor's name. Jack Gleason, he fucking nailed it in the role of Puck. Oh, dude. Yeah. The combo of Freddy Fox as Loki and Jack Gleason as Puck was so perfect. 

So perfect. Yeah, they could get a whole series on their own. It wouldn't be a really fucked up series. But yeah, they're a good duo. 

Absolutely. Episode four was titled Brief Lives. Delirium unexpectedly pays a visit to Dream, seeking his help in finding their absent brother, Destruction. Reluctant at first, Dream agrees, secretly hoping to encounter Nada on Earth instead of his brother. Destruction is seen engaging in painting and poetry accompanied by Barnabas, a talking dog on a remote island. Dream and Delirium enlist Wanda, a chauffeur of Dream's old friend, to help them track down Destruction's contacts. The first of them, however, dies just before they find him. And Dream grows suspicious that an unknown force is preventing them from finding Destruction. Next, they seek Ishtar, an old Babylonian deity and Destruction's former lover who, depowered without worship, works as a club dancer. After a heated discussion with Dream, Ishtar performs a mesmerizing dance for her audience, causing an explosion that kills everyone in the club, including Ishtar and Wanda. 

Desire appears revealing to the naive Delirium that Dream has been lying to her, causing Delirium to leave her siblings in anger. Dude, Madonna was in this episode. Yeah, from the Punisher. I noticed that. That's crazy. I was like, hey, what are you doing up on the stage? 

Get down there and go solve a crime or something. She was such a good detective in the Punisher series. It's just, I guess, surprising to see sometimes actors and other roles. She was also a fantastic Ishtar, though. 

I can believe that. Was the whole like Wanda trans issue in this episode also in the comic book? It was, but not in this volume. 

Wanda is actually a character that was borrowed from Volume 5, which was not adapted. It's titled A Game of You. I don't know if you remember Barbie from season one, where she has these dreams that she's like in this fantasy world. 

She was one of Rose's and Light's roommates in Florida when she was searching for Jed. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. OK, I do remember. 

Yes. So in A Game of You, Barbie is actually the main character. Dream hardly ever shows up in that volume. And Wanda is Barbie's friend. I think she's a really popular character from that volume. 

So they adapted her into this episode. Oh, interesting. OK, that's like surprisingly progressive for a series that came out in the 80s. I think I was just surprised by that wondering if it was something they just threw in to address current trans issues or if it had always been there. It was played a little differently here. I wouldn't say that in the comic in the 80s, they were addressing trans issues. It was just a trans character that happened to be in the story. 

Gotcha. OK. Moving on to episode five, the song of Orpheus. After recalling when destruction tried to tell him why he's abandoning his duty, Dream attends Wanda's funeral, where death persuades him to make amends with delirium. Dream enters delirium's realm and eventually reconnects with her, resuming their quest to locate destruction. 

They seek advice from destiny. He tells Dream that only his son, an oracle of endless blood, can help them. In a flashback to Greece, 1700 BC, the endless attend the wedding of Orpheus, son of Dream and Calliope. That night, however, Orpheus's wife, Eurydice, dies from a snake bite. Orpheus begs Dream to help him retrieve Eurydice from the underworld, but he refuses. With destruction's help, Orpheus then approaches death and she reluctantly makes him immortal, allowing him to travel to the underworld. 

Once there, Orpheus persuades Hades and Persephone via song to revive Eurydice. But then he fails the test of faith presented to him, leaving Eurydice to stay dead. Against the caution of Calliope, the desperate Orpheus lets himself be torn apart by the Menads, murderous worshipers of Dionysus. Left to live as a decapitated head, Orpheus begs Dream to kill him to no avail. In the present, a distraught Dream and delirium depart to see Orpheus. 

This is my favorite episode of this season. I thought it was a tremendous visual telling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Oh, yeah, that's a classic Greek myth. 

And I agree, it was very cool to see played out in live action. They never addressed the fact that Desire was behind Eurydice's death, though. Right. 

I'm glad you mentioned that. I thought they would as well, maybe during the wake or maybe even during this episode. But yes, in the comics and I think in the myth as well, Desire influences a Sader to chase Eurydice, just lust filled. And in that chase is when she is bitten by the snake. They didn't have the Sader in this. 

