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While the decision was made early on that Calliope’s sexual assault in “The Sandman” bonus episode wouldn’t be shown on camera, Neil Gaiman and Allan Heinberg wanted to do more to show her as a hero. One of the ways to do this was to show her making her own decision to contact Morpheus instead of him just showing up to rescue her as he does in the comics.
In a critical scene of “Calliope,” we see Calliope sneak out of her room and downstairs after Richard Madoc (Arthur Darvill) gets a phone call. Before Madoc realizes she’s gone, she’s gone to his desk and begins to write on a piece of paper. Suddenly Madoc is next to her and reads the name she’s written: Morpheus. This moment changed the story in a small but pivotal way. “It was his [Gaiman’s] idea to have her attempt to escape; that was a pure Gaiman invention,” Heinberg told CBR. “Once we got that piece of it, that’s the piece that’s not in the book, [and] I love that it came directly from Neil. It brought Morpheus and the idea of Morpheus into the story even earlier and helped make it an essential Sandman story in the context of the series.”
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN’s National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
