Dream meets his immortal human friend, Hope Gadling, once every hundred years, but will end their date again in the second season of The Sandman.
Dream of the Endless (Tom Sturridge) was forced to miss his centenary date with Hob Gadling (Ferdinand Kingsley) in The Sandman Season 1, and he'll break that rule in The Sandman Season 2 as well. The story of Morpheus' unusual friendship with Hope is told in the sixth episode of The Sandman, "The Sound of Her Wings." Hob becomes a pivotal link between dreams and humanity, and the Immortal Englishman represents how the King of Dreams changes for the better.
Hob's eternal life is the result of an eccentric bet between Dream and his older sister, Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste). Concerned that the dream was too far away from humans whose dreams had power, Death Hope granted the immortality he wished for as a way for Morpheus to learn more about humans. Hope was a socialite Briton who was heard by the Infinite family in 1389 saying that he never wanted to die. Death made Hope a Dream "project," and Sandman agreed to meet with Hope every hundred years, assuming that Gadling would eventually beg for death. To the amazement of Dream of the Endless, Hope, a chatty magician, enjoyed living regardless of whether he was prosperous or spent decades in poverty and misery. The Dream and Hob meetings every hundred years have seen historical figures such as William Shakespeare (Samuel Blinken) meet in 1589 and become mistaken for the "Satan and Wandering Jew" for Lady Joanna Constantin (Gina Coleman) in 1789.
The feud between Dream and Hope erupted in 1889 when Sandman deplored Gadling's suggestion that he be lonely and thus come to their centenary meetings out of friendship. Morpheus then missed his next appointment in 1989 because Dream was captured by British charlatan Roderick Burgess (Charles Dance) in 1916, causing global sleeping sickness. Morpheus was held captive until his escape in 2021. When Hope "stood", he assumed Dream was still a cross with him. But Dream finally joins Hob, stating that he's late, but his presence proves that Sandman considers Hob his friend, after all. But whether their next meeting is in 2089 or it will now be reset to 2121, Dream will break the every hundred-year rule again in Season 2 of The Sandman. In the second season of The Season of Mists, he will visit Morpheus Hob in his dreams and share a rare bottle of wine with his friend. At that point, Dream plans to return to Hell to demand the release of his former lover, Nada (Deborah Ayad), and the King of Dreams fears he won't return. Thus, Morpheus made sure to say a possible final goodbye to Hope decades before their next scheduled meeting.
Why Dream Finally Realized Hob Is His Friend?
In the grand scheme of things, Death was probably hoping that the dream would make a friend in the hope. While it took Sandman 632 years to come to a realization, Morpheus maintained that he and Hob are friends after all. But Dream is not the same Sandman who lashed out at Hope in 1889. Morpheus was cut off from the dream and spent more than a century in solitude. When he returns to his kingdom, he finds the dream broken. However, in his quest to recover the stolen tokens of his position, Morpheus interacts with humans like Joanna Constantine in ways he's never seen before, and the Dream King's feelings toward humans—and one human in particular—begin to change. Perhaps as death intended, the dream finally realized that he needed companionship and that Hope was there the whole time.
Hob is a unique character in The Sandman because he is someone who really enjoys life, and his boundless optimism for a living eventually loses the dream. Morpheus finally joining Hob at his new pub in 2021 was perhaps the most exciting moment of Season 1 of The Sandman. He talks about how much Dream appreciates Hob and that he will make sure to say goodbye to him in case he misses their centenary meeting again in hypnotic season 2.