In The Sandman season 2, episode 3, Nada had made Dream look into the mirror. She had made him realize that he’d never really loved her. She made it pretty clear that if he had had real feelings for her, he wouldn’t have condemned her to hell. Dream took some time to accept that fact, but he hadn’t expected for her to leave him and go into the waking world. So let’s find out what happened in season 2 episode 4 when Dream decided to go and search for Nada and genuinely apologize for what he had done.
Spoiler Alert
What Did Delirium Want Dream To Do?
Dream was in mourning, and he didn’t know what to do after what had happened between him and Nada. He was standing on his balcony when he learned that an uninvited guest had been caught by the wyvern. That guest happened to be Dream’s younger sister, Delirium, who had come all the way because she wanted something from him, and she had already been turned down by her other two siblings, Desire and Despair. Delirium started talking to Dream in her own quintessential manner, and she told him how much she missed their brother, Destruction. Nobody had ever tried looking for Destruction, as he had clearly told them to not do so. Moreover, he had abandoned his realm, which was not seen as a respectable move on his end. But Delirium said that she often entertained the worst-case scenarios and imagined what if their brother was in need of her help or some sort of danger. Dream knew that that was not the case, and Delirium was just not stable enough to understand the reality; moreover, the moment Delirium stated that, before coming to meet Dream, she’d visited their sibling, Desire, Dream knew what would have happened exactly. He knew how Desire played tricks with everybody’s mind and to what extent she was capable of messing up a person. Dream immediately went to his gallery and stood in front of Desire’s sigil to communicate with her. He blamed Desire for instilling senseless thoughts in Delirium’s mind and intentionally misleading her. Desire was a conspirator, somebody who couldn’t be trusted, but this time around she said that she had nothing to do with what Delirium was up to. Generally, Desire was somebody who couldn’t be trusted, but this time around there was a sort of earnestness in what she said and how she said it. She was the kind who didn’t refrain from showing the world who they really were, and so I think even Dreaming believed that Delirium’s wishes were not her doing.
What Were Dream’s Real Motives Behind Accompanying Delirium?
Quite surprisingly, Dream decided to accompany Delirium on her quest to find their elder brother, something that even Lucienne hadn’t expected him to do. There was a moment when Dream was having a conversation with Desire when the latter told him that he might also want to look for Nada in the waking world while he was searching for their brother. Till that moment, as Dream stated, he hadn’t thought about it, but once the idea was put in his mind, he couldn’t ignore it no matter what he did. Maybe it was all the doing of Desire, who made Dream entertain that thought, or maybe somebody else wanted Dream to go out into the waking world to hold him accountable for taking the lives of people. Whatever it was, one thing that became pretty clear was the fact that Dream had no interest whatsoever in looking for their brother, Destruction. He felt that he needed to seize the opportunity, as he might bump into Nada while walking down the street in the waking world.
Delirium had a strange list of people who she knew her brother had come in contact with. Surprisingly, Dream knew who these people were, and he decided to go and meet them and find out if they knew anything about Destruction. Delirium’s list had 3 names on it: a long-lived mortal, a god, and a figure of myth. Dream knew that there were only 60 mortals who had personal memories of the mammoths and saber-toothed tigers, and that one of them was a man named Bernard Capax. They located him, but just moments before they were going to meet him, they got the news that he had died in an accident. Dream knew that it could not be just a coincidence, and that somebody didn’t want them to meet those people. Dream didn’t want to meet the other two, as he knew that could potentially put their lives in jeopardy too. Maybe it was Delirium’s persistence that convinced him to stay in the mortal realm a bit longer, but I personally think that it was his desire to catch a glimpse of Nada that made him ignore the warnings.
Who Was Wanda?
Dream had gotten in contact with the pantheon god, Pharamond, who in the waking world was known as Mr. Farrell. Farrell’s assistant, Wanda, was driving Dream and Delirium to wherever they wanted to go and acting as their stateside concierge. Wanda asked if her guests wanted to eat and hang out before they went and saw the next person on the list. Dream wouldn’t have gone there, but the fact that he might bump into Nada there made him a bit greedy. Wanda opened up about herself, her life, and her struggles, and it made both Dream and Delirium feel sympathetic towards her. Wanda was a trans woman, and she was around 15 when she realized it. She underwent hormone therapy, and even at that age she didn’t want to become a concern for her parents. She was aware that her parents came from a very conservative background, and that they would probably die of shame if they got to know about it. She knew that in her absence they could cook up some story, tell the society that their child had run away from the house, and save themselves from embarrassment. Imagine how claustrophobic it must have been for her when she would have realized that she would never be able to show her real side to people because of the fear of being judged. No doubt her favorite story was The Marvelous Land of Oz, where the protagonist, who was assigned female at birth, had to live as a boy for a long period of time until that day she could emphatically declare who she was. But Wanda knew that that was not how the real world functioned. It was not so simple to fight established norms and conservative approaches. Dream asked her if meeting her parents would make her happy, and I believe he had made up his mind to make it happen.
Was Dream Able To Find Destruction?
After they heard that Bernard Capex was no more, they decided to pay a visit to the god of sex and war, Belili, aka Ishtar. Ishtar was not at all happy when she saw Dream at her club. A long time back, she’d been in love with Destruction, but Dream felt that she was a bad influence on his brother, and he didn’t want him to be associated with her. Dream had never expected that Destruction would go and tell everything to Ishtar, as he had asked him to keep it to himself. When Ishtar confronted Dream and blamed him for trying to put a wedge between the two lovers, Dream was a bit taken aback. Ishtar mocked him and told him that the irony was that Destruction, after being advised to not stay in touch with her, had abandoned his entire family. Dream did not refrain from telling her about what had happened to Bernard and how they felt that somebody was trying to stop them from meeting those people who had met Destruction in the mortal realm. Ishtar knew what this meant, even though Dream was too self-absorbed and full of pride to understand that by coming to meet Ishtar, he had signed her death warrant. Ishtar dressed up like a goddess, as she knew that she wouldn’t be able to stop the inevitable from happening, though Dream still didn’t think that it was going to happen. Dressed in white, Ishtar enchanted everybody with her dance, and moments after that, the entire club was reduced to ashes.
Wanda also died, and Dream stood there looking at her, feeling regretful for not being able to let her meet her parents. At the end of The Sandman season 2, episode 4, Desire arrived at the club and told Dream to tell Delirium why he had actually accompanied her. Dream tells Delirium that he wasn’t interested in looking for their brother, his sole intention was to find Nada. Delirium felt heartbroken; she left the waking world, asking both her siblings to never contact her ever again. Desire told Dream that only he was to blame for the loss of life, as he knew exactly what he was doing. Maybe Destruction had gotten to know about Dream and Delirium, which was why he killed people, in order to stop them from coming. We saw that he had sensed that someone was looking for him, and he had told Barnabas, his loyal companion who had taken the form of a dog, about it.
What the entire episode made us realize was that Dream, after all, was not as noble as he seemed to be. I initially felt that after Destiny, if there was anybody who acted sensibly, it was Dream. But in this episode, we saw Dream acting selfishly even when he very well knew what was coming after Bernard’s death. We saw that he had almost made up his mind to stop the search when Wanda offered to take them to a cafe, and he just couldn’t refuse the offer. Dream let his emotions overpower his sense of judgment, and that, I believe, will have grave consequences in the future.
