"Probably should have called first."
"What is wrong with you? You want your sand back so that you can save all of humanity, well, here she is! But we're all just Roderick Burgess to you. All you care about is your sand. Your power. What is the point of you?"
— Johanna Constantine
Morpheus travels to London to meet the last known possessor of his bag of sand: Johanna Constantine, a professional exorcist. He makes a bad first impression, ordering her about and trying to interrupt one of her exorcisms to get the demon to tell him where his helm has ended up. She gives him the slip when he's distracted by the arrival of his new raven, Matthew, who has been sent by Lucienne to keep an eye on him, but he tracks her down again through her recurring nightmare of an old case that ended badly. Johanna tells Morpheus that the bag was among the possessions she left at her ex-girlfriend Rachel's place when their relationship ended a few months earlier. They find that Rachel, in pain from being abandoned by Johanna, used the sand to retreat into dreams and avoid the waking world; her emaciated body is now only being kept alive by the sand. At Johanna's insistence, Morpheus allows Rachel to die peacefully in her sleep, wrapped in one last happy dream, as her body fails. He also promises Johanna that her recurring nightmare will not visit her again.
Meanwhile, Ethel Cripps and her son John discuss Morpheus' ruby. She wants to give it back to Morpheus and hope for clemency; he's confident he's mastered its powers (despite her reminder that his last attempt resulted in multiple deaths and his current incarceration) and can use it to destroy Morpheus. She says that ultimately, she just wants her son to be safe; to that end, she gives John the amulet of protection, even though it means her death as the amulet was the only thing warding off the ravages of her advanced age. John uses the amulet to escape his incarceration and sets out to retrieve the ruby.
This episode contains examples of:
- Adaptational Timespan Change: In the comic, several days elapse between Hettie telling Constantine that Morpheus has returned and Morpheus himself showing up to talk to Constantine. In the TV version, Morpheus shows up the moment Constantine's conversation with Hettie ends.
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Rachel's decline and death is all more the tragic in this version, since Johanna broke her heart and she was using the sand to escape the pain of being abandoned.
- Adaptational Nice Guy:
- Instead of stealing the sand (and a whole other selection of Constantine's belongings), as she does in the comics, Rachel got it by accident — Johanna ghosted her and left a bunch of stuff at her place, including the sand.
- In the comics, Dream had to be asked by Constantine to relieve his nightmares about the Newcastle incident. Here, he does so without being asked, presumably out of gratitude to Johanna.
- Adaptational Sexuality:
- Rachel, due to her remaining the ex-girlfriend of John Constantine, who got an Gender Flip into Johanna Constantine II.
- To the extent of preference, Constantine herself, who went from a bisexual man whose majority of mentioned relationships were with women to a bisexual woman whose majority of mentioned relationships are with other women.
- Adaptation Amalgamation: While mainly being an adaptation of The Sandman #3, the story is filled out with details from Hellblazer; in particular, Johanna's nightmare is based on the Newcastle incident in Hellblazer #11.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: The blonde Johanna Constantine becomes a brunette.
- Adapted Out: Rachel's father and the burglar who tried to break into his home are left out.
- Altar the Speed: The princess and her fiancé are in a rush to get married, enough to have a quick wedding in the middle of night with only the minimum necessary number of people.
- Anonymous Ringer: Johanna's exorcism job involves a member of the British Royal Family, identified only as "the Princess". Two other Royals, from context possibly the Princess's parents, are referred to as "the Duke and Duchess".
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Johanna dismisses Dream's existence as a fairy tale while she's on her way to exorcise a demon. It takes her some time to understand that he truly is one of the Endless.
- Bad Samaritan: When John Burgess is wandering outside the prison in his pyjamas, the Corinthian appears and gifts him his coat.
- Bait-and-Switch: It looks like the princess is the one who's possessed; she's swearing like Linda Blair and crushing Kevin's hand when he objects to their secret marriage. Turns out Kevin is the one who's possessed. Johanna puts this down to Love Makes You Crazy.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Matthew insists on sticking with Dream despite repeated orders to return to the Dream World. Dream finally agrees, and tells Matthew they're going to Hell. Literally.
- Blunt "Yes":Johanna: Does this approach generally work for you? You just turn up and order people about?
