The Sandman Season 2 Review

Episode Transcript
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This is a DynaMic Network Podcast. Hi, welcome tothe DynaMic Duel Podcast, a weekly show where we

(00:28):
review superhero films and debate thesuperiority between Marvel and DC by comparing
their characters in stat-based battlesimulations. I'm Johnny DC. And I'm his twin
brother, Marvelous Joe. And in this episode, weare reviewing Netflix's Season 2 of The Sandman
series. It's a fantastic series based off of one ofthe best graphic novels ever made, definitely one

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of my favorites, so I can't wait to talk aboutSeason 2. Yeah, not just one of your favorites. I'm
going to say probably the best adapted graphicnovel to television ever put out there. And
there's not many direct adaptations of graphicnovels out there, but this definitely sets a high
bar for future ones. We're going to talk about theshow later on in this episode. Before that, we're

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going to break down the comic book movie news fromthe past week, of which we just got a rinky dink look
at the new Spider suit for Spider-Man Brand NewDay. Yeah, rinky dink is the operative term right
there, for sure. As always, we list our segmenttimes in our episode description, so feel free to
check out the show notes if you want to skip ahead toa particular topic. Our artificially

(01:37):
intelligent dual simulator, AJ9K, has a quickmessage 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. TheDynamic 2.0 tier gives you access to our Discord
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Pitch the twins your ideas via email atdynamicdualpodcast at gmail.com. Check it out at

(02:20):
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 onthe Dynamite Podcast Network this week,
including the console combat podcast where hostsJohn and Dean simulate battles between popular
video game characters. In yesterday's episode,they reviewed Season 1 of Twisted Metal. Over on

(02:42):
the Max Destruction podcast, hosts Scotty andGilly pit your favorite action heroes from film
and television against each other. They'retaking a brief hiatus during the month of August,
so make sure to get caught up on all of their latestepisodes. On the Sendro World podcast hosts
Zachary Hepburn speculates on fights between fanfavorite anime and manga characters. In his next
episode, Zach is going to reveal who'd win betweenAkuto Sai from Demon King Daimo versus Amos

(03:07):
Voldigoed from Misfit of Demon Academy. Visitdynamicpodcasts.com or click the link in our show
notes to listen to all of the shows in the DynamitePodcast Network. But with that out of the way,
quick to the no prize! A no prize is an award thatMarvel used to give out to fans. Our version, the
Dynamic Dual No Prize, is a digital award we post onInstagram for the person that we feel gave the best

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answer to our question of the week. Last week weasked you guys, if you could reimagine a Marvel or
DC superhero in an ancient culture, whatsuperhero 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

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mentions before revealing the no prize winner.Our first honorable mention goes to... By Dear
Bangura. Who said? The character I would choose tochange arrows would be Punisher. I would put him in
pre-colonial West Africa. He would most likelyhave a story where his family was killed by the
French or another superpower at the time. And hewould be there to free slaves to avenge those that

(04:19):
were taking and to make sure the freedom had spreadout throughout the continent. He would be a power
for a lot of other characters, he would be thestrength of Africa and he would make sure that his
story changes. And right out of the gate with apretty hardcore answer, By Dear suggested a West
African Punisher set during the early days of theslave trade. And that would be crazy to watch. I

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could imagine a West African soldier donning theemblem of the skull and they don't have guns at the
time, right? So he'd probably use a sword or a spearand he's just avenging the murder of his family.
Now the Punisher in the comic book isn't reallyaltruistic and fight for a larger goal of freeing
slaves or anything like that. He just killsbecause he hates criminals. And this version of

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the Punisher I don't think would be fightingnecessarily 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 nexthonorable mention goes to Scott Camacho who said,
Ancient cultures. Hmm, let's see. My characterswould be the Justice League and I want to see them

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portrayed in ancient Egypt. Superman is raw,Wonder Woman as segment, the Flash as shoe and
Aquaman as sabok. The aesthetic of it would lookamazing. I love that idea. I think that's a really
cool idea. The Egyptian pantheon could very muchbe like a superhero team. So to translate those

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characters so well into their Justice Leaguecounterparts, like right when he said Egyptian, I
already knew like what deities he was going toconnect to the Justice League characters. I love
that choice. I think that would be a really coolaesthetic as well. And then you could say that
Superman was behind the pyramids or somethinglike the Egyptian pyramids were the remains of the
ships that were sent from Krypton or somethinglike that. It writes itself. Great answer Scotty,

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our next honorable mention goes to Lorenzo Valdezwho said, This is Lorenzo Valdez calling in once
again. My idea is basically going off of whatSmallville did with Native American culture with
the Kowachi Caves, but taking it a step further andsetting the story before America was colonized
and having a Native American version of Lana Langand Kal-El arrives and having the story go from

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there and explore Native American culture evenfurther. Kalana forever and always. Bye-bye.
Yeah, I'm not sure if the Kowachi tribe was real. Ithink Kansas was actually populated by like the
Osage. Yeah, them and the Wichita and the Pani andthe Kansa according to Google. Either way, I think
the Kryptonian ship landing in pre-colonialAmerica would make for an awesome story. I'm not

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sure how it would affect his upbringing and how hewould turn out as a character. It would be really
interesting to explore. Yeah, it'd be kind ofdangerous because I imagine he would be revered as
a God during that time. And how would he not let thatgo to his head? That's the tricky part. He'd have to
have astute parents and maybe he would. Maybe theywould teach him about humility. It could be

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awesome. Kind of like Superman Red Sun,reimagined him landing in Soviet Russia. Landing
in pre-colonial America can make for a damn goodstory too. Great answer, Lorenzo. We want to give a
quick shout out to Alex Albro and Cade Lehmann fortaking the time to visit our website and record an
answer. Yeah, Alex was not able to record ananswer, but he did write in suggesting an ancient

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Greek Steve Rogers who fights against themythical Hydra. I thought that was pretty cool.
And Cade Lehmann suggested an ice man who was bornin 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 inNordic culture. Magi is seeing a badass Viking

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Ghost Rider going around hacking dudes up withdual axes and other Viking style weapons. And
that's for his vehicle, a Viking ship. And beforeyou say it, when it comes to land, it's being
carried by the souls of the damned while he's onland. So I'm mad at seeing that charging at you. Oh,
shit. That's hardcore. That is so hardcore. Youknow, Ghost Rider has always been pretty metal,

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but I think this would just take that to the nextlevel with a Viking Ghost Rider who wields twin
battle axes. And I mentioned there will still bechains on those and everything like that. He'd
probably have a fiery skull underneath his Vikinghelmet. But what really sold me on this was
Travis's idea for his vehicle to be a Viking shipthat rides on the souls of the damned. And I don't

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know if that would look like it was sailing on fireor 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 bereal. Yeah, they've explored multiple Ghost
Riders throughout history in the comic books, butI don't remember there being a Viking one. So yeah,

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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 winningyour own No Price, stay tuned to later on in this
episode when we'll be asking another question ofthe week. But now that that's done, on to the news.
All right, this past week we got our first look atTom Holland's new Spider-Man suit that he's going

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to wear in Spider-Man brand new day, which is beingdirected by Daniel Destin Cretan and being filmed
right now. I believe they're currently filming inScotland, actually. And the way that Sony went
about revealing it wasn't the most exciting. Theykind of like showed this animatic of what the suit
could look like, but it was mostly in shadow and itwas only like a 9 second video. That wasn't really

