Personal and literal demons come back to haunt Abbie in this episode. Her character is all the better for this kind of exploration into what drove her and her sister Jennifer apart when they were younger. This is the deepest part of a decidedly average episode of

Even so, the best part of this episode was how the relationship between the Mills sisters became so screwed up. The incident where the both of them saw the Four White Trees affected Abbie differently from sister Jennifer. In addition to the haunting vision, there was apparently a missing time element in play as well. It’s a defining moment in both of their pasts. How they dealt with the incident causes the schism in their relationship up until now. Abbie chose to deny any of it ever happened, partly because she was a scared little girl and partly because she lacked any adult to guide her through the trauma. Her sister chose to tell everyone who would listen the truth (though it lacked details beyond “I saw a demon!”) and the result of that proclamation was a commitment to a sanitarium.

Abbie’s guilt over this incident drives the episode’s main story. The Sandman is a mystical demon who preys on people with enormous amounts of guilt. It’s effectively scary despite the show sticking to the repeated trope of the demon inserting itself into Abbie’s dreams/visions. The show really needs to go away from the dreams/visions crutch for a while. These kinds of things aren’t always as straightforward as the show depicts. In this case, the Sandman continues to be in the dreams of its victims until it is defeated.

The way the Sandman is ultimately defeated was a slog, though. Since Abbie is a cop, she is bound by rules that would hamper the resolution of each case. The show is set up as a procedural in that way so it has to advance from point A to point B with some expedience. She has the rank of Lieutenant, yet is the only cop in town willing to investigate all of these strange happenings. Two people commit suicide right in front of her, which would qualify her for some vacation time or internal investigation.