Since it started, Dune: Prophecy has had something of a priority problem. Other shows that’s attempted the same type of thing needs to try and find a way to take the many character threads and political bids and make each one be as incredibly gripping as you can muster. However, as we reach the fifth episode of the adaptation of Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson’s Sisterhood Of Dune, we find that of all of the many, intertwining stories the show is trying to tell, only two of them have actually managed to hold the attention. The first is Emily Watson’s scheming Valya who wants to bend the Imperium to her will for both personal and spiritual reasons and will go to any lengths to obtain it – the second is Travis Fimmel’s twitchy enigma, Desmond Hart, whose alarming powers have been directed toward purging the universe of the Sisterhood by getting the ear of the Emperor. Whenever these two start pushing their agendas, the show springs to life and as a result, Episode 4 was the best to air so far. However, as the show goes back to bringing the secondary plot more to the fore once more, will Dune: Prophecy experience a disappointing backslide?
After his grandstanding move on behalf of Emperor Javicco, Desmond is given the title of Bashar and the control of an elite regiment to bring more dissenters to justice. In light of his promotion, Harrow Harkonnen attempts to apologise for his move against the Emperor and opts to spill the beans on his aunt Valya and her involvement. Speaking of Valya, in an attempt to keep Javicco off balance, she’s enlisted Sisterhood member Sister Francesca to travel to the Landsraad – but why would her arrival throw things off? Simple, she’s his ex-lover and the mother to his son, Constantine, which pisses off his wife, Natalya to no end.
Elsewhere, after the resistance took heavy losses due to Desmond’s raids, Fremen smuggler Mikaela and the Emperor sword master Keiran Atreides realise that the writing is on the wall, but after fighting off an explosive attack from Hart and his thugs, Mikaela (actually a plant of the Sisterhood) returns to Arrakis and Keiran finds himself arrested for treason on the orders of Constantine who is finally starting to live up to his father’s expectations.
On top of all this, Lila may have awakened from her coma caused by undergoing the Agony, but it’s effects have left her personality bouncing between her own and that of her descendents. However, after her great grandmother (and former Mother Superior) Raquella takes the reigns pf her body, she and Tula get down to work examining the sample of Desmond’s blood procured by Valya – however, by Hart’s own admission, his mixed heritage of Harkonnen and Atreides blood and the fact that his mother was one of the Sisterhood leads to a possible, world shattering conclusion.
Once again, thanks to its super-dense collection of ever shifting plot threads, Dune: Prophecy manages to bury its best points due to the necessity of moving all of its arcs forward with only a single episode left to do it all in. It’s a shame, because the previous episode finally managed to place the best threads firmly at the forefront of the show and let the rivalry between Valya and Desmond carry the thing. However, since there is a literal ton of plot to sift through, the entirety of the fifth episode feels almost a massive contraction to wrap up or at least condensed everything into a more manageable mass in order to somewhat bring this thing to some sort of (possible) conclusion. Thus all the Desmond and Valya stuff recedes into the noise and all the other, somewhat less interesting stories bubble up to eagerly take their time in the blazing, Arrakis sun. To be fair, the writers and director of the episode do an impressive job of funnelling a lot of information in just under an hour, especially considering that it’s something of a gargantuan juggling act that features multiple Houses and a criss crossing lattice of characters. However, despite all that heavy lifting, not an awful lot of it manages to stand out from one another and the whole thing whizzes by in a blur of black robes and elaborate names. The fact that you can keep of all of it track at all shouldn’t be underestimated, but it all seems to cancel each other out when it come to translating to actual excitement.
Maybe the show needed a few extra episodes to space out the twists and help some of them breathe, but as the log jam of space opera drama shuffles in and out of the spotlight, some major dramatic opportunities get lost in the hustle bustle. It seemed from the first episode that the rather steamy relationship between Ynez and Keiran would be a major thrust of the series, but as a whole, their relationship goals have barely made a dent and the side plot involving Mikaela and resistance seemed oddly truncated considering the importance it seemed to have. And yet, with both subplots seemingly benched already, you wonder why the show dedicated so much time setting so much of it up when we could have glossed over most of it and fleshed out other parts.
Alternatively, the sudden focus on Constantine finally getting some meaningful screen time kind of takes us by surprise as we not only get introduced to his birth mother, but he manages to iron out all his issues with his father too – but again, it feels mostly like filling narrative gaps to pave the road that both Valya and Desmond is on and doesn’t feel particularly vital as stand alone threads.
However, one thread that does manage to avoid being swallowed whole like that spice harvester in the first Dune movie, is the continuing drama of young Lila and all the personalities that now course through her psyche. While she too is mostly being used as a tool to move the riddle of Desmond along, the fact that somewhere in her head lurks her grandmother who was murdered by Valya decades before which potentially could prove to be tinder that sets the Sisterhood alight. However, it’s often Sisterhood wallflower Tula who has provided some of the bigger surprises of the season and if the show is going where we think it is, there’s a gargantuan reckoning at hand. With it revealed that Desmond is the child of a Harkonnen and an Atreides, it’s almost certain that he’s the spawn of the tragic union between Tula and Orry Atreides that resulted in his murder at her hands. And it’s all but corroborated by Desmond’s story of bring discarded as a child by a mother from the Sisterhood, so we may be in store for the Dune equivalent of a Jerry Springer showdown that could bring down the entire Imperium.
With only one episode to go, there’s nothing for it but to hope that both Valya and Desmond take the lead again to finally give us the Dune finale the small screen version has thus far been missing. But with doomsday prophecies, political manipulation, covered up murders and a disastrous parentage up for grabs, let’s pray to the Kwisatz Haderach that the finale is extra spicy.
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