“Brief Lives,” the fourth episode of the second season of The Sandman, picks the story back up right after the whole question of the rulership of Hell has been decided, and shows us Dream dealing with the unquestionable rejection he received from Nada—he’s dealing with it in the most angsty way possible, which is very in character for him, standing on the balcony of his palace as rain pours down over the Dreaming to echo his feelings.
It’s the visit of another one of the Endless that sets this episode’s story in motion and leads us into the second part of this first volume of The Sandman season 2, in a way that feels slightly disconnected from the first three episodes—even though everything was laid down in varying levels of detail during “Seasons of Mist.” I just felt the disconnect a bit more this time, a kind of jarring change of stakes that left me feeling “Brief Lives” might be the weakest episode of this first bunch.
Not that it doesn’t have its high points. Delirium, played by Esmé Creed-Miles, is an incredible character and one that fills the scene with her unique costumes and her peculiar way of speaking and acting. She comes to ask Dream to accompany her on the search for Destruction—their lost brother, who left his post some three centuries back and never returned. Dream eventually agrees, even though he does it less because of a genuine desire to help Delirium or find Destruction but more because their search for their brother would lead them into the human world where Nada is. It’s a hidden purpose that will, of course, come back to haunt him by the end of the episode.
Dream and Delirium begin their quest by trying to track down Destruction through his past friends, thanks to the help of Lord Pharamond, a Babylonian god who now doubles as a travel agent for deities and supernatural entities and the like. He assigns them a very professional concierge, Wanda, who drives the two siblings around in what seems very much like the same model of Bentley that the demon Crawley of Good Omens fame loves so much.
The search for Destruction’s friends, though, comes to an abrupt halt almost immediately. The first person Dream and Delirium wanteto see, a man who has been alive since the time of the mammoths and saber-tooth tigers, dies suddenly in a freak accident—and it’s clear it has something to do with Destruction himself, whom we see for the first time this episode, painting and reading his own poetry on some remote location with only a talking dog named Barnabas for company. We learn that Destruction has set up a warning system right for cases such as this, where his family might come looking for him when he doesn’t want to be found—and those warning systems might very well be why destruction follows Dream and Delirium wherever they go.
That’s because their second stop also doesn’t go much better than their first. They meet the woman who used to be the goddess Ishtar in a strip club in Philadelphia, and after a brief dialogue with Dream, where she says she sadly has no idea as to Destruction’s whereabouts, Ishtar decides to reclaim her old identity and entrances the club’s patrons with a dance that is both ritual and magic—until the club explodes due to a gas leak, killing everyone inside but the Endless, of course.
Desire then appears, since the club was a temple of sorts in their honor, angry and sorrowful, and finally lays into Dream as Dream sometimes deserves. The role of voice of reason is usually reserved for Death, who tackles Dream with a very kind, big sisterly attitude, but sometimes the King of Dreams needs some tougher love and Desire is definitely the sibling to deliver that. Plus, again, I love Desire more than all of the Endless combined and it’s always a pleasure when they’re onscreen, telling it like is. When Desire exposes Dream’s hidden purpose in accompanying Delirium on her quest, she is justifiably mad and disappears back into her realm, leaving Dream to deal with the consequences of his actions and the hypocrisy of his double standards, especially when it comes to Desire.
Bullet Point Summary
- Delirium visits the Dreaming to ask Dream for his help in looking for Destruction, who disappeared some three centuries before and has not seen any of the Endless since. Dream initially doesn’t want to go with her but he eventually agrees, even if it is with a hidden purpose—he plans to look for Nada in the human world, where they need to go to ask some of Destruction’s old friends if they know his whereabouts.
- Their journey to the human world is done with the help of Wanda, who works as a peculiar concierge in a travel agency for gods, supernatural entities and everything in between. She drives them around in a car that looks suspiciously like Crowley’s Bentley in Good Omens and delivers a truly emotional monologue on family, acceptance and the lack thereof.
- It seems that something bad happens to all the people they want to visit, though, and it might have something to do with Destruction himself who absolutely doesn’t want to be found. Bernie Capax, an immortal man who was once a friend of Destruction, dies in a freak accident after thousands of years of being alive. So does the goddess Ishtar, after her whole strip club explodes seemingly due to a gas leak.
- Desire appears, for the second time in the episode since they had already had a first confrontation with Dream towards the beginning, and lays into Dream as he kind of deserves, exposing his hidden purpose and chiding him for having caused the death of all the people in the club, Wanda included. Desire also berates him for his double standards and his hypocrisy. Enraged, Delirium retreats back into her realm and Dream is left to wonder about the consequences of his actions and choices.
Episode Grade: C+
The Sandman season 2 reviews:
- The Sandman season 2, Episode 1: "Season of Mists"
- The Sandman season 2, Episode 2: "The Ruler of Hell"
- The Sandman season 2, Episode 3: "More Devils Than Vast Hell Can Hold"
- The Sandman season 2, Episode 4: "Brief Lives"
- The Sandman season 2, Episode 5: "The Song of Orpheus"
- The Sandman season 2, Episode 6: "Family Blood"
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