The Sandman Season 1 Ending Explained (In Detail)

The Sandman's epic season 1 concludes with massive changes to Dream of the Endless. We explain every major development and how it sets up season 2.

Warning: SPOILERS for The Sandman Season 1

The ending of The Sandman season 1 saw Dream of the Endless (Tom Sturridge) set his realm, the Dreaming, to rights but little does the master of dreams suspect the powerful enemies aligning against him. The Sandman season 1 adapted the first two collected volumes of executive producer Neil Gaiman's beloved DC Comics, Preludes and Nocturnes and The Doll's House. Morpheus not only overcame two ordeals that threatened the Dreaming and the waking world, but he gained the capacity to change along with a greater understanding and appreciation of humanity and the denizens of the Dreaming.

The Sandman's first five episodes encompassed Preludes and Nocturnes. Dream escaped imprisonment for over a century at the hands of the British mage Roderick Burgess (Charles Dance) and set about to repair the Dreaming, which fell to ruin in his absence. Morpheus underwent a quest to regain his stolen symbols of office - his ruby, helmet, and his pouch of dream sand - which took him from London, New York, and even the bowels of Hell for fateful confrontations with Lucifer Morningstar (Gwendoline Christie) and John Dee (David Thewlis), who possessed Dream's ruby. The Sandman episode 6, "The Sound of Her Wings," was an epilogue that introduced Dream's older sister, Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), and his immortal friend, Hob Gadling (Ferdinand Kingsley). Finally, the final four episodes of The Sandman season 1 adapted The Doll's House storyline, which saw Rose Walker (Vanesu Samunyai) become the Dream Vortex who threatened the Dreaming as Morpheus had his final showdown with the rogue nightmare, The Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook).

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The pivotal character development in The Sandman season 1 fittingly involves Dream of the Endless himself, who came to better understand how his servants in the Dreaming, including his loyal librarian, Lucienne (Vivienne Acheampong), see their lord and master. Dream, who has traditionally been a cold, distant, and frightening figure throughout his eons of existence, gained a new appreciation for the dreams and nightmares of the Dreaming and for humanity itself. This sets the stage for Morpheus' continued evolution in The Sandman season 2 as the king of dreams put season 1's mysteries to bed.

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The Sandman season 1's first ending came in episode 5, "24/7," a nightmarish tale where Morpheus had his final confrontation with John Dee. Having corrupted the Sandman's ruby so that only John could wield it, Dee used the dream stone to alter reality into a world where "no one ever lies." This was Dee's twisted revenge on his own mother, Ethel Cripps (Joely Richardson), who John blamed for lying to him all of his life and having him institutionalized for decades. Dee manipulated and murdered the people in a New York diner, and he began fracturing reality until Morpheus confronted him.

Of course, John Dee had designs on taking over the Dreaming as well as the waking world, and he possessed more power than the Sandman thanks to the ruby. Dee's fatal mistake was assuming he destroyed Dream and, thus, John destroyed the ruby. This inadvertently released the dormant power Morpheus imbued in the ruby back to him, and Dream emerged fully restored and more powerful than he had been in eons since placing so much of his essence in his tools of office. Dream's punishment for John Dee was to place him in an endless sleep back in his asylum, and the king of dreams repaired reality and brought the Dreaming back to its majestic state. However, in The Sandman episode 6, Dream grew despondent now that his quest was over until Death gave him a renewed appreciation for his function to serve all of the dreamers in the waking world.

The Doll's House storyline concerned the emergence of the Dream Vortex, who is a 21-year-old girl named Rose Walker. The Dream Vortex is a very rare occurrence that threatens the Dreaming: Every few thousand years, a human gains the ability to dream so powerfully that they can enter and manipulate the dreams of others. Rose had no idea that she was the Dream Vortex at first but her power grew rapidly, and Rose would soon cause the collapse of both the Dreaming and the waking world.

