Dune: Prophecy Episode 1 recap – Sisterhood, a royal wedding & death

Dune: Prophecy Episode 1 is a dense, brutal introduction to the sprawling machinations of the Sisterhood, and it introduces an enigmatic man with a plan to destroy the Bene Gesserit before it’s even formed.

Like me, you were probably worried about Dune: Prophecy. I had no doubt it would have epic production values, excellent performances, and deftly laid-out beats from Herbert and co.’s extensive source material – but, even in Denis Villeneuve’s movies, it is a lot.

Dune may have paved the way for Star Wars, but its world is more complex; more nuanced politics, unfamiliar factions and houses, and its on-screen story now spans millennia.

Thankfully, its unanswered questions are by design, and Dune: Prophecy Episode 1 is a strong start to a dark, even frightening saga.

Dune: Prophecy gets its exposition dump out of the way

The show’s opening quote sums the whole thing up perfectly: “Victory is celebrated in the light, but it is won in the darkness.” As we saw in the Dune movies, the Bene Gesserit are a shadowy, incredibly powerful collective that exerts control over everything in the universe – and this is their story.

Via narration, Valya questions if truth lies within history or prophecy, citing the battle against “thinking machines” (in the books, this is the Butlerian Jihad) that enslaved humanity – yes, it’s all a bit Terminator-y.

“History says it was an Atreides that led them to victory, while my great-grandfather deserted the fight. When war ended and all thinking machine technology was banned, history branded my family as cowards and so we were banished to a desolate world,” she explains.

As the Harkonnens lived in shame, their fury against the lies seemingly spun by the Atreides grew. Valya vowed to get revenge, forming a new family “made up of women unafraid of their own power” on Wallach IX.

She met the first Mother Superior, Raquella Berto-Anirul, a war hero who trained women in the art of Truthsaying (they’re basically human lie detectors) and assigned them to the universe’s Great Houses. Their influence stretched across the Imperium, allowing Raquella to govern the future.

She had a wild idea: in order to “breed” better leaders, she amassed a genetic archive to “foster the right royal unions and cultivate rulers they could control.” The zealots branded it heresy, but Valya believed it was the only way forward.

Valya becomes the second Mother Superior of the Sisterhood

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Raquella calls out for Valya on her deathbed, slapping away the prayer books of her sisters. She tells Valya about her vision: Tiran-Arafel, a “reckoning, a holy judgment brought on by a tyrant, a force of unimaginable darkness”, and we see one of Arrakis’ worms swallowing their base whole.

“Grow us, safeguard our power. Use every tool. The Sisterhood must be strengthened or it will fall. You will be the one to see the burning truth and know,” she tells Valya with her dying breaths (this will be important later).

Valya believes a Sister needs to sit on the throne, but Dorotea, the next most senior Sister, disagrees. This is made clear during Raquella’s funeral, where Valya tells everyone that they “must carry her legacy forward and keep pushing the boundaries of what it means to be human”, and Dorotea stresses the need for humility. “Thou shall not disfigure the soul,” she orders.

Valya sees the need for advancement, even in the face of adversity, so she takes control of the Sisterhood by force. In Valya’s defense, she pleads with Dorotea when she tries to destroy Raquella’s breeding index. As she walks away, Valya uses the Voice, a “new skill she’s been honing.”

She promises to share the ability with her if she bends, and when she refuses, Valya commands Dorotea to kill herself with her blade. In an instant, Valya’s name was “damned to the wrong side of history”, but the future of the Sisterhood had a bigger purpose: prophecy.

30 years later, Valya scouts a princess

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We jump three decades later, “116 years after the end of the great machine wars, 10,148 years before the birth of Paul Atreides.”

Valya controls the Sisterhood with a vice grip; nothing happens without a yay or nay from her. For example, she grants a Truthsayer to House Varick, but continually refuses House Harkonnen’s requests (for reasons that are unclear… for now).

Downstairs, the Sisterhood’s acolytes sit in the study hall, discussing the impending arrival of Princess Ynez. “Her new husband must be quite a catch, fleeing him so quickly,” Emeline jokes. They catch sight of Lord Constantine, the princess’ half-brother. “A man with no purpose devises only mischief,” Emeline adds.

Constantine meets with Valya, who promises she won’t be in any danger with the Sisterhood. However, as he points out, she’s not just any princess – she’s the heir to the Golden Lion Throne (aka, the universe). He asks that the princess be given her own quarters, which Valya denies. They stare off rather intensely, but he brushes off the discomfort with a smile and signs the agreement.

