Netflix's The Sandman The Doll's House Arc, people who take advantage of other people's Trauma.

The last Arc of the first season of the Sandman on Netflix before the special episode of the first season focuses on what all final arcs of a season should focus on, the fall out of everything that happened from the previous arcs and tie together all loose ends.

In this context the fallout is very predictable, Dream was in captivity for a hundred years and the absence of such a powerful and crucial entity for such a long time leaves a power vacuum, and power hates vacuums a vacuum so large that it can't possibly be filled by a single person.

This type of Vacuum invites opportunists, in order to finally fulfill whatever mad dreams they have been keeping hidden away in the darkest corners of their mind.

And the Dolls house focuses exactly on this, on the surface it focuses on one single Nightmare of the Dreaming, the Corinthian, the very same who Dream had been trying to catch in the beginning when he was first captured by Roderick Burgess.

But if we look deeper there is more to the story, Three Major Arcana are missing, Gault, the shapeshifter, deceptive by nature as per dreams analysis, Corinthian the one who left in the beginning and is still feeding on the people he is supposed to serve, and Fiddler's Green, who's absence is most baffling as he is perhaps the most reliable amongst all of Dream's Subjects.

And to complicate matters further...

And the Rumors are true...

A dream Vortex is a naturally occurring phenomenon usually centered around a single person that pulls dreams and dreamers towards itself eventually eroding the borders between dreams and the Border's that separate the Dreaming from other realms.

Because Dreams and Nightmares are naturally pulled towards the Dream Vortex, Morpheus believes that he can use the Vortex to capture the Arcana.

And so for a while, dream becomes directly entangled with the life of a single mortal Woman.

The Vortex pulls all residents of the Dreaming towards her and she begins affecting those closest to her first, as a result the very first thing that occurs is Hector's Ghost slips from the realm of the dead into the Dreaming, into the Dreams of one specific person, his wife before his death Lyta Hall, who is close friends with the Vortex Rose Walker.

Rose Walker was separated from her younger brother when she was underage and her mother was divorcing their Father, in the Dreams of her Brother is the Nightmare Gault who wishes to end her time as a nightmare and inspire people instead, or at least inspire this one small kid Jed Walker.

She like the other nightmares is oblivious to the fact that her choice of the kid isn't exactly Random, she however, does feel sorry for the little guy, seeing how bleak and meaningless his "real" life is.

She makes a dream reality for him where she is his mother, and he is the hero the Sandman, the whole vibe is like an early Saturday morning cartoon where each week a new villain from the Hero's rogue's gallery shows up and tries to do whatever cartoonishly evil shit, and the hero goes through shenanigan's to stop the Villain.

Jed is called "the Sandman" in his dreams.

I mean, we all know where he got that from right?

Anyways, the real Sandman finds his way to him via teaching his siter to control her powers and move between the dreams of people, A move which is highly contested by his Librarian and other inhabitants of the Dreaming.

Dream thinks he has got it all under control though, as he always does.

He does it so much that his subjects are more or less used to this.

In fact if you think about it, the whole first half of the season only happened because he didn't listen to Luciene, his Librarian.

He thought he could just go off on his own and simply do the thing and come back and then there would be no further problems.

It seems he hasn't learned his lesson, I mean the whole anger from being trapped for so long thing is kinda taking priority right now, and then so is the Vortex and the missing Arcana.

Like predicted, the whole thing begins to go to shit as Morpheus again and Again helps Rose increase her powers, the dreaming begins to break and shatter...

But we will get to that when we will get to that, for now, let's go to what Rose is actually upto.

For one, she has been called over by her great grandmother, none other than Unity Kincaid, a Woman we first saw as a girl back in the very first episode of season 1, as the first person to fall to the Sleepy Sickness as Morpheus is captured by Roderick Burgess.

It turns out that even though she was a pre pubescent at the time of being put to an almost eternal sleep, she actually did give birth to a girl, the people taking care of her obviously thought someone took advantage of her vulnerable situation, but there was something else afoot.

Unity's daughter then had a daughter who then had a Daughter of her own, none other than Rose Walker, Unity realizes having recently woken up that she has family, and she wants to meet them.