Dream: Yes. - Break His Heart to Save Him: Johanna knows that horrific fates tend to befall those close to her because of her line of work, which is why she left Rachel. Dream asks if she bothered to tell her ex-girlfriend that, which Johanna admits she didn't.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Johanna and Ric, upon seeing a demon crawl out of a man's mouth, ripping him in half in the process, casually discuss how Ric was right someone was possessed, but it wasn't the princess.
- Catapult Nightmare: Johanna sits bolt upright when she wakes from her nightmare and finds herself looking at Morpheus. Averted the first time because she's sitting up already, having fallen asleep in the back of a cab.
- Country Matters: Ethel refers to John's father Roderick Burgess as "a cunt who wanted me to abort you." John clearly notes the venom in her voice and remarks that may be the first completely true thing she's ever said to him.
- Description Cut: Matthew tells Dream that he's the last thing Johanna and Rachel will be thinking about. Cut to the two of them making out.
- Dragged Off to Hell: A demon being banished by Constantine managed to snare her young friend Astra and pull her in with it, leaving only her severed arm behind. This event still haunts her.
- "Eureka!" Moment: After Johanna gives Morpheus the slip, Matthew says encouragingly that she's going to have to sleep soon and then they'll have a few hours to look for her before she starts moving again. This prompts Morpheus to realize that once she falls asleep, he'll be able to locate her through her dreams.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: When Morpheus tells Johanna that his bag of sand was stolen by Roderick Burgess, Johanna laughingly remarks that she'd always thought Burgess was a phony who bolstered his reputation with implausible rumors like the one about having the Devil prisoner in his cellar — then stops short as she realizes what the truth of that story was and the implications start to sink in.
- Fantastically Indifferent: Constantine and Rick, having seen things of this nature before, are remarkably calm about a demon forcing its way out of Kevin's throat, splattering the unfortunate man all over the princess in the process. The princess takes it rather less calmly.
- Flashback Nightmare: Johanna suffers from a recurring nightmare of a case where one of her friends was Dragged Off to Hell. Dream notices this, and cures her of it as thanks for her help.
- Foreshadowing: Johanna asks Dream if he has any ex-girlfriends. There's a closeup on his face, looking upset, while he pointedly does not answer the question. Two of Dream's exes are introduced in later episodes: one in episode four and another in episode eleven.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: In the lobby of Johanna's dream is a poster advertising Mucous Membrane (here spelled "Muchas Membrane"), the name of John Constantine's punk band in the Hellblazer comics.
- Friendship Denial:Constantine: And what's your friend's name?
Morpheus: His name is Matthew, but he is not— - Gender Flip:
- John Constantine becomes Johanna Constantine.
- John's friend Rick the Vic also gets a gender flip, becoming an Erica instead of a Richard, to facilitate a plot point where Johanna briefly impersonates her.
- Guile Heroine: As you'd expect from a Constantine. Johanna exorcises the demon by posing as a priest and making the couple say the incantation in Latin as if it's a wedding vow.
- Hollywood Exorcism: Johanna Constantine performs an exorcism (disguised as a wedding ceremony) on a princess who's trying to marry a footballer. It involves a lot of chanting in Latin. The demon turns out to be possessing the footballer, who bursts out of the man messily before getting sent back to Hell.
- Hope Spot: Expecting a nasty argument with her pissed-off ex, Johanna is surprised to see Rachel glad to see her and willing to take up where they left off. Unfortunately, it's All Just a Dream.
- Humans Are Bastards: According to Matthew, they are. He tells Dream that if he waits for humans to think about anyone other than themselves, he'll be standing out in the rain forever.
- Innocent Innuendo: Johanna instructs Rick the Vic to take her top off in a way that makes it sound like she has something salacious in mind. It turns out that she wants the vicar's shirt and ecclesiastical collar so she can pose as the vicar to get close to her target.
- Irony: Johanna has a history of people she cares about getting horribly injured or killed. She didn't want that for Rachel, so she disappeared from her life — which deeply hurts Rachel, and ends up getting her killed.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Johanna is furious that Dream is just leaving Rachel to suffer once he gets his pouch of sand back, as it was the sand that caused her ex-lover's deterioration. Dream coldly points out that it's Johanna's fault that Rachel managed to get her hands on the pouch in the first place.