They just went with the snake. But I almost feel like that's doing a disservice to the story because Desire really is the ultimate villain, I feel, of the story. So I'm not sure why they decided to downplay that. Yeah, they kind of gave Desire a pass by the end. But yeah, they're definitely the main villain. It was cool to see the same actress playing Calliope as the first season. 

Oh, yeah, for the bonus episode that was in season one. Yeah, she's a great Calliope. The entire cast is so damn good. Minus Rose, but we didn't get much of her this season. And even what we did get, she was much better. 

Yeah, I would agree. Moving on to episode six, which was titled Family Blood in a flashback to 1794. Dream approaches Lady Johanna Constantine with a task to retrieve Orpheus's head from France during the Revolution and return it to a temple in Greece, where it would be safeguarded by priests hunted down by a Maximilian Robespierre. And as men Constantine succeeds with the help of Orpheus himself, whose song incites the end to Robespierre's tyranny. After returning Orpheus's head to his temple, Constantine asks Dream for a chance to visit Orpheus and the present dream in Delirium past her grave near Orpheus's temple. Their dream reunites with Orpheus and he discloses the location of destruction. Dream and Delirium approach destruction who reluctantly welcomes them. The three discussed destruction's departure from his duties and his wards against being found to be the cause of the deaths of Wanda, Ishtar and others. He alludes that mortals are capable of great destruction on their own without the need of him being complicit. Despite Delirium's plea, destruction bids them farewell and parts advice to Dream and gives Barnabas to Delirium to keep her company. With that, he disappears into the sky. Dream and Orpheus reconcile and upon Orpheus's request, Dream ends his son's life. 

Elsewhere, the kindly ones condemn Dream for spilling family blood. I really like the way that the story incorporates actual history, in this case, the French Revolution and how you had Robespierre who during the French Revolution tried to bring out an age of reason to do away with religion, basically, and just acknowledge like a supreme being that everyone in the country would accept. And that kind of plays out in his statement to Constantine when he's like, there are no gods. 

There's just France and the state. And she had that badass line where she's holding the head and she's like, there's so much more than that when the head starts sinking, you know, given her knowledge of all of the endless and all the supernatural and mysticism that surrounds the world within the story. I thought that was a really cool moment. 

Yeah. And some of the volumes that were not adapted, like they also go into the history of ancient Greece and history of ancient Greece and Baghdad and stuff like that. Again, the story of Sandman is not bound by any location or time, which not only makes it great, but again, very unique amongst literature. 

Moving on to Episode Seven, which was titled Time and Night. Dream asks Destiny's help to protect him, but Destiny reveals there is nothing he can do. Dream visits the kindly ones to give them an explanation, but they too are bound by law and cannot help him. Dream then visits Loki and Puck, now a couple, who are pretending to be the Pope and Cardinal. 

Dream calls in his favor for saving Loki, though Puck later suggests privately to Loki to do what Dream wants, but not when Dream wants it to be done, thereby causing more chaos. After returning to the Dreaming, Dream reveals that Lightahall's son, Daniel, will be his successor. Dream visits his father, Time, but Time reveals he is powerless to help Dream, though Dream tells him he loves him. He next visits his mother, Knight, who asks Dream to live with her, but he rejects her offer. Back in the Dreaming, Clarke returns to bring back Nala at Titania's orders, since she has heard that Dream could die and doesn't want Nala hurt. Though Nala resists, Dream persuades her to go back to fairy for safety before leaving. He gives her a necklace as a parting gift, which will summon him any time she calls out to him, at which time he will offer her a boon. Meanwhile, Lightah and Rose visit Unity's home in London, where a disguised Puck works as the chauffeur. That night when Rose and Lightah go to dinner, Puck puts everyone at their home to sleep before kidnapping Daniel and taking him to Loki. Now, I thought it was really cool that they showed Time and Knight in this episode because we don't actually see Time, if I remember, in the comic series. He's in one of the over-itchers, but not this volume. So this whole journey he takes to meet his parents is original to the story. 

Well, we get to see Knight in the original 10 volumes, but not Time. So, yeah, that was original and that was great, I thought. It was fantastic. 

