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As Princess Ynez says in Dune: Prophecy Episode 2, everybody in the Imperium is a piece to be played in the pursuit of power and spice – and the board is shifting.
Dune: Prophecy Episode 1 was a lot to take; in its opening scenes, we learned about the Great Machine Wars (call it the Butlerian Jihad, you cowards), how the first Mother Superior saw the Tiran-Arafel (a terrible reckoning that could destroy the Sisterhood), and how Valya murdered Dorotea to continue Raquella’s mission.
That’s the outset of the series, which then fast-forwarded to 10,000 years before Paul Atreides’ birth, with Javicco Corrino ruling over the Imperium from Salusa Secundus while Valya and Tula train the next generation of acolytes.
There are two important things to remember going into Episode 2: Desmond killed Pruwet Richese and Truthsayer Kasha, and Valya believes she knows the “burning truth.”
The Sisterhood investigates Kasha’s death
The episode opens on Wallach IX. Nazir, a young Sister, is called from the Suk School (medical school, basically) to figure out what happened to Kasha. She believes it wasn’t due to an external accelerant: it was an “internal heat source” that caused an “acute imbalance in the meridian network.”
In other words, she was burned alive from the inside. Tula is wracked with guilt; Kasha was terrified, but they didn’t listen to her, and her death may have been able to prevent.
Downstairs in the study hall, the young acolytes debate Kasha’s death. Theodosia believes it wasn’t a coincidence – it was an assassination, she says.
After learning of Pruwet’s death, Valya decides to travel to Salusa Secundus. “This is the burning truth that Raquella spoke of,” she warns Tula, believing they need to protect their plans (to bring the princess into the sisterhood and put a Truthsayer, or perhaps even a Reverend Mother, on the throne) in lieu of Kasha’s influence in the palace.
However, Valya has a plan that scares Tula: she needs Lila to connect with her ancestors by going through “the Agony.”
“We must find out how this prophecy will unfold… it’s dangerous, but if you lead her, she’ll make it, you’ve done it before,” Valya says. Tula believes it could endanger not only Lila’s life, but the secrets of the Sisterhood, but in Valya’s eyes it’s a necessary risk.
Before she heads off, Valya asks Theodosia to accompany her.
Desmond confesses to Javicco
HBOThe Duke, his wife, his daughter Shannon, Natalya, and Lord Constantine gather around Pruwet’s body to pay their respects – and Javicco is notably absent. Natalya apologizes, but the Duke won’t have it – he believes foul play was involved in his son’s death.
He takes it too far and shows his hand: he “reminds” Natalya that his fleet of fighters loom above the planet, implying that he could invade and take the throne. Natalya isn’t fazed by this, however, instead insisting that “accidents happen and this one was particularly appalling.”
Elsewhere, Javicco meets with Desmond, who immediately admits to killing Pruwet. The emperor is unsettled by the idea that he was even implicitly responsible for Pruwet’s murder, but Desmond thinks he wanted him to do it. “What I did I did for you, and I can do it again,” he offers, but Javicco refuses and has him arrested and taken to the suspender cells (unsurprisingly, those held in custody simply float indefinitely in mid-air).
Tula breaks the news to Lila
HBOBack at Wallach IX, Tula asks Lila if she knows why babies are separated from their mothers at birth in the Sisterhood. “It prevents bonds one might hold above the Sisterhood; that way we’re all equals to one another,” she (correctly) answers.
Tula explains Raquella’s prophecy and how a “tyrannical force could destroy the Sisterhood.” In order to beat (or at the very least, understand) this new enemy that could undermine their power, Lila needs to unlock the genetic memory of her great-great-grandmother: Mother Raquella!
Lila is pretty nervous about the Agony (at this point, we still don’t know what it entails, but one has to assume it’s a similar process that Lady Jessica endured in Dune: Part Two), but Tula believes she can handle the pain.
Constantine hooks up with Lady Shannon
HBOIf their steamy glance at Pruwet’s funeral wasn’t enough, we get a lengthy sex scene with Constantine and Lady Shannon. “There are worse ways to grieve,” he jokes, but it’s clear there’s no love lost between the Duke’s daughter and his son. “I barely knew the little brat,” she says, explaining how they were kept on separate planets while growing up. Nevertheless, she acknowledges that Pruwet’s death was especially cruel.
