The Sandman: All episodes reviewed and explained

Episode Eight: “Playing House”

At this point, we know that Rose Walker is a Dream Vortex who presents a very real threat to the fabric of dreams. She is the great-granddaughter of Unity Kinkaid, the woman who mysteriously gave birth while asleep during the time Dream was imprisoned. In pursuit of finding her lost brother Jed, she has moved into a house in Florida with some very interesting tenants.

Meanwhile, the Corinthian is still on the hunt for Rose Walker. At the same time, he’s also being targeted by a group of serial killers to become their guest of honor at their “Cereal Convention.”

Let’s get stuck in!

Rose Walker arrives in Dream’s palace

Most dreamers do not have the capability to wander around the Dreaming as they please, much less find themselves in Dream’s palace. But as we know, Rose Walker is not “most people.”

Of course, Rose uses the opportunity to ask Dream if he knows where her brother Jed is; he does not. That said, he is inclined to believe that Jed is with one of his missing nightmares: Gault.

Gault

Gault is a new character to the Sandman universe, taking over for Brute and Glob from the comics. In his dreams, Gault takes on the form of Jed’s mother and play out his childish fantasies with him. Jed believes he’s a superhero called “The Sandman'” It’s fun to see him as a superhero; so deliberately cheesy!

But that’s just in his dreams. In reality, Jed lives with his foster parents: Uncle Barnaby (Sam Hazeldine) and Aunt Clarice (Lisa O’Hare). Barnaby is abusive towards him, making him sleep in the basement. Seeing him have to live like that can be pretty hard to watch at times.

Lyta Hall: Dreams do come true?

While living with Rose, Lyta has some peculiar dreams of her own. When she falls asleep, she is continuously greeted by her late husband Hector (Lloyd Everitt), and they plan the rest of their lives together. Hector might only be alive in her dreams, but clearly, there’s something bigger going on here.

Lyta’s story is about grief, and how dreams can let us escape from the world, giving us hope. Hector tells Lyta that he’s been working on building their dream home. And inside their home, there’s a cot for their baby.

Sure, it’s entirely possible for her to become pregnant in a dream, but what happens when that pregnancy carries over to the Waking World?

When Rose falls asleep…

Later in the episode, when Rose falls asleep, we get a really neat sequence where we see just what it means for her to be a Dream Vortex. She draws the dreams of others to her, walking through the dreams of her housemates. We see Hal trying to negotiate his identity, Ken desperate for Barbie to let him in, and Zelda’s peculiar upbringing.

Barbie’s dream may be the strangest of all; she’s on a high fantasy adventure with Martin Tenbones (Lenny Henry). This is a tease of a storyline in A Game of You, which happens much later on in the comics.

Upon realizing that people seek home when they dream, Rose returns to her childhood home, where she reunites with Jed…at least, in her dreams. It’s emotional to see them back together, and better yet, she now knows where to find him in the Waking World.

At the same time, Dream has now located Gault — one of his rogue nightmares — and takes her back with him. He ultimately destroys her as a punishment for going rogue.

Back in the Waking World

When Rose wakes up, she uses a website called TrackABeing.com to find Barnaby and Clarice. I thought this was a bit lazy. Surely the writers could’ve come up with something a little more creative than that? Regardless, she finds them almost immediately. I suppose this is a consequence of setting the show in the modern world; the original comic was set mostly in the ’80s.

However, there’s a twist. Before Rose can get to Jed, he gets taken by the Corinthian, who got there first and killed Bernie and Clarice. With Jed by his side, he’s off to be the guest of honor at the Cereal Convention…