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worth talking about. And then there was also thisother video of Tom Holland coming out from behind a
door and, you know, he's like pumped to startfilming and he's wearing the suit. I was largely
unimpressed by the suit. But since those videoshave come out, better high res versions of the suit
were taken during the production of the movie andthey give us a much clearer look of what the new suit

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is going to look like. And I will say it's not thesame suit that we saw at the end of Spider-Man No Way
Home, where that one was like kind of shiny. It hadmore of a cyan blue color. It was pretty basic. This
new suit is also pretty basic, but it kind of feels alot more similar to the suits that he's had in the
past. If anything, actually the suit that itreminds me most of is Andrew Garfield's from the

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amazing Spider-Man 2, although the blue on thissuit is not quite as dark as that one was. And that
was a great suit. That was a fantastic suit. Thatone had more like a navy color and this new
Spider-Man suit is more like a cobalt blue is whatI'll say. I gotta say it's more spandexy feeling
than I would have thought. Like I know he made hiscostume at the very end of the last movie, but this

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one definitely has that more homemade feel I wouldsay. And I don't know if it's just because of the
harnesses that he was wearing on set. Maybethey'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 onesthat were created by Tony Stark. Those seemed a lot

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more heavy duty. But that's why I compared thissuit to the amazing Spider-Man 2 suit because when
Spider-Man was swinging through the city in thatmovie, 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 largeas Andrew Garfield's was. The mask is very similar

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to his very first mask in Homecoming. But what'sinteresting with this new suit is that his web
shooters look a whole lot different than they didin previous films. They almost look like steel
drinking flasks attached to his wrists. They arevery prominent in this new suit. I don't know how I
feel about that because they seem like they wouldmake for easy targets for bad guys, right? To just

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take out his web shooters. But they're there andit'll be interesting to see how they look in
battle. I'm sad that we're going to lose a lot of thecool features that Spider-Man had throughout his
initial trilogy. Where he had the web gliders andthe Spidey signal, Spider Tracers, things like
that. Things that he kind of developed over time inthe comic books and incorporated into his suit.

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That I thought kind of added to his appeal assomewhat of a tech hero and that he has a lot of
homemade tech that he incorporates. I hope he hassomething going for him just beyond the web
shooters. Just because I don't know, I just reallylike the web gliders I always have on his suit. I do
think that in modern Spider-Man movies there doesneed to be at least two or three different

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iterations of the suits. I mean, look at the lastfilm, how many he had. They'll come up with some
excuse to make some kind of toy wearing some kind ofdifferent suit. So I'd be surprised if this was the
only one in the film. I think you're right. Yeah, Ithink you're absolutely right. Although, you
know, this is rumored to be more of a street levelstyle Spider-Man movie, so we'll see. That being

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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 riddledSpider-Man suit full of holes. Battle damaged
Spidey. That'll be the new action figure theysell. But there's not really too much else to
comment on the suits. I'm sure we'll have a wholelot more to say when they start releasing
marketing for the film, which won't be for a whilebecause they just started filming. So we probably

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won't see like a trailer or anything until the endof this year. Or maybe even after that because
really the Spider-Man movie doesn't come outuntil July 31st, almost a whole year from now in
2026. I'm not sure how this particular suit willrank among all of the Spider-Man suits throughout
all of his films. But on that topic, we have ourquestion of the week. What was the best live action

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Spider-Man suits? And just for funsies, what wasthe best Batman suits? And why? Yeah, we want an
answer for the best Spider-Man outfit and the bestBatman outfit. Just a tight DC in there. Jonathan
is going on vacation this next week, so we're goingto let this question of the week run for a couple of
weeks. Please record your answer atdynamicdool.com by clicking on the red

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microphone button in the bottom right hand cornerof the screen, which will prompt you to leave us a
voicemail. Your message could be up to 30 secondslong and don't forget to leave your name in case we
include you on the podcast. We'll pick ourfavorite answer and award that person a Dynamic
Duel No Prize that we'll post to Instagram. Be sureto answer before August 16th. But that does it for

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all of the news for this episode. Now let's go aheadand move on to the main event where we review
Netflix's The Sandman Season 2. The SandmanSeason 2 Alright, The Sandman Season 2 is the

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bittersweet conclusion of a dark fantasy epicadapted 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 actuallyrewatched all of the first season in lead-up to
Season 2, which is something I've actually neverdone before, but I knew I wanted to get the full

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Sandman experience leading up to the saga'sbittersweet end. In my review of Season 1, I said
that while it was a faithful and worthwhileadaptation, the books were better, only because
the story of Sandman has so many individualthreads and yarns to borrow an analogy from the
kindly ones that are seemingly separate until, asthe series progresses, you realize are part of a

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much broader and beautiful tapestry. Season 2 ismissing a lot of those threads because while
Season 1 adapted volumes 1 and 2, Season 2 onlyadapts 4 of the remaining 8 volumes of story. And
while you'd think missing half the story wouldresult in only half a tapestry, somehow the

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showrunner Alan Heindberg and director JamieChilds, 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 highlyrecommend it. Please don't listen any further
because this story, unlike a lot of projects wereview, has a definitive, somewhat

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unconventional end that you don't want spoiledfor yourself. No, definitely watch the series.
Don't listen to us just talk about the series. Gowatch Sandman, people. It's so good. There were so
many times when I was watching this show, becausemy wife wasn't able to watch it with me this time,
that I just hoped that someone would walk in on mewatching it and just be transfixed by everything

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going on. Because there's so much beauty in thisshow. It is by far the best made comic book
adaptation on television and maybe even the bestlooking adaptation on film, too. It's
incredible. And if you like dark fantasy, thestory is right up your alley as well. Just go watch
it. Go watch the Sandman. Go watch it! What are youstill doing here? No, yeah, it does not really get

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better than the Sandman on multiple levels, fromproduction to writing to acting, just
everything. It was so good. Now, as we mentioned inour review of the first season, Sandman for the
longest time was considered unadaptable becauseof how dense the source material is. I was pretty
nervous going into season one, but even more sogoing into season two, because I knew how much

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ground the writers were going to have to cover insuch a short time span, considering they
announced that season two was going to be the finalseason. And as I was watching the show, I was
legitimately amazed at how well they were able towork in nearly all of my favorite moments from the
comics in a way that felt much more organic than Iexpected it to. Like, Amidst Summer Night's

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Dream, for example, that was something of astandalone issue in the comic, but they worked it
into a flashback for the show. There were a lot ofsmart choices on display here that came across as
very well thought out and planned at length, and Iappreciated that as I was watching this season.
Yeah, it's kind of a master craft in story weavingon behalf of the screenwriters here. And, you

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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 tocondense. Well, again, there's a lot left out
because they only adapted four of the remainingeight, but they did a fantastic job adapting
those. It's like you said, a masterwork. I'massuming the remaining volumes focused on the new

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Sandman. No, the remaining volumes wereessentially anthological stories, though one of
them was Amidst Summer Night's Dream. So theystill were able to sneak some of those in their
different ways. Now, one of the great things aboutthe story of Sandman and what drew me to the comics
back when I read them in high school is that becauseit's essentially a story about stories, it's not

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necessarily bound to any particular setting ortime, genre, or even cast of characters. There are
seemingly entire volumes of the Sandman comicseries that are simply a collection of
anthological short stories. That is, until youget closer to the end of the entire series and you
begin to realize that it's all connected, thatreally every story was part of a much bigger

