My Review of The Sandman: "Family Blood"

 

Written by Jim Campolongo

Directed by Jamie Childs 

Dream: "What is it that you want?"

Johanna: "Perhaps a bit more time with Orpheus."

As always if there's a Constantine in the mix, my interest will increase for this show. We might not have John, but we can have Lady Johanna Constantine (Jenna Coleman) and she's just as much as fun as her male counterpart/descendant.

It had been five years since Lady Johanna had encountered Dream and Hob Gadling and since then, she's made herself into quite the occult expert. That alone had Dream seek her out for a very special task. Johanna was going to recover the head of Dream's son, Orpheus. It didn't take much to persuade Johanna to embark on such a dangerous mission.

In fact, aside from Dream promising Johanna anything within his mind, the element of danger alone seemed to excite Johanna. It also didn't take her long to find Orpheus's head and attract the attention of Maximilien Robespierre (Jonathan Slinger). Robespierre was a bit too overeager to make an example out of Johanna. 

Instead both Johanna and Orpheus made quite a team together and managed to bring about the downfall of Robespierre. I really liked the Johanna/Orpheus rapport and she seemed to be something of a bridging between Orpheus and Dream.  There's a father/son reunion that came with deadly consequences. 

The previous episode made a thing about Dream not being allowed to spill family blood. Dream broke that rule when gave Orpheus exactly what the latter wanted. The Kindly Ones in particular were very interested in the consequences of Dream's mercy killing of his son. It was a great way to set up the second half of the season.

As for family reunions, we had some great scenes with Dream, Delirium and Destruction. Of course Destruction didn't want to return but at least Delirium got some closure of her own and a friend of sorts with Barnabus to measure. Delirium seemed pretty happy with that outcome.

- Johanna figured out for herself that Morpheus was the King of Dreams. 

- Out of the Kindly Ones, it was the Crone who seemed the least compassionate towards Dream killing Orpheus.

- Destruction prepared a meal that neither Dream or Delirium were interested in eating.

- Was that a laughing magician reference during Johanna's captivity in Robespierre's cell? She did laugh manically at one point.

- The next five episodes of the season will be released on Netflix from July 24th.

- Chronology: Wych Cross, England - June 28th 1794, then heading to Paris before going elsewhere to keep Orpheus's head safe.

Family Blood was another delightful episode. The resolution of the Orpheus storyline that now has led into a bigger one for the second half of the season. The reunion with Destruction. The welcomed return of Lady Johanna Constantine and her scenes with both father and son. Excellent stuff.

Rating: 9 out of 10