Chapter 10: Lost Hearts is the tenth episode of the first season of the Netflix original dark fantasy series, The Sandman.
Synopsis[]
As the Dream vortex grows more powerful and the walls between the realms weaken, Rose must make a difficult choice. Morpheus confronts The Corinthian.
Plot[]
The Corinthian, despite having just killed Fun Land, assured Rose and Jed that he meant them no harm and was only acting in their best interest; he was trying to protect them from Morpheus, but in that, Rose realized that The Corinthian was one of the missing nightmares, which he admitted was true, but he also revealed to Rose that Dream sought to kill her the moment she fell asleep and began to bring the walls down in the Dreaming. The Corinthian hoped to protect her from such a fate and help make her the center of the Dreaming, thus leaving Morpheus powerless.
The Good Doctor stopped by Corinthian's room to inform him that they had 15 minutes until his keynote address. Regarding Philip, they took care of him, but The Good Doctor was more interested in Jed, who The Corinthian insisted wouldn't be a problem. He then returned to Rose to try and convince her to wait in the room for his return.
Dream vs The Corinthian
The Corinthian took the stage to give his keynote address to the "collectors" in attendance. They didn't kill people to make a profit or for revenge. They killed simply because they desired to, making them entrepreneurs in an expanding field. The Corinthian sought for them to see themselves how he saw them, instructing the collectors to close their eyes and dream. Then Dream himself arrived, disappointed in The Corinthian. He was Dream's masterpiece, a dark mirror made to reflect everything humanity would not confront, but all he'd done was cause chaos and give them something else to fear. The Corinthian refused to go back to the Dreaming without a fight, pulling a knife from his jacket sleeve and stabbing Dream in his hand, much to dream's surprise, he bled and felt pain, wondering exactly how this was possible. Corinthian had Rose getting stronger every second as Dream got weaker, taking her place at the center of the Dreaming and bringing the walls down between the sleepers' minds, allowing them to dream the same dream, one inspired by The Corinthian.
The Shredder in shared dream
Rose and Jed attempted to escape the hospital before realizing that she was actually asleep in the Dreaming, having stumbled onto a shared dream between all the collectors, including Nimrod, The Good Doctor, and The Shredder. It wasn't long before Morpheus found Rose in this collective dream and instructed her to wake up, though The Corinthian tried to encourage her to take over the Dreaming instead. Dream admitted that he did intend to kill Rose, but only because when a vortex brought down the walls between dreams, she created a single volatile dream that would collapse in upon itself and take the entire waking world along with it. Everything and everyone would die. It had happened before. Dream failed in his duty and an entire universe was lost. Rather than taking control of the Dreaming, Rose placed the walls back up between everyone's dreams before waking up.
Awake once more, Dream and The Corinthian stood before each other. Dream brought Corinthian into the world to serve humanity, not to feed upon it, though Corinthian sought to taste what it was like to be human, accusing Dream of not even caring about humanity, only his realm and rules, to which Dream argued that without his rules, the entire collective unconscious would consume him along with humanity. Admittedly, this was Dream's fault. While he had high hopes for Corinthian, he created him poorly, and so Dream turned Corinthian into ash, leaving nothing behind but a fragile, small skull. He then turned his attention to the "collectors" and took away their self-imposed victimhood and daydreams in which they were always right. Dream's punishment to the serial killers were for them to know exactly how craven, selfish and monstrous they were, subjected to feel the pain of those they had slaughtered and the grief of those who mourned them. The Good Doctor went to her car and called the police to turn herself in, whilst Nimrod shot himself in the head.
On the road back home, Rose revealed to Jed that their mom died from an illness a few months ago, though she never stopped trying to get Jed back, but their dad didn't want to let him go. Fortunately, they had their great-grandmother and Rose's best friend Lyta, who as if on cue, called Rose to inform her that she was in labor at the hospital.
Rose and Jed arrived at the hospital some time after, where Hal asked if Rose knew Lyta was pregnant. Rather than answering, she introduced everyone to Jed. After avoiding a couple more questions from Hal and Barbie in regards to Lyta's family and the child's father, Rose called Unity to ask if Jed could come live with her if something were to happen to Rose. As it so happened, Unity was going to suggest that Rose and Jed both come live with her.
A nurse approached and took Rose to see Lyta, to whom Rose revealed that Dream intended to kill her whilst she slept, because if he didn't, the entire world would die. Lyta argued that if Rose had the power to destroy the world, then she had the power to end Dream.
Barbie and Ken's dream
That night, Rose searched for Morpheus in her sleep, during which point she unintentionally brought down the walls between Hal, Barbie, Ken, Chantal and Zelda's dreams. From this, a large vortex formed in the ground below, consuming each of them, along with Jed, until no one remained but Rose and Dream, who explained that no one would be safe until the vortex was dead.
Unity found her way to Lucienne's library in the Dreaming in search for the story of her life, had things turned out differently.
