The Sandman Finale: A Journey Through Loss and Renewal

Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman was a radical departure for American comics when it first hit shelves in 1989. Mixing high concepts with high fantasy, the series followed Morpheus (aka Dream, aka the Sandman), lord of the Dreaming, a universe within a universe that both underpins and overlaps with reality. Netflix’s adaptation of the critically acclaimed and award-winning Sandman graphic novels debuted to fanfare and acclaim in November 2021 with its first season. Season 1 did well at capturing the uncanny, half-familiar, sometimes psychedelic feeling of the original comic books, but, more importantly, took the freedom of the graphic novel anthology series and wedded it to a linear, grounded story about Morpheus and his quest for justice and reparation.

Netflix had already announced in January that Season 2 would be The Sandman’s last. The announcement may have been related to sexual assault accusations against Gaiman that he has repeatedly and vehemently denied, or it may simply have been a creative decision by Netflix and the showrunners. Showrunner Allan Heinberg cleared the air about this in a Twitter Space on X when asked if Season 2 had to be so brief because of the controversy. Heinberg stated unequivocally that the original order for two seasons was made before Gaiman was accused, and the creative team was confident that they had enough story for two seasons and only two seasons. On this point, it seems, Heinberg was correct.

Season 1 adapted the first two Sandman arcs, Preludes and Nocturnes, and The Doll’s House. It also produced two bonus episodes for those who bought the season on DVD or Blu-ray, “Dream of a Thousand Cats” and “Calliope,” both from Dream Country. Season 2 is based on Seasons of Mists, Brief Lives, The Kindly Ones, and The Wake. Major storylines from Fables and Reflections, including “The Song of Orpheus” and a section of “Thermidor,” plus Gaiman’s winner of Eisner Award for best short story, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” from Dream Country, are adapted for the season. The bonus episode is a direct adaptation of the 1993 one-off spin-off, Death: The High Cost of Living. There is no story from A Game of You, nor are some short stories from the original comics adapted in the second season. This may disappoint fans who would like to see specific plotlines or characters, but the omissions do not seriously affect the development of the main story arc of the Dream King’s story.

Season 1 ended with Dream successfully escaping his prison, regaining his talismans, thwarting the sinister rogue Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook), and containing the Vortex anomaly. The second season opens as Morpheus (Tom Sturridge) begins the process of rebuilding the Dreaming, his way of life and reality within which his mortal creatures live, when he is interrupted by an extremely rare communication from his sister Destiny (Adrian Lester). Destiny, Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), Desire (Mason Alexander Park), Despair (Donna Preston), and Delirium (Esmé Creed-Miles) attend an uncomfortable family meeting.

It is at this meeting that Destiny charges Morpheus with a new quest—to find and rescue Nada (Umulisa Gahiga), the queen of the First People and Morpheus’ former lover. Dream condemned Nada to Hell for trying to usurp his authority, and he must now rescue her before her death at the hands of Lucifer and redeem himself in Destiny’s eyes. Nada’s rescue will entail another contest of wills with Lucifer (Gwendolyn Christie), who is still smarting from her defeat at Dream’s hands in Season 1.

Lucifer does not, however, challenge Dream to another fight. Instead, Lucifer shocks the Dream King by resigning her position, closing the doors of Hell, and leaving Dream with the key to an empty realm. Lucifer charges Dream with choosing who will take over Hell as its next warden, with several very different candidates, from Odin, Order, Chaos, and the fallen angel Azazel. Delirium, too, has started a journey that will lead Morpheus inexorably toward his fate and to spilling the blood of his own family and to incurring the fury of the Kindly Ones.

Bright Spots, Flaws, and an Appropriate End to the Saga

The production values remain stellar, with top-notch casting and slick cinematography that seems to channel the artwork of the graphic novels directly onto the screen. Some viewers have complained that the pacing is “slow,” but this is almost certainly not the case. Season 2 still has more content per episode than most series, and it is by design that the production does not hurry.

Season 2’s weakest link is the episode “Time and Night,” which is, admittedly, a weak episode. Morpheus consults with his parents, Time (Rufus Sewell) and Night (Tanya Moodie), and begs their advice and help, but the dialogue is stilted and unnatural, even for Sewell. It is important to note, and canonically accurate, that the Endless were born of the primordial deities Time and Night, and this scene is correct to the text in that respect. It simply does not work dramatically, reading more like a psychodrama than an epic saga.

Season 2 has some fantastic scenes, including Lucifer’s demand that Dream cut off her wings, the goddess Ishtar (Amber Rose Revah) casting aside all her conceits and dancing in her true form for the final time, Dream’s explanations to William Shakespeare about why he must write The Tempest, and the reformed Corinthian starting to fall in love with Johanna Constantine (Jenna Coleman). The season also features memorable sequences such as Orpheus’ lament in the Underworld, Dream’s mercy killing of his son, and the brutal Furies punishing Dream, destroying Fiddler’s Green (Stephen Fry), Mervyn Pumpkinhead (Mark Hamill), and Abel (Asim Chaudhry).