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One of The Doll's House's biggest twists is that Rose was not meant to be the Dream Vortex of her era. The Vortex was supposed to be Rose's great-great-grandmother, Unity Kincaid (Sandra James-Young). Unity was the victim of the sleeping sickness that afflicted millions throughout the world when Morpheus was imprisoned by Roderick Burgess, and she was asleep for decades until Dream's escape. The power to become the Dream Vortex passed from Unity to Rose. As the Dream Vortex, Rose was destined to destroy the Dreaming, and Morpheus' only recourse was to kill her in order to destroy the Vortex.

However, Rose was saved by the intervention of Unity and of Gilbert (Stephen Fry), who was secretly Fiddler's Green, one of the Dreaming's major Arcana who left Morpheus' realm to experience life as a human being. Gilbert AKA Fiddler's Green convinced Dream not to kill Rose and he voluntarily returned to his proper role in the Dreaming. Meanwhile, Unity realized that she was meant to be the Dream Vortex of this era and she asked Rose to pass her power back to her great-great-grandmother. Thus, it was Unity who sacrificed herself in Rose's place in order to save the Dreaming and the waking world. This gave Rose the chance to live her life, and she even wrote a book about her experiences.

The Corinthian's escape from the Dreaming is the inciting incident that allowed Roderick Burgess to capture Dream in the first place. Morpheus considered The Corinthian his "finest achievement," a nightmare meant to reflect humanity's darkness. But The Corinthian wanted to feed on mortals; in the hundred-plus years that Dream was imprisoned, The Corinthian became a serial killer who ended up inspiring legions of other murderers. When Morpheus escaped, The Corinthian became aware of Rose Walker as the Dream Vortex and he knew she was the ideal weapon to use against Dream of the Endless, so he abducted Rose's brother Jed Walker (Eddie Karanja) to lure her to a "Cereal Convention," i.e. a gathering of serial killers where The Corinthian was the guest of honor.

The Corinthian's plan was to use Rose as the Dream Vortex to destroy Morpheus and the Dreaming so that the girl would take its place. The Corinthian came very close, and he was even able to stab Dream and draw blood as Rose's power increased, weakening the Sandman. However, Rose didn't trust either Dream or The Corinthian and she decided to find her own path. Morpheus finally destroyed The Corinthian and gave his skull to Lucienne for safekeeping. Unlike Gault (Andi Oshi), the third Arcana who fled the Dreaming and manipulated Jed Walker into thinking he was a superhero called the Sandman, Dream did not immediately remake The Corinthian. Gault was mercifully redesigned as a dream, but The Corinthian's time preying on humans is over. The Sandman also punished all of The Corinthian's followers and made them experience the pain they caused, which led them to turn themselves in or kill themselves.

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Dream finally realized the true culprit behind the tragedies of The Sandman season 1 all along was his sibling, Desire (Mason Alexander Park), although their twin, Despair (Donna Preston), was also in on it. Morpheus deduced Desire's villainy because of two clues. First, Unity Kincaid dreamed that she had a lover who had golden eyes, and it was this lover who got her pregnant while she was asleep from lethargic encephalitis. The second major clue was when Unity asked Rose to "reach inside" herself and pass whatever makes her the Dream Vortex to her great-great-grandmother. Rose pulled a heart-shaped sigil from her chest and gave the power of the Dream Vortex to unity. Dream saw that the Dream Vortex power source resembled Desire's heart-shaped sigil.

When Dream confronted them, Desire immediately confessed and took full credit for impregnating Unity, which led to Rose Walker becoming the Dream Vortex. However, because Desire is technically the great-great-grandfather of Rose and Jed, the Walker siblings are "children of the Endless" and are actually blood-related to Dream and his immortal family, the Endless. What Dream didn't realize is how far-reaching Desire's manipulation of Morpheus and his life truly has been. Desire claimed that Dream's tragic love affair with Nada (Deborah Oyelade), which caused him to banish her to Hell for 10,000 years, was by their design.

