'The Sandman' Season 2 Episode 6 Recap: Is Orpheus Dead Or Alive?

In the 5th episode of The Sandman Season 2, we learned that Destruction had abandoned his realm and gone into a self-imposed exile with Barnabas, his dog, because Dream had refused to help him stop humanity from creating the atomic bomb. Dream was sad about the fact that he didn’t understand the gravity of what Destruction was saying, and he wished to remedy that. Before doing so, he attended Wanda’s funeral and then proceeded to apologize to Delirium because, without her, the search for Destruction would be incomplete. Once their quest was back on track, the siblings went to Destiny for some pointers. That’s when the topic of Dream’s son, Orpheus, was brought up. A long time ago, Orpheus had gone to the underworld to rescue the love of his life, Eurydice, even though Dream had warned him against doing so. Orpheus not only failed to bring back Eurydice to the mortal realm, he also became immortal. When he tried to die again at the hands of the Sisters of the Frenzy, hoping to reach Eurydice in the underworld once again, he got stuck in the mortal realm as a disembodied head. He requested Dream to kill him, but since there were rules against him doing so, he didn’t oblige his son. Instead, he tasked some priests with taking care of Orpheus’s head, to be specific. But since Orpheus knew of Destruction’s location, Dream had to face him one last time before putting him out of his misery. Well, did Morpheus actually kill Orpheus? Let’s find out.

Spoiler Alert

Episode 6 of The Sandman Season 2 opens in Wych Cross, England, on June 28, 1794, with Dream showing up at the house of Johanna Constantine (the cinematography and costume design are quite reminiscent of Nosferatu). As per Season 1, 5 years prior to this altercation, Constantine had tracked down Dream and his immortal friend, Hob Gadling, and almost had them imprisoned for their supernatural shenanigans. But Dream put Constantine in a trance, and both he and his buddy got away. Since Dream was aware of Constantine’s skills, he tasked her with securing Orpheus’ head in Paris, France, after it had supposedly been misplaced or stolen from that island in Greece. As mentioned before, Dream had promised never to see Orpheus again. Yet, he was concerned for his well-being; hence, he used Constantine to keep him safe. Since Constantine was an aristocrat, she had become a target of Robespierre; Robespierre was a real-life person who was pretty controversial for his politics. The fictionalized version of that infamous figure had apparently labeled Orpheus as a threat to France and locked him in the crypt that Constantine had found him in. Orpheus was certainly thankful to Constantine for freeing him, but he still didn’t know where she was taking him. It didn’t take him too long to figure out that Constantine was actually working for Dream and he had tasked her with taking Orpheus back to his home on that island in Greece. Since Constantine wasn’t allowed to talk about Dream, she directed her attention to protecting Orpheus until it was safe for her to travel with him. 

Before Robespierre arrested Constantine for stealing Orpheus’ head, she managed to hide him amongst all the guillotined heads that hadn’t yet been buried, as that was the last place anyone would look for Orpheus. When she fell asleep in the prison, her mind was transported to the Dreaming, where she sought Dream’s help out of the pickle that she and Orpheus were in. Dream advised Constantine to get Orpheus to sing. His voice had managed to sway the hearts of Hades and Persephone and inject life into the dead souls in the underworld. So, it was obvious that the effect he would have on mortals would be far more profound. When Robespierre took Constantine to sift through the aforementioned pile of heads, she told Orpheus to sing. That not only put Robespierre and his soldiers in a trance, thereby allowing Constantine to escape with Orpheus, but also inspired the dead and the living in France to raise their voices against the tyrant and send him to the guillotine. Constantine then sailed all the way to Greece to place Orpheus in his temple. They had a pretty bittersweet chat about Dream and how he refused to meet him even in his dreams, before Constantine placed Orpheus in the hands of the priests (who hadn’t done a really good job of protecting a head). Constantine then returned to England to inform Dream that his son was safe and that he missed him a lot. Dream asked Constantine what she wanted in return for successfully completing the mission, and she said that she wanted to spend more time with Orpheus. I don’t know what this means. Was she in love with Orpheus? Did Dream extend her lifeline? You can see her gravestone on Orpheus’ island. So, I guess she spent her final years there as a mortal. Let me know in the comments if you have any information from the comics or other theories about Constantine’s boon.

