Dune: Prophecy Season-Finale Recap: Going Viral
By its very design, Dune: Prophecy was always going to be a show about the relationship between the past and the present. Set 10,000 years before the events of Dune, Frank Herbert’s first novel, Dune: Prophecy not only features a cast of characters filled with familiar last names like “Harkonnen” and “Atreides,” but its narrative often foreshadows what’s to come. Over here you’ll see the Bene Gesserit already hard at work on wielding power by way of a chosen one. Over there a babyfaced Atreides trying to lead a rebellion.
However, it’s also a show about the play between the past and present within its own time and the ways what’s hidden tends not to stay hidden. We’ve seen, for instance, the moment when young Valya commands Dorotea to take her own life. What we haven’t seen, until this moment opens, is that the act did not go without witnesses, including Tula, who would form the hard core of the Sisterhood once Valya assumed power. (Nor did we know that this involved a pretty dramatic thinning of the Bene Gesserit ranks, but we’ll get to that later.)
Valya’s long-ago actions will have consequences in this season finale, as will the cover-up led by Tula, which begins with a technically true story that will allow them to avoid telling lies without telling the whole truth via statements like “Dorotea ended her life at her own hand” because she was “unable to see a path forward.” It’s to use Stephen Colbert’s old coinage, truth-y. The plan has proven solid enough for Valya’s faction to hold onto power for years but, however solid a cover-up, their reign might end soon.
One obvious threat: the virus that’s been causing the Bene Gesserit to experience a shared nightmare built around a handful of recurring images. Kazir (Karima Adebibe), a Bene Gesserit doctor, rightly concludes that this is a bioweapon that feeds off fear — and that Desmond Hart might be its first victim, not its creator. Also, it may be cured with an antiviral. What Kazir doesn’t conclude is that she won’t survive her experience serving as the potential cure’s guinea pig, but not before identifying their true foe as “The Monster of Arakkis.” Unfortunately, she’s burnt to a crisp before clarifying what that monster is apart from being “not human.” That’s only sort of helpful.
Speaking of Arrakis and monstrous behavior, back at the capital, Desmond Hart decides to take a hands-on approach to extracting information for Keiran Atreides. Specifically, he wants to know how long the insurgents have been in league with the Sisterhood. Raised to despise the Harkonnens, Keiran finds this offensive. He’s been brought up hearing the story of the “monster” who nearly wiped out his family, so any kind of alliance is out of the question. (There are a lot of monsters in this episode, aren’t there?) Desmond gives Keiran a chance to get revenge by spilling his guts about the insurgency, but Keiran’s hate for his interlocutor stands in his way. But if Keiran had his hopes pinned on Ynez busting him out, these seem to be misplaced. She’s caught in the act by Natalya, who has her arrested. “I wanted to teach you about power,” Natalya tells her daughter. “So let this be a lesson.” It seems unlikely, however, that Ynez will be scared straight so easily.
Natalya has plenty to be mad about. Javicco’s not even bothering to hide that he’s picked up with his old flame, Francesca (though the Bene Gesserit’s gift for making others “imprint” on them might not have given him much choice). Francesca’s agenda goes beyond lounging around in bed with the Emperor. When she gets word of Ynez’s arrest, she doesn’t waste any time bringing the news to Valya, who quickly devises a plan involving Theodosia’s shapeshifting gifts and Francesca’s ability to assassinate Javicco without him suspecting a thing. Francesca’s not really into this plan, but she also doesn’t have a lot of say in it.
As the subsequent flashback confirms, Valya’s been working on this plan to give up now. Natalya’s marriage to Javicco, Javicco’s dalliance with Francesca, and Ynez’s ascent are all part of a long game Valya’s been playing with the help of Anirul. Yes, the covert thinking machine has a name and even something of a personality, as Valya demonstrates to Tula as they confer alone. Per Anirul, all signs point to Tula’s child by Orry Atreides — the one conceived shortly before she killed Orry and his family — having incredible power. Oh, and it’s a boy. In fact, by this point, it’s clear that Tula is the mother of none other than Desmond Hart. Years later, Tula has her own conversation with Anirul about the machine virus attacking the Bene Gesserit and learns that there is a simple way of shutting the virus down: killing Desmond. It’s not an answer she likes or a plan she intends to execute.
Elsewhere in Bene Gesserit headquarters, Jen has to reckon with another blast from the past. Feeling bad for Lila she agrees to loosen her restraints, not realizing that this gesture will quickly backfire. Now Lila’s channeling a different ancestor, Dorotea, who is pretty pissed. When she goes looking for her former followers she learns that (1) everyone thinks she died by suicide (which, again, is true only in the most literal sense) and (2) her followers, the Butlerians, disbanded after her death. Or at least that’s the official story. But it’s not all bad news for Dorotea. She immediately finds a receptive audience to her approach to Bene Gesserit management in Emmeline, who’s been trying to revive some of the old, Butlerian ways in the midst of all the present chaos. And though Jen’s wary of the returned Dorotea — being drugged and bound will have that effect — she also has her eyes opened to all that Valya has tried to keep secret.
