The Sandman
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Chuck Klosterman said that pessimists never think theyre pessimists.
Rather, they believe they are the only realists.
Partially, this is because comics as a genre was incubated under a strict code of censorship.
But truth is a mysterious fish.
Its not so predictable as sad=true, happy=lie.
John Dee wants to transform the world by stripping away its pleasantries, which he equates with lying.
But pleasantries are as true as insults.
Any picture of humanity that is unilaterally cruel ignores as much about human nature as any Silver AgeSupermanstory.
(Looking at you,The Killing Joke.)
John chooses a 24-hour diner as the site to launch his new world.
Its a lucky spot, as the diner happens to be occupied by several archetypal characters that day.
Everyone is sad in their own way and horny and angry.
John uses the ruby to peel back the niceties from these people.
Marsh is gay, Garry is bi, and Bette is homophobic (and kinda gay).
When Garry reveals that hed be into some MLM stuff and thelighting turns bisexual, I fully cackled.
He cheats to regain a modicum of power, and she disparages his worth ethic and cocksmanship.
Its a tale as old as time.
Before things start to get freaky at the diner, she FaceTimes with their mutual friend Rose.
Lets take a minute to memorize Roses face and hair.
Under the rubys spell, the diner devolves into a suck-and-fuck fest, then an orgy of violence.
Apparently honesty, like grief, has stages.
This is the product of a deeply repressed mind.
Its only after bad actors intervene that everything becomes a camp expression of American aggression.
Even Dream agrees with me.
Or at least its one based on actual events.
John decides to kill Dream and become the new master of nightmares, because of course he does.
And theres a soupcon of Dream serving as a substitute for the dad he never met.
Its all very Oedipal, especially once John enters the Dreaming and fights through one motherfucker of a nightmare.
Having fought through Dreams illusions, John finds himself in Dreams ruined palace.
Problem solved, right?
Dream is dead; long live Doctor Destiny.
But as Lucifer said in the last episode, tools are the subtlest of traps.
Destroying the ruby actually freed Dream to become the most powerful version weve seen of him yet.
This is also when we see how much Morpheus has changed over his many, many years of imprisonment.
This is not the same man who still hasnt forgiven Nada.
You never know what theyre gonna do, or whom, and that makes them bad/dangerous.
Desire is both deeper and more shallow than that.
Many of those are bad!
They cant be a unilaterally good character, as none of the Endless are.
Except maybe Death, but thats for the next episode.
Also, they do not look entirely dissimilar.
Which isnt a lot,but its weird that it happened twice, right?
Every time thunder clapped ominously at the diner, I LOLd.
