In the first episode of The Sandman, Dream goes after the rogue Nightmare known as the Corinthian but is captured by Roderick Burgess in a ritual that should have captured Dream’s sister Death. When he learns that keeping an Endless has life-prolonging benefits, Roderick decides to imprison Morpheus in his basement for 106 years.
Interestingly, the imprisonment could have been a lot shorter. In a deleted scene, Roderick’s son Alex Burgess confronts his father about the sleepy sickness that was caused by Dream’s captivity (via Twitter). Alex tells Roderick that they need to release Morpheus as he might resurrect Roderick’s older son when he is free.
Unfortunately, Roderick never releases Dream and neither does Alex. It was Alex’s partner who smudges the runes keeping Morpheus bound. Still, if Alex had been more convincing, Dream could have escaped a lot sooner.
The Sandman recently dropped a bonus episode that adapted two stories from the comic’s Dream Country storyline. The first story follows a Siamese cat who tells a gathering of other felines about her meeting with Morpheus while the second tale follows a writer who imprisons the muse Calliope to gain access to her ideas for his own novel. Neil Gaiman has since confirmed that A Dream of a Thousand Cats/Calliope is the only bonus episode for the first season.
The Sandman Season 2 has not yet been officially announced. Stay tuned for more updates on this story.
