The Sandman's Dream with a helmet
(Netflix)

I Bet I Know Why the Endless Are All Dolled Up in the New ‘Sandman’ Teaser

Netflix dropped a new teaser for the next installment of The Sandman, and we finally get to meet all the members of Morpheus’s family, the Endless. Not only that, but they’re dressed to the nines—and I think I know why.

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In the teaser, we see Morpheus, a.k.a. Dream (Tom Sturridge), along with his siblings Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), Desire (Mason Alexander Park), Despair (Donna Preston), Destiny (Adrian Lester), Delirium (Esmé Creed-Miles), and a mysterious sibling called the Prodigal (Barry Sloane).

A couple of siblings, like Morpheus and Desire, are dressed in their usual styles. However, Death is wearing an outfit with a corset and gloves, and her hair is in an updo. That’s quite a departure from her usual tank top and jeans! Even Despair is dressed up, when she usually … well, in the Netflix series she dresses a lot like I do, which has me in a bit of an existential crisis. In the teaser, however, she’s wearing a dramatic black gown much like Death’s.

It’s possible that Netflix just had the cast dress up for the promo. However, the next volume in the Sandman graphic novel series—which Netflix is adapting for the upcoming batch of episodes—starts with a formal occasion.

The rest of this article contains mild spoilers for Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman, and potential spoilers for The Sandman on Netflix.

Season of Mists begins with Destiny calling the members of the Endless together for a family meeting. Why? Because the meeting has to happen, that’s why. Destiny stands in the gallery that holds the portraits of all his siblings, and calls them one by one. The first to arrive is Death, and Destiny admonishes her for not dressing up for the occasion. Dutifully, she changes into a lacy dress and heels.

After that, the meeting gets underway. Destiny reveals that the Fates have appeared in his garden, and that a major sequence of events will begin when the siblings are all gathered together. Sure enough, Desire provokes Dream over his treatment of a human woman named Nada, and after a stern talking-to from Death, Dream decides to go to Hell to set her free.

Who is Nada, you might ask? If you’ve watched the first season of the Netflix series, you may remember Dream briefly speaking to an imprisoned woman during his journey to Hell. Nada is a lover Dream once had, but he sentenced her to an eternity in Hell after she spurned him.

Are the costumes in the promo pointing to that pivotal family meeting? It’s too soon to be sure, but if it is, then Sandman fans are in for a treat when the new episodes eventually drop.


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Julia Glassman
Julia Glassman (she/her) holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and has been covering feminism and media since 2007. As a staff writer for The Mary Sue, Julia covers Marvel movies, folk horror, sci fi and fantasy, film and TV, comics, and all things witchy. Under the pen name Asa West, she's the author of the popular zine 'Five Principles of Green Witchcraft' (Gods & Radicals Press). You can check out more of her writing at <a href="https://juliaglassman.carrd.co/">https://juliaglassman.carrd.co/.</a>