Dune: Prophecy is firing on pretty much every cylinder it has in its fourth episode, "Twice Born." The plot moves forward, the twists keep coming, and the character work is solid. That doesn't seem to have translated into this Dune prequel becoming a runaway hit, but it's enough for me.
Let's start with our B-plot on Wallach IX, where young Sister Emeline (Aoife Hinds) goes for a nighttime sleepwalk only to nearly take her own life in front of that weird reflecting pool in the school's courtyard, driven by some mysterious force. Sister Jen (Faoileann Cunningham) is there to wake her up. In fact, all of the young Bene Gesserit sisters-in-training were having nightmares, although Jen claims to be immune. To get the bottom of things, Tula (Olivia Williams) gives them all spice pellets and guides them in an art therapy exercise designed to help them remember what they saw. Things get creepy fast as the girls all start to draw the gaping maws of sand worms and a pair of malevolent eyes, the same eyes we've seen recur in visions and dreams all season. Just as Tula starts to panic, the girls snap out of it.
I have a theory about the eyes, but check down in the bullet points section for that. This B-plot is fun, especially the art therapy bit, but mostly it exists to set up future events. Disturbed by Lila's death as well as her nightmares, Emeline is getting more into religion, becoming an anti-thinking machine fanatic. Who knows what she'll say when she discovers that Lila (Chloe Lea) has actually been revived by a thinking machine, which we see at the end of the episode?
Dune: Prophecy review: Episode 4, "Twice Born"
Most of the action in "Twice Born" happens on Salusa Secundus, where Emperor Javicco Corrino (Mark Strong) attempts to consolidate his power during a meeting of the Landsraad, the main governing body of the Dune universe. Every great house has a representative in the Landsraad, but House Harkonnen, as usual, has been overlooked. Valya Harkonnen (Emiliy Watson) uses this to her advantage, manipulating events so that House Harkonnen gets admitted and she will appear as Truthsayer at the meeting alongside her ambitious nephew Harrow (Edward Davis). Valya has also learned of a secret plot to assassinate the emperor at that meeting. She figures if she can stop it in front of everyone, she'll be back in the emperor's good graces and able to combat the threat posed by the emperor's new favorite attack dog Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel).
Moving the pieces into place requires some political wheeling and dealing. One of the better parts of the episode is a montage where, under Valya's orders, the Bene Gesserit sisters all talk the heads of the great houses — their bosses — into reaching out to House Harkonnen. They make well-reasoned arguments about how the new baron Harkonnen will be willing to open an investigation into the emperor about the death of Pruitt Richese, something the great houses are loathe to do themselves since it might earn the emperor's scorn. The show has done a good job of making the Bene Gesserit feel genuinely good and manipulating people, to the point where you kind of understand why Desmond Hart wants them out of the Imperium.
This sequence also reminded me a bit of the one from Game of Thrones where Tyrion Lannister talks to several members of the Small Council in private, feeding each of them a different story in order to flush out a mole. Dune: Prophecy has been fighting the perception that it's a watered-down version of Game of Thrones, and while I see where that argument is coming from, I maintain that Dune author Frank Herbert was writing scenes about political maneuvering, about plans within plans, love before A Song of Ice and Fire was a glint in George R.R. Martin's eye. I think Dune: Prophecy comes by these scenes honestly, but perception is reality, so it might be beside the point.
Anyway, everything climaxes with a very entertaining sequence set during the meeting of the Landsraad, where the emperor's daughter Inez (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina) openly accuses Desmond Hart of killing her fiancé Pruitt Richese without Harrow Harkonnen having to say anything. Desmond, ever one upend expectations, comes out and admits it, saying that Pruitt broke the prohibition on thinking machines and deserved what he got. Desmond also got ahold of the thinking machine the rebels were planning to use to kill the emperor, saving the emperor before Valya can do it. And he trots out a bunch of thinking machine-dealing criminals and immolates them in front of everyone using his mysterious power. He also takes down a member of the Landsraad for good measure; we see him earlier in a seedy bar buying a thinking machine, so he was on Desmond's bad side.