Constantine asks if the Duke plans to command his fleet to invade Salusa Secundus and take the throne. However, as she explains, the palace is meaningless – the true source of power in the Imperium is Arrakis.
He tries to talk to her about Desmond and how he knows he came from Arrakis, but they snort another line of Spice and have sex again. Fair enough!
We get a brief scene where Javicco tells Natalya about what Desmond did, and how Shai-Halud (the big worms) may have given him “a gift, a power.”
Understandably, he’s worried that the Duke will accuse him of being responsible for Pruwet’s death – and he’d be right. Natalya doesn’t see any reason to act too hastily – after all, Desmond says he’s acting in the Imperium’s interests, so why would they get rid of such a powerful ally?
“Let’s not rush to execute our friends to please our enemies,” Natalya says.
Lila learns about martyrdom
HBOWhile Tula prepares the Rossak poison (a proto-Water of Life, basically), Lila talks to Emeline about death. Emeline tells her about her family’s death in the Battle of Corrin, and how they fought alongside Rayna Butler. They knew they couldn’t make it out alive, so they bought time for the fleets to come in with pulse atomics and wipe out the machines, sacrificing themselves in the process.
“Human life is sacred and that’s why there’s no higher honor than to give it, and we shouldn’t be afraid, because in death we’ll be reunited with our foremothers,” Emeline says.
Jen listens from a distance. Later, Lila tells her how she may be the key to stopping the reckoning, but Jen thinks Valya is using her. “Sisterhood above all, not sisters,” she says, believing they’re protecting the order rather than the sisters themselves. “I believe in our mission,” Lila says, but Jen replies: “Hard to have a mission when you’re dead.”
Later in the episode, Lila admits to Tula that she used to pretend she was her mother – and Tula tells her the feeling was mutual. Tula explains how Lila could, in theory, access the memories of her mother – who died in childbirth, apparently – if the Agony goes to plan. But it’s not a guarantee, something Tula stresses, as Lila needs to make the decision with bigger considerations in mind.
Valya meets Desmond
HBOAs they arrive in Salusa Secundus, Valya warns Theodosia that everyone has their own agenda in the palace and that she must focus on the princess and become her confidant while she handles the Richese situation.
In the throne room, as the Duke demands to see Desmond and Javicco stands to tell him off for his insolence, Valya walks in. Suddenly, everyone else in the room is in her orbit; she gets the Duke’s Truthsayer to escort him out before he says something he regrets, she gets Javicco to agree to her interrogating Desmond, and she fits in time to coach Ynez on processing grief.
When Valya comes face to face with Desmond, it’s an incredibly tense affair. He remains candid, telling her how he was born in Balut (a “harsh world for a child,” she notes), how faith brought him to the palace, and that he has nothing to hide. “Can you and your sisters say the same?” He asks.
When she asks if he killed Pruwet, he admits to it straight away, believing it was an act of justice. He also confesses to murdering Kasha, arguing she was “unworthy to stand beside the Emperor… I saw corruption in her heart the same way I see blood trailing your every step.”
“Shai-Halud took my eye and gave me a gift to see what even you cannot,” he tells Valya, promising to serve “the Imperium and only the Imperium.” Valya warns Javicco that while he’s speaking the truth as he believes it, what he’s said is a lie. Desmond insists that Kasha undermined his authority, something he clearly, but quietly agrees with.
Valya expects Javicco to have Desmond executed or sent off-world, but he sends him back to the suspension cells and forbids Valya from telling anyone about what they’ve discussed, lest the Imperium “turn into a circus of fear and rumor.”
Keiran Atreides is a spy
HBOWe head over to a club in Zimia (the same place where Keiran Atreides had sex with Ynez in Episode 1), where we meet Horace, the leader of a rebellion against the Imperium. Keiran walks in, and it’s quickly revealed that he’s a rebel spy.
He tells Horace that he was able to scan the entire palace during the funeral. Makaela is worried that he’s gotten too close to the Corrinos, but his commitment is steadfast. “The Great Houses are hoarding spice and forcing people into violence to survive,” he says. Horace wants to launch an attack against the emperor soon, but not yet.
