In the series premiere of Dune: Prophecy, "The Hidden Hand," we meet a number of characters playing their part in the never-ending battle to control the Imperium. Reverance Mother Kasha (Jihae) is the personal truthsayer of the emperor himself (Mark Strong), and is working behind the scenes to get the emperor's daughter Ynez (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina) into a position where she can one day become empress herself. Ynez is sympathetic towards the Bene Gesserit sisterhood, of which Kasha is a part. And the Bene Gesserit are nothing if not self-advancing.
To that end, Kasha has talked the emperor into letting Ynez marry a young boy named Pruwet Richese (Hodson Prior), the heir to a powerful house. By the end of the episode, both Kasha and Preset are dead, burned from the inside out by new arrival Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel), who wants to lessen the influence of the Bene Gesserit throughout the known universe.
It was a shocking way to end the episode. Not long ago, I got to join other journalists in a group interview with Dune: Prophecy showrunner Alison Schapker, and this ending came up. Why, Slashfilm asked, did they end the premiere episode this way?
"Well, I think we very much consciously wanted to in the premiere sort of introduce you to the Bene Gesserit, and I think a hallmark of that is understanding that their plans take place over time," Schapker told us. "And in this case, the plan they put in motion took place over decades, but it was still a long-term plan to sort of control the throne by putting somebody on it who would be loyal to the sisterhood, understand the sisterhood, and in fact be a student of the sisterhood. And Valya Harkonnen is our second Mother Superior is very close to realizing or coming into the last leg of her plan. And by the end of the premiere, that plan is upended."
"And I think that was very much a conscious kind of, 'ok, now, we're gonna get to see: how does she respond to this antagonist?' So that tonal shift of something coming at you and upending everything that had carefully been put over place in place over decades, that was something we were looking forward to kind of putting in motion as kind of an inciting moment of the series."
In the weeks to come, we'll see how Mother Superior Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson) and her sisters respond to this strange new threat. It sounds like people are interested, with Deadline reporting that the premiere racked up 1.2 million viewers across HBO and Max on Sunday. Many more people tuned in the following day, to bring the two-day tally to 2.1 million viewers.
I got to watch the first four episodes of Dune: Prophecy ahead of time, and I think each one is better than the last, so I'd love to see that strong start gain even more momentum. New episodes of Dune: Prophecy drop Sunday nights on HBO and Max.
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account, sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel.