Welcome back to the blog readers. In case you have been living under a rock for some reason, Denis Villeneuve has brought his childhood dream to life in the form of Dune (2021) and Dune: Part Two (2024), with the first film being a surprise for me and the second being a top 5 film of the year for me so far. When I heard a show was being made in this world, I obviously got excited and hoped we would be in for some awesome Bene Gesserit shit. Would we get that with this premiere, titled "The Hidden Hand," written by Diane Ademu-John, and directed by Anna Foerster? Stick around to find out.
NOTE: I will be using spoilers for my thoughts, so DO NOT read ahead if you have not seen the episode.
Now going into this series and especially this episode, I had a certain sort of expectation for it. Like I mentioned, I very much liked Dune and Part Two is a top 5 film of the year so far for me. I heard beforehand that this was not as good as the Villeneuve-led films but I did not want it to be. I wanted it to feel like it belonged in that world while telling its own story. And I have to say, I was impressed with this first episode. It is no "Long Long Time" or "The Lord of the Tides," but it is a solid premiere that sets up our characters and our supposed conflict in this show.
I do want to commend one performance out of this week's premiere, and that is Travis Fimmel as Desmond Hart. Now I will not pretend that I am aware of this guy's work or anything as I have not seen Warcraft (2016), Vikings (2013-17), or Raised by Wolves (2020-22). But he has the presence of someone who has been through a lot, and he brings that to the screen as the soldier Desmond Hart. In this role, not only does he come off as the brutish soldier, but he also comes off as a mysterious and complex character in which not everything is what it seems. And that calm complexity leads us right into the darkest moment of this entire episode, and even possibly of the Dune series so far. He plays this moment off like a true professional and shows me that he definitely has what it takes to carry his own in a show like this.
I do believe that this episode is laying some solid foundation for what is to come, and we start off with some real political intrigue. We start off with a voiceover by our main character Valya Harkonnen, explaining that her family were the ones that helped humanity prevail in the war against the Thinking Machines a century prior (also known as the Butlerian Jihad in the lore in which AI rose up against humanity and humanity defeated them, leading to the outlawing of intelligent technology across the galaxy), but were lambasted and called cowards. The Corrino family were the ones that took the credit for humanity's victory, which led her in young age to eventually join up with a group of women led by Raquella Berto-Anirul that serve as Truthsayers to the Great Houses. A young Valya joins with Raquella's granddaughter Dorotea, who wants to end her grandmother's breeding program to find a true leader, but Valya uses the Voice to make Dorotea kill herself and protect the breeding program. This is not before Raquella confides in Valya that she should be the true future of the Sisterhood.
Thirty years later, Valya is now Mother Superior of the Sisterhood and she arranges for new Sister Princess Ynez, the daughter of Emperor Javicco Corrino, to marry the heir of the Richete House, nine-year-old Pruwet to stabilize their bloodline and give their Sisterhood political influence to have the throne. They also want control over the desert planet Arrakis and the spice production there (something which is a big focus of Villeneuve's films). Subsequently, a soldier sent to Arrakis named Desmond Hart arrives at the planet and confides to Javicco that it was Imperium-based insurgents which took out his squadron and not the Fremen as was previously believed. Truthsayer Kasha Jinjo has troubling visions after meeting Hart and confirming his story, but Valya calms her down and tells her that this wedding is crucial to ensuring a member of the Sisterhood is within reach of the throne.
The wedding starts off without a hitch (but I find it weird that in this universe it is completely acceptable for a woman of legal age to marry a nine-year-old kid, but maybe there is some logical explanation that I missed in the films), but things go awry when Pruwet brings in a toy technological lizard that interrupts the "reception." Everybody is sent away and Desmond gives Pruwet the toy back. He talks with Javicco about how he is uncomfortable with his daughter's marriage, then talks to the boy, which leads him to use a "great power" on him. He immolates the boy with his mind as Javicco watches what I assume to be holotapes of Desmond's supposed betrayal of his own squad. While Pruwet is being immolated, Kasha is also immolated from halfway across the galaxy as Valya watches in horror. I definitely think there is more to Desmond than we are led to believe, and I think he is going to be the main antagonist of this series. Hopefully I am right here.
Dune: Prophecy's first episode sets us up for some interesting plotlines, and some good character work give us a solid premiere for a promising series. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.
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