[Spoiler Alert] The sixth episode of The Sandman 2 ends with the Fates repeating the three prophecies they had told to Destiny, the oldest of the Endless. In the first episode, the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone told Destiny about a king who would forsake his kingdom, and I am quite certain we already know who he is. Endless Dream, popularly known as Morpheus, had abandoned his kingdom not once, but twice in the Netflix show so far. In season 2, Morpheus left the world of Dreaming to bring back his past lover, Nada, whom he had banished to the depths of Hell some 10,000 years ago. In the second prophecy, the sisters spoke of a clash between life and death, which I am assuming points at Eurydice’s tragic death, followed by the death of her lover and Morpheus’ son, Orpheus, who died long after his wife’s passing. In The Sandman, Orpheus was given the gift of immortality so he could travel to Hades’ Underworld and bring his wife, Eurydice, back. But things didn’t turn out as planned, and Orpheus had to spend centuries as a bodiless head sitting inside a Grecian temple on a secluded island, eagerly waiting for an opportunity to end his miserable existence. In the end, it was his father, Morpheus, who paid him the last visit, and granted Orpheus a boon in exchange for the whereabouts of his brother, Endless Destruction. When Morpheus returned to fulfill his promise, Orpheus asked him to take his life and give him the peace he yearned for.
Coming back to the third and final prophecy, it mentioned an old battle that would begin anew. Though I am not sure which battle this is in the context of the Sandman universe, it could be a clash between existence and oblivion. It could be a cataclysmic event, just like Ragnarok, where one of the Endless would lose their life, and because we know that the Gray Ladies had been speaking about Morpheus so far, it wouldn’t be wrong to assume that they foretold the death of the Dream King. But I am sure the people who have read the comics already know that. So there’s really no suspense there, right? However, since I am talking about the ending of The Sandman 2 Vol. 1, allow me to break down the chain of events that would lead to Morpheus’ death.
All Good Things Have To Finish Sometime
In the ending sequence of episode 6, Fate Crone told her sisters that Morpheus had spilled family blood, thereby breaking the divine law that bound all things in the universe. And for committing such a sin, Morpheus would be subjected to divine punishment executed by the Fates themselves. The first time the three sisters spoke of ancient laws was in episode 11 of The Sandman season 1, when Calliope, the Dream King’s former lover and Orpheus’ mother, called upon the divine mothers, begging them to rescue her from human captivity. However, the sisters refused to help Calliope because they were bound by certain laws and couldn’t meddle in mortal affairs. In simple words, they couldn’t themselves break the laws for which they inflict divine punishment upon others.
According to the lore, the Fates have a darker side, often referred to as “the Furies” or the Kindly Ones. In season 1, when they first appeared to the dream vortex, Rose Walker, the sisters cautioned her that she wouldn’t want to meet them as “the Kindly Ones” and therefore she should be content with the form in which they had appeared to her. It was a subtle reminder that Rose wouldn’t want to witness “the wrath of the Furies,” though Rose, just like the rest of the fans who hadn’t read the comic, didn’t pick up the reference. But things will be made much clearer in the second volume of season 2 when we will finally see them as the Furies.
The last scene of the sixth episode is taken directly from “The Kindly Ones,” the ninth issue of the titular comic book and also the longest story of the original comic series. It goes without saying that the second volume of Netflix’s The Sandman season 2 is going to follow the ninth issue, which marks the end of Morpheus’ reign. Additionally, in episode 11 of season 1, Calliope refers to the fates as “mothers”. I mean, I am not sure if they were related or if she just called them mothers out of respect. But if they were related, then that means Orpheus was their grandson, and the Fates have all the right in the world to seek vengeance for his murder, irrespective of the fact that it was he who begged Morpheus to end his life. Morpheus broke the ancient law, and he needs to be punished to set an example for the rest of the mortals and the Endless.
The Dreaming Will Survive
In the first episode of season 2, Morpheus, before leaving for Lucifer’s domain, told his librarian, Lucienne, that he had made preparations so that “Dreaming would survive, even if he did not.” And even though Morpheus didn’t die in Hell, his fate had already been sealed. The way Crone cut the black thread in the last shot of episode 6 made it quite obvious that the Kindly Ones were going to end Morpheus’ existence in the universe. So, who’s going to rule the Dreaming on his behalf? Well, if you remember, in the course of episode 1, Morpheus went to the waking world to meet a baby. It was actually Morpheus’ youngest son, Daniel, born to a woman named Hippolyta, aka Lyta Hall. In season 1, Rose Walker, the dream vortex, who also happened to be Lyta’s neighbor and extremely close friend, had weakened the walls between the two realms: the waking world and the Dreaming. It was because of this supernatural phenomenon that Lyta, who was having ghost sex with the soul of her husband, Hector Hall, in her dreams, woke up pregnant in the waking world and gave birth to a son. But because he was conceived in his realm, Morpheus told Lyta that the child belonged to him and one day he would come back for him. Now, in episode 1 of season 2, Morpheus left an essence of himself with Daniel so that the boy, in his absence, would take his place in the future and become the new ruler of the Dreaming. So yes, Morpheus’ kid, Daniel, and the child’s mother, Lyta, are going to play a central role in the next volume of Netflix’s The Sandman, and we sure can expect the return of many characters from season 1, even the nightmares who had been erased by Morpheus.