It's also inferred that Desire was the cause of The Corinthian's rebellion and that they pulled the strings which led to Dream being imprisoned by Roderick Burgess. Further, Desire likely played a hand in influencing the dreams and nightmares, including Gault and Fiddler's Green, to leave the Dreaming, believing Lord Morpheus abandoned them. Why, exactly, Desire plots against Dream will be revealed in a future season of The Sandman that adapts the graphic novel, The Sandman: Overture.

Rose's best friend, Lyta Hall (Razane Jammal), became pregnant in the Dreaming and gave birth to a son just a few days later. Lyta was coerced by her dead husband, Hector Hall (Lloyd Everitt), to live with him in the Dreaming until Morpheus intervened. Dream banished Hector, who was a ghost hiding in the Dreaming, to the Sunless Lands where he belongs. But Dream also declared that Lyta's baby was "mine" because it was a child that was conceived and gestated in the Dreaming.

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Lyta's baby, who is nameless at the end of The Sandman season 1, is monumentally important to the future. In The Sandman season 2, which is expected to adapt The Season of Mists storyline, Dream himself names the child Daniel. Of course, longtime readers of The Sandman comics know that Daniel's ultimate purpose is to become the next aspect and embodiment of Dream of the Endless. But for now, Lyta is raising her infant son with help from Rose, Jed, and the rest of their makeshift found family.

The Sandman season 1 ended with a return to Hell where Lucifer Morningstar plots a revenge that "will make God absolutely livid" and will "bring Morpheus to his knees." This ominous threat indicates the Devil's vengeance for Dream humiliating and defeating him in "The Oldest Game" in order to reclaim his helmet. At the end of The Sandman season 1, Lucifer is visited by Azazel, another demon who is a Duke of Hell and a general in Hell's armies. Azazel urges Lucifer to wage war on the Dreaming as phase one of an overall plan to expand Hell's boundaries by absorbing Morpheus' realm, then the waking world, and finally, Heaven itself. The Lightbringer feigned that he would entertain Azazel's scheme but instead of simply destroying Dream, Lucifer concocts an entirely different plan altogether.

Lucifer Morningstar returns in The Season of Mists storyline, which should provide the back half of The Sandman season 2. But the Devil's intention isn't to destroy Dream as he once claimed; instead, Lucifer abdicates his throne, evacuates Hell, and turns the empty realm over to Dream of the Endless. Morpheus becomes the ersatz ruler of Hell and is burdened with what to do with the infernal kingdom as various entities like the Norse gods, the Faerie, and the demons led by Azazel plot to gain control of Hell. Meanwhile, Lucifer, who has Dream cut off his wings, has the last laugh as the Devil enjoys no longer being responsible for ruling Hell after 10 billion years.

By adapting Dream Country and The Season of Mists, The Sandman season 2 will dramatize some of Neil Gaiman's most beloved Sandman stories. Dream Country will introduce Calliope, one of the Ancient Greek muses who is not only one of Morpheus' former lovers but is also the mother of his son, Orpheus. Dream Country also contains the popular tales "Dream of a Thousand Cats" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which will show the result of the bargain Morpheus made with William Shakespeare (Samuel Blenkin) in 1589 when he met with Hob Gadling, as seen in "The Sound of Her Wings." The Season of Mists is not only an epic tale about Dream's ordeal as the new ruler of Hell, but it will also introduce two more members of the Endless, Destiny and Delirium, but not (yet) "The Prodigal" sibling, Destruction.

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Crucially, The Season of Mists in The Sandman season 2 will also resolve the story of Dream and Nada, as Morpheus decides to free her and make amends for banishing her to Hell for 10,000 years. The fact that Dream risks his life to save Nada from Hell is further proof that the Sandman is changing and evolving into a better and wiser entity. Yet, the more Dream changes, the more his enemies seek to destroy him, and The Sandman has many enemies, indeed.

Next: The Sandman Easter Eggs & References

The Sandman Season 1 is streaming on Netflix.

John Orquiola is Screen Rant's Star Trek Beat Editor, Senior Features staff writer, and interviewer.