This is a story recap of the Netflix series The Sandman season 1 and contains spoilers as it details what happened.
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by Netflix The sand man made its long-awaited debut on the small screen. Originally based on the DC Comic Book series, there have been several setbacks in making a movie. And instead, it was decided that a 10-episode series would be made instead. Below is a recap of what happened.
Story recap – what happened in The sand man season 1?
Episode 1-2
After Roderick and Dr. Hathaway mourn the deaths of their two sons, they plan to kidnap “Death” and force him to revive their sons. However, the plan goes awry and they kidnap the King of Dreams, Lord Morpheus, instead. As a result, sleeping sickness occurs across the world. But to keep himself and his father safe, Roderick builds a case strong enough to contain Lord Morpheus and his powers. When Roderick’s son, Alex, wants to free Morpheus, it causes a huge argument. In the next scuffle, Alex pushes Roderick; and Roderick hits his head and dies. Years later, Morpheus escapes, traps Alex in an endless dream and returns home, where Lucienne is waiting for him. But it’s not all sunshine and roses; he quickly learns that the kingdom has decayed and crumbled in his absence.
The Corinthian tracks down Ethel, Roderick’s mistress with whom he had an unwanted son, Jonathan. He warns her that Morpheus has escaped and will likely chase her as she stole the ruby when she fled from Roderick. As Morpheus must sacrifice Gregory and visit The Fates to help retrieve the oar, The Corinthian wonders if Ethel should kill The Corinthian. But it turns out to be just a trick as The Corinthian tries to take Ethel’s eye, only to fail when she reveals her own powers. As a result, The Corinthian is sent back to the dream world. But never one to be arrested, he soon returns to the waking world.
Episode 3-4
Johanna performs an exorcism that leaves a famous footballer dead. After completing his duties, Lord Morpheus tells Johanna that he needs her name to locate the sand. But she refuses to help them. Meanwhile, Jonathan, still locked up, reveals to Ethel that he knows the truth about her and her father; and if Ethel wants the ruby from him, he first asks her for the truth. After Morpheus learns that Johanna is suffering from terrible dreams, he offers to make them go away if she helps him, which it seems she accepts.
It soon becomes clear that Ethel isn’t as evil as we once thought; instead, it seems she kept her son locked up because the last time Jonathon had the ruby, it caused many deaths. But when Ethel says all she did was to protect him, she removes the amulet of protection.
Johanna visits her ex-girlfriends and tries to locate the sand that Morpheus so desperately wants. But the sand is not meant for humans, and they find a dying, shrunken Rachel in her bed. While removing the sand, Rachel faces certain death; but even so, Morpheus allows him to die. In the hospital/prison, after Ethel removes the protection amulet, she ages and soon collapses in her son’s arms and dies. When a guard witnesses Ethel’s death, Jonathon violently kills several guards (by blowing up their bodies) and leaves the hospital where he has been imprisoned for so long.
Morpheus descends into Hell, where he reunites with his former love, Nada, whom he placed in Hell for betraying him. And while he’s in hell, Morpheus has no choice but to fight Lucifer. But after Lord Morpheus wins the fight, he gets the bar back. When Jonathon gets his much-desired ruby, he leaves the amulet of protection to Rosemary, a woman he befriended/terrified with.
Episode 5-6
With Jonathon possessing the ruby, he uses it to wreak havoc at a local restaurant. By forcing everyone to tell the truth, many of the secrets of the diners become clear. A married couple, Gary and Kate, who, despite claiming to be married, mistrust each other to the point of resentment. Mark Brewer, who has an interview with the married couple’s company, spoils the interview due to Jonathon’s powers.
Bette tries to convince her boss, Marsh, to come to her room later that night. But it turns out Marsh isn’t interested in her because he’s having sex with her son. But then it soon becomes clear that Bette is also gay, and she makes out with one of the other guests at the restaurant. Before long, all the guests are paired up and they’re having sex. Jonathon swallows while walking around the restaurant.
Things soon turn violent when Garry surprises Mark with his wife. This results in Garry’s death. And thanks to this action, Bette realizes that Jonathon is behind everything that happened in the restaurant. As they all die as part of Jonathon’s “Better World”, Bette is the last one standing. That’s until she stabs herself in her own eyes. In the Bloody Aftermath, Morpheus shows Jonathon that the Ruby harms himself and those in the waking world. Morpheus tries to reason with Jonathon. But when he can’t, he puts Jonathon into an endless slumber so humanity can sleep in peace.
Next, Morpheus reunites with his sister, Death; and she has the daunting task of picking people up when their time is up. While his other sister, Desire, plans to bring Morpheus back to his cage.
Episode 7-8
Desire learns that there is a dream vortex, Rose Walker, who will harm everyone. As for Rose, she is trying to find her brother, who has been missing for several years. Morpheus later confirms that the vortex exists, and Lucienne says “it” needs to be taken care of. But as Morpheus has to take care of the dream world, Matthew and Lucienne decide to find her.
Meanwhile, Rose meets Unity, who happens to be her grandmother. Unity went “asleep” at the age of 12 and dreamed of the most glorious life and never woke up only very recently. The Corinthian returns to the scene; when he tries to find Rose, he comes across her roommate, Carl. They have sex, but Corinthian abruptly leaves after telling Carl to get Rose to call him. The three sisters visit Polly and warn her of impending danger.
After The Corinthian meets his copycat killers, he invites them to try to find the Vortex. While Rose, now in the dream realm, confronts Morpheus. She asks if he knows anything about her brother, Jed. When Morpheus alerts Rose to the fact that she is a dream vortex, they decide to work together and find Jed. As for Jed, while he dreams of being a superhero, the reality is that he is in a foster family that locks him in the basement. And while Rose tries to find Jed, The Corinthian tries to find her.
Before long, The Corinthian tracks down Jed and kills his abusive adoptive parents. After taking a short drive, The Corinthian asks Jed to call Rose and tell her where they are.
Episodes 9-10
With Rose aware of Jed’s location, she decides to find him. Her savior, Gilbert, wants to make sure she stays safe on the trip, so he accompanies her. Morpheus enters Lyta’s dream world, kills Hector (who was a hidden ghost in a dream), and says he will return to take Lyta’s baby. To protect her friend, Rose uses her powers against Morpheus. Afterwards, Rose and Gilbert sneak into the “cereal” convention. And soon after, it becomes clear that Gilbert is actually Fiddles Green. As Rose and Jed reunite and attempt to flee “Fun Land”, The Corinthian saves them both by killing “Fun Land”.
After saving their lives, The Corinthian attempts to convince Rose to turn on Morpheus, who he believes will kill them both. When The Corinthian gives a motivational speech to the killers, Morpheus comes in and says The Corinthian didn’t bring anything. There is a brief stalemate, which results in Morpheus un-creating The Corinthian; and, therefore, all serial killers feel immense guilt, so they either kill themselves or confess to their crimes.
But it’s not over yet; Morpheus must deal with the Vortex first. When Morpheus tries to kill Rose, his grandmother, Unity, appears, and as she was the first descendant, she sacrifices her own life to save Rose, but not before Unity reveals that her child’s father had eyes. golden, aka Desire. After seemingly threatening Desire enough to get her to stay away, Morpheus seems to be happy (for once). However, Lucifer is livid; and she wants silver town and bring Lucifer to his knees. And so, that probably leads us into the second season.
This is the complete recap of what happened in season 1 of The Sandman. What do you think of the story? Please comment below.
You can watch this series with a Netflix subscription.
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