In the present day, Dream and Delirium reach Orpheus’ island. Since they are so close to accomplishing their mission, Delirium starts getting cold feet, and she wants to abort the task at hand, especially because she knows that killing Orpheus will trigger the Three Fates to come after Dream and probably the rest of the Endless. Her rambling is cut off by the new-age protectors of Orpheus, armed with automatic rifles, as they assume that Dream and Delirium are intruders. Once Dream introduces himself as Orpheus’ father, the head priest allows him to go into the temple. Dream and Orpheus both take turns apologizing to each other—making this the third time that Dream has said “sorry” over the course of 6 episodes—before getting to the real reason why Dream is standing before him: Destruction’s location. Hilariously enough, Destruction has been on the island right next to the one where Orpheus’ temple is, thereby drawing a pretty neat parallel to Constantine hiding Orpheus’ head in the last place anyone would look, i.e., a pile of severed heads. Upon setting foot on Destruction’s island, the siblings are greeted by Barnaby and Destruction (he also partakes in some casual “aura farming”) with open arms. Delirium is incredibly happy, but Dream continues to sulk. Why? Well, because he is angry that Destruction set up “certain mechanisms” that led to the death of innocent people. Yes, he is well within his rights to not allow anyone from the Endless to meet him. However, his methods didn’t need to be so, well, destructive. Dream’s newfound sense of humanity compels Destruction to remind him of the conversation about the atom bomb that they had 300 years ago. Dream is of the opinion that he cared about people then, and he continues to care about them still because it’s his duty, which is something that Destruction knows nothing about because he abandoned his post a long time ago. 

Destruction clearly doesn’t have a straight answer for that. Hence, he asks his siblings to take a stroll outside underneath the warm sunlight. That’s where Dream asks the next big question: will Destruction return home? Destruction says “no” without any hesitation. According to Destruction, people continue to create and destroy in his absence. So, what’s the point of trying to control it? Since the Endless can’t intervene, ultimately, it’s Destruction who is blamed for all the wrong stuff that humans do, and he is done with that. On that note, Destruction opts to leave his humble abode and travel into the unknown, where nobody, not even his parents, can find him. He is sad about dashing Delirium’s hopes of him returning to the fold, which is why he requests Barnabas stay by her side. Barnabas gladly obliges. Before parting ways, Destruction offers Dream a piece of advice: love is the only good reason to do anything. He says he left the Endless because he loved humanity too much to see it get ripped apart, and he has no regrets for doing so. Similarly, Dream almost went to war with Hell over Nada, he apologized to Delirium because he couldn’t see her hurting, and he mended his ties with Orpheus and Destruction because they have a special place in his heart. Dream knows that a great prize awaits him at the end of this quest, which is why Destruction probably reminds him that, when he inevitably faces the music for spilling family blood, he shouldn’t express regret, because his pain is the result of the love he feels for the people around him. At least, that’s what I think Destruction meant.

At the end of The Sandman Season 2, Episode 6, Dream returns to Orpheus’ temple to give him his boon. They have a pretty lengthy chat about Destruction’s exit, the quest spurred by Delirium, life, death, regret, remorse, and more, trying to pack in all the stuff they should’ve talked about in the last few centuries but didn’t because of ego, anger, and silly mistakes. Eventually, Dream takes his final steps towards his son and punches a hole through his head, thereby killing him. As mentioned before, being immortal doesn’t mean invincible. Yes, you can survive as long as your head is intact. But once that’s gone, you are gone. So, in case there’s any confusion, yes, Orpheus is dead. After stepping out of the temple, Dream informs Delirium that their journey has finally come to an end. Delirium and Barnabas head off to the former’s realm, while Dream returns to the Dreaming. He informs Lucienne of what he has done to Orpheus and that he wants the priests of his son’s temple to be relieved of their duties after burying Orpheus without any marker. Then he retires to his quarters to cry his heart out. The scene then shifts to the house where the Three Fates live. One of them reads a fortune cookie, which sounds awfully like the one they had read to Destiny at the beginning of Volume 1 of Season 2, as it talks about a king forsaking their kingdom, the clash between life and death, and the commencement of the oldest battle. 

Based on that, one of the Fates cuts the yarn that her sister was using to make a scarf. As if it’s not clear already, the Fates explicitly state that the yarn represents Dream, and his story has come to an end because he has spilled family blood by killing Orpheus. I guess Dream tried to hide that fact by not giving Orpheus a marker. Or maybe he was just delaying the inevitable, because how could you possibly hide anything from the Fates? Either way, what’s done is done, and Dream’s quest to atone for his past mistakes and fulfill Delirium’s wish of meeting Destruction has apparently initiated a war that’ll probably lead to his end, or that of the whole of the Endless. I don’t know how that’s even possible, but if the Fates say that it can happen, it will happen. Also, it has to happen, because this is the final season of The Sandman. Maybe it means that this version of the characters will be axed from the canon, and a few years down the line, when people have forgotten about Neil Gaiman’s actions, a new yarn will be spun. I guess we’ll know more in the second volume of Season 2 as well as the special episode that’s slated to release on the last day of this month.