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picture. You're kind of just along for the ride formost of the series under the impression that this
is a story that could be endless. It's kind of thepromise made at the very start that dream stories
can and will go on forever. That is, until yourealize that this whole thing was really a setup
for how and why an endless being, a Godessentially, would come to accept death. And not

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in any kind of macabre way, but in a way that makesyou feel like you truly lived an entire life with a
character and understand his decisions. Yes, thestory 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 exactlysay season two concluded with the same level of

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existentialism as the books where you finish thelast page of the book and look up and you're like,
wait, I'm in a bookstore. I'm not in the dreaming. Iwill say that because this television adaptation
is so hyper focused on dream story, which is a storyabout life. It still manages to transcend and be
almost unbound by theme. It's not only a storyabout life, but about death and mortality and

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grief and responsibility, love andrelationships, personal growth, destiny and
free will. It's literally and literally abouteverything. Yeah, I think I mentioned in our
review of season one that the whole Sandman serieskind of seemed to be a grand experiment by the
author Neil Gaiman. Every time I say his name, I dowant to make sure I clarify that the dude is a

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fucking dickhole. But yeah, the Sandman serieswas, I think, his grand experiment regarding the
topics of life and death and love. Yeah, there's alot of aspects about it that feel experimental and
indie in that way. Very creative in a way that isunconventional, I think, for the medium. Now,
while I'm sincerely impressed with how well theywere able to wrap up dream story in a single season,

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I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish this show couldhave gone on for another four or five seasons. It
would have been better, but also pretty damnexpensive. Each episode of this season cost about
$15 million to make, making it one of the mostexpensive shows ever produced. But it shows even
more so this season compared to last, in myopinion. I agree. Like, I thought the

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cinematography and costuming were noticeablybetter 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 entirecourse of this season was actually the
underworld. The Greek underworld ruled by Hadesand Persephone. There were so many moments

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throughout the course of this show where I felttruly transported, and the whole adaptation of
the Orpheus and Eurydice story was such a perfecttranslation of the Greek myth that I think someone
even like Christopher Nolan, who's currentlyshooting the Odyssey, is going to have a run for his
money in how well these Greek tragedies appear onscreen. There's just something so transportive

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about the Sandman. Yeah, there's very few peoplewho could do mythology as well as Neil Gaiman. Even
with his other books, like American Gods and stufflike that, a lot of that spills over into his
Sandman universe. And yeah, it's captivating. Wesee multiple pantheons here. We see a lot of
different characters. There's so manycharacters in the Sandman saga, but let's dive

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into a few in our character breakdown. Startingwith Dream, played by Tom Sturridge. Now, I think
Tom was born to play this role. I know you mentionedin our last review that his voice was too
theatrical, but like I also mentioned, I think thechoice to make his voice consistent while leaving
the subtle emotions to play out on his face workedreally well. I saw an interview where Tom said he

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asked Neil Gaiman how Dream should sound, and hisresponse 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 askof an actor, but I think Tom did a great job. That's
not what the voice in my head sounds like. The voicein my head sounds like this. I wonder what's in the

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pantry for dinner. What does your voice soundlike? My inner voice, just like my regular voice,
but I wouldn't describe my regular voice as any ofthose 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 asforced and maybe even a little bit corny at times

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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 fuckingembodiment of an abstract concept. He shouldn't
really humanize his performance. Maybe it shouldbe larger than life, and so I definitely had less
issue with it. I agree. I think maybe the guy wasborn to play Dream of the Endless. He had the look

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down better in this season than I think even lastseason, which I didn't think was possible. And
plus, it was really easy to see his growth in hisperformance 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 theentire season. You see that. Right, exactly.

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Dream's arc is ultimately about acceptingresponsibility. He was this godlike being who was
incredibly humbled in the first season in which wesaw him work to regain his power and restore his
realm. But in season two, now that he and his realmare back to full power, we see how the events of the
first season have changed him and caused him torecognize that he doesn't just have a

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responsibility to the dreaming, but for his pasthurtful 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, butalso love. Yeah, I think early on he largely

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confused desire with love, which may have been inpart due to the machinations of his sibling
desire. But through the course of the story, hereally 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 oflove, and he punished her for it because I feel like

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he was afraid that was true. In the same way that hisparents didn't love him because when you're that
powerful and that important relationships andlove get in the way of duty and responsibility. But
dream realizes the season that he does love and hashurt the ones he loves and in an effort to make
things right, willingly puts himself in theposition of undergoing the ultimate act of love,

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which is to sacrifice yourself to protect yourloved ones. I believe that's what love really is.
Attention and sacrifice. And dream found himselfincapable 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 beingdestroyed. Dream chooses death not only out of

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love, but because dream is bound by his identity byfunction rules and ritual in a way that he sees
others of equal station are not Lucifer gives up onher domain and so does destruction. But dream
cannot do that. He's seen what happens when hisrealm is abandoned and he refuses to have that

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happen again, taking steps to ensure the dreamingwill survive and be cared for after he's gone. And
yet, he also refuses to bear the burden of killinganother 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

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he refuses to change back to the kind of being heonce was. And now has the courage to let go of
selfishness and pride, which is not easy andsomething I think we'll all have to face one day on
our own deathbeds. It's such a profound arc, likewe talk about the themes in these superhero movies
and shows a lot in our reviews, but none of themquite come as close to the profundity of what dream

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goes through. His arc literally is the end all beall arc, I feel like. And it shows what really
matters. That being said, I think I still have thesame criticisms of the story that I did from season
one in that Neil Gaiman's rules that he has set upfor this Santa Man universe do still seem
arbitrary. Like, oh, the spilling of familialblood by the antelists will result in their

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destruction by the kindly ones. It's all veryconvenient to his story. You know, to me, like, why
couldn't dream just bring his son to live with himin the dreaming and like give him a new body and even
recreate a facsimile of Eurydice and just supporthim in that way and decline the boon of killing his

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only son. It seemed like there were other optionsfor an all powerful entity like dream. I can answer
a few of those questions. I mean, dream is not allpowerful. He has most control in his realm and to be
in his realm, one has to be sleeping. Orpheus isstill alive in the waking world and it wouldn't

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matter if dream created him a new body in thedreaming because once Orpheus woke up, he would
still be headless in his world. Well, he could puthim into an eternal sleep and then it wouldn't
matter. That's fair, but that's still him notfully taking responsibility for his actions. His
son asked to die specifically, not live with himeternally in the dreaming. I think his son asked to

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die because his love had died, but if you removelike his loneliness, I think maybe that desire to
die goes away partly. I don't know, man. Afterthousands of years as a decapitated head, I think I
would want to be done. I think after thousands ofyears living as a decapitated head that couldn't
move if you gave me the illusion of a body and anentire realm to explore, I suddenly feel less

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shitty. Well, that's not what Orpheus asked of hisfather, is it? It doesn't matter because that was
dream's workaround that he could have done. Ithink it would have satisfied his arc. I think it
would have satisfied his soul and I think it wouldhave satisfied his son as well. Again, it comes
down to responsibility. He didn't want to have toleave his son in the care of priests only to be
risked, stolen again like he was during the FrenchRevolution. Who cares if he's stolen? He's an