Fiddler's Green return
Dream explained that death was not always such a bad thing, telling Rose that she could even stay in the Dreaming if she saw fit. Before Dream could kill Rose, Gilbert interrupted, revealing to Rose that he was a dream and that he left his post to experience life as a human being, a life which he offered in exchange for Rose's, but as Dream explained, that was not possible, as the vortex needed to die. Gilbert had a theory for why vortexes existed. When a human was at the center of the Dreaming, it was to remind them that they existed because humans dreamed, not the other way around. While Dream had no intention to punish Gilbert for leaving, it was time for him to take up his position as Fiddler's Green once more. Fiddler's Green wasn't a person, rather a place, a large green meadow.
Unity becoming the vortex
Rose had accepted her fate and was prepared to die until Unity and Lucienne intervened. According to the book of Unity's life, she was meant to be the vortex, but because Morpheus was imprisoned and locked out of the Dreaming, that fate was handed down to Rose. And so, Unity instructed Rose to reach deep down inside herself and hand over whatever it was that made her the vortex. Rose did just that, and pulled a vibrating heart shaped red crystal from inside her own body and handed it over to Unity, who took her role as vortex and died in Rose's place. Unity then mentioned how she met a golden-eyed man, with whom she conceived a child with many years ago. In this, Dream realized he had been betrayed by Desire.
After Rose awakened from her sleep, and she and Jed went to the hospital to visit Lyta, who gave birth to a baby boy. Lyta considered naming him Hector but then decided the baby deserved a name of its own. Rose and Jed then joined the others in the waiting room, where they revealed that she, Lyta, and Jed would be flying home to Brunswick tomorrow after they were released. Hal questioned how far that was from New York, because after a dream he had the night before, he was considering selling the house and moving back to pursue his dream, with Chantal and Zelda offering to buy the house.
Dream threatening Desire
Dream decided to pay Desire a visit and confront them for their treachery. Unity should've been the vortex for the current era, but Desire took advantage of his imprisonment and fathered a child with her, knowing that it would become the vortex and Dream would be forced to kill it. Should he have spilled family blood, consequences would've followed. Dream reminded Desire that they were the servants of the living, not their masters. They did not manipulate humanity, if anything humanity manipulated them. Should Desire ever make another play against Dream again, he threatened to deal with them accordingly. However, Desire didn't appear fearful.
Lucienne joined Dream on the shores of the Dreaming as he created new dreams. She came to report that a new book written by Rose appeared in the library. Meanwhile, Rose was back at her apartment with Jed, Lyta, the baby, Hal, and Carl. Lucienne suspected that Dream was making new nightmares to replace Gault and Corinthian, but Dream didn't believe the world needed another Corinthian. In fact, he asked Lucienne to put Corinthian's skull someplace safe whilst he finished creating his latest dreams, including Gault, who in addition to being brought back as a dream, was given a set of wings. It would seem as though Dream had a change of heart. He had no right to return after over a century and expect everything to be the same as he had left it. Considering how much work needed to be tended to, Dream asked Lucienne to take care of the palace while he worked.
Lucifer must take action
In Hell, Lucifer received an unexpected visit from Lord Azazel. He came at the bidding of the assembled Lords of Hell for their shared goal to defeat Dream of the Endless. They wished to invade the Dreaming, but only at Lucifer's behest. From there, they intended to also take over the waking world and even the Silver City. Since they couldn't leave Hell, they sought to expand its borders until Hell was all there was. With the generals demanding action, Lucifer assured she would act. While Lucifer and Mazikeen agreed that they were not to be trusted, they did in fact need to take action, something that would upset God and bring Morpheus to his knees.
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Tom Sturridge as Dream
- Boyd Holbrook as The Corinthian
- Patton Oswalt as Matthew The Raven
- Vivienne Acheampong as Lucienne
Guest Starring[]
- Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer Morningstar
- Mason Alexander Park as Desire
- John Cameron Mitchell as Hal Carter
- Lenny Henry as Martin Tenbones
- Roger Allam as Azazel
- Kyo Ra as Rose Walker
- Razane Jammal as Lyta Hall
- Ben Wiggins as Carl
- Sandra James-Young as Unity Kinkaid
- Ann Ogbomo as Gault
- Cassie Clare as Mazikeen
- Lily Travers as Barbie
- Richard Fleeshman as Ken
- Cara Horgan as Zelda
- Daisy Badger as Chantal
- Jill Winternitz as The Good Doctor
- Kerry Shale as Nimrod
- Stephen Fry as Gilbert
Co-Starring[]
- Eddie Karanja as Jed Walker
- Isla Gie as Child Zelda
- Dickie Beau as The Shredder
- Zora Bishop as Myth America
- Desiree Burch as Grass Widow
- Nalân Burgess as Nurse Sindy
- JP Conway as The Connoisseur
- Jimmy Essex as Carrion
- Joe Frost as The Choirboy
- Alex Harrison as Hal / Dolly Double
- David Menkin as The Hammer of God
- Daniel Quirke as Moon River
- Kirris Riviere as Adonai
- Matthew Sim as The Crooner
- Daniel Tuite as Hello Little Girl
- Michael Walters as The Water Boy
Trivia[]
- "Lost Hearts" is the name of the sixteenth issue of the Sandman comic series.
Gallery[]
Promotional Images[]
References[]