We’re back in the film landscape of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune adaptations, this time for a story that takes place ten millennia before Paul Atreides’ rise to power. Welcome to Dune: Prophecy.
Recap
We begin with a massive flashback told from the vantage point of an older Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson). She talks of the Butlerian Jihad, where humans had to fight against the thinking machines that rose up against them, leading to thinking technology being banished. In the battle, the Harkonnens were said to have fled while the Atreides vanquished the enemy and called the Harkonnens cowards for running. Valya insists that these were lies, and led to her family’s banishment. She eventually joined the Bene Gesserit sisterhood along with her own sister Tula (Emma Canning), and became a favorite of their first Reverend Mother, Raquella Berto-Anirul (Cathy Tyson). Raquella believed that the Imperium needed better leaders, and created the Bene Gesserit breeding program to achieve that end, to the dismay of sisters who Valya calls “zealots.” In her final moments on Wallach IX, home of the sisterhood, the dying Reverend Mother calls for a younger Valya (Jessica Braden). Raquella has a vision of a reckoning and advises Valya to do everything in her power to safeguard the Sisterhood. Valya believes that the Reverend Mother wants her to put one of their sisters on the throne of the Imperium.
When Valya tries to get the rest of the Sisterhood to adhere to this plan, there is a clear faction who do not agree: the zealots who believe that humility is the center of their work, and are led by Mother Dorotea (Camilla Beeput). She means to destroy the breeding index, so Valya stops her using a new technique she has developed: the Voice. When Dorotea refuses to bend to Valya’s plans, she uses the Voice to get Dorotea to kill herself. Thirty years later (116 years after the war against thinking machines and roughly 10,000 years before the events of Dune), the sisterhood is preparing to welcome Princess Ynez (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina) into their ranks following her marriage. Her half-brother Constantine Corrino (Josh Heuston) comes to talk about her accommodations, but Mother Superior Valya is firm about her being treated the same as all the other sisters. Acolytes are working on their ability to spot lies and become Truthsayers under the tutelage of Mother Tula (Olivia Williams).
Constantine arrives home on Salusa Secundus to find Ynez sparring with shield belts against Swordmaster Keiran Atreides (Chris Mason). Emperor Javicco Corrino (Mark Strong) is reviewing the dowry for his daughter with the Duke of House Richese (Brendan Cowell), who is offering him a fleet of warships to help tame Arrakis and protect the spice harvest from Fremen attack. The Emperor takes advice from his own Truthsayer, Reverend Mother Kasha Jinjo (Jihae), and agrees to the Duke’s demands, including their own wing in the palace. The Empress Natalya (Jodhi May) is helping her daughter prepare for the wedding, but is dismayed at her daughter’s choices. Ynez insists that the Sisterhood will allow her to rule with untold skills and that marrying Pruwet Richese (Charlie Hodson-Prior)—who is only nine years old—gives her time to do as she will and learn what she needs. The Empress believes her daughter should rule how she likes and marry whomever she wants, noting Ynez’s affection for their Swordmaster.
The Emperor is informed that Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel) has come to visit him from Arrakis, a soldier believed dead in the latest attack. Hart tells the Emperor that the attack on Arrakis was not the Fremen—it was insurgents from within the Imperium who stole spice from the harvest. Hart wants an appointment in the palace for his loyalty, and the Emperor agrees to find him a place. Kasha later has a vision involving Ynez in danger and goes to check on her before leaving. Natalya and Javicco argue about Ynez’s wedding, with the Empress reminding the Emperor that he used to listen to her more and have a stronger Imperium for it; the Emperor disagrees with this version of events. Valya and Tula discuss who Ynez should be paired with among their acolytes to make her adhere more easily to the Sisterhood’s views. Kasha arrives and tells Valya and Tula about her vision, worried that their plan might be in error. Valya dismisses her concerns and tells her to rest the night before returning to her post.
The engagement goes forward while Tula argues with Valya about her dismissal of Kasha; she asks for her sister to at least check the match and be certain Ynez is the right sister to have on the throne. After the engagement ceremony, Pruwet pulls a small thinking machine from his pocket that runs through the reception; Hart stabs the thing and the Empress makes to punish the child, while Ynez, the Duke, and the Emperor protect him. Hart gives the machine back to the child, and Ynez tells Pruwet that she’ll kill him if he ever does anything like that again. Valya checks the match and finds that Ynez is the right pick and her match will stabilize House Corrino for centuries, thinking she might have Kasha take some leave; Tula points out that she can’t takes pieces off the board any time they disagree with her. Ynez and Constantine go out together to a spot called Division, and take a copious amount of drugs along the way. Hart finds the Emperor and tells him that his troubles on Arrakis are a symptom of a larger issue within the Imperium. The Emperor admits that while Kasha has never led him astray, he doesn’t like this match, but there’s nothing he can do if he means to keep the Great Houses happy. Hart believes that the gods are listening, and the Emperor insists that if the gods freed him from this wedding, he’d be a true believer.
