The Sandman: All episodes reviewed and explained

Episode Three: “Dream a Little Dream of Me”

Now that Dream has a rough idea of where his precious artifacts are, the quest to get them back begins. First, he seeks out Johanna Constantine, a posh occult detective, to assist him in retrieving his pouch of sand.

Meeting Johanna Constantine

The role of John Constantine from the comics is gender-swapped, so we now have Johanna Constantine, played by Jenna Coleman. Unlike the source material, Johanna is an occult detective with many upper crust clients; it doesn’t get much bigger than the royal family.

When we first meet Joanna, she’s in the middle of a job. We don’t really get much context as to what she’s up to; I suppose it’s the writer’s way of showing us who she is. The special effects are superb, it doesn’t look entirely different from the stuff Coleman used to get up to during her time on Doctor Who. But it turns out that it was all a dream; Johanna bursts awake in a taxi in London.

Afterwards, Johanna starts talking to Mad Hettie (who’s into magic herself, as the show may get around to exploring eventually). Hettie warns Constantine that Dream of the Endless has escaped his captivity and is back out in the Waking World, seeking his missing artifacts.

Before Constantine gets involved with Dream, we get to see her take on one of her occult jobs. She is summoned to officiate a wedding. But it’s not just any wedding; it’s a royal wedding between a princess and a famous footballer that needs to be done in secret. It all feels very British, which feels in line with Gaiman’s work.

As the secret ceremony is underway, Johanna discreetly performs an exorcism, evicting a demon from the groom. Before long, Dream turns up and tells Johanna that the demon is called Agilieth, and he’s from Hell. It’s a good introduction for Dream. I like how Agilieth is used to confirm to Johanna that Morpheus is, indeed, the Dream Lord.

Moreover, Agilieth promises to tell Dream which demon took his helm in return for the princess. Dream seems keen to oblige… until Johanna sends the demon back to Hell.

Dream and Johanna

The chemistry between Johanna and Dream is pretty interesting. You can tell that he holds her in high regard. There’s mutual respect between them, even when they don’t see eye to eye.

Of course, it doesn’t take long before Dream asks for his pouch of sand. She doesn’t have it on hand. That would be way too easy, wouldn’t it?

Johanna has a funny straight-to-the-point attitude about everything. When Dream tells her about the potentially dire consequences of losing his sand, she plays it off with a few snide remarks. She’s an occult detective, she’s seen it all.

Matthew

Remember Jessamy, the bird who tried to save Dream when he was imprisoned but got killed by a young Alex Burgess? Well, with Jessamy dead, Dream is in need of a new raven…even if he doesn’t think he is. This new raven is Matthew (voiced by Patton Oswalt). Matthew is outspoken, loud, and actually very funny. Oswalt’s Matthew was always going to be hilarious. Despite Dream’s reservations about taking on a new raven, Matthew is a pretty helpful assistant to him.

Interesting fact: while filming, the crew had two ravens on set, both with very different personalities.

Rachel

So where is the pouch of sand? It turns out that Johanna left the sand with her old girlfriend, Rachel. But that was six months ago…it could have done a lot of damage in that time. The pair set out to find out what happened to her.

The subplot about Johanna and Rachel’s relationship definitely adds some weight to the story. The two quickly make up over Johanna walking out on Rachel…but all is not what it seems. It quickly becomes evident that the “Rachel” Johanna is talking to isn’t the real Rachel. As Dream says, the pouch of sand is not meant for mortal hands. When we see Rachel in her bed, she is decayed and decrepit, void of life. Evidently, this is what happens when a mortal spends too much time with a key fragment of Dream.

Sadly, Rachel is too far gone. The only thing Dream can do to help is send her to sleep, where she can die in her most peaceful dreams.

John Dee

Elsewhere, Ethel Cripps attempt to convince her son, John Dee, to return the ruby to Dream. However, John has other ideas. In prison, Dee has had plenty of time to do extensive research on who he actually is. He learns that his life is a lie. That his father was Roderick Burgess, and that Ethel Cripps almost had him aborted. Clearly, the constant lies about Dee’s life have messed him up.

Ethel tells John to give the ruby back to Dream in exchange for forgiveness, but he’s not so keen on the idea. He claims that he’s “altered” the ruby so that it only works for him.

If you’re wondering how Ethel Cripps still looks relatively young despite her years, it’s thanks to the Amulet of Protection she got from a demon in exchange for giving it Dream’s helm. As she talks to John, she eventually removes the amulet and hands it to her son, thus making her age rapidly and decay, until she’s dead.

With Ethel dead, we begin to see a different side to John Dee. Armed with the amulet, he makes his way out of the hospital, filled with grief, and kills everyone who stands in his way. This is a brutal scene, but we also feel some small bit of empathy towards Dee. The ruby was not meant for him, and it has set him on a very dangerous path.