“Family Blood” brings the first half of the second season of The Sandman to a close as we all wait for Volume 2, set to be released on July 24 with a final special episode on July 31. As a mid-season finale of sorts, this episode brings some of this season’s plotlines to a close while keeping the playing field wide open for whatever is coming our way at the end of the month, and it does so in a pretty satisfactory way—even though I’m personally still waiting for an episode that truly hits me, so hopefully there’ll be some of those come Volume 2.
In the meantime, “Family Blood” opens with another character returning from season 1, the 19th century adventurer Lady Johanna Constantine—played by Jenna Coleman. We see in a flashback that Dream visits her to entrust her with a potentially dangerous job: retrieving Orpheus’s head from Paris, which currently finds itself gripped by the post-Revolution Reign of Terror. Johanna ultimately manages to escape with Orpheus and bring him to the Greek island where his priesthood waits for him—and where Johanna herself will be buried, as we learn towards the middle of the episode.
It’s on this island that Dream and Delirium go to learn from Orpheus where Destruction is—and it turns out he’s living on an island you can see from Orpheus' temple. Father and son have their first confrontation before Dream and Delirium go look for their brother, and it’s clear that the years have mellowed the pair since their last, harsh parting.
It might also be because Dream’s changed, as Destruction remarks when finally, Dream and Delirium come knocking at his door. In ultimate brotherly fashion, Destruction is clearly very proud to see how far Dream has come from his incredibly cold, detached self—bringing back some of that Endless family dynamic that is definitely one of The Sandman’s strongest suits. Despite Delirium really trying her best to convince him to return to his realm and his duties, Destruction confirms that he has no intention of ever going back.
Instead, he plans to move on, somewhere where no one will be able to reach him. One might think then that Dream and Delirium’s quest was absolutely pointless, but I don’t believe that’s the case—it helped Dream getting closer to his sister, for one, and gave the siblings some much-needed closure, which is going to help them cope with Destruction’s disappearance. A disappearance which happens on a cosmic level since we see Destruction turn into stars and float away probably beyond the galaxy, where he will truly be unreachable.
Since he left with no intention of going back on his decision, I wonder if Destruction is the king who forsakes his kingdom as the Fates predicted at the beginning of this season. What’s certain is that Dream and Delirium watch him go together with Barnabas the talking dog, whom Destruction has entrusted to Delirium to keep company and hold off her devastating bouts of loneliness.
When they return on Orpheus’s island, though, “Family Blood” is ready to show us exactly why it’s titled this way. Dream knows perfectly well that asking Orpheus for Destruction’s location meant owning him a boon, and that the only boon his son wants is to put an end to his eternal existence and be together with Eurydice once more in the Underworld.
So Dream does exactly that and kills him, even though the act clearly weighs on him—we see how much once he returns to the Dreaming, where he isolates himself in his chambers and sobs desperately, mourning his son. And that’s not all. The very last scene of the episode is reserved for the Fates, who debate whether or not they should go after Dream—he did, after all, spill his own family’s blood and that’s always something unforgivable in every myth and legend from all over the world. As the Fates themselves reminded Orpheus in “The Song of Orpheus,” they have many names and many roles beyond making prophecies and spinning the threads of life—they are also the goddesses of vengeance, and it is their sacred duty to right such a terrible wrong. So I’m very excited to see where this turn into Greek tragedy will take us come Volume 2.
Bullet Point Summery
- The episode opens with a flashback to Dream in the 19th century, engaging the adventurer Lady Johanna Constantine—whom we had already seen in season 1—to find Orpheus’s head in France during the Reign of Terror and bring it back to the Greek island where he was housed before. Johanna succeeds and seems to build quite a deep relationship with Orpheus, since we later see that she has been buried on his island right outside his temple.
- Thanks to Orpheus’ help, Dream and Delirium finally find Destruction on the island just in front of the one where Orpheus resides. Their brother is happy to see them but has no intention of going back to his realm. Instead he disappears beyond our known galaxy, to a place where no one will be able to reach him.
- He does leave his siblings with some closure, though, as well as with Barnabas, his talking dog, who becomes Delirium’s new companion.
- The episode also solves the unresolved tensions between Dream and Orpheus, with Dream making the ultimate sacrifice and spilling his own family’s blood to give Orpheus what he truly wants: the relief of death and reuniting with Eurydice in the Underworld.
- It’s an act that clearly pains Dream and one that brings the Furies down on him, as we see in the final scene of “Family Blood” and that perfectly sets up the stakes going into Volume 2.
Episode Grade: B
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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