And it spoke a lot to Dream's arc as well in terms of maybe how he came to be the way he was and how he was really growing emotionally as this abstract deity. The actor who played his father, Rufus Sule, just did a fantastic job with that performance. Honestly, I think this whole scene is just a master class in acting. Now, he's the most recognizable actor, I think, out of the entire series. It was really an interesting piece of casting to have like the head honcho, all-powerful father of the endless being actor of note. 

Episode eight was titled Fuel for the Fire. Nala and Clericon return to the fairy realm where Queen Titania jealously takes notice of Nala's necklace. While contemplating his fate in his throne room, Dream inadvertently ends up in the realm of a sister despair where he sees through one of her mirrors the light it also despairs over her missing baby, Daniel. And Dream learns that Loki and Puck have framed him for Daniel's disappearance while posing as police detectives. Despite Lucian discovering that the kindly ones cannot harm Dream in his own realm, Dream enters the waking world to enlist the present day, Johanna Constantine, to find Daniel. When the two of them visit Lighta, Dream encounters Alex Burgess, the son of the man who imprisoned him for over 100 years and whom Dream cursed with a lifelong sleep. After seeing Dream's antagonism toward Lighta and Alex, Johanna begins to suspect Dream of wanting to die and suggests he return to the dreaming. 

Meanwhile, Puck flees from Loki with the baby Daniel, having grown fond of the child and fearing Loki's plans for him. Dream shares a final drink with Hobgadling. And after speaking of regrets, Dream awakens Alex from his sleep. Posing his dream, Loki tricks Puck into returning to him with Daniel, whom Loki then sets on fire in a fireplace before showing photos to Lighta of her burned dead son. 

Dream recreates the Corinthian, a nightmare who once tried to kill him to aid Johanna. What did you think of the actress who played Johanna Constantine's performance this season compared to last? Jenna Coleman? I thought she crushed it. 

100 percent. Johanna has a really interesting arc this season. It's a romantic one. You know, she starts out traumatized by the deaths of those she loved as we saw happen in season one. And she's even like subconsciously killing lovers in her dreams as an expression for how averse she is to the notion of love. But the Corinthian proves to be too charming, which is not necessarily in contrast to his depiction in season one. But it is still kind of weird and terrifying how she seems to fall for him, I think. Yeah, considering that Johanna is a gender bent version of John Constantine in this show, I'm assuming that this arc is largely original to her character. No, she shouldn't have even been in the season. But Jenna Coleman, again, just crushed the role in the first one. So I'm sure they figured they had to bring her back. And I'm glad they did. 

Got you. Another thing they rewrote for this season was having dream end up in the realm of despair, which was a brief little scene. But I thought worked really well. Oh, yeah, that was a brilliant moment. It was terrifying when Loki put the baby on the fire. I was like, damn, is that how it happened in the books? Yeah, that's another fucked up moment. Yeah, it definitely was. Makes me sad because, like, you know, the kids essence didn't die, but his mortal form did die. 

Yeah, really sad. Moving on to episode nine, the kindly ones. When Johanna protests working with the Corinthian, Dream gives her a necklace capable of uncreating him if she wishes. When Daniel's nanny suspects Loki is lying about the baby, he kills her in a secluded alley. Well, Delirium meets with Destiny seeking aid to find the lost Bernard and realizing there are currently multiple destinies. Dream meets with Fiddler's Green and discusses how Dream has changed. Loki, meanwhile, reveals to Puck how he changed Daniel from a mere mortal into a deity by burning away his human body, allowing him to take on Dream's powers should the need arise. While also framing Dream so that Lighta will invoke the kindly ones vengeance. 

Matt Heddy, an agent of the kindly ones, helps Lighta to do so. While the Corinthian and Johanna track down Loki to his hotel, where Puck gives them the key to their room before returning to Ferry. The two rescue Daniel, while Odin and Thor, who followed Johanna, capture Loki. After Dream gives Delirium Goldie to help find Bernard, the kindly ones convince Lighta to become their avatar of fury and vengeance in response to Dream killing Orpheus and, as she believes, her son. 

When Nala learns that Queen Titania stole her necklace, she's unable to retrieve it before Titania summons Dream, removing him from his realm just as Lighta and the kindly ones appear there and kill Fiddler's Green. I wonder what the point of showing multiple destinies was. It kind of gave the illusion that another outcome was possible, even though there was no alternate outcome. I think it was to give the viewers hope as well as Dream hope. And I think there were other outcomes possible if Loki had not done what he did. 

