Jumping into a new series always requires a little time to adjust. But when the series has a huge amount of lore behind it, it can be that much more complicated. Thankfully, Dune: Prophecy does a pretty good job of breaking down its complicated components for the first-time viewer. But just in case you have a couple more questions still looming over your head about the Dune prequel series or you want to review everything that happened in Dune: Prophecy‘s series premiere in an orderly fashion, we have this handy deep dive ready just for you. From Valya Harkonnen’s discovery of The Voice to that firey ending explained, here is our Dune: Prophecy episode one recap.
Dune: Prophecy‘s Cold Open Introduces The Voice
Dune: Prophecy‘s cold open speedwalks us through some of the major history we need to know about this time period of Dune‘s world. The Dune prequel series takes us back to 10,000 years before the birth of Paul Atreides. Humanity has recently finished fighting a war against A.I. thinking machines that threatened to eradicate them. Helping in this effort is a woman named Raquella Berto-Anirul, the first Mother Superior of the Sisterhood, who will later be known as the Bene Gesserit.
Mother Superior Raquella believes that the Sisterhood needs to exert its influence and use its powers to transform and guide the Great Houses of Dune‘s world. These powers include that of truthsaying and the ability to detect when truth and lies are being told. Mother Superior Raquella also creates a massive genetic archive that allows her to guide and select the right royal unions, namely, ones that can be controlled by the Sisterhood. Valya Harkonnen, an acolyte of the Sisterhood and our Dune: Prophecy main character, agrees strongly with the work Mother Superior Raquella is doing. (Valya is played by Emily Watson in present day and Jessica Barden in her youth.) But others, including Mother Superior Raquella’s own granddaughter, Dorotea, think that the Sisterhood is overstepping and becoming an impure force.
After Raquella passes away, there is a split in the Sisterhood between Dorotea and Valya. Ultimately, when Raquella attempts to destroy the genetic archive that Raquella created, Valya reveals the backstory of Dune‘s “voice.” Valya Harkonnen has been honing her powers and pushing herself to the limit of human ability. As such, she has unlocked the ability to use “the voice,” which essentially allows her to modulate her voice into a command that forces others to obey her words. She commands Dorotea to drive a knife into her throat using “the voice,” and Dorotea kills herself at Valya’s behest in Dune: Prophecy‘s first episode. This leaves the path clear for Valya to take control of the Sisterhood and manifest her own plans—putting a sister of the Sisterhood onto the throne of the Imperium.
Dune: Prophecy‘s Prophecy, Explained
We go into what exactly Dune: Prophecy‘s prophecy means in another piece here. But in short, as Raquella dies, she confides in Valya that she has had a prophecy of doom. Raquella says she sees “Red dust.” and “It’s coming, Tiran-Arafel.” We see images of a Shai-Hulud or a sandworm swallowing everything in its path, including the Sisterhood, as well as burning skin, blood, and mysterious lights. Raquella also warns Valya that she is the one who “will see the burning truth and know.”
We learn that Tiran-Arafel is “a holy judgment brought on by a tyrant.” This prophecy of Raquella’s is what further strengthens Valya’s resolve to put a sister on the throne of the Imperium.
Atreides vs. Harkonnen
The opening of Dune: Prophecy‘s first episode also introduces another theme of the series, House Atredies vs. House Harkonnen. The long and the short of it is that Valya feels House Atreides betrayed and lied about House Harkonnen and falsely painted her ancestors as cowards and traitors. Valya seeks absolution for the Harkonnen name, but she is patient in her quest for her house to regain its power and honor. How this conflicts with her Sisterhood goals remains to be seen. There is an Atreides character on Dune: Prophecy, and we feel like this will come into play as well.
When Exactly Does Dune: Prophecy Take Place?
If you want to know more about Dune: Prophecy‘s place in the Dune timeline, you can check out our piece about it. But Dune: Prophecy‘s premiere confirms that the present-day series takes place 116 years after the Great War ended and 10, 148 years before the birth of Paul Atreides.
The Sisterhood in Dune: Prophecy
The first episode of Dune: Prophecy touches on two main storylines: what is happening inside the Sisterhood and what is happening in the royal court of Emperor Javicco Corrino. The former reveals various aspects of the Sisterhood’s inner workings. Namely, we see how the young acolytes train and learn. We get insight into the Sisterhood’s “scientific” theory classes, the physical training the women undergo, and the more practical implementation of nascent Truthsaying. The scope of the Sisterhood in Dune: Prophecy‘s first episode is both epic and intimate.
In this storyline, we meet Sister Jen, played by Faoileann Cunningham, a fierce, flippant Sister who might have a more vulnerable core. We meet Sister Lila, played by Chloe Lea, who is clearly very talented but a bit softer than the rest. Finally, we meet Sister Theodosia, played by Jade Anouka, who is Valya’s favorite student. She very mysteriously owes a great deal to the Sisterhood.
Of course, we also get introduced to Tula Harkonnen, played by Olivia Williams, Valya’s sister, who seems a good deal cowed by her sister but also in possession of her own, very different point of view. We’ll see if Tula is able to enact any of her personal desires and feelings given the power of her sister.