(31:10):
eternal sleep. He's of no use to anybody while he'sin an eternal sleep. You just don't want to accept
the fact that I thought of a better solution for adream situation than dream could think of
himself. Well, here's the problem with yoursolution. It fails to recognize the fact that
dream wanted to die. Well, I guess that was one ofthe things that Joanna Constantine posited to

(31:30):
him, right? I'm not entirely convinced that wastrue though. I mean, he seemed rather reluctant to
die by the very end. I mean, he's the one who hadMatthew 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 hislife. Those were some of his last words. Yeah, and

(31:51):
this was already after he had killed his son. WhichI'm saying he didn't have to do, okay? Anyway, we
could go on and on about this. Just know that I'mright and that this is likely a plot hole in the
whole damn story of the Sandman. It is not. Youdon'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

(32:13):
was played by Esme Creed Miles. I looked at herfilmography. I have not seen a single thing she's
been in, but Delirium was one of my favoritecharacters from the Sandman comic series. And her
personality is really all over the place, butalways in this haze. So I was curious to see how Esme
would approach the character. And while Iexpected something a little more absurdist, I

(32:37):
guess, I thought she'd perfectly captureDelirium's innocence and vulnerability while
still adding a level of quirkiness that helpscapture the dichotomy of both sanity and insanity
that Delirium should have, and I noticed in thisperformance that she did. One thing they never
addressed in the course of the show is why shebecame Delirium after being delighted for so

(32:58):
long. She brings it up, but can you answer thatquestion? No, because it's actually never been
answered in the comics. Oh. Lame, I know theyfilmed this scene where it happened, but they cut
it from the show. Okay. I think because it's betteroff 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

(33:23):
is left intentionally vague just for the sake ofit. I feel like if they're going to bring it up, they
may as well discuss it. It's a Chekhov's gunsituation that never goes off. Well, potentially
Delirium is the most powerful of the endless. Sothat line was not surprising to me. But again,
she's all about mystery. She's insane. So sheprobably doesn't even know what she knows or

(33:45):
doesn't know. Sure. We do know that Delirium is theyoungest of the endless who used to be delight, but
was something of a cosmic afterthought and wasn'tas 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 evenannoying. But behind her erratic speech and

(34:11):
fractured behavior is this deep, unwaveringdrive. She wants to find her brother destruction
and not out of duty or curiosity. But because shemisses him, she remembers what it meant to be whole
when she was delight and she wants her family to bewhole again. Dream realizes during the journey
that they share that Delirium is not the fool hethought she was. She's just different. And she

(34:36):
feels everything because she's kind ofeverything else. All the cosmic aspects and
emotions that her siblings aren't. And Dreamcomes to recognize, respect, and even love that
about her. He loves her because she's so sincere inher love in a way that none of the other endless are.
Moving on to destruction, he was played by BarrySloan. Now, like Esme Creed Miles, I was not

(35:00):
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 muchmore chipper and less edgier than his siblings.
There's still this quiet sadness beneath Sloan'sperformance, though, like a man who carries a

(35:23):
heavy truth but tries his hardest not to let itharden him. I would say he's the most human of the
endless, and I thought that was easy to see inBarry's performance. Yeah, it's interesting how
the members of the endless that you would assumewould be the darkest and edgiest, like death and
destruction, end up being some of the morehuman-like characters, whereas some of the more

(35:45):
whimsical aspects like Dream and Desire end upbeing the more edgy and closed off ones. Yeah, I
guess that is true. It kind of circumvents yourexpectations in a way. Yeah, I did like the
character of destruction. I guess I don't quiteunderstand how a member of the endless can kind of
give up their responsibilities withouteverything just turning to shit, but the
characterization of destruction as he wasportrayed here was like very grounded, very

(36:10):
level, very understanding. Maybe, yeah, but thatcame with the cost as well. Now, Destruction's arc
is about the burden of inevitability and the moralweight of choice. He's the only member of the
endless to walk away from his function, which haschanged specifically, though he didn't do it out
of neglect, but explicitly out of love. In aflashback scene to 1675, during a conversation

(36:34):
with Dream, he reveals his growing fear ofmankind'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'smost sacred mysteries with the knowledge of what
it inevitably has always led to, the destructionof the planet, of those he cares about, and

(36:59):
eventually the destruction of everything,including himself and his family. Rather than
bearing responsibility of guiding change in theuniverse to that fateful conclusion,
Destruction abdicates his cosmic role to letchange happen naturally. But I mean, he's not an
arbiter of unnatural change either, so I guess thefact that everything kind of continues going on

(37:22):
without him makes it seem like the function of allthe endless characters is largely unnecessary.
Well, no, I think the implication is that he is theguide of change, and when he abdicated his role,
that's essentially when we got theEnlightenment, the Age of Reason, the Industrial
Revolution, like it's kind of speeding up and kindof going out of control because he's not there to

(37:45):
foster it. Well, that's a dick move then. It's likeby leaving his responsibilities, he's just
turning his fears into a self-fulfillingprophecy that much faster. Well, it's going to
happen anyway, and he didn't want to beresponsible for that, which is why he just kind of
gave up on everything and found his own kind ofpeace in that way. He's not bound to this world and

(38:07):
its people. He could literally traverse theuniverse. Now, when Dream and Delirium find
destruction, he challenges the very idea of dutyand identity, reminding Dream that just because
someone has a role doesn't mean that it has to be aprison. Where Dream clings to form and function,
Destruction chooses freedom, even if it meansstepping away from the people and realms he loves.

(38:32):
Though Dream ultimately doesn't followDestruction'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, thedestruction of the ones you love. I mean, is it
going to happen anyway so that Kostas is going to beburied regardless? So I'm not sure that's

(38:54):
something that he actually has to pay. He feelsresponsibility for it is the whole point. He
doesn't want to see his loved ones like his familybe destroyed. He'd rather just ignore all of it and
ignore it's his bliss essentially withDestruction. So the cost is lessened. Right,
exactly. He's a good guy, but he's not exactly agood guy. I guess that's a good way to put it. I did

(39:16):
like his wisdom regarding the advice he gaveDaniel at the end when he said that there's no such
thing as a one sided coin. Oh yeah. And that each ofthe aspects of the endless somewhat define their
opposites in that death in her role has come todefine life and despair has come to define hope,

(39:38):
desire, hatred and dream, I guess, reality. Thatwas just an interesting aspect because I've
always wondered why those other aspects neverexisted as members of the endless. Why was it
limited to these D words? I was just about to say, Iwas because they don't start with D. But yeah, I

(39:58):
guess in a way those opposite entities arerepresented through the existing endless, which
I thought was pretty neat. Yeah, he also saiddestiny defined freedom. Well, he didn't see what
he defined or delirium defined, but if I had toguess, destruction defines meaning and delirium
defines reason. Sounds about right to me. Makes mewonder what I represent. Taco Bell? But what's the

(40:20):
opposite of Taco Bell? Not shitting your pants.Yeah, you define those two things. Nice. Now, I
wanted to touch on these three charactersspecifically because they're my favorite of the
endless. And I really think the endless are one ofthe most interesting aspects of the Sandman

(40:42):
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 ownarcs. You could say Dream really is the only one
except for maybe Lucifer and I guess JohannaConstantine and maybe Daniel. But they're really
not in the show long enough to touch too much on. Sowe'll do that in the story highlights. In a world

(41:11):
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(41:35):
and action heroes battle every Wednesday. AndSendra World, where anime champions clash every
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settle the debate and settle the score. Episodeone was titled Season of Mists. As Dream rebuilds

