‘Dune: Prophecy’ Recap, S1, Episode 5: ‘In Blood, Truth’

Dune: Prophecy

In blood, truth

Season 1

Section 5

Editor’s assessment

4 stars

****

Photo: HBO

Before going back to the beginning of “In Blood, Truth”, penultimate episode of Dune: Prophecy short, dense first season, it’s worth thinking about the last line: “Let’s rid the Empire of these witches forever.” The witches in question are, of course, the Bene Gesserit, the female religious order that secretly draws so many of them Dune the strings of the universe that it can grasp. The line is spoken by a hitherto largely marginal player to a character we’ve seen commit heinous deeds. That, in isolation, makes it sound like an exchange between two villains. But on Dune: Prophecyeveryone has at least one hidden agenda, and the characters we haven’t seen commit heinous deeds may just not have gotten around to them yet.

So is these bad ones? That seems like the wrong question, really. After five episodes, Dune: Prophecy hasn’t set up any particularly likable characters or established a line between good and evil, even a fuzzy one. It’s not a complaint. In fact, it feels true both to the world created by Frank Herbert’s books and to Dune: Prophecyother source of inspiration, Game of Thrones. So far, it’s played less as a series with a moral point of view than an ongoing exploration of how perspective makes it impossible to separate the just from the unjust. That one of the most sensitive characters we’ve met, Tula, is also responsible for slaughtering a family full of seemingly nice people, including a man who loved her, says a lot.

With the long view of history, at least within the world of Duneif not our own, also reveals a certain amount of futility. Dune: Prophecy is set 10,000 years before the events of Dune. In the later timeline, the Bene Gesserit aren’t just alive and well when the story opens; they are on the verge of fulfilling a plan to put a messiah in power 10,000 years in the making. It feels strange that so little of the world’s appearance or the names of those who run it change between Dune: Prophecy and Dune Correct, and that so many events in one mirror those in the other, unless you treat those details as a bit of a barb. All this has happened before and it will happen again. (Wrong show, of course, but it also applies here.)

Okay, back to the beginning: “In Blood, Truth” opens with Emperor Corrino proclaiming the establishment of a “new elite regiment” in response to the previous episode’s failed assassination attempt, a sort of Department of Homeland Security to be led by the Emperor’s new Bashar, Desmond. (Of course.) The scene captures the dynamic between the two well. Corrino appears to be a strong ruler as he explains his decision, but he’s really just doing Desmond’s bidding, as their subsequent conversation confirms. The wild-eyed soldier from Arrakis can hardly contain his smile. Similarly, Ynez can barely contain her disgust as she flees for an emotional meeting with Constantine, where he reveals that beneath his playboy antics is a boy seeking his father’s approval.

This means missing the arrival of an unprecedented protagonist, Francesca (Tabu). A Bene Gesserit, Francesca once had Empress Corrino’s heart, as Empress Natalya’s unhappy reaction suggests, even before the subsequent exposition clarifies their relationship. Apparently, Francesca is here for one reason only: to visit Constantine, her son. Francesca is distraught to learn of Kasha’s death, in no small part because she feels Valya should have told her. After taking her case to Francesca, it is learned that the situation was simply too volatile to bring that kind of information out into the universe, and that Corrino’s evasion of a new truth teller and embrace of Desmond has put the entire sisterhood in danger, news that deeply disturbs Francesca (or at least seems to). Valya’s Plan: Francesca will sweet talk the Emperor into going back to the old ways and convince him to make Constantine the Imperial Navy Commander. That would be a victory for the Sisterhood and for Francesca’s family. As for Desmond, don’t worry. She wants to keep him busy.

When Francesca has what appears to be a long-awaited heart-to-heart with Constantine in a later scene, she is unusually candid about her work with the Bene Gesserit and his place in their grand scheme. What is his purpose? He is there to protect Ynez, the sister in whom the Bene Gesserit have staked their hopes of rising to real power. It’s not exactly a warm, motherly hug, but maybe he’ll appreciate the honesty. (Though, as we’ll later learn, “honesty” isn’t the right word.)

Meanwhile, back at Bene Gesserit headquarters, Sister Avila finds herself having trouble keeping the acolytes focused due to the recurring nightmares plaguing all but one of them, Jen. It’s Jen who speaks up, only to be shut down, quickly and firmly, by Tula. But Tula only seems to be mad. In truth, she needs Jen’s help and the promise of some discretion as she reveals that (1)) Lila has been brought back from the dead, but also (2) she’s a little messed up and maybe not really Lila anymore. More specifically, her experience with Agony and subsequent death and reanimation has allowed her to host various foremothers, and they are a handful of sorts. With Jen on Lila watch, Tula leaves to attend to “other business”.