So as a result, she "hires" Rose to find her brother.

So she returns to her home town, and stays as a renter in Hal Carter's apartment, along with some other interesting characters.

The tenants of Rose's home play roles with varying importance, but I feel it is important to go through them once.

Hal Carter is their Landlord, the house belongs to his Grandmother.

He is very lively, very flamboyant and always shares a little too much about his own life, and also wants to know every detail about other's, so he can share it.

Basically he is a gossip and a bit of an oversharer.

And he is also a Drag Queen who runs his show in the evening.

Him and his tenants live together as one big family, so he is also very friendly with them unlike other landlords.

In the comics, a lot of these Tenants go on to have their own Arcs, but as in the real world, my boy Neil Gaiman decided to go ahead and do some shit, and therefore the Sandman had to be wrapped up in two seasons, a lot of that stuff is just plain cut out.

Barbie and Ken are a couple living in the apartment, as... well Barbie and Ken!

Barbara later leaves Ken for cheating on her in a Dream and in the mean time, she herself was off having adventures in some Narnia land with one Martin Ten Bones.

Her dream is different in the sense that every night it is the same dream, not exactly the same as in, she wakes up, and it continues where it left off last time.

Basically, her dream is in a way a world of it's own, and she goes there each time she dreams.

This would have been a story that continued on later but oh.... no such luck...

These are Chantal and Zelda, the liven upstairs across the hall from rose.

What is their relationship?

Are they Lovers?

Sisters?

Mother and Daughter?

No one fucking knows and no one wants to ask for fear of overstepping.

The only thing we know is that Zelda whispers in Chantal's ears and Chantal is pretty much the only one who speaks, they also have the largest collection of Spiders....

And are very obviously Goths.

And then there's Gilbert, Gilbert is amazing.

He is also played by Stephen Fry when he isn't recording the Harry potter Audiobooks.

We first meet him when he very calmly tells to muggers to fuck off kindly when they start harassing Rose in the middle of the back alley, when she came out to get a call....

He actually does it calmly though, you can learn something from him Dumbledore...

But regardless, these are Rose's roommates, and she is currently trying her best to get in touch with Jed, in order to help her Dream has sent one of his Ravens, called Mathew.

The very same one who accompanied him in the first half of the season.

And it turns out she will need all the help she can get, because in Dream's Absence, the Corinthian has grown a following, inspiring humans to become heartless killers like him.

They together call themselves: "The Collectors" and each year meet in the "Cereal Convention" Yeah sure.

And Just like Dream treated Gault, he is going to be very pissed with the Corinthian, specifically because unmaking him was the main reason Dream even left the Dreaming and then got trapped.

Corinthian stands to loose the most if Dream comes into his own again.

I mean a bit too late for that no? Weeellll.... The vortex can do something about it.

As the Vortex grows in power, Dreams power wanes.

Dream is aware of this, but he still goes to risk it anyways.

Corinthian being a cunning bastard, kidnaps Jed and takes him away from his foster parents, I mean.... Idk which is wore, an abusive family that only keeps him around for...

Or a crazed supernatural serial killer who wants him around just for his own gains, and on the whole actually ends up treating him pretty well all things considered...

The Corinthian wants Rose to gain in power, he wants her in his control, because that way, he can continue living in the waking world and be free of Dream's control forever.

Which is the only reason he does all of this.

Dream isn't making any of this easier on himself as at first he scorned his librarian, who his subjects seem to respect more than him, for both ruling in his absence, and for listening to them.

And secondly the moment he listens, and learns about the source of the disturbance being the vortex, he doesn't immediately deal with the vortex, instead he Barges in on her friends dream life(literally and figuratively) where she had gotten pregnant with the ghost of her dead husband who had slipped through due to his proximity to the Vortex.

Dream obviously cannot allow this to continue, and he snaps everyone out of it.

To add to his list of problems, he lays claim on the child that Hector left behind with Hippolyta Hall, as right as he maybe, he really needs to learn to read the room.

The Vortex grows along with Rose's anger as she is able to supersede Dream's powers and show up in his throne room unannounced, before pulling the same power move on him and ending her own Dream.

Dream is left shocked, and finally begins to realize some of his mistakes.