(42:03):
the dreaming, he is summoned by his brotherDestiny to attend a family gathering of the
Endless in Destiny's realm, where a dream meetshis other siblings, death, desire, despair and
delirium. As they mentioned their absent brotherwho broke off contact with them centuries ago,
Destiny explains that the fates have revealed acryptic prophecy to him that would start to unwind

(42:25):
with their meeting. Desire aggravates Dream,reminding him of Nada, a human queen whom he fell in
love with millennia ago, but condemned to hellafter she ended the relationship, claiming the
Endless and mortals cannot live together aftertheir affair led to the destruction of her
kingdom. After a discussion with death, Dreamresolves to save Nada from hell, making sure to

(42:49):
secure the dreaming and meeting with Lightahalland Hobgadling in case he would not return. As
Dream enters hell, Lucifer Morningstar calls onthe demonic legions intent to execute revenge on
Dream for the humiliation suffered during theirlast confrontation. Now, if the Kindly Ones never
visited Destiny, it's likely Dream never wouldhave died. That is correct. What did the Kindly

(43:14):
Ones have against Dream? They're the ones that putthis whole thing into motion. They knew what would
happen. Well, so does Destiny. Now, he only knowswhat happens. He doesn't see the future. But the
Kindly Ones do. And they knew what was going tohappen. So they set in motion what was already
going to happen. You have to think about it fifthdimensionally. But if they don't set it into
motion, then it likely wouldn't happen. So whywould they have set it into motion unless they

(43:36):
wanted Dream to die? Because they're all abouttelling stories and they wanted Dream to complete
his story. Fucking assholes. I agree. Not a fan ofthe Kindly Ones, though I thought they did a
fantastic job adapting them in this show. Episodetwo was titled The Ruler of Hell. Finding hell
eerily empty upon his arrival, Dream isconfronted by Lucifer, who, weary of her duty, has

(44:00):
abdicated the throne and released all souls anddemons to roam other worlds. After Lucifer
persuades Dream to ceremoniously cut off herwings, she gives Dream the key to hell, making him
its custodian in revenge. Returning to theDreaming, Dream soon finds a flooded by
delegations of supernatural beings seekingdominion over hell, among them being the gods

(44:24):
Susano, Odin, Thor and Loki, a pair from Fairynamed 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 heavenas observers for God. Dream welcomes everyone in

(44:46):
his palace as guests and throws a banquet to watchall decide who to give the key to hell to. Aside from
the Knights entertainment provided by KananAbel, several guests approach Dream with bribes,
among them Azizal, who reveals he has captured nota soul and is willing to exchange it for the key to
hell. Now, as I mentioned earlier, one of thethemes of this season is free will, and the

(45:11):
abdication of hell by Lucifer, played very well byGwendolyn Christie, is sort of the ultimate act of
rebellion. She, like death or any of the othercosmic entities, don't really have free will
unless they choose to abandon their rolealtogether. She's a great foil for Dream, in that
sense, because he struggles to separate his dutyfrom his identity. It is interesting thinking

(45:35):
about all the different ways Neil Gaiman'sversion of Lucifer has been adapted throughout
various shows and movies over the years. Like thisis the same version of Lucifer that was in the
Constantine movie with Keanu Reeves. Yes. And theone that had his own show on Fox or was it CW? I can't
remember. Maybe it was both the Lucifer show. Ithink it even went to Netflix for a time. And I think

(45:58):
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 offby Dream. And then, you know, them going to a beach
just to live out the rest of eternity is kind offascinating. Well, Lucifer doesn't spend the
rest of eternity on the beach. It was justsomething she wanted to do at that moment. Gotcha.

(46:19):
I did think it was hilarious how inferior theshow's versions of the Nordic gods were compared
to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What? You heardme. This Thor was a fucking joke compared to Chris
Hemsworth. And Chris Hemsworth would kick hisass. No, this Thor is way more Thor than Marvel's

(46:39):
Thor could ever hope to be. Same with Loki. I don'tknow what that means, but you're wrong. He's more
true to the mythical character that is Thor. Hishammer 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 coolthroughout this whole series. Was awesome. Yeah,

(47:03):
I really like the kind of Billy Idol David Bowieapproach they took to Loki. As much as I love Tom
Hiddleston, I think this version of Loki comespretty close to his performance. Fuck yeah. When
he set that chick on fire with his cigarette, I waslike, damn. Yeah. Moving on to Episode Three, it
was titled More Devils Than Vast Hell Can Hold. InThe Dreaming, Nala runs into Dream and they

(47:25):
recount their first meeting. In a flashback toEngland in 1593, Dream inspires William
Shakespeare to write A Midsummer Night's Dreamand makes him play it for King Oberon, Queen
Titania and their court in an attempt to heal a riftbetween the Dreaming and Fairy by making mankind
forever remember the Fae through the play. Oberonand Titania like the play and make a bends with

(47:49):
Dream. In the present, Dream discusses hisdilemma with Hell's key to Nala. And the next
morning, everyone assembles to hear hisdecision. Dream ultimately decides to return the
Lordship of Hell to God, provoking Azizal intoattacking him. However, being in the Dreaming,
Dream easily overpowers Azizal and saves Nala.Before his departure, Clericun reveals that Nala

(48:13):
is a gift to Dream from Titania, and Dreamreluctantly accepts after Nala herself agrees to
stay. Dream finds out that Loki, trying to escapeimprisonment by Odin, swapped appearances with
Susano against Susano's will. Dream, in exchangefor a promise of future service, agrees to keep
Loki's escape a secret. After meeting withLucifer on a beach, Dream and she peacefully part

(48:39):
ways and later, Dream apologizes to Dada. She doesnot accept his apology, however, and leaves for
the waking world instead. So this episode had theadaptation of the Midsummer Night's Dream issue
in the comic book, which ended up winning a WorldFantasy Award. So I was really expecting a lot from
this episode. And I guess the whole play within aplay aspect was surprising to me because I thought

(49:02):
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'swhy it was left out. Well, the play within a story
played out just like it did in the comics. It wasactually a pretty faithful adaptation. Like
where you had Robin Goodfellow take on the role ofPuck within the play. Yes, I got to say that King

(49:23):
Joffrey, I don't know the actor's name. JackGleason, he fucking nailed it in the role of Puck.
Oh, dude. Yeah. The combo of Freddy Fox as Loki andJack Gleason as Puck was so perfect. So perfect.
Yeah, they could get a whole series on their own. Itwouldn't be a really fucked up series. But yeah,
they're a good duo. Absolutely. Episode four wastitled Brief Lives. Delirium unexpectedly pays a

(49:48):
visit to Dream, seeking his help in finding theirabsent brother, Destruction. Reluctant at
first, Dream agrees, secretly hoping toencounter Nada on Earth instead of his brother.
Destruction is seen engaging in painting andpoetry accompanied by Barnabas, a talking dog on a
remote island. Dream and Delirium enlist Wanda, achauffeur of Dream's old friend, to help them

(50:12):
track down Destruction's contacts. The first ofthem, however, dies just before they find him. And
Dream grows suspicious that an unknown force ispreventing them from finding Destruction. Next,
they seek Ishtar, an old Babylonian deity andDestruction's former lover who, depowered
without worship, works as a club dancer. After aheated discussion with Dream, Ishtar performs a

