Apropos of nothing (apropos of EVERYTHING), may I present the last 2 panels of the Sandman comics that take place in the present:
Hob falls asleep at a Ren Faire after talking to Death, turning down her offer to die now that Dream is gone (which takes place here in the comics rather than at his funeral). As he sleeps, he dreams of suddenly running into Dream and "some bloke" that reminds him of a shitty pavement artist he met once a long time ago (Destruction, who Hob has no idea has any connection to Dream, nor that he'd been the one to tell Dream he could always LEAVE & come find him in the stars if he's so miserable in his function). Hob remembers Dream should be dead, realizes this is a dream, and laughs (and we know he knows now that Morpheus is the former King of Dreams and that many beings live in the Dreaming). The three of them decide to go off on an adventure "into the end of the story" when Hob is woken up.
This is the last moment that takes place in the present in the entire series. What happens next and what the implications of Hob's dream are is left to the reader to decide.
I don't know if we'll get this scene in the July 31 episode or not. I don't know if the show creators will think this scene is important enough to include in their truncated version of the story, because Morpheus is dead, why speculate where he may have gone with his sister after taking her hand now that Daniel's here?
But for me it's always meant the difference between a story of terrible tragedy, and a story with hope in SPITE of terrible tragedy. I hope it helps to know this scene exists, regardless of whether the show includes it in the bonus ep or not.
Edit: Now we know it's not included. But I hope anyone who needs to see this finds it, to know it existed in the original form.
Some final quotes:
"My advice? Remember what I did. Remember that I left. Remember how hard it was for me to leave, but that I did it out of love." -Destruction
"You show up, you tell me you're never going to see me again, and then you always come back." "Not this time." "I don't believe you." -Hob to Dream
