New ‘Rick and Morty’ Episode Parodies Neil Gaiman’s ‘Sandman’

The newest episode of Rick and Morty might have presented a major new villain with roots stretching back to the first season, but the titular characters will be going up against a familiar character for comic book fans.

Before Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith of Earth C-137 can deal with the threat of Evil Morty, they’ll have to face a new character who looks alarmingly like Dream of the Endless from Neil Gaiman‘s Sandman comics. Check out the preview for the new episode above and see for yourself.

In the clip, Rick and Morty are raiding what appears to be a temple in space as designed by M. C. Escher after having retrieved the “Truth Tortoise.” This object happens to have a third eye and grants whoever looks it in the eyes with infinite knowledge.

Of course, with Morty being Morty and forced to carry the Truth Tortoise, he can’t help but take a bite from the metaphorical forbidden fruit. The episode then leads to what Rick himself describes as this season’s “Interdimensional Cable.”

Those episodes done in previous season feature Rick modifying a cable box so the characters can watch different TV stations in infinite realities. In this episode, it seems that Rick and Morty will recall the various memories Rick has deleted from his grandson’s mind in order to preserve his sanity.

While running through the temple, they are chased by a pail skinned figure, clad in black with frizzy hair, black eyes, and a morose expression. The character is a dead ringer for Dream of the Endless, the protagonist of The Sandman from Vertigo.

The character also goes by the name Morpheus and generally takes on different appearances based on whoever is looking at him. But he is usually depicted in Gaiman’s stories with a similar appearance.

The character is the personification of all dreams and stories in existence, and based on that he defines what actually exists and what does not.

Dream recently appeared in his current incarnation of Daniel Hall at the end of the first issue of Dark Nights: Metal by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, FCO Plascencia, and Steve Wands.