(50:37):
mesmerizing dance for her audience, causing anexplosion that kills everyone in the club,
including Ishtar and Wanda. Desire appearsrevealing to the naive Delirium that Dream has
been lying to her, causing Delirium to leave hersiblings 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

(51:01):
on the stage? Get down there and go solve a crime orsomething. She was such a good detective in the
Punisher series. It's just, I guess, surprisingto see sometimes actors and other roles. She was
also a fantastic Ishtar, though. I can believethat. Was the whole like Wanda trans issue in this
episode also in the comic book? It was, but not inthis volume. Wanda is actually a character that

(51:24):
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 hasthese dreams that she's like in this fantasy
world. She was one of Rose's and Light's roommatesin Florida when she was searching for Jed. Oh,
yeah, yeah, yeah. OK, I do remember. Yes. So in AGame of You, Barbie is actually the main

(51:46):
character. Dream hardly ever shows up in thatvolume. And Wanda is Barbie's friend. I think
she's a really popular character from thatvolume. So they adapted her into this episode. Oh,
interesting. OK, that's like surprisinglyprogressive for a series that came out in the 80s. I
think I was just surprised by that wondering if itwas something they just threw in to address

(52:08):
current trans issues or if it had always beenthere. It was played a little differently here. I
wouldn't say that in the comic in the 80s, they wereaddressing 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 triedto tell him why he's abandoning his duty, Dream

(52:30):
attends Wanda's funeral, where death persuadeshim to make amends with delirium. Dream enters
delirium's realm and eventually reconnects withher, resuming their quest to locate destruction.
They seek advice from destiny. He tells Dream thatonly his son, an oracle of endless blood, can help
them. In a flashback to Greece, 1700 BC, theendless attend the wedding of Orpheus, son of

(52:55):
Dream and Calliope. That night, however,Orpheus's wife, Eurydice, dies from a snake bite.
Orpheus begs Dream to help him retrieve Eurydicefrom the underworld, but he refuses. With
destruction's help, Orpheus then approachesdeath and she reluctantly makes him immortal,
allowing him to travel to the underworld. Oncethere, Orpheus persuades Hades and Persephone

(53:19):
via song to revive Eurydice. But then he fails thetest of faith presented to him, leaving Eurydice
to stay dead. Against the caution of Calliope, thedesperate Orpheus lets himself be torn apart by
the Menads, murderous worshipers of Dionysus.Left to live as a decapitated head, Orpheus begs

(53:40):
Dream to kill him to no avail. In the present, adistraught Dream and delirium depart to see
Orpheus. This is my favorite episode of thisseason. 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. Theynever addressed the fact that Desire was behind

(54:04):
Eurydice's death, though. Right. I'm glad youmentioned that. I thought they would as well,
maybe during the wake or maybe even during thisepisode. But yes, in the comics and I think in the
myth as well, Desire influences a Sader to chaseEurydice, just lust filled. And in that chase is

(54:24):
when she is bitten by the snake. They didn't havethe Sader in this. They just went with the snake.
But I almost feel like that's doing a disservice tothe story because Desire really is the ultimate
villain, I feel, of the story. So I'm not sure whythey decided to downplay that. Yeah, they kind of
gave Desire a pass by the end. But yeah, they'redefinitely the main villain. It was cool to see the

(54:47):
same actress playing Calliope as the firstseason. Oh, yeah, for the bonus episode that was in
season one. Yeah, she's a great Calliope. Theentire cast is so damn good. Minus Rose, but we
didn't get much of her this season. And even what wedid get, she was much better. Yeah, I would agree.
Moving on to episode six, which was titled FamilyBlood in a flashback to 1794. Dream approaches

(55:09):
Lady Johanna Constantine with a task to retrieveOrpheus's head from France during the Revolution
and return it to a temple in Greece, where it wouldbe safeguarded by priests hunted down by a
Maximilian Robespierre. And as men Constantinesucceeds with the help of Orpheus himself, whose
song incites the end to Robespierre's tyranny.After returning Orpheus's head to his temple,

(55:33):
Constantine asks Dream for a chance to visitOrpheus and the present dream in Delirium past her
grave near Orpheus's temple. Their dreamreunites with Orpheus and he discloses the
location of destruction. Dream and Deliriumapproach destruction who reluctantly welcomes
them. The three discussed destruction'sdeparture from his duties and his wards against

(55:54):
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 withoutthe need of him being complicit. Despite
Delirium's plea, destruction bids them farewelland parts advice to Dream and gives Barnabas to
Delirium to keep her company. With that, hedisappears into the sky. Dream and Orpheus

(56:18):
reconcile and upon Orpheus's request, Dream endshis son's life. Elsewhere, the kindly ones
condemn Dream for spilling family blood. I reallylike the way that the story incorporates actual
history, in this case, the French Revolution andhow you had Robespierre who during the French
Revolution tried to bring out an age of reason to doaway with religion, basically, and just

(56:43):
acknowledge like a supreme being that everyone inthe country would accept. And that kind of plays
out in his statement to Constantine when he'slike, there are no gods. There's just France and
the state. And she had that badass line where she'sholding the head and she's like, there's so much
more than that when the head starts sinking, youknow, given her knowledge of all of the endless and

(57:05):
all the supernatural and mysticism thatsurrounds the world within the story. I thought
that was a really cool moment. Yeah. And some of thevolumes that were not adapted, like they also go
into the history of ancient Greece and history ofancient Greece and Baghdad and stuff like that.
Again, the story of Sandman is not bound by anylocation or time, which not only makes it great,

(57:29):
but again, very unique amongst literature.Moving on to Episode Seven, which was titled Time
and Night. Dream asks Destiny's help to protecthim, but Destiny reveals there is nothing he can
do. Dream visits the kindly ones to give them anexplanation, 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

(57:53):
Cardinal. Dream calls in his favor for savingLoki, though Puck later suggests privately to
Loki to do what Dream wants, but not when Dreamwants it to be done, thereby causing more chaos.
After returning to the Dreaming, Dream revealsthat Lightahall's son, Daniel, will be his
successor. Dream visits his father, Time, butTime reveals he is powerless to help Dream, though

(58:17):
Dream tells him he loves him. He next visits hismother, 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 dieand doesn't want Nala hurt. Though Nala resists,
Dream persuades her to go back to fairy for safetybefore leaving. He gives her a necklace as a

(58:40):
parting gift, which will summon him any time shecalls out to him, at which time he will offer her a
boon. Meanwhile, Lightah and Rose visit Unity'shome in London, where a disguised Puck works as the
chauffeur. That night when Rose and Lightah go todinner, 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

(59:03):
Time and Knight in this episode because we don'tactually see Time, if I remember, in the comic
series. He's in one of the over-itchers, but notthis volume. So this whole journey he takes to meet
his parents is original to the story. Well, we getto see Knight in the original 10 volumes, but not
Time. So, yeah, that was original and that wasgreat, I thought. It was fantastic. And it spoke a

(59:28):
lot to Dream's arc as well in terms of maybe how hecame to be the way he was and how he was really
growing emotionally as this abstract deity. Theactor who played his father, Rufus Sule, just did a
fantastic job with that performance. Honestly, Ithink this whole scene is just a master class in

(59:49):
acting. Now, he's the most recognizable actor, Ithink, out of the entire series. It was really an
interesting piece of casting to have like the headhoncho, all-powerful father of the endless being
actor of note. Episode eight was titled Fuel forthe Fire. Nala and Clericon return to the fairy
realm where Queen Titania jealously takes noticeof Nala's necklace. While contemplating his fate

