Tuesday, August 09, 2022

My Review of The Sandman's 1x02: "Imperfect Hosts"

 

Written by Allan Heinberg
Directed by Jamie Childs

The Fates (to Morpheus): "You have asked your questions."

Picking up from where the ending of the first episode left off, this episode split two storylines with the inevitability of later converging on one another. Both Morpheus and his rogue creation, the Corinthian have their mission but only one of them made some actual progress this episode.

For the Corinthian might have managed to track down an older Ethel Cripps (Joely Richardson) in New York, his attempts of getting her to play by his rules didn't pan out as well as he had hoped. Ethel was prepared for the Corinthian and while she might have gotten rid of Dream's tools, she was smart enough to find a way to send the Corinthian back to the Dreaming itself. Just in time as he was to gouge her eyes out.

However the Corinthian didn't stick around in the Dreaming and nor did he take kindly to Lucienne's attempts to get him to do as he was told. He's determined to get rid of Morpheus once and for all and heels going to get the tools in order to do. Meanwhile Ethel still seems to have retained the ruby, something which has also driven her son, John Dee (David Thewlis) to insanity given that she's had to keep him prisoner. 

As for Morpheus, he took a journey himself here to make a deal in order to get some answers. This involved visiting infamous brothers, Cain (Sanjeev Bhaskar) and Abel (Asim Chaudhry) in order to destroy their pet gargoyle, Gregory. Morpheus did give them a replacement one later named Goldie/Irving but it didn't stop Cain from taking his frustration out of his more passive brother, thus living up to his murderous reputation.

However Gregory's sacrifice did manage to get Morpheus an audience with the three Fates -  Mother (Nina Wadia), Maiden (Dinita Gohil) and Crone (Sound Faress) and they were a rather cryptic bunch. The only proper lead they provided to Morpheus was that Johanna Constantine (Jenna Coleman) had his sand pouch while not being specific enough on the current whereabouts of his helm and ruby.

With the next episode leading into the introduction of Johanna Constantine, Morpheus mentioned to Lucienne of having history with another Johanna Constantine in the past. It seemed to be a positive relationship but will this one? We all know that Constantine can be a slippery character from time to time. Morpheus would do well not to underestimate her.

- While Ethel does look older, she has to be using some kind of enchantment to slowly her aging. At this point, both her and John Dee should be dead.
- Lucienne insisted on Morpheus adopting a new raven, which he didn't want to do. Of course, thanks to spoilers we know he's going to change his mind.
- While the ruby was mentioned to be in the Cripps possession, a demon in hell has the helm.
- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off, mostly in the Dreaming and New York as well as London for the Constantine cameo.

Imperfect Hosts might have a considerably shorter runtime but it definitely didn't waste time either. Morpheus's scenes with the Fates were creepy but moved the storyline along and while the Corinthian was mostly outsmarted this episode, he's still determined to beat his creator.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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