Elsewhere in the Sisterhood’s base, Tula teaches the young women about lying; how it’s a tool for survival, how our bodies have to overcome the brain’s rejection of lies, and how Truthsayers must be able to perceive every sign that someone isn’t telling the truth. Valya interrupts and tells the women that they’ll be tested practically the next day, so they should go away and get some rest.

“This time next week, [the princess] shall be ours,” she tells Tula.

Welcome to Salusa Secundus

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The episode hops over to Salusa Secundus, the homeworld of the Imperial house, House Corrino. Ynez trains with Keiran, the house’s swordmaster, and it’s clear there’s a bit of romantic tension between them – but it’s not him she’s marrying (more on that later).

We also meet Javvico Corrino, the current Emperor, who’s offered a fleet of ballista motherships as a wedding present from House Richese (the same house Ynez is marrying into). The Richese chief promises the ships will assist Javvico with his issues on Arrakis (nothing out of the ordinary; Fremen raids, that sort of thing).

He also asks Javicco for a wing in the palace to “smooth the transition”, which clearly troubles him, but his Truthsayer Kasha assures him it’s okay – little does he know, she simply obliged the secret request of the Duke’s Truthsayer.

The Sisterhood trials

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Back on Wallach IX, the young acolytes learn to “exert power over themselves… your mind and body must be within your control, only then can you discern the truth,” Valya says.

To test their abilities, Valya presents five prisoners and asks the women to demonstrate a “rudimentary command of Truthsaying.”

One sister, Jen, mocks the standard of the subjects. Valya grabs her arm and asks her to explain why she’s even here, and she tells everyone how her parents sold her to a man who “made his money peddling the flesh of children… I bided my time until he got sloppy with his knives. I slit his throat in his sleep, then I went home and did the same to my parents.”

Everyone looks disturbed (apart from Valya and Tula, who seem impressed), but Sister Lila looks suspicious of Jen’s story.

Desmond Hart returns

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As Ynez gets ready for the wedding (wearing the same veil worn by Florence Pugh’s princess in Dune: Part Two), Natalya says she’s concerned about the wedding and her joining the Sisterhood. It’s then revealed that Pruwet Richese, Ynez’s soon-to-be husband, is only nine years old.

“Every year before he comes of age is mine to do with what I will. I’d make him younger if I could,” Ynez explains.

Outside the palace, a mysterious figure arrives: Desmond Hart, a revered Imperium soldier who was thought to have been killed as a result of a Fremen attack on Arrakis. He reveals he wasn’t ambushed by Fremen – they were insurgents from Javvico’s allied worlds, armed with off-world equipment. “It was theft,” he claims.

Javvico is doubtful, but Kasha says he’s telling the truth and it must have been an isolated incident. He asks for a position at the palace, something Javvico seems happy to oblige, so he asks him to stick around for the evening party. As Desmond walks away, he gives Kasha a rather ominous look, suggesting there’s something else (and perhaps sinister) at play.

Soon after, Kasha has a vision of Ynez being sucked into the ground by a sandworm, screaming “You did this” as she disappears. She wakes up the princess and tells her she’ll lead the Imperium to a better future, promising to return soon.

Natalya tries to get through to Javvico about her concerns over the wedding and the Sisterhood laying claim to their daughter, but his priority is Arrakis, and Ynez’s marriage to Pruwet Richese will give him the armament to tackle the Fremen (or whoever it is that’s attacking Spice mining operations).

Kasha tells Valya and Tula about her dream

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Back at the Sisterhood, Tula and Valya try to decide who Ynez should be paired up with; for example, Emeline “reeks of piety” and Valya doesn’t want to broaden her worldview – she simply wants to make her adhere to the Sisterhood’s outlook.

There’s two candidates: Theodosia, supposedly Valya’s favorite student, or Lila, a “true empath… and given her lineage, she will be a natural-born Truthsayer,” Tula says. Valya believes she’s weak, but Tula says she’ll toughen up with time.

Kasha arrives to tell Tula and Valya about her nightmare. “The fear I felt, I still feel,” she says, worrying that their plan – to put Ynez on the throne after she’s trained as a Truthsayer – could “cause the very thing we seek to prevent. What if we’ve brought on the reckoning Raquella spoke of?”

