Finding himself too weak to begin rebuilding his kingdom, Morpheus resolves to find and recover his tools: the bag of sand, helm and ruby that were stolen from him by Roderick Burgess and then from Burgess by Ethel Cripps. To begin the search, he needs to regain some of the power that he invested in his creations, but with the realm in ruins and most of its inhabitants gone there aren't many creations left that can supply his need. He visits Cain and Abel, brothers who continually re-enact the story of the first murder, in order to unmake their pet gargoyle, Gregory, who was originally created by Morpheus as a nightmare. Cain and Abel protest, but give way after Gregory agrees to the sacrifice.
Morpheus summons the Fates, who allow him to ask three questions, which he uses to enquire after his three tools. They tell him that the bag of sand was sold, most recently in London to a magic-user named Johanna Constantine; that the helm was traded to a demon in return for an amulet of protection; and that the ruby was given by a mother to her son. Before setting out to find Johanna Constantine, Morpheus leaves a gift for Cain and Abel: a gargoyle's egg. Both are charmed by the hatchling gargoyle, but get into a fight about what to name it that ends in Cain murdering Abel again.
Meanwhile, the Corinthian visits Ethel Cripps, who is alive and well under a new name in America. He tells her that Morpheus will be after both of them now that he's free, and suggests they use Morpheus' tools against him to destroy him once and for all. Ethel says that she doesn't have Morpheus' tools any more; she sold the bag of sand, traded away the helm, and her son John took the ruby "and then the ruby took my son". The Corinthian believes she knows more than she's saying about what became of the ruby, but when he tries to force her to reveal what she knows she uses the demon's amulet to banish him. Later, she goes to visit her son, who is an inmate in a high-security mental institution, and tells him they need to talk about the ruby.
This episode contains examples of:
- Adaptational Backstory Change: In the comic, Goldie's egg was a gift to Abel from Cain. Here, he only thought it was a gift from him as an apology for murdering him (again). Instead, it was an apology gift from Morpheus for taking Gregory.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: The jetty on the River of Dreams, and Morpheus using it to travel, appeared a bit later in the story in the original comic (in issue #4, where Morpheus used it to travel from the Dreaming to Hell).
- Adaptational Jerkass: In the comic, the Crone was the most helpful of the Kindly Ones. She explained what had happened to Dream's ruby, and advised him to seek out the Justice League for help. In the show, since the Justice League has been removed from the story, she merely remarks that it was passed from a mother to her son and screams at him when he asks her to clarify who they were.
- At the Crossroads: Morpheus performs his Summoning Ritual to confer with the Three-in-One from a crossroads in the Dreaming, along with other offerings. Being the Lord of Dreams, he reaches into a human's dream and plucks out a suitable crossroads with one giant hand.
- Back from the Dead: No matter how many times Cain kills Abel, he'll always revive by the next day.
- The Day the Music Lied: When Morpheus attempts to repair his ruined palace, the background music swells triumphantly as the shattered pieces all rise into the air and begin to fit back into place — then fades as it turns out Morpheus doesn't have enough power and everything comes crashing down again.
- Death by Adaptation: In the comics, Dream reabsorbs Cain and Abel's letters of commission, not Gregory.
- Disproportionate Retribution: All gargoyles have names that start with 'G', so Cain murders Abel (again) when he suggests naming the newborn gargoyle Irving. Abel backtracking and suggesting "Girving" only makes Cain angrier.
- Distinction Without a Difference: John Dee certainly thinks so with regards to the difference between institutionalization and imprisonment:Ethel: Hospital, John, not prison.
John: If it pleases you to think so. - Exact Words: Dream gets to ask the Kindly Ones three questions, and they answer exactly that many, but it doesn't narrow down the whereabouts of his stolen artifacts that much. Notably, despite still being pretty much Jerkass Genies who don't give much help, they don't deliberately exploit this trope to hobble Dream's search — they even actively remind him to restrict his three questions to those relevant to his three missing tools, and don't take the chance to count irrelevant ones against his total.
- Foreshadowing: The detail that Morpheus invests part of his power in each of his creations and can reclaim it if he's present when they're destroyed turns out to be a significant plot point in a later episode.
- The Hecate Sisters: The Fates are a trio of women, one young, one middle-aged, and one old — but which is which changes from moment to moment.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Gregory allows himself to be reabsorbed into Dream's being despite Cain and Abel's protests.
- Hope Spot: The amulet appears to destroy Corinthian, but he's simply thrown back into the Dream World. As Morpheus isn't there to stop him, he just returns to the Waking World to continue where he left off.
- Lighter and Softer: Cain's murders of Abel are fairly quick and clean and when Abel revives he's none the worse for wear apart from being a bit grubby from digging himself out of the latest shallow grave. In the comic, they're gorier and a point is made of his body slowly and painfully knitting itself back together. It's a necessary change; the level of violence that hit the right note in a comic book would have been inordinately horrifying if recreated in live action.
- Love Martyr: Abel is a platonic example. All he wants is for his brother to be happy, and hey, if Cain needs to regularly murder Abel over minor transgressions in order to feel happy, he's okay with that.
- Mathematician's Answer: As Lucienne warns, the Fates speak in riddles. When Dream asks them for the locations of his tools, the answers they give lack a lot of details, leaving Dream to do most of the heavy lifting, so to speak. The Crone's answer is the worst, simply stating that the ruby's location is that it was passed down from a mother to a son.
- Mythology Gag:
- When Morpheus looks into the River of Dreams, his reflection has black pits for eyes with glowing lights as pupils. In the comics, that's what Morpheus' eyes look like all the time.
- Abel initially assumes that Goldie's egg is a gift from Cain. In the comics, it was.
- Noodle Incident: Apparently the Fates asked Morpheus a favor involving Circe and he refused. While their Crone-aspect is still bitter about it, they otherwise agree that it is "old business."
- Pet the Dog: As an apology for having to sacrifice Gregory to restore some of his power, Dream gives Cain and Abel a new baby gargoyle, whom they name Goldie and Irving respectively.
- Properly Paranoid: One of the first things Ethel purchased with the items she stole was an amulet of protection. It saves her life years later from Corinthian.
- Race Lift: Cain and Abel are white in the comics, but played by Desi actors in the show.
- Ridiculously Small Wings: Goldie the baby gargoyle has a pair of tiny batlike wings on his back. In the last scene he appears in, he flies to Abel with his tiny wings buzzing furiously. As a magical creature who exists only in the Dreaming, he's not bound by realistic physics.
- Summoning Ritual: Dream summons the Fates using the power he reabsorbed from Gregory and items taken from dreams: a crossroads, a gallows, and a serpent (which the Fates eat).
- Supernaturally Young Parent: Due to the amulet of protection warding off the ravages of time, Ethel Cripps looks about half her actual age; Joely Richardson, who plays her in the present day, is actually slightly younger than David Thewlis, playing her son.
- What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: Lucienne's sardonic response when her lord insists on returning to the same city where he was imprisoned for a century, without even taking a raven messenger as a precaution.
