Chapter 8: Playing House is the eighth episode of the first season of the Netflix original dark fantasy series, The Sandman.
Synopsis[]
As Morpheus closes in on one of his missing creations, Rose ramps up efforts to locate her brother — and unwittingly makes a friend's dream come true.
Plot[]
Dream meeting Rose
Having unintentionally made her way to The Dreaming, Rose questioned Dream and Lucienne on the whereabouts of her brother after hearing the two of them speak his name. While Dream didn't know his exact location, he suspected her brother was with one of his missing nightmares, most likely because Rose was a Dream Vortex; once every few thousand years, a mortal is born with a dreaming ability so powerful that she can travel through the dreams of others. For now, Dream instructed Rose to continue looking for her brother in the waking world, where Matthew would be watching over her. And at night fall, whilst she slept, the two of them would go looking for her brother together.
Jed the Sandman
Meanwhile, Gault appeared to Jed in his dream as his mother in order to gain his trust. Together, the two of them fought evil villains together, at which point, Jed took up the superhero alias "The Sandman." On his mission to stop the Piper, Jed was attacked by a group of rats from the sewer before awakening from his sleep to discover that he was being bitten by an actual rat. Locked in the cellar, Jed called up to his Aunt Clarice and Uncle Barnaby, but his calls for help went unanswered. Clarice sought to assist, but Barnaby refused, suspecting that Jed would attempt to run away again.
Rose awakened from her sleep to find Matthew outside her window. She then grabbed the most recent photo she had of herself with Jed and began to print out help posters. She also called Unity to share with her that Jed's foster parents were friends of her dad's and that she was staying in Florida for a bit longer to investigate. Like Rose, Unity was quite busy as well, revealing that there was a journalist interviewing her about the sleepy sickness. Unbeknownst to Rose, or Unity for that matter, she was being interviewed by The Corinthian.
Rose joined the others for breakfast, during which point, Hal, Ken, Barbie, Chantal and Zelda volunteered to put up some of her help posters across town.
Lyta and Hector in bed
Lyta had another dream with Hector, in which he encouraged her to go out and live her life rather than having ghost sex with her dead husband. Lyta retorted that he was a dream, not a ghost, but Hector argued otherwise, as he never disappeared when Lyta awakened. He would instead go to work, which entailed building their dream house, which he proceeded to give Lyta a tour of. Hector even took the time to build a nursery, hopeful that Lyta would agree to stay with him in the Dreaming, but they both knew that eventually, she'd have to wake up. And just like that, she did. Moments later, Rose entered with her posters to help find Jed.
Dream remained troubled from his recent interaction with Rose; he questioned how she was able to wander into his throne room and why Gault targeted Rose's brother instead of Rose directly. This led Lucienne to Unity Kincaid. The day Morpheus was imprisoned, people all over the world fell asleep and couldn't wake up. Unity was the sole survivor of the sleepy sickness. And the day he returned, she woke up, not to mention that fact that Rose was her great-granddaughter, suggesting that Dream's absence caused the birth of a vortex, which would be impossible, as vortexes were naturally occurring phenomena.
Rose couldn't recall any of her dad's friends, as he wasn't a rather pleasant man. So, instead of searching for his friends, she and Hal intended to start with the neighbors around their old house. The last time she saw Jed was at the very same house seven years ago. When her mom got a job in New Jersey, her dad cut them off completely from Jed. Her mom sued, but Rose went off to college, and now blames herself for not being a better sister.
Lyta visited Ms. Rubio on Rose's behalf to apologize for their last encounter. Lyta hoped that Ms. Rubio could do a follow-up visit with Jed's foster family, but unfortunately, there were rules that she must follow. And yet, after Lyta left, Ms. Rubio made a call to the Farrells to schedule a home visit.
Clarice informed Barnaby that Jed's foster care agent sought to come by and check in on him. Barnaby insisted that Clarice call her back and cancel the meeting, but Clarice explained that it would cause a red flag. If Barnaby didn't want him, she suggested they simply give him back, but Barnaby didn't want to lose the $800 a month they receive for keeping Jed. So, he instructed Clarice to bring Jed upstairs from the cellar to inform him that Ms. Rubio was stopping by to check up on him. If he was good, Jed could sleep in his own bad, but if he misbehaved, Barnaby threatened to take him back into the cellar, wire his hands to the pipes, and break every bone in his body. Until then, he instructed Jed to clean himself up. On the way to the bathroom, Jed grabbed a sticky note pad and a marker.
Matthew watching over Rose
From college, Hal went to New York for a Broadway career, but that dream failed miserably. So when his grandmother died and left the house behind, he came home. While he missed New York, it was hard to survive. Rose and Hal then parted ways to canvas the area and put up more posters. Rose took this opportunity alone to approach Matthew, confirming that the dream she had last night was in fact real. Unbeknownst to the two of them, they were being watched by The Corinthian. Matthew assured her of the plan and that he'd be around if she needed him. Elsewhere, The Corinthian decided to approach Hal instead, and learned from him that Rose was looking for her brother.