Interesting. It was actually a brilliant plan on Loki's behalf. He really couldn't have screwed Dream over better. There's a few things that I think the show does better than the comic. But one of the things they really kind of messed up on was ruining the surprise that Daniel was going to be the new Dream, because we didn't know that was going to happen in the comic until it actually happened. Really? 

Yeah. So what was Dream's preoccupation with the child in the books then? Well, in the books, it's not revealed until later what favor he asked of Loki. So at the time you didn't know that he asked Loki to kidnap Daniel. You just assumed that Loki kidnapped Daniel just to do it. 

Gotcha. That actually would have been a cool reveal, I think. Yeah, and I don't really understand why they spoiled it, other than maybe it would have left audiences questioning what was going on and why we were watching this kind of tangential thing going on with Daniel. I do think it's really cool. 

And I thought this in the comics as well that Fury Lighthaul, who is Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor's daughter in the comics, works with the Furies to take out Sandman. That was cool. That was a nice little clawback, although she wasn't a great character. I don't know if I bought her wrath as much as I probably should have. There was a lot left out regarding her story for this adaptation, which I kind of wish was still there, but it made it more believable in the comic when she became the avatar of the kindly ones. 

Again, still well done here, just not as well done as the books. So Lightha is the daughter of the Golden Age, Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor. And I'm guessing that they named her after Diana's mother, Hippolyta, right? Yes, that's correct. The actress would have made a pretty decent Wonder Woman, I think. 

Yeah, I agree. Moving on to Episode 10, Long Live the King. As Lightha continues to kill denizens of the dreaming, Nala uses her boon to send Dream back to his realm, where he reveals to Lightha that Daniel is still alive and is able to temporarily free her from the kindly ones influence. When Dream attempts to kill Lightha in the waking world, Matt Heddy convinces him not to. Deciding to confront the kindly ones at the edge of the dreaming, Dream prepares Daniel to take his place and his staff for his potential end, sending them away, though Matthew the Raven travels with him. When the kindly ones inform him that Lightha is back in the dreaming, destroying his palace where his staff, including Lucien, Kane, the Corinthian and Daniel are sheltering, Dream sends Matthew to bring him his sister, Death, who is waiting at the palace as well. When Nala confronts Queen Titania regarding her returning to the dreaming, Titania gives Nala her sword, which Nala uses to kill Light as Avatar in the dreaming, just as Dream admits after a conversation with his sister that he's ready to die to protect his loved ones and Death takes him. It's then that Delirium finds that Bernard was with Matt Heddy, who herself finds Lighta awake and reveals that Dream is dead. As the Corinthian and the others in the palace wonder what has happened, Daniel reveals himself, aged and transformed as the new Dream of the Endless. Now, I remember when I was reading the comics, I expected this epic battle between the kindly ones and Sandman. 

And it was shocking to me that his life ended with this anti-climactic whimper, but his death is much more human, I guess you could say, which is fitting for the character who, as you mentioned, is like a god who over time changes to become more human. I was under the impression that Lighta understood what was going on, that her son was still alive and had retreated from attacking the dreaming. I guess I don't understand why she went back to doing it just suddenly. Yeah, that whole part was pretty rushed, but essentially the kindly ones just influenced her again to go back and finish the job. 

Interesting. Now, Dream died just as Nala decapitated Lighta. If he had waited like 10 more seconds, could he have like delayed his death? You think? Yes. That's too bad. It's part of the tragedy. Really, Titania is to blame for all of this. Yes, Titania. She is the true villain of the story. There you go. 