(01:00:14):
in his throne room, Dream inadvertently ends up inthe realm of a sister despair where he sees through
one of her mirrors the light it also despairs overher missing baby, Daniel. And Dream learns that
Loki and Puck have framed him for Daniel'sdisappearance while posing as police
detectives. Despite Lucian discovering that thekindly ones cannot harm Dream in his own realm,

(01:00:37):
Dream enters the waking world to enlist thepresent day, Johanna Constantine, to find
Daniel. When the two of them visit Lighta, Dreamencounters Alex Burgess, the son of the man who
imprisoned him for over 100 years and whom Dreamcursed with a lifelong sleep. After seeing
Dream's antagonism toward Lighta and Alex,Johanna begins to suspect Dream of wanting to die

(01:01:00):
and suggests he return to the dreaming.Meanwhile, Puck flees from Loki with the baby
Daniel, having grown fond of the child and fearingLoki'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 withDaniel, whom Loki then sets on fire in a fireplace

(01:01:24):
before showing photos to Lighta of her burned deadson. Dream recreates the Corinthian, a nightmare
who once tried to kill him to aid Johanna. What didyou think of the actress who played Johanna
Constantine's performance this season comparedto last? Jenna Coleman? I thought she crushed it.
100 percent. Johanna has a really interesting arcthis season. It's a romantic one. You know, she

(01:01:48):
starts out traumatized by the deaths of those sheloved as we saw happen in season one. And she's even
like subconsciously killing lovers in her dreamsas an expression for how averse she is to the notion
of love. But the Corinthian proves to be toocharming, which is not necessarily in contrast to
his depiction in season one. But it is still kind ofweird and terrifying how she seems to fall for him,

(01:02:10):
I think. Yeah, considering that Johanna is agender bent version of John Constantine in this
show, I'm assuming that this arc is largelyoriginal 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'mglad they did. Got you. Another thing they rewrote

(01:02:31):
for this season was having dream end up in the realmof despair, which was a brief little scene. But I
thought worked really well. Oh, yeah, that was abrilliant moment. It was terrifying when Loki put
the baby on the fire. I was like, damn, is that how ithappened in the books? Yeah, that's another
fucked up moment. Yeah, it definitely was. Makesme sad because, like, you know, the kids essence

(01:02:52):
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 theCorinthian, Dream gives her a necklace capable of
uncreating him if she wishes. When Daniel's nannysuspects Loki is lying about the baby, he kills her
in a secluded alley. Well, Delirium meets withDestiny seeking aid to find the lost Bernard and

(01:03:17):
realizing there are currently multipledestinies. 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 hishuman body, allowing him to take on Dream's powers
should the need arise. While also framing Dream sothat Lighta will invoke the kindly ones

(01:03:39):
vengeance. Matt Heddy, an agent of the kindlyones, helps Lighta to do so. While the Corinthian
and Johanna track down Loki to his hotel, wherePuck gives them the key to their room before
returning to Ferry. The two rescue Daniel, whileOdin and Thor, who followed Johanna, capture
Loki. After Dream gives Delirium Goldie to helpfind Bernard, the kindly ones convince Lighta to

(01:04:02):
become their avatar of fury and vengeance inresponse to Dream killing Orpheus and, as she
believes, her son. When Nala learns that QueenTitania 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'sGreen. I wonder what the point of showing multiple

(01:04:23):
destinies was. It kind of gave the illusion thatanother outcome was possible, even though there
was no alternate outcome. I think it was to give theviewers hope as well as Dream hope. And I think
there were other outcomes possible if Loki had notdone what he did. Interesting. It was actually a
brilliant plan on Loki's behalf. He reallycouldn't have screwed Dream over better. There's

(01:04:48):
a few things that I think the show does better thanthe comic. But one of the things they really kind of
messed up on was ruining the surprise that Danielwas going to be the new Dream, because we didn't
know that was going to happen in the comic until itactually happened. Really? Yeah. So what was
Dream's preoccupation with the child in the booksthen? Well, in the books, it's not revealed until

(01:05:11):
later what favor he asked of Loki. So at the time youdidn't know that he asked Loki to kidnap Daniel.
You just assumed that Loki kidnapped Daniel justto do it. Gotcha. That actually would have been a
cool reveal, I think. Yeah, and I don't reallyunderstand why they spoiled it, other than maybe
it would have left audiences questioning what wasgoing on and why we were watching this kind of

(01:05:34):
tangential thing going on with Daniel. I do thinkit's really cool. And I thought this in the comics
as well that Fury Lighthaul, who is Wonder Womanand 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 boughther wrath as much as I probably should have. There

(01:05:57):
was a lot left out regarding her story for thisadaptation, which I kind of wish was still there,
but it made it more believable in the comic when shebecame 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 guessingthat they named her after Diana's mother,

(01:06:22):
Hippolyta, right? Yes, that's correct. Theactress would have made a pretty decent Wonder
Woman, I think. Yeah, I agree. Moving on to Episode10, Long Live the King. As Lightha continues to
kill denizens of the dreaming, Nala uses her boonto send Dream back to his realm, where he reveals to
Lightha that Daniel is still alive and is able totemporarily free her from the kindly ones

(01:06:45):
influence. When Dream attempts to kill Lightha inthe waking world, Matt Heddy convinces him not to.
Deciding to confront the kindly ones at the edge ofthe dreaming, Dream prepares Daniel to take his
place and his staff for his potential end, sendingthem away, though Matthew the Raven travels with
him. When the kindly ones inform him that Lighthais back in the dreaming, destroying his palace

(01:07:09):
where his staff, including Lucien, Kane, theCorinthian and Daniel are sheltering, Dream
sends Matthew to bring him his sister, Death, whois waiting at the palace as well. When Nala
confronts Queen Titania regarding her returningto the dreaming, Titania gives Nala her sword,
which Nala uses to kill Light as Avatar in thedreaming, just as Dream admits after a

(01:07:30):
conversation with his sister that he's ready todie to protect his loved ones and Death takes him.
It's then that Delirium finds that Bernard waswith Matt Heddy, who herself finds Lighta awake
and reveals that Dream is dead. As the Corinthianand the others in the palace wonder what has
happened, Daniel reveals himself, aged andtransformed as the new Dream of the Endless. Now, I

(01:07:55):
remember when I was reading the comics, I expectedthis epic battle between the kindly ones and
Sandman. And it was shocking to me that his lifeended 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 tobecome more human. I was under the impression that

(01:08:21):
Lighta understood what was going on, that her sonwas still alive and had retreated from attacking
the dreaming. I guess I don't understand why shewent back to doing it just suddenly. Yeah, that
whole part was pretty rushed, but essentially thekindly ones just influenced her again to go back
and finish the job. Interesting. Now, Dream diedjust as Nala decapitated Lighta. If he had waited

(01:08:45):
like 10 more seconds, could he have like delayedhis death? You think? Yes. That's too bad. It's
part of the tragedy. Really, Titania is to blamefor all of this. Yes, Titania. She is the true
villain of the story. There you go. Or at least oneof many. We've gone to episode 11, a tale of
graceful ends as Lucian, Nala, Matthew and theCorinthian prepare for dreams funeral. Kane

