The Sandman Episode 4 Review – A Hope in Hell
Here’s my The Sandman Episode 4 review, the episode is titled “A Hope in Hell” and stars Tom Sturridge, Patton Oswalt and Gwendoline Christie.
Before we proceed… SPOILER ALERT
Morpheus continues his quest to find his tools and after getting back his pouch, he’s off to hell to find his helmet together with his new “friend” Matthew the Raven (Patton Oswalt). In hell he encounters a former lover who he put there himself and go on a rap battle of sorts with Lucifer Morningstar (Gwendoline Christie). Meanwhile on Earth, John Dee (David Thewlis) is off on a roadtrip to recover Dream’s amulet.
This right here is the perfect episode. It’s dark and moody and gives us something we didn’t know we need, the “emo” Dream or at least one that gets reacquainted with the feeling of loss and betrayal.
The visuals for this episode is creepy and stunning. The set design and visuals were totally amazing and its like they took the pages from the Neil Gaiman book and just transposed it into our screens. Hell is something to behold and you know what, that may just be the most realistic depiction of hell and that’s all thanks to the books aka the source material.
As I mentioned earlier, this story isn’t just about recovering something that Dream lost, but also a “roadtrip” so to speak to remind him of things that he may or may not have shut off after his incarceration.
There’s a lot of powerful messages conveyed here in this episode especially on the subject of Hope; where the seemingly beaten Dream uses hope in his little rap battle in hell against Lucifer and she cannot do anything because “nothing can beat hope”.
That determined look on Sturridge’s take on Dream is so cool and now I truly understand while people are comparing him to best mate Robert Pattinson because they do look a lot.
Meanwhile the subplot of John Dee and his ride to his amulet also deserves a lot of respect. It’s a good analysis on humanity and lying and it gets to present two sides of argument, one of Gaiman’s strongest moments for the series and its also one of the more grounded ones.
Of course this sets up some more philosophical and diabolical musings for the next episode which I dread to write about and review but we soldier on.
Verdict: 10/10
This is going HIGH up my rankings of episodes of The Sandman season 1 because of the production, the character beats, the visuals and the message it brings.
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