Valya dismisses her concerns and tells her to stay the night and remember her purpose. “This wedding will go ahead,” she orders. Tula asks Valya to check the index, just to make sure Kasha’s nightmare is nothing more than a meaningless dream – what’s the harm?

Thankfully, Ynez is the right choice. Valya suggests plucking Kasha from Salusa Secundus after the princess arrives, but Tula thinks that’s a terrible idea. “You can’t keep picking pieces off the board just because they disagree with you,” she tells her sister, so Valya asks Tula to get Kasha’s head straight.

That night, Lila tells Jen that she knows her story about her parents was a lie, “but there’s truth behind it.”

“Don’t worry, doe eyes… one way or another, our past always finds us,” Jen says.

Ynez meets Pruwet Richese

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And go ahead it does, but it’s an unexpectedly cold affair. When Ynez arrives, she tries to talk to Pruwet, who snarkily tells her: “We don’t actually have to speak, father says this is just a formality.” What a little tw*t.

During the reception, Javvico absent-mindedly listens to Baron Harkonnen as he tries to peddle whale fur in seed, but he’s distracted by something. Meanwhile, Ynez catches Pruwet playing with a dangerous toy: a thinking machine, technology forbidden across the Imperium. It scampers across the room before Desmond stabs it with his knife.

Natalya is furious, and Ynez guards him from her anger. The Duke asks for Javvico’s tolerance, and against his wife’s wishes, he allows the celebrations to continue. Pruwet thanks Ynez for defending him, but she was just doing her duty. “Once our marriage goes through, you pull something like that again and I’ll stab you myself, you little sh*t,” she warns.

Ynez storms off for a final night out with her brother in Division. They snort some Spice and head to a club, where Ynez meets Keiran… Atreides!

The pair head to the back of the club, take the Spice equivalent of a bong hit, and have sex. Keiran is reluctant (he would probably be killed if anybody found out), but he goes along with it – it doesn’t take a lot of convincing.

Desmond and Javvico talk about faith and power

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Back at the palace, Javvico asks Desmond if a fleet of fighters will solve his problems on Arrakis. “Yes, but they’ll do nothing about the growing insurgency in the Imperium,” Desmond warns.

Javvico believes it was an isolated incident, but Desmond says the theft of Spice is a “symptom… your troubles are far greater than just Arrakis. More and more people question if we were too quick to discard the machines and why only the Great Houses profit from Spice.”

Javvico confesses that he’s unsure about the wedding, but he can’t call it off, as he could lose Arrakis. “The Great Houses would feed me to the worm,” he says.

Desmond asks about Javvico’s faith, revealing that he believes he should be dead. When he felt himself being sucked into the sand, he prayed for the strength “to feel nothing, next thing I know I’m clawing my ways out of the sand… and when I took my first breath, I felt reborn, different. I was no longer afraid. The gods are listening.”

Javvico half-jokes that he’d be a true believer if the gods freed him “from this vice of a wedding.”

Later, Javvico struggles to sleep, so he gets up and watches a recording of an attack on a Spice operation in Arrakis – the same one that nearly killed Desmond. He sees a hologram of Desmond staring down a worm and seemingly being swallowed whole – so how did he survive?

Desmond kills Pruwet!

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Elsewhere in the palace, Pruwet plays with his (extremely dangerous, but cool) toy. When Desmond finds him, Pruwet asks why he’s come to Salusa Secundus. “There’s a war hidden in plain sight, waged by an enemy that has made themselves indispensable. It has come here to do our thinking for us,” he explains.

Pruwet thinks he’s talking about the machines, but Desmond clearly means the Sisterhood. “That is why it is so troubling that we are being controlled again,” he says.

Desmond tells Pruwet he’s been gifted a great power, and winning a war requires great sacrifice. “Yours… it won’t be in vain,” he says. Suddenly, Pruwet realizes his toy has vanished… and he’s covered in sweat. He starts to burn from the inside out, begging Desmond to stop. Soon, he’s just a charred corpse lying in the hallway.

That’s not all: on Wallach IX, Kasha endures the same pain, wailing in agony as her body is consumed by fire. As Valya observes, this was what Raquella saw: the burning truth isn’t some apocalyptic event, it’s a man, and his name is Desmond Hart.

Dune: Prophecy Episode 2 will air on HBO next week on Sunday, November 24. Until then, find out why Dune: Prophecy is based on a divisive book and find out what’s happening with Dune 3.