‘Dune: Prophecy’ Recap, S1, Ep. 6: ‘The High-handed Enemy’

Dune: Prophecy

The high-handed enemy

Season 1

Section 6

Editor’s assessment

4 stars

****

Photo: Attila Szvacsek/HBO

By its very design, Dune: Prophecy was always going to be a show about the relationship between past and present. Recorded 10,000 years before the events of DuneFrank Herbert’s first novel, Dune: Prophecy not only does it feature a cast of characters filled with familiar surnames like “Harkonnen” and “Atreides,” but its narrative often foreshadows what’s to come. Over here you will see the Bene Gesserit already hard at work wielding power with the help of a chosen one. Over there came face to face with an Atreides trying to lead a rebellion.

But it is also a performance of the play between past and present in its own time, and how the hidden tends not to remain hidden. We have seen, for example, the moment when young Valya orders Dorotea to take her own life. What we haven’t seen until this moment opens is that the action did not go without witnesses, including Tula, who would form the hard core of the sisterhood once Valya took power. (We also didn’t know that this involved a pretty dramatic thinning of the Bene Gesserit ranks, but we’ll get to that later.)

Valya’s actions long ago will have consequences in this season finale, as will the cover-up led by Tula, which begins with a technically speaking true history that will allow them to avoid telling lies without telling the whole truth via statements like “Dorotea ended her life on her own” because she “was unable to see a way forward.” It’s to use Stephen Colbert’s old coin, truth-y. The plan has proven solid enough for Valya’s faction to hold on to power for years, but no matter how solid, their reign may soon end.

An obvious threat: the virus that has caused 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 fear—and that Desmond Hart may be its first victim, not its creator. It can also be cured with an antiviral drug. What Kazir doesn’t conclude is that she won’t survive her experience serving as the potential course’s guinea pig, but not before she identifies their true enemy as “The Monster of Arakkis.” Unfortunately, she’s burned to a crisp before clarifying what the monster is other than being “not human.” It’s only kind of helpful.

Speaking of Arrakis and monstrous behavior, back in the capital, Desmond Hart decides to take a practical approach to extracting information for Keiran Atreides. Specifically, he wants to know how long the rebels have been in league with the Sisterhood. Raised to despise the Harkonnens, Keiran finds this offensive. He has been raised to hear the story of the “monster” that almost wiped out his family, so any kind of alliance is out of the question. (There are a lot of monsters in this episode, right?) Desmond offers Keiran a chance for revenge by busting his guts about the rebellion, but Keiran’s hatred of his interlocutor stands in his way. But if Keiran had his hopes up for Ynez knocking him out, they appear to be misplaced. She is caught red-handed by Natalya, who has her arrested. “I wanted to teach you about power,” Natalya tells her daughter. “Then let this be a lesson.” However, it seems unlikely that Ynez gets scared that easily.

Natalya has plenty to be mad about. Javicco doesn’t even bother to hide the fact that he’s taken up with his old flame, Francesca (although the Bene Gesserit’s gift for making others “imprint” on them may not have given him much of a choice). Francesca’s agenda goes beyond relaxing in bed with the Emperor. When she learns of Ynez’s arrest, she wastes no time breaking the news to Valya, who quickly devises a plan involving Theodosia’s shape-shifting gifts and Francesca’s ability to murder Javicco without him suspecting anything. Francesca isn’t really in on this plan, but she doesn’t have much say in it either.

As the subsequent flashback confirms, Valya has been working on this plan to give up now. Natalya’s marriage to Javicco, Javicco’s dalliance with Francesca, and Ynez’s ascension are all part of a long game Valya has been playing with the help of Anirul. Yes, the hidden thinking machine has a name and even something of a personality, as Valya demonstrates to Tula as they confer alone. Per Anirul points out all the signs of Tula’s child by Orry Atreides – the one conceived shortly before she killed Orry and his family – with incredible power. Oh, and it’s a boy. In fact, at 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 to shut down the virus: to kill Desmond. It’s not an answer she likes or a plan she intends to carry out.

Elsewhere in the Bene Gesserit headquarters, Jen has to deal with another blast from the past. Pitying Lila, she agrees to loosen her restraints, not realizing that this gesture will quickly backfire. Now Lila is channeling another ancestor, Dorotea, who is quite angry. When she searches for her former followers, she learns that (1) everyone thinks she died by suicide (which, again, is only true 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 for her approach to Bene Gesserit leadership in Emmeline, who has been trying to revive some of the old Butlerian ways amid all the current chaos. And although Jens is wary of the returned Dorotea – being drugged and tied up will have that effect – she also has her eyes open to everything Valya has tried to keep secret.

