This recap of Netflix’s The Sandman Season 1, Episode 5, “24/7”, contains spoilers.
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The sand man summary of season 1, episode 5
In the previous episode, the show ended with Morpheus unconscious and John mistaking the ruby for his.
John is a diner, discussing dreaming of a more honest world with the waitress, showing her the ruby. He watches the waitress, Bette, as she goes through her mundane daily routine, talking to customers and providing good customer service, but lies to herself. As she talks to two people she had a date with 5 years ago, things get a bit tense, and as John watches, you can tell he’s upset that people are lying. Even little little lies like ordering something different from what you really want. When Bette returns to wait for John, he confronts her about writing and stories, stating that all stories will eventually end in death. He points the ruby at her and makes her tell the truth, saying this is how they change the world.
The scene escalates as John forces everyone to tell the truth about what they think rather than lying and saying what people want them to hear. Everyone in the restaurant says what they really think and feel. We learn that Bette’s boss is sleeping with her son, that Bette is a lesbian, that the happy couple aren’t actually happy, and John watches how life changes drastically when people are actually honest. John looks sad and almost devastated to have agreed. John is sitting eating ice cream while three groups of people have sex around him in the restaurant.
Things then get violent and Bette realizes that John is the one having an effect on people. All he did was take away the lies, and that shows who they really are, crazy, sex-crazed killers. Each person then begins to self-harm, cut their fingers, slice their artists, and burn themselves. Bette is the last one standing, asking John, how is this a better world? He asks her to embrace the darkness, so she stabs herself in the eye and tells John about her future.
The end
This episode ends with Morpheus waking up and finding John, telling him that the Ruby was not made to save the world and that the Ruby must turn to him as he is harming John and the waking world. He disputes that these are not lies, they are in fact dreams. People use their dreams to get through life.
John threatens to take Morpheus’ powers, but it can only be done in his realm. In his dreams. We are now in a dream world. In the house of his father, Roderick Bussels, who transforms into Dreaming. John slowly kills Lord Morpheus, injures the dreamers, and breaks the ruby into small pieces. We slowly think that John killed Morpheus, but in reality he broke the ruby and unleashed all of his powers, which are most of Morpheus himself. The Ruby was never meant to be in the hands of men, so Lord Morpheus puts John back in his mental prison and lets mankind sleep in peace.
The final shot is of a woman, standing in the street, saying “I’m watching you, big brother” and laughing.
What did you think of season 1, episode 5 of Netflix’s The Sandman? Comments below.
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