Ultimately, Dune: Prophecy reveals to us that Princess Ynez, played by Sarah-Sofie Boussnina, the daughter of Emperor Corrino, is coming to study in the Sisterhood. Thus, Valya hopes to enact her dream of putting a sister on the throne of the Imperium.
The Royal Court of Emperor Corrino and the Struggle of the Great Houses
Before Ynez can become a sister of the Sisterhood, though, she must have a royal wedding. This is no love match, but instead a political union. As Dune: Prophecy moves into the royal court of Emperor Corrino in its first episode, we see more political machinations than romances at play. The Emperor is beset by trouble, and his position of power is tenuous at best. Chief among his issues are problems on the familiar planet Arrakis, where he struggles to harvest the precious Dune commodity, spice. Spice is what allows humanity to navigate through space, among other things, and so controlling it is key to controlling power. To ease his worries, the Emperor hopes a set of warships from House Richese, that come in exchange for his daughter’s hand, will ease his woes.
While Ynez approves of the match, as her husband-to-be Pruitt Richese is very young, which will leave her to rule in his stead, her mother, Natalya Arat Corrino does not approve. Nor does she approve of Ynez’s desire to join the Sisterhood, whom she does not trust. The engagement also causes tension between Emperor Javicco and his wife. It’s worth noting that though Ynez Corinno is willing to get engaged to Pruitt Richese, she does go off to have a sexy dalliance with her swordmaster, the aforementioned Kieran Atreides. Steamy… but also unlikely to end well. Constantine Corrino, Ynez’s brother and illegitimate son of the Emporer, also makes a brief appearance here. We don’t know who his mother is yet, but we bet it will matter soon.
We get to see a literal red wedding…engagement in Dune: Prophecy‘s first episode, as Princess Ynez wears a striking red gown to her engagement ceremony to Pruitt Richese. As with other Red Weddings though, this event does not go smoothly. Pruitt Richese is a brat and also smuggles in a forbidden thinking machine, much to the horror of the royal court. Empress Natalya appears especially outraged by this indiscretion, but the Emperor forgives it.
Among other things, we also get to see the Sisterhood in action in this storyline, watching as they bend the Great Houses to their whims and create the outcomes they want, regardless of the desires of the nobles they purport to work for.
The Charismatic Desmond Hart
Throughout all this, we also meet the charismatic figure of Desmond Hart. Desmond has done the impossible and survived an attack on Arrakis by a Shai-Hulud or sandworm. Now that he’s survived, he seems to have a new lease on life and an interest in talking about enacting the will of the gods. He doesn’t like or trust the Sisterhood, calling them witches. And his gleaming blue eyes seem to have caught the attention of the Emperor. He implies to the ruler of the Imperium that the attack on Arrakis wasn’t by the native Fremen, but by the other Great Houses of the Imperium, perhaps as a ploy to force a political alliance. The Emperor confides in Desmond Hart that he doesn’t feel right about the wedding of Ynez to Pruitt Richese.
We don’t either, but we know Desmond Hart is a mirror of Paul Atreides, so we can’t really trust him either… especially not given the ending of Dune: Prophecy‘s series premiere.
Dune: Prophecy‘s Series Premiere Ending, Explained
Late in Dune: Prophecy‘s first episode, Emperor Corrino’s Truthsayer, Reverend Mother Kasha, has a prophetic dream of blood, sand, and sandworm. She imagines Princess Ynez swallowed by great evil and yelling that it’s all Kasha’s fault. She takes this image back to the Sisterhood, expressing a desire to stop the marriage between Princess Ynez and Pruitt Richese. But Valya stands firm in her decision, noting the genetic archive blesses it, and the marriage is the right step to take in order to get a sister on the throne so the Sisterhood can protect humanity.
But the marriage is not to be in Dune: Prophecy‘s first episode. Desmond Hart finds Pruitt Richese in the hallway with his thinking machine after the chaos of the engagement ceremony. Menacingly, he tells him that there is a war taking place in the Imperium, “a war hidden in plain sight, waged by an enemy that has made themselves indispensable, which has come here to do our thinking for us.” This enemy, Desmond Hart claims, is controlling them all. Clearly, Desmond Hart implies that the Sisterhood is the enemy of which he speaks.
What Is Desmond Hart’s Dune: Prophecy Power?
For this reason, Desmond shares, he’s been gifted with a great power. But what is this great power? Well, it’s not super clear yet in Dune: Prophecy exactly what power Desmond Hart possesses or how he came to have it. But Desmond Hart appears to be able to burn people from the inside out. The soldier burns Pruitt Richese in this way with his mind in what is ostensibly a move to gain the Emperor’s trust. But over on the Sisterhood’s homeworld, Mother Kasha burns in exactly the same. Desmond surely does not like her influence on the Emperor, but his ability to destroy over long distances is chilling.
And that’s where the first episode of this Dune prequel series leaves us. Join us next week as we recap Dune: Prophecy episode two. Dune: Prophecy airs Sundays on Max.
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