Dream A Little Dream Of Me – As the third episode of The Sandman begins, Johanna Constantine (Jenna Coleman) checks on Astra (Nina Galano) after receiving a text from her. She learns it was supposedly an accident like when mom died. Astra argues that they need to get out of here immediately. Johanna confronts Alex Logue (Stevie Hutchinson) and finds a book of satanic rituals next to him. He claims they were just having fun and the others are still inside the club. She intends to go in to clean up his crap. Before leaving, she tells Astra to stay with her father because it is safer here. Once she opens the door, we are taken to London where Johanna gets out of a taxi after paying. Hettie yells at her from across the street. She is worried that Morpheus is coming, but Johanna believes he is a fairy story. Hettie warns Johanna that he is back and he wants his sand.

Morpheus (Tom Sturridge) approaches her to say they have business. She goes inside and says hello to Erica (Meera Syal). She learns she has been summoned because there is a soul in need. Erica offers to double or even triple her fee. Johanna doesn’t want to help if her family is in any way royal. She asks if it is the princess. Erica says she showed up here demanding she marry them before the palace and press found out. The Princess (Hannah van der Westhuysen) is marrying the footballer Kevin Brody (Stephen Odubola). Johanna argues that doesn’t mean she needs an exorcist. Once she agrees to check it out, Erica tells her she’ll need the Rituale Romanum. Johanna asks if they can at least drug her and tie her up first. She takes Erica’s top so she can perform the ceremony. The Princess quickly says yes while Kevin seems hesitant to do so.

After she forces him to say yes, Johanna convinces them to repeat something in Latin. Kevin’s stomach begins hurting, but he blames it on the fasting. Johanna continues as a demon climbs out of Kevin’s mouth. She yells for Erica to tell her she was right about the demon, but wrong about the host. Before long, Dream arrives to tell Johanna that the demon’s name is Agilieth (Marcus Fraser). He tells Morpheus he is flattered he remembers him after all the time away. Agilieth offers to tell him which demon has his helm if he gives him the princess. Constantine begins performing the ritual as Agilieth offers to tell him if he doesn’t send him back. Once the demon is gone, Morpheus tells Johanna she has no idea what she has done. Before she leaves, she says she does since she just tripled her fee. In Buffalo, John (David Thewlis) talks to Ethel (Joely Richardson) in his room.

He wonders why she is mentioning this now when she normally wouldn’t. She admits she believes the ruby’s owner is coming for it and the people who stole it from him. Although she stole it from him, John stole it from her so he is coming for both. He reminds her that she has been saying this for years and he has never come. John wonders if she was trying to protect them from the Sandman or his father. She is adamant his dad died when he was a baby, but John doesn’t believe it. He knows he is a man called John Burgess. Since he has been in prison, he has had plenty of time to read. According to The History of Ritual Magic in England, the ruby once belonged to a rival of Aleister Crowley called Roderick Burgess who had a mistress named Ethel Cripps. Once he says his father was Roderick Burgess, Ethel says he wanted her to abort him. He believes that is the first honest thing she has said to him.

If she wants the ruby, John wants to know everything. Johanna and Erica talk about the princess being possessed by love which really messes you up. Johanna goes outside where she tells Morpheus that her grandma used to tell her stories about them. She asks what he wants from her. When asked about the pouch full of sand, she says she bought it at an estate sale and never got the drawstrings open. Morpheus insists they must find it because his realm will cease to exist otherwise. If dreams disappear, humanity will follow. She says she could do without dreams for a while since she hasn’t had a good night’s sleep in ages. Morpheus says she won’t until they find the sand. She offers to help find the sand although she is going to work alone. Johanna doesn’t want him and his raven following her around London.

Morpheus walks over to the raven to learn more. Matthew the Raven (Patton Oswalt) introduces himself to Morpheus before they begin arguing about whether he actually needs a raven. Ethel promises she only stole the tools because she thought they’d help. When Roderick’s men came after them, she hid the ruby and traded the others for the jewel around her neck. It has kept her alive all these years, but it won’t do the same for him. She needs the ruby as a result. He claims it only works for him now. She wants to give it back to Morpheus in hopes that he’ll forgive them. John wonders if they should give it away when they could use it to dream of a world without the Sandman. Morpheus tries to get Matthew to leave while reminding him that Lucienne is not his master. Matthew doesn’t know who he is. He knows little about himself although he died a few hours ago in his sleep.

Morpheus tells him about Jessamy. Matthew says Johanna is likely asleep and they have a few hours before she is on the move again. Morpheus believes he knows where to find her if she is sleeping. He visits her dream as she tries to protect Astra. Before long, Astra gets sucked into the hold and Johanna is left holding her severed arm. She wakes up seconds later and finds Morpheus in her room. He believes her dream was a memory so it is no wonder she doesn’t sleep. When he says he can make it go away, she knows he’ll only do that if she finds his sand. Morpheus thinks that may require more magic than she can muster. He wants to go with her to the office since she has a gift for disappearing. As they search her office, Morpheus wonders why humans love objects so much. Johanna says they come in handy sometimes. The sand was a part of him that was stolen by another magic user called Burgess.