(01:09:08):
demands Daniel resurrect Abel, whom Lightakilled. 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 variouspantheons, questions abound regarding Daniel,
who takes it upon himself to recreate othervarious dream entities that Lighta killed,

(01:09:32):
including Murph Pumpkinhead and Fiddler'sGreen, though the latter requests to remain dead,
along with the prior dream, as their deaths hadmeaning. The rest of the endless arrive save for
destruction, who shows up later in secret to speakwith Daniel, offering advice and insights.
Destiny, desire, despair, delirium, death andLucian take turns speaking at Dream's wake before

(01:09:57):
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 hispredecessor's death. Daniel then makes Lucian
the Dreaming's Prime Minister before meetingwith Hobb and recalling Dream sharing a drink with

(01:10:20):
William Shakespeare after his completion of TheTempest. Finally, Daniel meets his new family,
the Endless, who welcome him as the new Dream. In apost-credits scene, the kindly ones equate
storytelling to yarn work and read a poeticfortune about life and rebirth from a fortune
cookie. This episode dragged. It felt really likean epilogue that didn't need to be. And so I think

(01:10:45):
just felt too long to me. I could see that. I kind offelt the same way when reading The Wake, which is
its own volume of comics when I read the series. ButI also have to admit that there's something very
bittersweet and unique about it and that we don'treally get something like this in other stories,

(01:11:06):
something where we really get to celebrate notonly the main character of the story we just read,
but Shed's new light on how various characterstruly saw Dream. I will totally admit that I got
choked up when I saw Dream's boat kind of turninginto a shooting star because it reminded me
exactly of when I read the comic. How bittersweeteverything was in celebrating what I had read and

(01:11:32):
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 hisexistence, 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 agrown Daniel of someone trying to mimic Tom

(01:11:57):
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 soundslike it's the story of a God choosing to be mortal.
Of a sorcerer choosing to be mortal, yes, who is incharge of his own realm, which is an island and
essentially choosing to forgive people, all ofhis enemies. It was William Shakespeare's last

(01:12:21):
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 thekindly ones who are the final panel. It's
Shakespeare. So I'm really glad that they found away to work that into this episode as well, because
I didn't think they were going to. Moving on to thebonus episode, episode 12, Death, The High Cost of

(01:12:44):
Living, a young disillusioned journalist namedSexton Fernival, where it's a suicide note to his
ex-girlfriend Sylvie before being interruptedby his roommates and her girlfriend, leaving
their apartment so they could be alone. Sextonmeets death at a trash heap in the city, and death
suggests he come to her apartment so she can mendhis shirt, which tore when he fell in the trash.

(01:13:06):
Upon learning who she is and that today is her oneday out of every 100 years that she gets to spend as a
mortal human, Sexton attempts to leave, but iscaptured and threatened by Mad Heddy, who asks
death to find her soul. Reluctantly, Sextonagrees to follow death as she attempts to
experience as much as she can in one day. Afterarriving at a dance club where he used to go with

(01:13:29):
Sylvie, Sexton meets his roommate there alongwith her girlfriend, and he's introduced to
Jackie, who appears fond of him, though he'spreoccupied with the possibility of running into
Sylvie while getting a drink at the bar, the HouseDJ and Club promoter Theo notices death's onk
necklace and manages to lure both her and Sextoninto a trap upstairs, where death realizes Theo

(01:13:53):
summoned death using an occult ritual in an effortto resurrect his recently deceased girlfriend,
Natalie. Theo is injured while threatening thetwo, and Sexton calls an ambulance for him. After
the sun rises, death buys a pendant, which shegives to Sexton before she expresses how great it
is to be alive before suffering a fatal heartattack at the end of her 24 hours. Mad Heddy appears

(01:14:17):
and Sexton learns the pendant contains a photo ofMad Heddy's daughter from long ago, her soul. Back
at his apartment, Sexton deletes his suicide noteto Sylvie before Jackie arrives and he offers her
some tea. Now, I'm not entirely sure that thisepisode needed to be adapted. I'm not actually
familiar with the comic that this adapts. I'venever read it, but it truly did feel supplemental.

(01:14:42):
Like it wasn't really necessary. Not in the sameway that the first season's episodes, I thought,
were a little bit more necessary. Maybe not the catone, but definitely Calliope. Yeah, this one felt
more interesting to me than the cat story from thefirst 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 enjoyedit. Like I didn't regret watching it like I did the

(01:15:06):
cat one. Like I remember watching the cow one andjust being like, I want to be done with the show
already. I actually kind of liked the cow one, but Ialso just liked that story in the comics. My
impression that time was like, you don't have toadapt 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

(01:15:33):
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 weknow is for sure not moving forward. It feels just
like, well, this is it now. And that makes me sadbecause I love Sandman. Yeah, I forgot that Dead
Boy Detectives was in the same universe. And I kindof missed seeing those guys in this season because

(01:15:57):
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 notaddressed in the season is that when Lucifer
empties hell, basically all of the evil people whowere there show up in the real world as like zombie
ghosts. And that's actually how Charles dies issome zombie ghost bullies kill him. Oh, OK.

(01:16:20):
Interesting. Fascinating. So when the angelstake 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 agreat 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

(01:16:40):
sad that it's over. It was a focused adaptationthat masterfully threads themes of love, growth
and mortality into a bittersweet and profoundlyexistential tapestry. Again, it's a master work
adaptation, in my opinion. And I'm giving it fiveout of five stars, a fresh rating on Ron Tomatoes.

(01:17:01):
Damn, you didn't even give the first season fiveout of five stars. No, because the first season was
really just an introduction to this world. But Ithink this season, again, did a really good job of
weaving together all the different threads toreally capture the essence of the themes and the
story of the comic, which is a story that I feelshould be adapted for other mediums, because the

(01:17:23):
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 gone4.5, but I can absolutely see the case made for
five, considering how transcendental and justwell written the story is, not only in the comic
books, but how it's adapted here. I don't think Ican recommend it anymore than I already do. So five

(01:17:45):
stars, then. Nice. I'm really glad you liked it. Ireally hoped you would. I hope everyone likes it as
much as I do. I know a lot of critics don't because Idon't know why they're just petty as fuck,
probably because this season doesn't stand aswell on its own without seeing season one, maybe
either that or they're just like comic purists orthey never read the comic. I don't know. They're

(01:18:06):
weird. I'm right. They're wrong. This show isawesome. And hopefully if you made it this far,
you've already seen it and already know that. Butthat does it for this review. A.J .9K help close us
out. Thanks for listening to Dynamic Jewel. Visitthe 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

(01:18:30):
slash dynamic jewel and joining a tier that worksfor you or by rating and reviewing Dynamic Jewel on
Apple podcasts, Spotify, Podchaser or on ourwebsite. Don't forget to listen to the other shows
in the Dynamite podcast network, including MaxDestruction, 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

(01:18:53):
fight between the Green Lantern love interestcharacter, Star Sapphire and Ironheart, who
recently had her own Disney Plus televisionseries. Yeah, this is sort of a late time coming tie
into that. But that does it for this episode. Wewant to give a big thanks to our executive
producers, John Starosky, Zachary Hepburn,Justin Belcom, Mickey Muthinkeyan, Nathaniel

(01:19:14):
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 thispodcast possible. And we'll talk to you guys next
week up up and away. True believers. I reveal to youthat I am the youngest of the endless. I have gone by

(01:19:37):
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.

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