The worlds of Frank Herbert’s Dune are not to be taken lightly as many will tell you. You can’t simply drop into it blind like the subconciously intuitive nature that George Lucy’s skillfully employed with Star Wars, no, instead you have to sink gradually into its dense worlds of lies, plots and politics like the massive bulk of the Shai-Hulud retreating back into the sands of Arrakis. If that metaphor went over your head, I guess it only helped to prove my point, but in many ways, that’s exactly what it felt like watching the first episode of Dune: Prophecy as the influx of characters and their Game Of Thrones style intertwining often resembled the narrative version of running into a brick wall with the lights out.
However, now that the show is already in motion and all the many introductions and set ups have been laid out, can the second episode manage to achieve that what the first couldn’t – to match the majesty of Denis Villeneuve’s cinematic adaptations and make us give a shit beyond the sci-fi trappings and cool imagery?
After the shocking assassination that claimed the life of both the young Prince Pruwet and the Sisterhood Truthsayer Kasha, those damaged most by the deaths race to seek some sort of explanation with Mother Superior Valya leading the charge while attempting to juggle all of her various plots. The main one is to get her sister, Tula, to speed her protégée Lila to undergo a ritual worryingly known as the Agony in order to try and interface with the memories of her great-great-grandmother andformer Mother Superior, Raquella and discovery more about the threat that seemingly is about to envelop the Susterhood, but others involve making sure that Princess Ynez of House Corrino successfully joins the Sisterhood and that the tensions between Corrino and Duke Richese in the wake of the assassination.
Of course, seeing as this is the notoriously twisty world of Dune, there are many other tales winding in and out of this main thread. For example, what is the deal with Desmond Hart; was he really swallowed alive by a sandworm on Arrakis only to reappear with special abilities that allow him to burn people alive from the inside out? The facts certainly support it as he claims he is here to dispose of the Sisterhood entirely in the name of House Corrino and when it becomes apparent that he is somehow immune to Valya’s controlling Voice, he upgrades from lethal curiosity to major threat.
Elsewhere, it’s revealed that the Corrino’s swordmaster Constantine Atreides is actually a double agent with the resistance who hope to strike a blow for the have nots by targeting the House’s forms of production and Duke Ferdinand Richese’s rage at his murdered son suggests that war could be looming. But when Kila undergoes the Agony, she doesn’t commune with her Great-great-grandmother – she links with her Great-grandmother who just so happened to be murdered by Valya decades before. Is this the slippery slope that means the Sisterhood is about to lose their grip?
As I alluded to earlier, the main issue with the first installment of Dune: Prophecy is that it had so much baggage to offload, virtually everything got lost in the crush. When it wasn’t establishing a world set 10,000 years before the movies it was giving us the origins of the Sisterhood while simultaneously getting us up to speed on the questionable rise of Emily Watson’s Valya. On top of that it also had to set up dozens of characters both big and small that were spread across two houses and the Sisterhood itself while it sorted out all of their respective goals and wants and the result meant that the episode often had less room to breathe than someone caught in the choking grains of a sandstorm.
However, while the second episode doesn’t do much to actually make us care about any of these plotting and scheming players, it does actually manage to clear its path somewhat now that it has some extra wiggle room after already setting everything up. Thus we now have a whole bunch of plot threads that are now far easier to follow, but a lot of them prove to be actually pretty damn intriguing with the fascinating conundrum of Travis Fimmel’s enigmatic Desmond Hart riding right to the top. While recorded footage witnessed by Mark Strong’s Emperor Javicco Corrino seems to confirm that, yes, he really was Jonah-ed by a gargantuan sandworm, the fact that he’s decided to use his new life to specifically target the Sisterhood places the entire universe in a state of flux. Claiming that he serves the Imperium and only the Imperium, by the end of the episode he’s not only managed to gain a place next to an Emperor who yearns to be free of the Truthsayers, but he’s actually being used as a weapon to subdue the vengful rage of Ferdinand.
It all seems to be part of a two pronged attack that’s directly targeting everything Valya has built (even Desmond tells her after her failed assassination attempt that she’s afraid that if she speaks, no one will care) and while there’s micro examples of her influence starting to oh-so-slightly falter, the second prong seems to be coming for her blood soaked past that might put a sizable wedge between her and her sister.
You see, Tula admits that she almost sees young Lila as a daughter, but that doesn’t stop Valya shoving her into the Agony trials before the young girl is anywhere near ready, but despite the very real danger it holds (it ain’t called the Agony for nothing), the Mother Superior is more than willing to risk the lives of her fellow sisters in order to get the low down of this approaching cataclysm named Tiran-Arafel. However, it horribly backfires, because while instead of traveling back through her genetic bloodline to commune with Raquella about the vision she originally had, Lila instead runs into Dorotea, the rightful Mother Superior who was killed by Valya for not agreeing that the Susterhood should grow in power and go on to influence the entire Imperium – at it seems that she’s still plenty pissed. The result of this is Lila’s apparent death and if that sticks, it will no doubt anger Tula, but if the young girl lives, then there’s someone who can cause even more damage to Valya’s grip on everything.
However, while all machinations are getting up to the standard of Game Of Thrones, unfortunately I’m finding myself still pretty at arms length with the actual characters. It’s cool to see what these people are up too and the shit they pull in order to try and stay in control, but I have ter to form any real emotional attachment to anyone the way I instantly cared about the Starks, the Lannisters and the rest.
Still, it all looks slick enough, the momentum is picking up, the tension is building and everything carries more heft than it did one episode. With any luck, the improvements will continue to grow to the point where watching the show will be more about just waiting to see who stabs who in the back – although that’s certainly a large part of the attraction.
🌟🌟🌟
We Have Issues 