This sequence is great. It's big and bold and fun and chaotic and gross, probably the high point of the series so far. It's also climax and setup in one. Valya's plan may have been foiled, but Desmond Hart wrecked himself to immolate that many people at once, and Valya manages to pick up a bit of his blood before she leaves; after she sends it back to Wallach IX, Tula can run it through the Bene Gesserit database to find out who Desmond really is.
As for Desmond himself, there's a touching scene afterwards where he's recovering in his room. Using his power really messes Desmond up, so you know he must truly be honest in his crusade to stop the spread of thinking machines to do what he does. His willingness to put himself through this on behalf of the Imperium moves the emperor, who seems to accept Desmond as a kind of surrogate son.
I like my villains complex, and Desmond Hart seems to be apocalyptic reckoning and little lost boy all rolled into one. I want to see where that goes.
Why isn't Dune: Prophecy catching on?
As you can hopefully tell, I enjoyed the episode. I'm enjoying the series, but a lot of people seem to be giving Dune: Prophecy a pretty muted reception. It's hard not to compare it to The Penguin, the last show HBO ran in its vaunted Sunday night timeslot. Both shows are spinoffs of movies, but while The Penguin received tons of rave reviews right out of the gate and was much talked about for its whole run, chatter around Dune: Prophecy has been much quieter and less enthusiastic, even if people are mostly positive on it.
What accounts for this? Well, the series had a long development marked by some internal turnover at high levels, and I think you can see evidence of that messiness in the final product. In particular, the first 15 minutes of the premiere episode are an unwieldy lore dump I think the show is still clawing itself back from.
Some aspects of the show, namely anything having to do with Valya and Tula Harkonnen, are great; I didn't mention an intense scene at the end of this episode where Valya confronts her miserable father Evgeny (Mark Addy) and in her anger basically kills him by refusing to hand over his respirator device. Valya and Tula are the protagonists of Dune: Prophecy, but they aren't the heroes. It's reasonable to root against them and I like that, and it goes without saying that Emiliy Watson and Olivia Williams are doing a splendid job of bringing them to life.
Other characters fall flatter, like the emperor's kids. I have a hard time summoning much interest in the will-they-won't-they romance between Inez and hunky rebel swordmaster Kieran Atreides (Chris Mason), for instance. And while The Penguin got eight episodes to carry out what is essentially a character study, Dune: Prophecy gets only six episodes to tell what looks like is going to be a much broader story with galaxy-spanning stakes. Too often, the story must be carried by characters who don't feel up to the task, like the younger sisters on Wallach IX. A few more episodes to flesh out these people, places and plotlines could have done this show a lot of good.
I yet, I still like what the cast and crew have put together here. I'm intrigued to see what happens next, the characters who do pop pop off, the production design is immaculate and the mood measured. Dune: Prophecy is a solid show. I hope enough people catch on before it's too late.
Dune: Bullet Points
- Okay, so why do we keep getting flashes of creepy eyes accompanied by a robotic voice? It's happened several times throughout the series. My best guess is that it could have something to do with Omnius, the artificial intelligence that humanity fought in the Machine Wars, as laid out by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson in some of their Dune prequel books.
- We learn that Kieran Atreides is the son of the one Atreides kid that Tula spared after she massacred the family in her youth.
- At the end of the episode, we see that Sister Theodosia (Jade Anouka) has somehow transformed into Valya's dead brother Griffin, and then transforms back. The process is painful, by the looks of it. We don't know exactly what's going on there, but there are a group of shape-shifting people in the Dune universe called the Tleilaxu, so perhaps Theodosia is related to them.
Episode: B+
Dune: Prophecy reviews:
- Episode 1: "The Hidden Hand"
- Episode 2: "Two Wolves"
- Episode 3: "Sisterhood Above All"
- Episode 4: "Twice Born"
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