[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Sandman bonus episode, “The High Cost of Living.”]

The Sandman ended with Season 2 Volume 2 on July 24, bringing with it a delightful surprise cameo that brought a new character and actor into the fold in the final episodes (we won’t spoil their identity in case you have yet to see, but it’s happy news for Interview With the Vampire lovers). The Sandman bonus episode about Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) brought another new face into the mix for the show’s true final installment.

“The High Cost of Living” premiered on Thursday, July 31, on Netflix and is an adaptation of a fan-favorite Sandman comic published in the 1990s. It stars Colin Morgan as Sexton Furnival and Howell-Baptiste as Death on her day off. She only gets to walk among the living and take a break from carrying souls into the afterlife once every 100 years, so it’s a well-deserved break. The Sandman has done some close to shot-for-shot remakes of the comics in its run, and its adaptation of “The High Cost of Living” does much of the same but with a minor changes that don’t bear too much weight on the overall plot, the biggest being with the main character.

How is The Sandman bonus episode different from “The High Cost of Living”?

In the comic, Death is a teenager. The Sandman aged her up in Seasons 1 and 2, and so that’s still the same in the bonus episode. Sexton has been aged up into a man in his 30s to go along with it, and to allow for some more adult scenarios. Sexton is an environmental news reporter who’s planning on committing suicide after a heartbreak, but also because of the grim state of the world. He can’t see any good in the world when there are, as he sees it, so many bad people who aim to destroy it and the lives of people inhabiting it. Death’s day off arrives just in time to stop him from ending it all.

Like in the comic, Death and Sexton spend the day together getting simple pleasures out of life. They go to a park, they go dancing at a goth club. Most importantly, they connect with people. The loner Sexton is reminded that opening yourself up to connecting with others is the key to making life feel worth living, and he doesn’t end up committing suicide. And in fact, he has several near-death experiences while he’s near Death, but given that it’s her day off, she can take his hand without danger.

The comic story where a character named Theo steals Death’s Ankh (the sigil on her necklace) to try and bring back his dead girlfriend takes place in this episode (Theo is played by Fra Fee). One of Sexton’s close brushes with death is when Theo fires a gun that just misses him. Every close call in the episode chips away at his belief that he wants to die, and every moment of true connection with old friends and new does so even more.

The comic story is set in New York, while the Netflix version is set in London, which makes sense given that most of The Sandman has taken place in England in the real-world scenes. The last notable change is with Mad Hettie (Clare Higgins), the unhoused woman seen throughout The Sandman Season 2. In the comic, Mad Hettie makes Death find her missing heart, but in the bonus episode makes Death find her missing soul. It’s found in a locket that contains the photo of a little girl inside. The character reveals some of her backstory as she explains why the item is so special to Sexton.

The episode ends with Death’s time as “Didi” coming to a close. Didi dies (a.k.a. is sent back to her realm), and reflects on her beautiful day with the humans with the version of herself that stayed in her domain. Sexton got a new lease on life after connecting with his friends and meeting someone new who made him feel hopeful for the future for the first time in a long time.

The Sandman, All Episodes Available Now, Netflix