Most notably, these secrets include the mass grave holding the corpses of Dorotea’s followers, whom Valya compelled to kill themselves when they refused to follow her. That’s a pretty big secret, one that’s been kept by Valya’s true believers for years and by Avila, whose loyalty to Valya appears to be grounded more in fear than respect. When Jen pleads with Avila to “get Tula,” Avila declares her allegiance to the resurrected Dorotea, who vows to, in her words, “return us to our righteous path.” Her first order of business: taking a crowbar to Anirul.
Javicco’s pretty pissed, too. He doesn’t love that Ynez is in jail (which makes sense). He doesn’t love that Desmond sees through his plans to send Natalya on a “goodwill tour.” And he really doesn’t love Desmond’s insistence that the Sisterhood is trying to topple his rule. In fact, the bloom seems to be off the Javicco-Desmond relationship. Javicco wants to bring the Sisterhood back into his inner circle (beyond Francesca, of course). What he doesn’t realize is that Valya has plans of her own, an elaborate jailbreak/assassination scheme that will end with Javicco’s death (at Francesca’s hand) and Ynez’s freedom. Assuming all goes well. What Valya doesn’t foresee, however, is that there’s a competing conspiracy working against her plans (albeit one that doesn’t involve Javicco’s death). Natalya and Desmond are fine with him staying on as a figurehead emperor, but they plan to act as his puppet master.
It’s less a question of whether Javicco’s going to be humiliated than how badly and by whom. Meeting with Javicco, Valya makes her play and doesn’t mince words. He’s a weak man and Ynez is who should be on the throne anyway. Javicco has the Mother Superior arrested but, as he’ll soon discover, this doesn’t come close to solving the problem. Nor does attempting to take comfort with Francesca, who reveals her part in Valya’s plan.
Then things really start to escalate in intensity. While this unfolds, Valya takes steps to free Ynez, whose place will be taken by Theodosia, and (reluctantly) Keiran from prison. This involves some fleeing and fighting but also, thanks to Theodosia taking a shape other than planned, leaves Desmond with a nasty stab wound. Instead of waiting for Francesca to take his life, Javicco stabs himself. Then Natalya shows up and shoots Francesca with the poison intended for her husband. (RIP Francesca? And Javicco?)
At this point, it’s worth asking: Is the world of Dune: Prophecy a virtually loveless, Machiavellian place where all relationships are defined by power? The evidence suggests yes, but a flashback to Tula weeping as she makes plans to give her baby to an itinerant worker suggests otherwise. Tula wants the best for the boy who will soon be named Desmond Hart, even if that means giving him away and claiming the worker’s stillborn child as her own. It’s a loving gesture, but also one that’s led to much of the Desmond-stoked chaos we’ve seen this season, which seems to be not far from Tula’s mind as she makes her way to Salusa Secundus and to Desmond.
But it’s not Tula who gets to Desmond first. When Valya confronts Desmond and asks him to share his vision of her “end,” both Desmond and his aunt — though neither knows of this relationship yet — get knocked unconscious as the episode cuts to a hallucinatory sequence in which Valya recalls Griffin’s death beneath the ice — a nightmarish vision brought to her courtesy of the mind virus. Fortunately, Tula arrives in time to talk her sister down from the bad trip, advising her to let the fear pass through her. Remarkably, this does the trick, or at least changes the nature of Valya’s vision, which shifts first to the image of an approaching sandworm and then to the now-familiar lights and machine noises we’ve seen in previous nightmares. Only this time, we see more, including robotic arms operating on an eye belonging to Desmond Hart, an operation overseen by a shadowy robed figure.
Emerging, Valya tells Tula she knows what “they” did to Desmond. She doesn’t, however, know who “they” are; only that they have thinking machines and have placed one inside him. Obviously, Valya has to kill him. But wait: it turns out that Tula can also use The Voice and can bend Valya to her will. After revealing that Desmond is her son, Tula makes clear that Valya won’t be killing Desmond and that she doesn’t really plan to continue being the junior partner in their relationship. After Valya announces her plans to leave and continue her work from the shadows, Tula attempts to introduce herself to the son she abandoned. This ends with Tula being arrested on Desmond’s orders, but it could have gone worse. The two hug and exchange some significant glances. There might be a future here.
For Valya, Ynez, and Keiran, the future lies somewhere else, namely Arrakis. They arrive on the seemingly abandoned surface of the planet, where Valya pronounces, “The path to our enemy begins here.” But that’s a path that will have to wait for future seasons.
Kwisatz Haderachs
• And that’s a wrap for the first season of Dune: Prophecy, a pretty good season overall. Shorter than planned due to the strike, the season felt a bit rushed at times, but never less than compelling. Its third and best episode, “Sisterhood Above All,” is also the one that slowed down and delved into the history of a pair of characters, which bodes well for any longer future seasons.
• Not to be forgotten, Harrow makes an appearance that reveals he’s been spying on everyone, which doesn’t bode well.
• Of course, the biggest mystery we’re left with is that of the “hidden hand” guiding events. They’re responsible for whatever happened to Desmond and all the events he’s set in motion, but who are they? We know this: They have a thinking machine, and the shadowy figure from Desmond’s memory could be wearing Bene Gesserit robes. Or not. We won’t have to wait 10,000 years to find out, but we will have to wait awhile.