In Division, Ynez runs into Keiran and offers to share spice with him. They head to the back and sleep together. Late at night, the Emperor wakes and find a disc containing video of the approach of a great worm on Arrakis, about to swallow Desmond Hart whole. Pruwet takes his little machine into the halls at night, and Hart finds him. Pruwet admits he had a bad dream and can’t sleep. He wants to know why Hart is here, since he’s a soldier, but Hart believes that there is a war here: a war being waged by people who want to do humanity’s thinking for them, just as the machines once did. He claims to have been gifted a great power and says that war demands sacrifice—suddenly Pruwet begins burning alive and dies. On Wallach IX Valya and Tula hear screaming and find Kasha in the hall; she is also burning alive from an unknown source and dies in front of them.
Commentary
That opening segment set in the past was a bit unfortunate, I’m sorry to say.
There are more flashback segments coming, per the showrunner and actors on the series, so the choice to open the show with a rote historical explainer and then never return to flashback after the basic setup was incredibly odd. It’s also awkward because the segments taking place when Valya is younger are the point that the Sisterhood of Dune novel encompassed—meaning that despite the show being billed as a story inspired by that book… it’s not really. Most of what we’re about to see is brand new.
And what that leads to is a first episode that is very concerned with making sure you know: This is a Dune story. Like the movies you ostensibly saw and liked. Please recognize this universe and want to hang out here with us for six episodes. See, there are Harkonnens and Atreides and the ruling Corrino House! Look, a fight with shield belts! We gave you some visions with sandworms, and mentioned the importance of spice and Arrakis! There’s a Fremen tending bar! It’s DUNE, okay? We promise it’s Dune.
And it’s all a bit ridiculous that things could be so familiar because this is over 10,000 years before the events of Dune. I know that there’s a level of inference here about the lack of “thinking machines” keeping things stunted and a stagnation of society brought about by the current systems humanity is clinging to. But ten millennia of the same ruling house, the same noble families, the same blood feuds, and a sisterhood that is already practically the same to the one we see in the premiere text? That’s not stagnation, that’s absurdity.
Language and power change constantly throughout history, and here we see none; presumably because the folks in charge of the show need to be certain that the audience would recognize enough to keep them watching. And it’s genuinely nonsensical: There are eleven pharaohs with the name Ramses in Egypt’s history, but despite the length of pharaonic rule (over 3000 years), those eleven sovereigns reined in a span of roughly two centuries. Because change happens quickly and constantly, and even stagnation moves around in the muck as it goes.
There are, in fact, a lot of changes already to the story that was laid down by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson in their run of Dune books, and they’re all extremely Hollywood choices thus far. For example, Valya Harkonnen didn’t create the Bene Gesserit “Voice” in those novels—she perfected its use, but the skill itself was discovered by Raquella when she became the first Reverend Mother. And yet, it seems the creative team could not resist the chance to make their central character—and a Harkonnen, at that—the one who contributed this all-important facet of Bene Gesserit power. Like ya do.
I’m never a purist in book-to-screen adaptations, and am adamant that ultra-specific adherence to text is often tedious in the extreme. That said, the world of filmmaking does have a tendency to bring out a lot of deep, silly clichés in storytelling, and we’re getting an abundance of them so far: The princess is romantically interested in the Atreides; the prince is a layabout bad boy of sorts; Valya wants to control everything with an iron fist while her sister wishes she would allow for more trust and flexibility; the mysterious solider, of course, comes from Arrakis and is somehow imbued with special murder power. We’ll see where all this leads, but that’s a heavy list right there. Hopefully we’ll wind up somewhere interesting.
There are plenty of high points in all of this, of course. The design of this universe is intricate as ever, from the grand physical sets down to the textured costuming. The actors are a stunning group, with Emily Watson and Olivia Williams acting as firm anchors to every other tether on the board. Their sisterly rapport is an easy highlight of the show so far. Mark Strong is hilarious as an ineffectual Emperor of the Known Universe, just by virtue of how seriously he’s chosen to play the role. There’s also a very slight echo with the original Dune text, an aspect that I felt was entirely undersold in the film version: Duke Leto Atreides’ mistrust of his wife is ultimately what leads to his downfall, and here we have a similar tension between the Emperor and Empress.
But there’s much more to unfold…
Truthsaying and Visions
- I love this set of acolytes we’ve got and am fascinated to see where their journeys lead. (Probably nowhere good, alas.)
- The heavy cues for the use of Bene Gesserit power are a little much. They have to tap their fingers together as though meditating in order to access their truthsaying abilities? Isn’t that kind of a huge tell?
- Sorry, Richese being the family the Corrinos are about to get into bed with is a pretty great joke. Hi, Mr. Emperor, we’ve got Duke Moneypants here to see you about a dowry for your daughter…
- The Sisterhood having those computers is less of an issue in the books because they get destroyed early on, if memory serves. So that’s a pretty significant change, I’d imagine.
Next week is fast approaching…