Johanna knows about Roderick and the fact that he allegedly had the devil locked in his basement. She realizes it was Morpheus locked up. He finds pictures of Johanna with her girlfriend and she actually looks happy. That triggers something for Johanna who believes she knows where the pouch of sand is. John tells his mother that he missed her and they were always very close. He knows she did what she had to do to keep them alive and he wants to return the favor. John thinks he fixed it so people don’t get hurt or die this time. When she accuses him of killing them, he says they were trying to take it from him so he was just defending himself. He talks about defending her, but she claims she is trying to help him. She wants to give him her necklace because he won’t need the ruby. Johanna tells Morpheus that the woman’s name is Rachel Moodie (Eleanor Fanyinka).

She is actually a decent person who hated all the magic stuff. Johanna stayed at her place for a while and she thought they were living together, but they weren’t. One night, she went on a job and never came back. They agree that love never works out well. People tend to get ripped in half or sent to hell near Johanna so it was safer if she left. Johanna buzzes her before she is allowed inside. She refuses to let Morpheus come inside with her. After they talk about their breakup, Rachel invites her in so she can apologize properly. Matthew tells Morpheus that humans cannot be trusted. If he was Johanna, he’d be up there cutting a deal with Rachel to cut the dream sand with real sand and sell it to the highest bidder. He admits he wasn’t the best person since they can’t all be Jessamy. Matthew warns him that he can’t keep sitting in the rain. They’re making out in Rachel’s apartment.

Rachel admits she was terrified when Johanna didn’t come home that night. She goes through the names of the people she called hoping to find out what had happened, but they all told her to get over Johanna because she is selfish. She goes on to say she ruins everything she touches. Morpheus enters as Rachel turns to sand and falls to the ground. He tells Constantine to wake up. When she asks what he did to her, Morpheus says it was the sand. Johanna finds a much older Rachel in bed. As Morpheus takes the pouch of sand, he explains it wasn’t meant for humans.

He is ready to go, but Johanna wants him to do something for Rachel since they can’t leave her like this. Johanna asks what is wrong with him. He wants his sand back so he can save humanity, but he won’t even help Rachel. She accuses him of only caring about his sand and power. He asks her to wait outside. Johanna says goodbye to Rachel before she goes. Morpheus pours sand over Rachel allowing her to see better times with Johanna. John pleads with Ethel to put the jewel back. She insists it kept her alive for 116 years so she hopes it keeps him alive forever. Once he takes it, Ethel begins aging rapidly. He tries to give it back to her, but she says it is too late before dying. John screams for the guards. The guard points his gun at John and asks what he did to her. John warns him not to point the gun at him. The guard eventually shots him but ends up killing himself.

John takes his ID and walks toward the elevator. He has to kill two more guards before making his way outside where Corinthian is waiting for him. He gives John his coat. John asks if he can return it when he gets to where he is going. Corinthian only cares that he gets to where he is going. Morpheus returns to Johanna to say Rachel died in peace in her sleep. She’ll tell her dad. Johanna admits she was a good person and there are a few of them out there. Morpheus doesn’t think she is like Roderick Burgess. When Matthew arrives, she tells him to look after Morpheus. While she walks away, Morpheus yells to reassure her that she won’t have that dream anymore. Matthew tells him it was nice what he did up there. Morpheus tells him he won’t spy on him away. They discuss their next move. Morpheus believes he might have a need for Matthew in hell. They head there as the episode ends.

 

The Sandman Review

The story is moving at a slow pace as Morpheus attempts to retrieve the items Ethel stole from him. He managed to get the pouch full of sand with help from Johanna Constantine. Now, he has moved to hell so he can get his helm. Ethel gave her tool to John who used it to escape the hospital. Corinthian seems to know where he is going and likely intends to use that to his benefit.

A lot of what The Sandman is trying to do just doesn’t work. Many of the comedic scenes aren’t humorous and end up being cringe more than anything. It is still difficult to have any sort of connection with the characters possibly because the show jumps around so much and never stays focused. Until a connection is made, the scenes will continue feeling trivial as if the show is just going through the motions.

Honestly, I am still waiting for something to happen or something to make me say wow. To be based on something so popular and obviously successful, I keep wondering if this is all that is going to happen. Everything is just so wooden and lifeless without any legitimate urgency or pizzazz. In the best-case scenario, Corinthian will just kill everyone in the next episode and the whole thing will end early. The episode scores a 4 out of 10. Recaps of The Sandman can be found on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support our work at this link.