Before we get started, let’s just understand one thing: Racist bullshit regarding the casting of Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death will not be tolerated. The end.
Now that that’s out of the way, the second thing to understand is that there will likely be spoilers ahead. Skip if you haven’t seen the series and care about that kind of thing.
As promised, I am back to discuss the second “frock flick” episode of The Sandman (2022-). Episode 6, “The Sound of Her Wings,” is a condensed introduction to Death, Morpheus’ older sister. The first half of the episode is basically a “day in the life of Death,” as Morpheus tags along with her while she does her work and tries to lift her brother out of the doldrums he finds himself in.
The second half of the episode is where all the costume content comes in. After Morpheus and Death part ways, he wanders up to an abandoned Tudor building on the Thames, and the scene cuts to the year 1389. Morpheus and Death are standing outside the same building, but it’s now a bustling medieval tavern. They go inside and observe the goings-on of the humans within. Morpheus is disdainful of all of it, but Death thinks it’s pretty great. They overhear a man bragging to his friends that he has no intention of dying, and the two Endless siblings decide to make a wager: Death will grant the man his wish for immortality, and Morpheus bets that he will be begging for death within a year. Morpheus and the man, Hob Gadling (played by Ferdinand Kingsley, son of Ben Kingsley), agree to meet up in 100 years at the same spot, to evaluate the situation. At the appointed time in 1489, Morpheus appears and finds Hob thoroughly enjoying the immortal life, much to his surprise. They agree to continue meeting every 100 years, and the show takes us through the rise and fall of Hob Gadling’s fortunes over the centuries.
According to the Twitter account, Netflix Geeked, the show’s assistant designer Dominique Arthur was responsible for the many centuries of sexy black costumes worn by Morpheus in the episode.
from sketch to screen: assistant costume designer Dominique Arthur is to thank for Dream's amazing looks in THE SANDMAN episode "The Sound of Her Wings" pic.twitter.com/EhZg5hVAWD
— Netflix Geeked (@NetflixGeeked) August 12, 2022
As far as historical accuracy goes … heh, not so much. But the costumes do a serviceable job in a show that obviously allocated most of the budget to the SFX team, and since it’s 30 minutes out of an entire series, I’m not going to hate on them too hard. I will say that I wish they’d given Death a better costume in 1389, but I will give them props for putting her in a wimple.
1389 Costume in The Sandman
1589 in The Sandman
1689 in The Sandman
1789 in The Sandman
1889 in The Sandman
Have you watched The Sandman? What was your favorite episode? Tell us in the comments!
This is one of my favorite episodes. I loved Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Death, and I adored Ben Kingsley’s hot son Ferdinand as Hob Gadling, especially the bit where even though he’d lost everything, he still didn’t want to die, because things could turn around!
I agree. Loved it.
I have not yet finished the series, but the 1689 look gives me vampire vibes.
Kirby Howell-Baptiste looks adorable in that wimple.
It took me until the 1889 scene and Hob wearing Victorian fashion to get me to realize I’d seen him as Mr Francatelli in Victoria, lol.
I got giddy when Jenna showed up since it was a mini Victoria reunion!
I got addicted to this series real quick and that episode was my favorite one.
Death’s headress is 12th, not 14th century imo. I’m pretty sure the wimple -pillbox-veil look had given way to wimple -cauls-veil by then, or even escoffions/hennins.
Yes & no; the wimple/pillbox (actually it is a fillet) in particular was popular well into the 1300s. Later in the 14th century you see more of the cauls and crespinettes (the braid or jeweled blob on the sides of the head), but the wimple stayed popular well into the 15th century. (It covers a multitude of sins!) Escoffions & hennins are solidly 15th century. So her headwear may be a tiny bit old-fashioned, but it’s quite reasonable. And well done!
Not everybody dresses in the height of the latest fashion after all. And Death can wear whatever she wants! Wimples really are quite becoming, can we bring them back? I got jowls!☹️
OH MY GLOB THIS EPISODE
The Sandman isn’t my favourite comic series (it’s close, though), but it’s the one I’ve re-read the most. This episode was like two issues of the comic slapped onto the screen. Perfect perfect perfect.
And can we talk about Desire?!? Holy carp is Mason Alexander Park exquisite!