We open on Dream’s realm looking very much like Mordor. Lucienne tells him she kept a journal for a while of what happened in his absence, but then the words faded out, the ink vanished from the paper of all the books in the library, and then the library vanished and Lucienne never found it again. You can tell Dream really appreciates that Lucienne stuck around, especially when she’s like “I knew you would return.” Of course he doesn’t thank her. That is not his Vibe. He tries to at least put his throne room back together, but without his tools (ruby, helmet, pouch of sand), he doesn’t have the strength.
In Buffalo, New York, Joely Richardson, as Ethel, is hawking some art in several different languages. This is very sexy of her. She is clearly too young to be Ethel, but a thrown-in line later on tells us that she’s made herself youthful by supernatural means. If that’s the case, I wish they’d just stuck with the original actress, who exuded a fascinating combination of warmth and steeliness. The Corinthian breaks into her house to let her know that Dream is out of his cage and will be coming after both of them. As a reminder, the Corinthian has teeth for eyes. He wears sunglasses, but underneath the sunglasses, his eyes are teeth. I miss his little straw boater from the olden days.
Dream sulkily admits to Lucienne that he will need to consult the Fates to find out what’s happened to his stuff. Lucienne is against this; she thinks maybe he should ask his siblings for help, maybe let them know what’s been going on with him. Dream says stonily, “I am quite sure they know what happened to me, and not one of them came to my aid.” That is actually a really good point! Is this addressed in the comics? It’s kind of hurtful that none of them even missed him! Anyway, he doesn’t have enough power to summon the Fates, so he has to go visit Cain and Abel and unmake their pet gargoyle, Gregory. Cain and Abel do not, let’s say, feel like an integral part of the story here—one of those times where adherence to the source material isn’t serving the show well. Even more insanely, Dream cries about unmaking Gregory. That would never happen!! Dream is nice enough to make a cute lil gargoyle, but he is not nice enough to cry about unmaking one.
After picking up some stuff from other people’s dreams, including a snake and a large egg, Dream summons the fates (Maiden, Mother, and Crone). They give him cryptic answers about the whereabouts of his stuff: Johanna Constantine was the last person to buy his pouch of sand; the helmet was traded to a demon in exchange for an amulet of protection; and the ruby passed from a mother to a son. When they leave, Lucienne notices that Dream didn’t give them the egg, just the snake, and he says that the egg is not for them.
Abel, whom Cain has bad-temperedly stabbed after Gregory’s demise, wakes up in a shallow grave with the egg beside him. He takes it back to show Cain, and it hatches into a new baby gargoyle! Eh, the new gargoyle is fine. I miss Gregory. Justice for Gregory! Abel tries to name the baby gargoyle Irving, and Cain kills him again because all gargoyles have to have names that begin with a G, and it’s very annoying that Abel has not done so. Lol. Does Neil Gaiman have siblings? The naming of pets is indeed very contentious and it makes sense siblings would come to blows over it. I judge this to be truth in television.
When Abel wakes up again, he exposits to the baby gargoyle that Cain always kills Abel, and Abel really doesn’t mind. Then he tells Goldie a different story about two brothers who are nice and kind and brotherly, and the older brother never hurts the younger brother at all. Goldie receives this with interest. “And they’d be happy,” says Abel. The scene should have cut here, but instead Abel says he doesn’t mind being killed if it makes Cain happy, and he chipperly wanders off and it’s a laugh line. I am mostly enjoying this show so far, but can it please be more ruthless? I feel like it’s scared of hurting me, but I have come here to be hurt.
In the waking world, Ethel is still bantering with the Corinthian. After some heavy flirt-and-threat action between them (I ship it), she tells him, that she got rid of the helmet and pouch years ago (smart), but that she gave the ruby to her son, John, and it consumed him. The Corinthian takes off his sunglasses and leans more heavily on the threat side of things, but Ethel pulls out her amulet of protection (as mentioned by the Fates), which sorts of sklooshes him into evaporating blood ribbons. Don’t worry. Our teeth-eyed pal will be back. Ethel goes to visit her son in the hospital/asylum (I guess it couldn’t be Arkham Asylum for copyright reasons, but you and I know it’s Arkham Asylum really). John, played by David Thewlis, is not a fan of hers, due to all the many lies she has told him in the course of his life.
Back in the Dreaming, Morpheus tells Lucienne that he’s going to London first, to get the sand, and then to Hell for the helmet. Lucienne advises him to take a raven with him, because a raven could go back and forth between the realms and keep Lucienne posted on what’s happening. I still do not completely buy Dream’s grief over Jessamy, but it’s absolutely in character that he’s all, I am Dream of the Endless, I don’t need a baby-sitter. He’s confident he can take Johanna Constantine. I am alight with desire to meet Johanna Constantine and maybe go on a date with her.
Elsewhere in the dreaming, a bunch of globby blood ribbons reconstitute themselves into the Corinthian. He still does not have his stupid little boater hat. I liked the boater hat! Lucienne tries to convince him to do his duty and be a loyal subject of Dream. “He doesn’t give a fuck about you or me,” says the Corinthian. “He only cares about himself. His kingdom.” This is true enough to be interesting! Even more accurately, as the Corinthian whisks himself back into the waking world, he tells Lucienne: “You can’t change him. You can’t save him.” HIGHLY ACCURATE.
How I’d fix this episode: I enjoyed this episode, and I think Tom Sturridge and Vivienne Acheampong have good and interesting chemistry, despite the fact that all their scenes have been pretty exposition-heavy so far. I just feel that the show overall needs to be more ruthless. It’s been shying away from gore, and Dream is caring about way too many things. I am going to start keeping count of the number of things Dream cares about in each episode, and you will see it’s unreasonable and out of character.
Canon fodder: There is no reason for Cain and Abel to be in this episode. It’s actually a case where they were better integrated into the original — Gregory is the one who finds Dream all sodden and pitiful, and takes him home to Cain and Abel. As things stand, we spend a weird amount of time on Gregory’s death and its emotional impact on everyone. Gregory is cute and all, but this feels superfluous.
Number of things Dream cares about in this episode, other than his duty: 4 (his realm being all fucked up, the fact that his siblings didn’t come save him, Gregory’s death, and the raven who died last week). I wouldn’t mind him caring about Jessamy and Gregory as subjects of his realm, but I simply do not buy his caring for them as people. Arguably he also cares about Cain and Abel enough to get them another gargoyle, but it feels perfectly in character that he’d just drop off this gargoyle egg and never speak of it. I’ll allow it.
Does Dream do a sulk? Yes, a giant one, in his ruined throne room, and then the sulk intensifies when Lucienne brings up his siblings. Very realistic.
Fuckboy energy: 6/10. Tom Sturridge does some highly fuckboy face acting during the scene with the Fates. I feel like he’s hitting his stride.