It may not rain on Dune, but it’s certainly raining payoffs in Dune: Prophecy. To be fair, it’s taken the entire series to rearrange it’s individual grains of sands to get it to where things needed to be and for the most part, its manipulations and set ups haven’t been overly addictive as they’ve tended to choose function over excitement in order to cram everything in its rather abrupt episode count. However, Dune: Prophecy seems to enjoy keeping literally everyone except it’s two or three main characters as hapless pawns, all shifted at the whim of plans they can’t comprehend and while that’s an extremely fitting thing for a show set in Frank Herbert’s universe to do, it also makes it tough to give a shit about any of the mercilessly puppeteered side characters the way you did in, say, Game Of Thrones or even Denis Villeneuve’s Dune movies. However, at the end of season 1, it’s time to bring things to a head and bring some huge status quo changes into effect. But does it erupt from the sands like a triumphant Shai-Hulud, or does it bury itself with yet more machinations and restraint?
Secrets are seemingly spilling out all over the place in the Imperium and the biggie is that the vengful Desmond Hart is actually the son of Tula Harkonnen, a high ranking member of the very Sisterhood that he is trying to destroy. The same scientific explorations that have exposed his parentage has also finally revealed how he’s been managing to get his victims to roast alive inside out at a mere thought and it turns out his secret is that he’s been activating a virus within people that’s fueled by fear.
While these revelations are flying thick and fast, Tula’s ward, Lila, has finally accesed the personality of her grandmother, Dorotea, and now is aiming to bring to light her murder at the hands of Vayla and Tula decades before. However, as she starts the accusations rolling, the discovery of the bodies of those who were loyal to Dorotea seems to slam a fairly sizable nail in the coffin of Valya’s time as Mother Superior. However, speaking of Valya, she’s taken a trip to see the Emperor to get herself arrested in order to free his imprisoned daughter, Ynez, who has been arrested for treason. After revealing to him that every single aspect of his life had been planned and manipulated before he was even born – even his romance with Sister Francesca – he takes the news that he’s been a glorified puppet for his entire reign about as well as you’d expect and takes extreme measures to break the chain.
However, everything seems to be set to pit Valya and Desmond as the former intends to flee to Arrakis with Ynez and failed terrorist Keiran. However, can even her iron will manage to withstand the burning virus that Desmond can unleash at will? We’ve seen uncomfortable family reunions before, but none quite like this.
To get right to the point, after almost four entire episodes of diligent, but plodding, groundwork (only episode four genuinely hooked me completely), it’s actually something of a relief to find that it’s all finally been worth it. All though the series, minor plot points and borderline, secondary, characters have been kind of buzzing around aimlessly, waiting more patiently than I was, until it was time to become relevant to the main thrust of the story – well, bow down and hail the Kwisatz Haderach, because that time is now and almost everything we’ve had to wade through over the past six weeks suddenly snaps together like a jigsaw puzzle that’s been stubbornly thwarting you for about a month. So many individual aspects of the show that have been dragging along the sand like anchors suddenly not only become valid, but actually become iron supports that will no doubt prop up the story if HBO goes forward with a season season.
Bored with the whole Ynez/Keiran pairing and wondering where that was actually going, not to worry, Dune’s got you, bro because all of a sudden their star-cross relationship kicks into gear after the princess is arrested by her own mother for trying to free the Sword Master. From here they get caught up directly in Valya’s hail mary play by getting herself arrested to get close to Ynez because despite her not featuring all that predominantly, the Mother Superior has repeatedly deemed her vital to her plan and ultimately wants the place her on the throne.
Speaking of Ynez’s mother, Natalya, she’s finally exploded from the background to display some Shakespearian levels of betrayal as she throws in her lot entirely with the twitchy charisma of Desmond and even gets to enact some revenge after she walks in on her husband’s last moments. Yes, that means that Mark Stong’s Javicco bites the dust, but he manages to go out kind of on his own terms. The scene where Valya gives the Emperor the truth about his rule is an important one, because it’s rare that someone actually has the time to face and process the sheer size of manipulation that occurs fairly regularly in Dune without getting murdered fairly soon after, but watching Javicco’s ego literally collapse under Valya’s withering contempt is fascinating.
Also coming beautifully to fruition is the plot that concerns the multiple ancestors that are vying for real estate in Lila’s skull and with the deeply wronged Dorotea finally taking her place at the front of the line, this section of the show now arguably takes its spot as the most interesting thread the show has. As we literally watch the more innocent and naive members of the Sisterhood get led through a guided tour of all the darkest aspects of Valya’s rule, they’re bombarded with everything from the use of forbidden technology to outright mass executions (chillingly shown in a flashback as young Valya and her acolytes start using the Voice to get the opposition to slit their own throats) and I honestly can’t wait to see what the reaction will be.
However, the main thrust still is what it’s always been and that’s the growing link between Valya, her sister Tula and the man revealed to be Tula’s son, Desmond Hart and the results are a triple threat of family drama and shadowy conspiracy. It seems that poor old Desmond is nothing but a tool of a shadowy enemy that’s sent him out to screw up the Sisterhood with bionic implants in his eye that gave him control over an nanobot delivered fear virus. While the reveal that there’s some blurry mastermind lurking out there feels a bit ungainly and comic booky for Dune, I understand that you’ve got to create connective tissue to build upon once you snag a second season, so I’ll let it slide.
However, I do feel I’ve been here before. A space opera based on a popular existing property that takes too long to get to the point thanks to a lot of extra baggage? I don’t know about you, but that sounds a little like Paramount’s Halo show to me and we all know how that ended. However, Halo didn’t have two hit movies backing it up and more literature to dig from than Garth Marenghi’s bibliography. Hopefully, if we are returning to Dune’s small screen outing anytime soon, the writers will be able to make more of the supporting characters feel more like they’re on control of their own destiny other than an assortment of hapless puppets in order to make them more interesting.
Oh, and worms. More sandworms please.
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