Later, we get another reveal: Makaela is part of the Sisterhood! She meets with Valya, who praises her for orchestrating the raids on Arrakis. “We empower the Great Houses to maintain order and allow rebellion to keep that power in check,” she says.
Now, Valya needs the names of everyone who was involved to assuage the emperor’s fears, ward off predators like Desmond, and remind him of the Sisterhood’s worth. Instantly, Makaela gives up Keiran Atreides – and Valya’s response when he hears his name indicates there’s another story there, perhaps the root of the Harkonnen/Atreides rivalry.
Keiran and Ynez fight… and kiss
HBOAfter finding out how Kasha died, Ynez processes her anger by practicing her combat skills. When Keiran walks in, she tells him she doesn’t want to talk about it, so they train together.
As you’d expect, they end up very close to each other. Ynez tells him about how she and Constantine were kidnapped as part of a small rebellion when they were children. “We’re all just pieces on the board to be played in the pursuit of power and spice,” she says. They kiss, but she withdraws. “It’d be bad for both of us,” he agrees.
Lila endures the Agony
HBOAs Lila prepares for the Agony, Tula explains: “Crisis, survival, advancement. Raquella was poisoned, but she harnessed her body’s own chemistry to survive, transmuting the toxins on a cellular level, in doing so she awakened something deeper, the voices of her mother, her mother’s mother, back and back, until all of the woman who had come before her opened their minds to her and spoke.
“Lila Cho Grace Na-Berto Anirul, it is time to awaken those who made you. It is an agony, but only this once. When you find yourself in the darkness, seek the light. Your foremothers will waken wild, hungry – do not let them sway you, all that matters is the light. It will lead you back to life, back to us, and you will emerge a Reverend Mother.”
Tula drops the poison onto Lila’s eye, causing her to scream out and writhe in pain. As it floods her blood, she wakes up in a dark tomb, surrounded by towers of skulls and half-skeletal hooded figures. They rip her apart until she wakes up again, this time with one person above her: Raquella.
“The key to the reckoning is one born twice: once in blood, once in spice, a revenant full of scars, a weapon born of war on a path too short,” Raquella says through Lila. That certainly sounds a lot like Desmond, so it seems like Valya was right.
Suddenly, the same figure puts her arm around Lila. She thinks it’s her mother, but they tell her, “I’m sorry granddaughter, but she is not here… but I’ve been waiting for you.”
It’s the spirit of Dorotea, who shows Lila how she was murdered by Valya. Seconds later, she’s smothered by the dark and lost to the void, slipping away and dying in front of everyone.
Javicco uses Desmond to discipline Richese
HBOAt the end of the episode, Javicco faces off with the Duke. He warns that his threats can no longer be ignored. “You weak fool, I will tear you from that throne and feed you to the wolves and let them choke on you,” he snarls.
Javicco calls Desmond forward, who performs the same trick that killed Pruwet. The Duke starts burning from the inside out, but just as he’s about to die, Javicco gestures at him to stop. “Return home, bury your son. Say nothing of what transpired here, we’ll let these tragic circumstances fade from history,” he says.
Soon after, Valya meets with Desmond again, only this time he’s been freed from the suspension cells. “It would seem the sands have shifted in my absence,” she says.
“House Corrino no longer needs your services, your privileges at the palace have been revoked… I want what’s best for the Imperium, and that is to wipe out every trace of you and your sisters from our worlds,” he tells her.
It’s unclear exactly why he hates the Sisterhood so much; there may be more to learn from his backstory, or perhaps he inherited it from the Shai-Halud when he survived the attack.
“You mistake me for someone afraid,” Valya says, before attempting to use the Voice to force Desmond to slit his own throat, just as she made Dorotea take her own life. He lifts the blade to his neck, but he’s able to resist her command, and she’s visibly shaken.
“I always wondered what your greatest fear would be, it’s not that no one will hear you, it’s that they’ll hear you and they just won’t care,” he says, and she walks out.
Keep up to date with our Dune: Prophecy release schedule, find out what’s happening with Dune 3, and check out our list of the best TV shows of 2024 so far.
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