Welcome back to the blog readers. Dune: Prophecy has actually surprised me in a weird way. I did not expect this show to be as good as something like House of the Dragon (2022-) or The Last of Us (2023-) but I am liking this show in its own way. I am liking the mystery behind the character of Desmond Hart and am curious to see what they wind up doing with him. What would this halfway point lead us to? Stick around to find out with this episode, titled "Sisterhood Above All," written by Monica Owusu-Breen and Jordan Goldberg, and directed by Richard J. Lewis.
NOTE: I will be using spoilers for my thoughts, so DO NOT read ahead if you have not seen the episode.
Like I said, I have been surprised with this show and the enjoyment I have had with it so far. But I have heard that not a lot of people were too high on this episode and it got me a little worried. I do have some conflicting thoughts about this episode, however, and I do want to discuss them. I did enjoy the performances in this episode, especially those of Jessica Barden and Emma Canning. And I did enjoy the story being told in this episode, but I think the pacing of this episode and the overemphasis on the flashbacks really hurt the progression of this episode.
I do want to start off by talking about the performance of Jessica Barden as the young Valya Harkonnen. I think Barden does a great job portraying the fiery vigor that Valya has in her young age to make people respect her and her House. The progression that Barden takes us through as Valya really makes you feel for the young woman whose life was uprooted and the one person who understood her was taken from her. It definitely gets to show you the resolve that Valya has in her later life as the Mother Superior of the Sisterhood. I just wish we had not spent so much time with her in this episode and that it was spread out throughout the final four.
I can say the same about Emma Canning's portrayal of young Tula Harkonnen. Canning gives us a different take on the woman later played by Olivia Williams (who is great in this episode as well) by letting us see inside Tula and what she really wants from this life she is in. Once that tragedy that changes Valya's life affects her as well, we get to see an evolution from Canning to be the ruthless young woman she becomes, and later the cunning Reverend Mother that she will eventually be in her later life. I think she does get more of the emotional story beats of this episode given what she has to do, and Canning nails them to perfection. The same issue I had with Barden's portrayal is what I have with Canning's portrayal, but I know it is neither of their faults.
I do want to talk about the story of this episode because I have conflicting feelings about it. I am going to start with the flashback portions of this episode. After the Butlerian jihad, a young Valya is determined to clear her family's name and her brother Griffin shares the same aspirations. He decides to join the Landsraad to gain commercial privileges and avenge his ancestors by stepping over Vorian Atreides (who took all the credit for defeating the Thinking Machines. When Griffin is murdered (supposedly by Vorian), Valya is forced to join the Sisterhood where she has conflicting thoughts around avenging her brother's murder. She is not able to pledge loyalty to the Sisterhood until she is met by Mother Superior Raquella who confides in her the Sisterhood's breeding program that uses forbidden technology. Some time later, when she is to become a Reverend Mother by undergoing the Agony, she is unable to do so as Raquella tells her to take care of her personal business and return a Reverend Mother or not at all. Once she confides in her sister Tula, she undergoes the procedure and survives where she convinces Tula to join her in the Sisterhood. In the present, Valya is still shaken over Desmond's resistance of her Voice and she goes to visit her uncle, who is less than pleased to see her. This aspect of the flashback story is what really intrigued me because getting to see how rebellious and vigorous Valya was even when she was younger definitely makes us understand the type of person we see her as in the present.
Moving over to the other sister, Tula is inspired by her brother's murder, and decides to infiltrate the Atreides clan on Caladan by taking the hand of Orry. She spends some time getting to know the family and imbuing herself in the culture, but she has not told him who she really is at this point. One night, Orry asks Tula to marry her and she hesitantly accepts, and has sex with him while his family is celebrating. When the two wake up, she confesses to him that she is Tula Harkonnen and that she poisoned his entire family. When he sees this in horror, she poisons him as well, avenging Griffin's death. Upset at what she has done, she returns to the planet Lankiveil and awaits her sister to tell her the news. She stumbles on her sister undertaking the Agony and decides to join her in the Sisterhood when she comes to. In the present, after the death of Lila, Tula is struggling with letting the young girl go as she is implored to by one of the Mothers. She later pretends to euthanize the girl in a public "ritual" as she later is revealed to have moved Lila to where Raquella's forbidden technology is used, and she is using a Thinking Machine to give the girl spice to keep her alive. This flashback story with Tula felt too long and dragged out for my liking, and could have achieved its purpose in less scenes than it should have. I wish we had gotten more of our present story in this episode, which is why I think this episode has a major pacing issue.
Dune: Prophecy still maintains some of its charm halfway through, but it sacrifices pacing and plot for a long trodden-out flashback sequence that could have been done better. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.
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