- Magical Homeless Person: Hettie, who's over two hundred years old and aware, by undisclosed means, of events like Morpheus' escape from captivity.
- Mythology Gag: In the comic, the effects of the sand ended up splattering Rachel's father all over the walls of their house, while he was still alive. In the episode it's the amulet of protection that ends up killing John's guards in a similar fashion.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Johanna left the bag of sand with her ex when she walked out on her. A distraught Rachel figured out how to use the sand to escape her broken heart and ended up becoming addicted to it; when Dream takes it back, she literally can't survive without it and soon dies.
- Ethel does a Heroic Sacrifice to protect her son, only to give him the means to escape from prison.
- No Immortal Inertia: Ethel is around one hundred twenty years old (she appeared to be in her early 20s in 1926) and has remained relatively youthful (Joely Richardson was 56 during filming) due to the amulet of protection. When she gives the amulet to her son and loses its protection, she rapidly ages to her actual age and dies.
- Noodle Incident: Apparently, Johanna got into an incident with the Queen of England, which makes her reluctant to take a job involving a member of the royal family.
- Pensieve Flashback: When Morpheus attempts to locate Johanna through her dreams, he finds himself as a bystander in her Flashback Nightmare watching the events unfold.
- Pet the Dog: After getting his pouch of sand back, Morpheus gives one last pleasant dream of being with Johanna to a dying Rachel so that she won't be in pain at the moment of her death. He also gets rid of Johanna's recurring nightmare of the Newcastle incident.
- Portal Cut: In Johanna's nightmare, her friend Astra gets sucked into a portal to Hell as it's closing. Johanna grabs her arm and tries to pull her out, but the portal closes and leaves Johanna holding the neatly severed arm while the rest of Astra is trapped on the other side.
- Race Lift: In the comics, Rick the Vic has the appearance of a stereotypical vicar, which means he's white. In the show she's played by the Anglo-Indian actress Meera Syal.
- Red-Flag Recreation Material: John Dee keeps himself entertained at the mental hospital by reading a book on the history of occultism in Britain, resulting in very tense conversation with his mother about one of the figures in the book, Roderick Burgess - John's long-lost father. Not only is this a worrying attempt to delve into his dark family history, but it's also an early warning sign of John's psychotic hatred of lies in any form, as the book is a non-fiction work.
- Reduced to Dust: As Morpheus enters and reveals that Johanna's conversation with Rachel is just a dream, the dream-Rachel collapses into sand.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Ric believes the princess is possessed by a demon, judging by her wild behaviour and desperation to get married, plus the smell of sulphur. In fact, she's behaving like this due to her infatuation with Kevin, who's the one who's actually possessed.
- Johanna: You were right about the demon, wrong about the host.
- Saying Too Much: Matthew's unjustified suspicion that Constantine and her ex are plotting to double-cross Dream by cutting the sand so they can sell it off to someone else make it clear he was either a drug addict or a dealer—likely both.
- Skip to the End: The princess and her fiancé are in a rush to get married, and hurry the celebrant through the marriage vows. This includes cutting into the "Do you, full name" bits in a way which conveniently avoids revealing the princess's name.
- Spared by the Adaptation: In the comic, Rachel is staying at her father's house when she starts abusing the sand, and something messy and lethal happens to him as a result. In the TV version, she's living in a flat on her own, and her father is still alive (Constantine mentions having to give him the news about Rachel).
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Constantine manages to do this to Dream despite being in a large open space, though Matthew does try to warn him. Dream insists on sticking close to Constantine in case she does it again.
- Was Once a Man: A couple of hours ago in fact; and now Matthew's a bird who's still getting used to having wings instead of opposable thumbs.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- When Dream says there's nothing to be done about Rachel, Johanna reminds him that he's the one who said he needed the sand back for the sake of humanity, and if "humanity" is so important, there's a human in pain right here.Johanna: What is the point of you?
- The Dream-Rachel calls out Johanna. "Because you're a selfish, ruthless, coward."
- When Dream says there's nothing to be done about Rachel, Johanna reminds him that he's the one who said he needed the sand back for the sake of humanity, and if "humanity" is so important, there's a human in pain right here.