Most notably, these secrets include the mass grave containing the bodies of Dorotea’s followers, whom Valya forced to kill themselves when they refused to follow her. It’s a pretty big secret, one that’s been kept by Valya’s true believers for years and by Avila, whose loyalty to Valya seems to be based more on fear than respect. As Jen pleads with Avila to “get Tula,” Avila declares her allegiance to the resurrected Dorotea, who promises, in her words, to “return us to our righteous path.” Her first order: to take a crowbar to Anirul.

Javicco is also quite angry. He doesn’t love that Ynez is in jail (which makes sense). He doesn’t like Desmond seeing through his plans to send Natalya on a “goodwill tour”. And he really doesn’t love Desmond’s insistence that the Brotherhood is trying to overthrow his rule. In fact, the flourish seems to be out of the relationship between Javicco and Desmond. Javicco wants to bring the Sisterhood back into his inner circle (besides Francesca, of course). What he doesn’t realize is that Valya has plans of her own, an elaborate jailbreak/assassination plan 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 opposing her plans (albeit one that doesn’t involve Javicco’s death). Natalya and Desmond are fine with him becoming a figurehead emperor, but they plan to act as his puppet master.

It’s less a question of whether Javicco will be humiliated than how badly and by whom. Meeting with Javicco, Valya makes her play and doesn’t mince words. He is a weak man and Ynez is the one who should be on the throne anyway. Javicco has the mother arrested, but as he will soon discover, this does not come close to solving the problem. Nor the attempt to comfort Francesca, who reveals her role in Valya’s plan.

Then things really start to escalate in intensity. As this unfolds, Valya takes steps to free Ynez, whose place will be taken by Theodosia, and (reluctantly) Keiran from prison. This involves quite a bit of running and fighting, but thanks to Theodosia taking a different form than planned, Desmond leaves a nasty stab wound. Instead of waiting for Francesca to take her own life, Javicco stabs himself. Then Natalya appears and shoots Francesca with the poison meant for her husband. (RIP Francesca? And Javicco?)

At this point it is worth asking: Is the world over Dune: Prophecy an almost loveless, Machiavellian place where all relationships are defined by power? The evidence suggests yes, but a flashback to Tula crying as she 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 it means giving him away and claiming the worker’s stillborn child as her own. It’s a loving gesture, but also one that has led to much of the Desmond-created chaos we’ve seen this season, which seems to be not far from Tula’s mind as she goes to Salusa Secundus and to Desmond.

But it’s not Tula who comes to Desmond first. When Valya confronts Desmond and asks him to share her vision of her “end”, both Desmond and his aunt—though neither knows about this relationship yet—are knocked unconscious as the episode segues into a hallucinatory sequence where Valya remembers Griffin’s death under the ice—a nightmarish vision brought to her thanks to the mind virus. Fortunately, Tula arrives in time to talk her sister down from the bad trip and advises her to let the fear go through her. Remarkably, this does the trick, or at least changes the nature of Valya’s vision, which first switches 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 figure.

Valya tells Tula that she knows what “they” did to Desmond. However, she does not know who “they” are; only that they have thinking machines and have placed one in him. Obviously, Valya has to kill him. But wait: it turns out Tula can also use The Voice and can bend Valya to her will. After revealing that Desmond is her son, Tula makes it clear that Valya will not 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 tries to introduce herself to the son she abandoned. This ends with Tula being arrested on Desmond’s orders, but it could have been worse. The two hug and exchange some meaningful glances. There might be a future here.

For Valya, Ynez and Keiran, the future lies elsewhere, namely Arrakis. They arrive at the seemingly abandoned surface of the planet, where Valya states, “The road to our enemy begins here.” But that’s a path that will have to wait for future seasons.

• And that’s a wrap for the first season of Dune: Prophecya pretty good season overall. Shorter than planned due to the strike, the season felt a little 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 story of a few characters, which bodes well for future seasons.

• Not to forget, Harrow shows up, revealing that he’s been spying on everyone, which doesn’t bode well.

• Of course, the biggest mystery we are left with is that of the “Hidden Hand” events. They are responsible for what has happened to Desmond and all the events he has set in motion, but who are they? We do 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 a while.