Or at least one of many. We've gone to episode 11, a tale of graceful ends as Lucian, Nala, Matthew and the Corinthian prepare for dreams funeral. Kane demands Daniel resurrect Abel, whom Lighta killed. Daniel as Dream obliges as guests arrive for the wake, including Johanna Constantine, Hobgadling, Alex Burgess, Nada, as well as the court of fairy and deities from various pantheons, questions abound regarding Daniel, who takes it upon himself to recreate other various dream entities that Lighta killed, including Murph Pumpkinhead and Fiddler's Green, though the latter requests to remain dead, along with the prior dream, as their deaths had meaning. The rest of the endless arrive save for destruction, who shows up later in secret to speak with Daniel, offering advice and insights. Destiny, desire, despair, delirium, death and Lucian take turns speaking at Dream's wake before his body is sent to drift on a cosmic river of stars. While Hobbes speaks with death and Johanna and Corinthian express feelings for one another, Lighta reunites with her son Daniel, now Dream, who chooses not to punish her for her role in his predecessor's death. Daniel then makes Lucian the Dreaming's Prime Minister before meeting with Hobb and recalling Dream sharing a drink with William Shakespeare after his completion of The Tempest. Finally, Daniel meets his new family, the Endless, who welcome him as the new Dream. 

In a post-credits scene, the kindly ones equate storytelling to yarn work and read a poetic fortune about life and rebirth from a fortune cookie. This episode dragged. It felt really like an epilogue that didn't need to be. 

And so I think just felt too long to me. I could see that. I kind of felt the same way when reading The Wake, which is its own volume of comics when I read the series. But I also have to admit that there's something very bittersweet and unique about it and that we don't really get something like this in other stories, something where we really get to celebrate not only the main character of the story we just read, but Shed's new light on how various characters truly saw Dream. I will totally admit that I got choked up when I saw Dream's boat kind of turning into a shooting star because it reminded me exactly of when I read the comic. 

How bittersweet everything was in celebrating what I had read and being given that time to grieve and mourn in a way. Seeing Daniel from the outset be very much everything that Dream could not be for most of his existence, like forgiving, humble, nurturing was also important, I think, for audiences to see. You know, he's innocent and unsure of himself. But Jacob Anderson gives a fantastic performance as a grown Daniel of someone trying to mimic Tom Sturridge's dream, but still making it his own. Are you familiar with William Shakespeare's The Tempest at all? No, I never read it, but it sounds like it's the story of a God choosing to be mortal. 

Of a sorcerer choosing to be mortal, yes, who is in charge of his own realm, which is an island and essentially choosing to forgive people, all of his enemies. It was William Shakespeare's last play that he wrote. And actually, in the comics, the last issue of the main Sandman story revolves all around William Shakespeare. Like it's not the kindly ones who are the final panel. 

It's Shakespeare. So I'm really glad that they found a way to work that into this episode as well, because I didn't think they were going to. Moving on to the bonus episode, episode 12, Death, The High Cost of Living, a young disillusioned journalist named Sexton Fernival, where it's a suicide note to his ex-girlfriend Sylvie before being interrupted by his roommates and her girlfriend, leaving their apartment so they could be alone. Sexton meets death at a trash heap in the city, and death suggests he come to her apartment so she can mend his shirt, which tore when he fell in the trash. Upon learning who she is and that today is her one day out of every 100 years that she gets to spend as a mortal human, Sexton attempts to leave, but is captured and threatened by Mad Heddy, who asks death to find her soul. Reluctantly, Sexton agrees to follow death as she attempts to experience as much as she can in one day. After arriving at a dance club where he used to go with Sylvie, Sexton meets his roommate there along with her girlfriend, and he's introduced to Jackie, who appears fond of him, though he's preoccupied with the possibility of running into Sylvie while getting a drink at the bar, the House DJ and Club promoter Theo notices death's onk necklace and manages to lure both her and Sexton into a trap upstairs, where death realizes Theo summoned death using an occult ritual in an effort to resurrect his recently deceased girlfriend, Natalie. 

Theo is injured while threatening the two, and Sexton calls an ambulance for him. After the sun rises, death buys a pendant, which she gives to Sexton before she expresses how great it is to be alive before suffering a fatal heart attack at the end of her 24 hours. Mad Heddy appears and Sexton learns the pendant contains a photo of Mad Heddy's daughter from long ago, her soul. 

Back at his apartment, Sexton deletes his suicide note to Sylvie before Jackie arrives and he offers her some tea. Now, I'm not entirely sure that this episode needed to be adapted. I'm not actually familiar with the comic that this adapts. I've never read it, but it truly did feel supplemental. Like it wasn't really necessary. Not in the same way that the first season's episodes, I thought, were a little bit more necessary. 

Maybe not the cat one, but definitely Calliope. Yeah, this one felt more interesting to me than the cat story from the first season. It was really just kind of like a celebration of life, I guess, the whole episode. 

