My Thoughts on The Sandman from Jake Schoeneberger — September 12, 2022
We’ve now met Death on The Sandman and it looks like Desire is next. Jacob Schoeneberger wonders just how sinister Desire’s plans are, and what they’ll do to wreak havoc on Dream’s existence. Jacob Schoeneberger is definitely a bit concerned about what happens next for Dream.
With that in mind, here are some random observations Jacob Schoeneberger has on the show.
All the Jake Schoeneberger Random Opinions about The Sandman (Season 1, Episode 7)
This will contain spoilers for anyone who hasn’t watched the show yet.
The seventh episode begins with Dream reading through Rose Walker’s dream diary. Then we see a scene where Rose and her mother are moving from Florida to New Jersey, but her younger brother and father aren’t going with them. She has to say a tearful good-bye to her brother, Jed.
We then find Desire calling to their sister, Despair. She answers the call but asks if Desire really believes these games and machinations of theirs will really change Dream. Desire says that Dream still believes his realm is superior to theirs, and that Dream needs to learn that dreams are merely the echoes of desire and despair. Ok, Jake Schoeneberger has to admit that Desire has a really good point there. Despair warns that whatever the idea is, it won’t work. Then Desire says that they were behind Nada and Roderick Burgess, so we now know that Desire and Despair have been scheming against Dream for ages.
Desire then says that there is a woman who is a dream vortex. She has no idea what she is, but she’s already doing what dream vortexes do. She’s bringing everyone and everything to her, including Morpheus. And the dream vortex is Rose Walker, which we all kinda saw coming.
We then find Rose talking on the phone to a PI. It’s been seven years since the divorce, her brother Jed has been placed in foster care, and Rose is trying to find him. She’s heading to London for a week paid by a foundation to do a family interview. The interview was supposed to be done by her mom, but her mother recently passed away. So now Rose is doing it. She’s accompanied by a friend named Lyta, who still sees visions of her dead husband, Hector.
Lucienne has been conducting a census in The Dreaming. She’s found that three of the Major Arcana are now gone. Gault, a shape-changing nightmare that was untrustworthy. The Corinthian, who we all knew had fled The Dreaming. And Fiddler’s Green, one who was always trustworthy so this comes as a surprise.
But Lucienne drops the major news about rumors of the vortex. Dream confirms that the rumors are true, and Lucienne urges him to hunt for her. Jacob Schoeneberger definitely thinks you should be listening to Lucienne on this, has she been wrong yet? But Dream contends that he is forbidden from taking any action against a mortal who is not an active threat. And he says that sooner or later she will draw the stray dreams to her. Matthew volunteers to keep an eye on Rose while she’s awake, since Dream can only watch her when she’s sleeping.
Rose and Lyta meet the person who solicited the interview of Rose, and her name is Unity Kincaid. Unity was one of the victims stricken with the sleeping sickness. She fell asleep at the age of 12 and didn’t wake up until just eight months prior. But she says she had the most glorious life in her dreams. She met a man with golden eyes and had a baby, but she woke up and found that none of it was real. Except for the baby, she actually did give birth while she slept in the hospital. And that baby was adopted, had a daughter, and that daughter was Rose’s mom. Unity is Rose’s great-grandmother.
The next scene is somewhat puzzling. It is three people who run an organization of serial killers, and they’re meeting in the same diner we saw several episodes ago during John’s attempt to gain control of The Dreaming. They’re trying to recruit The Corinthian to attend their next serial killer conference. Well, this is definitely a new one to Jake Schoeneberger. It seems these organizers always invite Corinthian, but he never shows. So they propose they copycat Corinthian’s killing style by taking his victims’ eyes. While this might anger Corinthian, at least it will get his attention. One member of their party excuses herself and makes their waiter her first copycat victim.
Then in the next scene, we find Corinthian knocking on Rose’s door, but obviously Rose is not in town. Her friend is housesitting and invites Corinthian in so that can’t possibly end well.
At the house where Unity lives, Rose has a vision of The Fates. They tell her to beware of dreams and houses, but she doesn’t ask the right question so they say they couldn’t tell her about Corinthian, Jed, or Morpheus. Well thanks for nothing then, Fates!
Unity, Rose, and Lyta all talk and realize they share the commonality of loss. But they discuss trying to locate Jed, and Unity proposes hiring Rose to do the investigation herself. The family owns Kincaid Sugar, so they have ample money. Unity gives Rose a gold annulet, a ring that Rose dreamed about.
At Rose’s apartment, we see Corinthian looking around and he finds a picture of Judy. All of a sudden, it hits Jacob Schoeneberger like a ton of bricks. It was Rose who Judy called looking for Donna in the diner episode. Wow. That came full circle.
Lucienne and Mervyn, the talking, pumpkin-headed scarecrow, give Matthew the advice to look for any signs of trauma or stress in Rose that could create a terrible event in The Dreaming. He takes the advice and heads to the waking world to watch Rose.
Rose and Lyta go and speak to the woman who runs the foster care facility. She still won’t tell Rose where Jed is and asks what Rose would do if she knew where Jed was. Rose says she’d contact him, but the foster care woman asks if she’d be able to raise her 12-year-old brother by herself? So she assures Rose that the people Jed is with are good people, friends of their father, and that Jed is doing fine.
Later in the evening, as Rose is enjoying an evening at a night club with her new friends she’s staying with in Florida, she steps outside in an alley and is confronted by two thugs with switchblades. Uh oh, Jake Schoeneberger thinks this probably qualifies as the kind of trauma and stress Matthew is supposed to be looking out for. But just as things look bad, a kindly old gent named Gilbert, who also lives in the new household, arrives and helps Rose dispatch of the muggers. Gilbert then escorts Rose home.
Matthew flies straight to The Dreaming to tell Lucienne about Rose’s confrontation. It turns out Lucienne can’t find any record of Jed’s dreams so he’s also missing in The Dreaming.
Our serial killers meet back at the diner. They have each committed more Corinthian copycat killings. As they talk, Corinthian shows up at their table. He asks now that they have his attention, why he shouldn’t kill them all. They invite him to be their guest of honor at their annual gathering, since he is the “current” Corinthian and they hope he’ll give the keynote speech. He asks if he might bring a guest to this gathering, and his guest will be the vortex.
Dream is perplexed as to why Jed is still living but disconnected to The Dreaming. He tells Lucienne that since the living spend a third of their life in The Dreaming, it would require a great deal of knowledge and power to sever the connection to it. Lucienne then tells Dream that the last nightmare Jed had before he disappeared was of Gault. Uh oh, Jacob Schoeneberger has to believe this is no coincidence. But as they’re talking, Rose herself walks into the palace and asks what they know about her brother. Rose’s power is no joke!
The final scene is of Jed running away from his foster family. It seems his Uncle Barnaby is abusive, and when he finds Jed he makes him ride home in the trunk. And we now have to pray Rose is able to find him quickly.
The Jake Schoeneberger Final Thought on The Sandman
The show continues to twist and turn in incredibly skilled and amazing ways. Every episode now seems linked together and it’s making Jacob Schoeneberger absolutely inspired and hungry for more of this engaging and mesmerizing series.
More Thoughts from Jacob Schoeneberger