The Sandmanseason 2 released its first six episodes at the beginning of July 2025, which cover a few interconnected arcs and come to a dramatic conclusion that sets up the final act. Based on the DC Comics series of the same name,The Sandmandepicts Dream (Tom Sturridge), who is beset with new familial and political challenges in this final season.
First, the god of dreams decides to venture back into Hell to rescue his former lover Nada (Umulisa Gahiga), but ends up with a new problem when Lucifer (Gwendoline Christie) decides to retire, and he is charged with picking Hell’s new ruler. Then,Dream is recruited by his sister, Delirium (Esmé Creed-Miles), to find their missing brother, Destruction (Barry Sloane).
This leads Dream to confront his own estranged son, Orpheus (Ruairi O’Connor).The Sandmanseason 2continues to deal with themes of the humanity experienced by these abstract entities and the consequences suffered by mortals for their actions in ethereal fashion. However, even the Endless are governed by some rules, a fact Dream will have to reckon with as a result of his own humanity.
Why Destruction Left The Endless, & How He Leaves Again, But Differently
Destruction Disappears Into The Cosmos
Dream and his six Endless siblingsare the god-like personifications of the tentpoles of human experience, each charged with overseeing their own realm and its effects on the waking world. However, their brother Destruction abandoned his post centuries earlier and hasn’t been seen since.The youngest sibling, Delirium, is most devastated by this.
In season 2, Delirium and Dream manage to locate Destruction by consulting Orpheus, who is an oracle.Destruction is happy to see them, and explains that he left because he realized that humans would destroy themselves anyway, and chose to at least no longer be the cause of it, out of love for them, and offers Dream the advice to also value love.
Delirium says that this knowledge is why she is able to move on, as well as being comforted by other relationships.
Destruction is committed to leaving again, despite Delirium’s protests.This time, he simply dissipates into the night sky, seemingly taking on a more insubstantial form and location, so his family will not be able to find him. Delirium implies that this time is different because they “don’t have to wonder anymore […] if he’s coming back.”
Delirium Has Now Made Peace With Destruction’s Departure
The Youngest Endless Is Comforted By Her Loved Ones
Delirium sought out multiple siblings for help finding Destruction before Dream finally agreed to it, and with ulterior motives. However, having found Destruction and had an honest conversation with him about why he left, Delirium is no longer inconsolable and makes peace with his departure, returning to her own realm and duties.
She says that this knowledge is why she is able to move on, as well as being comforted by other relationships.She and Dream bond during their quest, and he affirms his affection for her. She also inherits Destruction’s talking dog companion Barnabas (Steve Coogan), who is unable to accompany Destruction when he leaves again.
Dream’s Troubles With The Rulership Of Hell Are Over – But He Still Hopes To See Nada Again
Dream Learns That Some Mistakes Can’t Be Undone
At the beginning of the season, it seems like Dream faces an impossible dilemma when Lucifer hands him the Key to Hell, and suddenly, every wayward entity is in the Dreaming demanding Hell for themselves. However,Dream manages to diplomatically turn over Hell to the angels without starting a war with anyone else.
The demon Azazel (Wil Coban) is the exception and again threatens to consume Nada’s soul if he doesn’t get what he wants.However, empowered by being in his own realm, Dream magically combats Azazel, frees Nada, and imprisons the demon. Elsewhere, Loki (Freddie Fox) manages to escape his own imprisonment, and Dream promises not to tell Odin (Clive Russell) in return for a future favor.
Nada is rightfully unforgiving of Dream for condemning her to Hell millennia earlier,when she chose to leave him to protect her people. She leaves the Dreaming to see the modern waking world for herself and makes it clear she has no intention of reconciling with Dream, though he asserts that he still loves her.
Dream goes on the quest with Delirium as an excuse to be in the mortal world, where he might see Nada. However, the collateral damage of this mission is devastating, including the siblings' guide Wanda (Indya Moore).As Dream continues to ponder his relationship with humanity, seeing Nada again becomes a more distant ideawhen it will hurt her and others.
How & Why Dream Kills Orpheus – Would He Still Have Done It Without Delirium & Destruction?
Dream Was Ready To Make Peace With His Son’s Fate
When he and Delirium agree that reaching out to Destruction’s contacts in the mortal realm is no longer an option because it is getting people killed, their only other way forward is to consult an oracle. And, asthey need to speak with an oracle who can see the future of the Endless specifically,they go to Dream’s son, Orpheus.
FollowingThe Sandman’s version of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice(Ella Rumpf), Orpheus was beheaded but unable to die due to the immortality given to him by his aunt Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) to come and go from the underworld.Orpheus has long wished to die and be reunited with Eurydice, but Dream always denied him this.
He was ready to reconcile with his son and give him the peace he craved, regardless.
Orpheus evidently asks that Dream kill him in exchange for Destruction’s location. However, afterward, Dream admits that he didn’t really expect Destruction to come back with them, meaning he was ready to reconcile with his son and give him the peace he craved, regardless. He also tells Destruction that he went to see Orpheus “not just because of [him].”
How Dream is able to kill Morpheus isn’t entirely explained, asMorpheus was able to survive as a disembodied head.Presumably, Dream’s power as another one of the Endless was enough to counteract Death’s boon of immortality, and he still had to destroy Morpheus enough physically to the point he couldn’t possibly heal, resulting in a bloody end.
The Fates' Final Scene & Their Plans For Dream Explained
The Three Do Not Plan To Let Dream’s Deeds Go Unpunished
Yet,in killing Orpheus, Dream breaks the most sacred rule of the Endless:they will not spill family blood. The final scene ofThe Sandmanseason 2, volume 1, is of the Fates, or the Kindly Ones (Dinita Gohil, Nina Wadia, and Souad Faress), discussing what Dream has just done and the consequences, again reading a prophecy about “a king who will forsake his kingdom.”
Two of the women are working on a scarf, and seem to protest going after Dream, as Orpheus did ask his father to end his life. However, the eldest chastises them and cuts the yarn feeding into the scarf being knitted, a symbolic act associated with the Fates when they decide to end someone’s life.
In the comics, this kicks off a war between Dream and The Three, and he must decide what to do to protect the Dreaming.The Sandman’s latest arc also ends with Dream viscerally grieving his son, a painful illustration of how he has become more human — yet it is this very act that could destroy him.