And I thought the performances were really solid. Oh, yeah. Yeah, definitely. So overall, I enjoyed it. Like I didn't regret watching it like I did the cat one. Like I remember watching the cow one and just being like, I want to be done with the show already. I actually kind of liked the cow one, but I also just liked that story in the comics. My impression that time was like, you don't have to adapt everything. I think they took that message to heart with this second season. Thankfully, perhaps. 

Yeah. Honestly, I would not mind more bonus episodes. Like if you give me a season three, just of just nothing but anthological shorts or maybe some of the overture tales, stuff like that. It's probably not going to happen, but I wish that it would because now that Dead Boy Detectives we know is for sure not moving forward. 

It feels just like, well, this is it now. And that makes me sad because I love Sandman. Yeah, I forgot that Dead Boy Detectives was in the same universe. And I kind of missed seeing those guys in this season because I was hoping we would get a chance to. Yeah, actually, I thought we were going to see them in episode two, because one thing that's not addressed in the season is that when Lucifer empties hell, basically all of the evil people who were there show up in the real world as like zombie ghosts. 

And that's actually how Charles dies is some zombie ghost bullies kill him. Oh, OK. Interesting. Fascinating. 

So when the angels take back control of hell, all of them get sent back there and it kind of saves the world in a way. Yeah, that was kind of a loose thread. Yeah, probably not needed for this season. But what would have been a great season to have Dead Boy Detectives? Yeah, it would have been. 

Yeah, that would have been great. But back to this show and this season, again, I'm sad that it's over. It was a focused adaptation that masterfully threads themes of love, growth and mortality into a bittersweet and profoundly existential tapestry. Again, it's a master work adaptation, in my opinion. And I'm giving it five out of five stars, a fresh rating on Ron Tomatoes. Damn, you didn't even give the first season five out of five stars. No, because the first season was really just an introduction to this world. But I think this season, again, did a really good job of weaving together all the different threads to really capture the essence of the themes and the story of the comic, which is a story that I feel should be adapted for other mediums, because the more people that get to experience it, the better. 

It's a worthwhile story, for sure. I'll agree with your rating. I think I would probably have gone 4.5, but I can absolutely see the case made for five, considering how transcendental and just well written the story is, not only in the comic books, but how it's adapted here. I don't think I can recommend it anymore than I already do. So five stars, then. 

Nice. I'm really glad you liked it. I really hoped you would. I hope everyone likes it as much as I do. 

I know a lot of critics don't because I don't know why they're just petty as fuck, probably because this season doesn't stand as well on its own without seeing season one, maybe either that or they're just like comic purists or they never read the comic. I don't know. They're weird. I'm right. 

They're wrong. This show is awesome. And hopefully if you made it this far, you've already seen it and already know that. But that does it for this review. A.J .9K help close us out. 

Thanks for listening to Dynamic Jewel. Visit the show's website at dynamicjewel.com and follow us on Instagram at Dynamic Jewel podcast. You can support the show on Patreon at patreon.com slash dynamic jewel and joining a tier that works for you or by rating and reviewing Dynamic Jewel on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Podchaser or on our website. Don't forget to listen to the other shows in the Dynamite podcast network, including Max Destruction, Senjo World and Console Combat. 

In our next episode, we're getting back to the duels, guys. We're going to find out who would win in a fight between the Green Lantern love interest character, Star Sapphire and Ironheart, who recently had her own Disney Plus television series. Yeah, this is sort of a late time coming tie into that. But that does it for this episode. We want to give a big thanks to our executive producers, John Starosky, Zachary Hepburn, Justin Belcom, Mickey Muthinkeyan, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yatyn, Austin Wieselowski, A.J. Dunkerley, Nick Obanto, Scott Camacho, Gil Camacho, Adam Spees, Dean Maleski, Devin Davis, Joseph Kirsting, Josh Liner, Mike Williams, Oscar Galvez and Paul Graves for helping make this podcast possible. And we'll talk to you guys next week up up and away. True believers. 

I reveal to you that I am the youngest of the endless. I have gone by many names, but my siblings know me as dongle, dookie, doink, derp, a dumpy, dibble, the third. You would do well not to forget it.