Netflix The Sandman recap guide: All 10 episodes explained

The Sandman episode 8 recap: Playing House

Dream welcomes Rose and tells her she can stay in the Dreaming, explaining to her what she is. According to him, a Dream Vortex is a mortal who is so powerful they can travel through other people’s dreams. Apparently, this happens every few thousand years. Dream tells Rose that if she can find him, she can find Jed.

We see Jed as he’s in a nightmare, only to be woken up to find himself in a true nightmare. He’s locked in the basement at his Uncle Barnaby and Aunt Clarice’s.

Rose gives Unity a call to update her on what’s going on, and Unity reveals that she’s speaking with a journalist there to ask her about her sleepy sickness. As it turns out, that “journalist” is none other than the Corinthian, there to find out information about Rose. Unity tells him where Rose is staying.

While Dream is trying to make sense of everything, he wonders whether or not he was the one to create the Dream Vortex. Unity is the sole survivor of the sickness, and the day Dream returned from his capture, she woke up. Did his absence from the Dreaming cause the Vortex? He and Lucienne don’t think it’s all a coincidence.

Meanwhile, Lyta starts to see her dead husband Hector (Lloyd Everitt) in her dreams, and Rose prints out flyers to try and locate Jed. In an attempt to make amends with the adoption agency, Lyta goes to see Miss Rubio and apologizes. She asks if Miss Rubio would pay Jed a visit just to make sure he’s okay.

Miss Rubio clearly takes Lyta seriously because she decides she will go see Jed. Uncle Barnaby is angry when Aunt Clarice tells him the adoption agency is coming by, to which Clarice reminds him they could always give Jed back. But they get $800 a month to take care of him, so Barnaby refuses. Barnaby threatens Jed to behave when Miss Rubio comes.

Rose and Hal head out to pass out flyers by the beach and they bond over their past experiences. The Corinthian appears, looking for Rose, and takes a flyer from Hal. He’s certainly onto them and is watching Rose’s every move.

Miss Rubio arrives at Barnaby and Clarice’s, who are obviously fake towards her. Jed has a note in his hand and sneaks it into her purse, however, Barnaby sees him do it and takes it back. The Corinthian shows up at the adoption agency and kills Miss Rubio, also eating her eyes.

Later on, Rose falls asleep and gets to travel through her neighbors’ and friends’ dreams. She watches as Hal performs on a stage only to rip his own face off in a creepy scene, and then she walks in on Lyta having sex with Hector. She walks past Barbie’s dream out in a field, finally finding Dream. He informs her that the Vortex can dream entire worlds or just as easily destroy them. They end up walking towards Rose’s old house, and Gault, who is disguised as Rose and Jed’s late mother, is there with Jed. Rose and Jed reunite, and they are able to send Jed back to the waking world.

This is where things start to get even weirder than they were before. In her dream, Lyta becomes pregnant with a belly that’s growing really fast. And when she wakes up, she has the same baby bump!

Dream confronts Gault after realizing she had Jed, and even though she tries to defend herself by saying Jed was being abused in the waking world, Dream doesn’t want to hear it. Gault wants to be a dream and not a nightmare, but Dream reminds her that it’s not her choice to make. Because she did not follow her responsibilities, Dream punishes her by making her disintegrate, seemingly killing her. Lucienne doesn’t agree with this, which makes Dream put her in her place. It’s a conversation that leads to their brief falling out.

After going through the files at the adoption agency, the Corinthian shows up at Aunt Clarice and Uncle Barnaby’s, killing them both. Once he sees Jed, he tells him he was sent by Rose. They take off together, with the Corinthian driving them off into the sunset.

Written by Natalie Zamora