As this unfolds, Harrow Harkonen seeks an audience with the newly ascended Desmond, hoping to win back the Emperor’s favor after the events of the last episode. As a strategy, he chooses to throw Valya under the bus, which gets Desmond’s attention. Desmond wants to know everything about any relationship between the Rebel movement and the Bene Gesserit and offers an unspecified reward for any information. He also offers a twist full of spice, which gets Desmond talking and making points Desmond towards an underground market that may hold the key to where the rebels are and who is helping them. This helps Harrow’s case, but getting strong evidence of Valya’s duplicity will help even more.

But who plays who? In a later scene, we learn that Harrow was following a roadmap created by Valya. He may not have much love for his aunt, but for now he is on board with her plan to win back the Emperor’s favor in hopes of returning the Harkonnens to a real position of power for the first time in generations.

Desmond wastes no time cracking down on rebels, suspected rebels and the establishments where they hang out and snort spice. After going through Swordmaster Keiran and apparently torturing a smuggler (thankfully off-screen), Desmond and his armed thugs hit the Imperial City’s hottest club. He could have suspected – and certainly did should suspicion – that Keiran has tipped off Mikaela that her cover is blown. Desmond doesn’t seem to suspect that Mikaela rigged the place to explode. As Desmond’s thugs set about destroying the place, Desmond strikes up an intense conversation with Mikaela about how she reconciles her Fremen identity with her work serving members of the empire that oppresses Arakkis. It’s a big question that Mikaela doesn’t really get a chance to answer until she flees with Keiran as the club goes up in flames.

Outside, Keiran has an epiphany of his own. He recognizes that the knife she carries means she is a member of the Bene Gesserit. After a tense encounter with Valya, Valya sends her back to the Bene Gesserit safehouse on Arakkis, but whether Mikaela should trust Valya or expect to be safe remains an open question. And Keiran escapes the explosion, but not the palace intrigue. Returning to the palace, he meets Constantine and is subsequently arrested for his role in the foiled assassination attempt. It’s bad news for Keiran, but good news for Constantine, who becomes a fleet commander just as his mother hoped he would. It’s also bad news for Ynez, who exchanges a knowing look with her mother. She’s attached to Keiran – if that’s the right word – but the whole trying-to-kill-her-family thing could have threatened that attachment. When she visits her love while he hangs in prison, she demands the truth, Bene Gesserit style. Yes, he cares enough about her to give up his role in the plan. But he still believes in the core principles of the rebellion. The look that passes between them suggests that Ynez doesn’t know where she stands anymore.

As Lila calms down, it doesn’t take long for Jen to realize that she isn’t talking to Lila at all. It also doesn’t take long for Tula to figure out that Lila has become host to the spirit of her own grandmother, Raquella, who treats her reprieve from death as a chance to get back to business at the lab. That means looking for patterns in the late Kasha brainstem, alluding to her “great work” and the “differences” that once plagued Valya and Dorotea—a matter Tula advises her, without using any words, not to pursue in Jen’s presence. That doesn’t mean Jen didn’t notice something was wrong, though. But when Lila/Raquella (Liquella?) discovers evidence in the brain stem sample that reminds her of something she saw back in her war days, that worry goes out the window.

What happened to Kasha is reminiscent of the “Omnius Plague”, a thinking machine-designed disease Raquella encountered during the war. Lila/Raquella concludes that the Sisterhood’s current problems, including the nightmares troubling the Acolytes, can be traced to an engineered virus. She is so excited to share this news that she barely notices an understandably shocked Sister Avila, who is not sure she approves of this development. (The word “abomination” is thrown around.)

But maybe Desmond is the real abomination? When Tula examines the genetic sample Valya sent, she reveals, using the forbidden thinking machine… well, it’s a little unclear, honestly. As the episode draws to a close, it crosses between Tula’s discovery that Desmond apparently has both Atreides and Harkonnen DNA, Corrino talking it out with Francesca, and Desmond talking with Natalya, who expresses deep resentment towards the Bene Gesserit and all ways. they have messed with her life. As Tula breaks down in tears looking at the results, Desmond tells Natalya her origin story. He is the child of a Bene Gesserit sister who abandoned him to live among scavengers. Then they kiss and Natalya declares that it is time to rid the empire of the witches.

Once again, the question of who is manipulating whom at this moment is hard to ignore. In an episode that has revealed unexpected allegiances and tangled loyalties, is this an example of Desmond once again using the emotions of others to his advantage? Is Natalya emerging as a secret mastermind? You can ask these questions alongside others like, “Will we ever be able to tell when Lila is really Lila?” “What does Ynez want and how does she plan to get it?” and “Will anyone ever take Harrow aside and talk honestly about his tragic haircut?” Dune: Prophecy has one more episode to reveal any of those answers this season. But expect them to be joined by even more questions. Like Sisterhood, the series seems to be playing the long game.

• “You were born to wear that uniform,” Natalya tells Desmond. Neither Corrino nor his wife tries to hide their feelings from others.

• “Never make the mistake of thinking you can become the man you pretend to be,” warns Mikaela Keiran. It seems like one of the key lines of the series that hearkens back to Tula almost making the same mistake. (Or “flaws,” depending on your point of view.) But who is Keiran when he’s not playing this role? Do we even know?