But no time for that, the Corinthian is a guest of Honor, at the "Cereal" Convention, and takes Jed to the same hotel, in spite of being Told to not come around, Kids will be kids, and he makes his way out and is nearly "collected" by Fun Land.

In the meanwhile, Jed is able to contact Rose and Gilbert and give them the address so they can show up.

Upon their arrival here, is when Gilbert is the first one to notice something off, and decides he has to do something.

So he goes to the Dreaming.

Wait what? Well it turns out not only is ol'Gil aware of the Dreaming, he is a Dream himself, he is none other than Fiddler's green, the last of the missing Arcana.

He risks Morpheus's wrath to inform him of the situation his friend rose walker has found herself in.

Unaware that she is a Vortex.

Morpheus thankfully doesn't yet kill Rose, as he has far more pressing concerns, for one the Corinthian is pushing Rose to take over the dreaming.

But sensing his evil intent she puts the walls between the dreams back up, and chooses to return home with her brother.

That is the main reason Dream chooses to deal with her later, but the Corinthian is an immediate threat, and after initially being stabbed by him due to his loss of power, he is able to return at full strength once Rose decides to back down and un make the Corinthian.

The Corinthian questions Dreams rules, and why it is wrong for him to seek freedom, and do what he wants.

Dream argues that his rule keep him at bay, without them he will come un done...

Humanity would be consumed...

For once Dream Agrees, as he sees that while the Corinthian refuses to fulfill his role and harm others, he was created for that purpose... in a sense...

He is a Nightmare after all...

And when the "perfect nightmare" wants to haunt the waking world, really he is just fulfilling the function he was made for, but maybe not in the way that Dream would have wanted.

Dream thought is fair to treat him like a thing instead of a person, he thought everyone, like him was a rule abiding servant of Humanity...

But if the creation is flawed, isn't the Creator at fault?

Dream accepts his fault as he unmakes the Corinthian.

Having done that, he then gives off the cruelest punishment imaginable to the cult of Serial Killers the Corinthian has gathered.

Honestly? Well deserved, I mean sure, the Corinthian inspired them, but they took that inspiration!

The final step remains as Lyta Hall's baby is born and Rose enters the Dreaming again, this time, all her friend's dream barriers are down, and Barbie sees Ken cheat on her in the dream, but as it continues, the vortex begins to take shape and all of them are pulled in, seeing the carnage, Rose willingly allows Morpheus to take her life...

But in the meantime, something unexpected occurs, Unity dreams her way to Morpheus's Library, and meets Luciene.

It is there that she learns that she was meant to be the Vortex of this age... not Rose...

After a tearful goodbye speech from Gilbert/Fiddler's Green Dream reluctantly begins to take the Vortex away from rose, but is stopped just in time by Unity.

She asks Rose to pass on whatever makes her the vortex to her, how? It's a Dream! that's how!

Unity becomes the new Votex, and then dies in her sleep, leaving rose to be still alive, she was close to her death anyways, and leaves all her belongings to rose...

But how did Unity give birth...

She met her Golden eyed man in her dreams she said... so it wasn't? Non Consensual?

Unity may never have seen anything like those eyes, but Dream has...

He calls this person, sibling.

Desire is playing around in his realm as Dream enters through his Gallery and asks what did he intend?

That the Vortex be of the family of the Endless and Dream be forced to spill family blood, with all that that would entail?

Dream threatens Desire, that he cannot face him, death, destiny all at once, and if he does so again, Dream shall call him Family no more.

Making me believe that there is a way that the endless can attack each other by cutting their family ties first.

I do not know, what I do know is that after this experience, Dream finally learns to listen to his well wishers, even his subjects, to prevent this kind of thing from happening again.

While it is true that he was captured against his will, and in his absence other forces conspired to usurp his power and claim the opportunities they couldn't before, none of that would have occurred, if Dream had simply listened to Luciene before.

And regardless of all that, Dream has no right to return a century later and expect all those who depend on him to be exactly as he had left them...

And so, for the first time, after apologizing to Luciene, he remakes Gault as a Dream.

But Dream's story is far from over, and we have yet so much to learn, now don't we?