Jed decided to play along with Clarice and Barnaby's charade of a perfectly happy family. With the sticky note in hand, Jed gave Ms. Rubio a hug, dropping the note, asking for help, in her bag. After the check-in, Ms. Rubio returned to her office, where she was attacked by The Corinthian. Unfortunately for Jed, Barnaby discovered his note in Ms. Rubio's bag and retrieved it before she could notice. He then confronted Jed.
After killing Ms. Rubio and cutting out her eyes, Corinthian proceeded to read Jed's case file.
Rose and Hal returned home, where Rose expressed her desire to possibly move back, but Hal advised her against it. While he loved everyone who lived in the house, if he got another chance at Broadway, he would sell the house without a second thought and never think about any of them again. Hal advised Rose to go to grad school and write a novel, as she always hoped.
Barbie's dream
Rose went to sleep and just like the night before, she began dream walking. She began in Hal's dream, where he was performing for himself, before moving into Lyta's dream and stumbling upon her and Hector having sex. Rose quickly made her exit and found her way into Chantal's dream and on to the street outside, where Barbie and Ken were in the middle of a fight. Across the street from her stood Dream, who explained that she was drawing the dreams of others towards her. Moving on into Barbie's dream, they found her living out her dream as a princess. Rose again asked Dream what was a dream vortex and it's purpose. All Dream knew for certain was that a vortex possessed the power to dream or destroy entire worlds. Next stop, Zelda's dream, though she was much younger and playing in a cemetery. In order to find Jed, Dream explained that Rose needed to find the place he most called home.
Rose and Dream traveled into Jed's dream, where she found herself outside of their childhood home. There, in the street, they were confronted by Jed, who didn't initially recognize Rose until Dream called her by name. Jed then embraced Rose just before Dream revealed Gault's true appearance, revealing that she was a shape-shifting nightmare. Rose needed to know where Jed was in order to save him. However, all he knew for certain was that they were in Homeland. Unfortunately, before he could say anymore, Morpheus ended the dream.
Barnaby and Clarice were sitting upstairs when they were suddenly startled by Jed screaming out for his sister. Barnaby took off his belt to punish Jed, but before he could, someone rang the doorbell.
Hector attempted to convince Lyta to stay with him. Her being in his dream meant that something had shifted and that if she could choose to be there with him, then that meant she could choose to stay and start a family with him. Lyta kissed Hector and then she looked down and realized she was pregnant.
Rose woke up from her sleep and went searching for Barnaby and Clarice, getting an exact match and their home address from online. She then knocked on the door to inform Lyta that she found Jed, but by the time Lyta exited the restroom, Rose was gone, but her baby bump was not, as Lyta remained pregnant outside of her dream.
Jed listened from the cellar as noise and commotion overtook the house. Then, suddenly, the basement door opened.
Gault wanted to be a dream
Gault informed Dream of the torturous life Jed lived in the waking world. Nonetheless, humans could not live in dreams. As long as he stayed there, he would have no life. Dream accused Gault of abusing the child's suffering to build a dreaming she could rule, but Gault had no intentions to rule. She simply wished to be a dream, and not a nightmare. However, Dream argued that the choice was not hers to make, though Gault argued that they could all change. However, as far as Dream was concerned, they were all born with responsibilities, but Gault reminded him of all the dreams and nightmares that fled in his absence. They only returned because they were afraid of what he would do if they did not. For her insubordination, Dream sentenced her to a few thousand years in the darkness. Lucienne, however, felt her punishment was unjust. She recalled how she used to be something else before Dream made her a librarian. They all had the ability to change, she believed. While Dream was grateful that Lucienne stepped up in his absence, he reminded her that he was back and that she could return to the library.
Jed worked up the courage to head upstairs, where he found the entire house in complete disarray. He made his way to the front door, where he was approached by The Corinthian, claiming that Rose sent him.
Rose arrived at the Farrells, but she was too late, learning from an officer on the scene that her brother wasn't there and that they only discovered two adult victims.
On the road to elsewhere, Jed asked Corinthian how he knew Rose, to which he replied that he didn't and that his sister had been putting up help posters across town in search of him.
Cast[]
Starring[]
- Tom Sturridge as Dream
- Boyd Holbrook as The Corinthian
- Patton Oswalt as Matthew The Raven
- Vivienne Acheampong as Lucienne
Guest Starring[]
- John Cameron Mitchell as Hal Carter
- Lenny Henry as Martin Tenbones
- Kyo Ra as Rose Walker
- Razane Jammal as Lyta Hall
- Lloyd Everitt as Hector Hall
- Sandra James-Young as Unity Kinkaid
- Sam Hazeldine as Barnaby Farrell
- Lisa O'Hare as Clarice Farrell
- Lily Travers as Barbie
- Richard Fleeshman as Ken
- Daisy Badger as Chantal
- Cara Horgan as Zelda
- Andi Osho as Miranda Walker
- Ann Ogbomo as Gault
Co-Starring[]
- Eddie Karanja as Jed Walker
- Shelley Williams as Eleanor Rubio
- Isla Gie as Child Zelda
- Sacharissa Claxton as Officer Sandra Davis
Trivia[]
- "Playing House" is the name of the twelfth issue of The Sandman comic series.
Gallery[]
Promotional Images[]
References[]