Dune: Prophecy Just Revealed Even More Dark Secrets Clinging to the Harkonnens

After last week’s mental clash between Mother Superior Valya Harkonnen and sandworm-blessed Arrakis soldier Desmond Hart—a battle that ended with Valya meeting a rare defeat—this week’s Dune: Prophecy episode, “Sisterhood Above All,” pivots away from palace intrigue for a flashback-heavy episode. It does a lot to explain the motivations of both Harkonnen sisters, both the ruthless Valya and her seemingly kinder sister, Tula.

First, though, we see Valya and Sister Theodosia being kicked out of the palace. Thanks to Desmond’s newly exerted influence over Emperor Corrino, they’re no longer welcome there. “This is not the first time an adversary has sought to remove me,” Valya tells Theodosia crisply. Desmond will learn his lesson, she’s certain—just like the others in her past have.

And speaking of that past… we cut to harsh, snowy Lankiveil, home of House Harkonnen. The Harkonnens are a far cry from the alarmingly powerful clan we know from the Dune movies; disgraced after the Machine War thanks to an Atreides-spawned rumor regarding Harkonnen cowardice, the family is currently scraping by amid the local whale-fur trade. All that’s left is Valya, Tula, and their brother Griffin; their mother and father; and their grumbly uncle Evgeny (played by Mark Addy, furthering those Game of Thrones vibes).

Earl Cave and Jessica Barden as Griffin and young Valya Harkonnen. © Attila Szvacsek/HBO

It’s here that we see the origin of the carved tusk that Tula gave to Lila last week, calling it her most prized possession; Griffin crafted it for his beloved sister. He’s also the only family member who has a good relationship with the prickly Valya; after she goes off on a rant exclaiming that the long-absent Vorian Atreides—source of that nasty tale about the Harkonnens—needs to “correct the record” or else, Griffin agrees, though he doesn’t quite share her obsession with restoring the family’s status.

He does owe his sister a big favor though; as we learn, she saved him from drowning when they were kids, using the Voice (her first time using it, apparently) to compel him to swim his way out of danger. But confronting House Atreides is a perilous task, and it doesn’t end well for the young man. Dune: Prophecy doesn’t make us wait long; Griffin returns to Lankiviel a corpse. 

Valya is ready to double down on revenge—“I want the Atreides to suffer as we have”—but she’d agreed to go train with the Sisterhood before Griffin’s death; the original intention was for her to become his Truthsayer, presumably after House Harkonnen was able to build itself back up. Now, she doesn’t want to go, but her parents 100% do not want their least-favorite child hanging around, so it’s off to Wallach IX for the furious young woman.

In the present-day Prophecy storyline, Mother Superior Valya learns that Lila did not survive the Agony, but that she was able to convey Raquella’s message from beyond the grave. Valya immediately knows what the “born twice, once in blood, once in spice” riddle regarding the Sisterhood’s newest, biggest problem refers to: it’s Desmond Hart. Of course it is!

Dune: Prophecy has been so Valya-centric that it’s both refreshing and surprising when the focus shifts to Tula. She’s very much grieving Lila’s death, keeping the girl on the Sisterhood equivalent of life support, to the point that one of the other Reverend Mothers is starting to nag her about it. As Tula contemplatively sips some spice tea, we get another flashback: Tula as a young woman, not long after her brother’s death, accompanying her new boyfriend, Orry, and what appears to be his entire family on a hunting trip.

© Attila Szvacsek/HBO

Dune: Prophecy is not exactly a subtle show—evidenced mostly so far in dialogue that’s meant to be exposition, but feels awfully heavy-handed. For example, last week we had the show’s main theme literally distilled into “We are all just pieces on the board to be played in pursuit of power… spice.” We had figured that out, but OK!

Anyway, this week we get not one but two demonstrations of Tula—a known poison expert, after we saw her creating the Agony liquid for Lila—handling a poison carefully extracted from an animal used for prey in the hunt. Poison! We got poison! Deadly poison, you say? How might that come back into play?

First, though, a jaunt back to Wallach IX to see what Valya’s up to: as a student in the Sisterhood, she’s already butting heads with her teacher, Dorotea. Yep, Mother Superior Raquella’s granddaughter, who Valya murdered (using the Voice) in the first episode. Their philosophical clashes and the way they clearly dislike each other on a personal level helps contextualize, in retrospect, that violence we’ve already witnessed.

On the precipice of taking her vows—in a dramatic test of wills that involves standing outside for hours in the rainy dark—Valya finds that she cannot force herself to declare “Sisterhood above all,” because she’s still fixated on her family issues. Mother Superior Raquella confronts this strange new student to find out what’s holding her back, and Valya uses the Voice on her so she’ll keep her distance.

The Mother Superior is, putting it mildly, very impressed with this talent. And from this meeting, where Raquella advises Valya that “sometimes, our misfortunes are the sails that take us to the shores we were meant to be on” (obvious dialogue alert!), a bond between them begins to form.

Back to Tula. Her besotted boyfriend proposes to her, and they have sex as the men on the hunt celebrate and drink and carouse and dance around a fire outside. We soon realize what they’re chanting: “Atreides! Atreides!” Uh-oh. The next morning, Tula confesses to Orry that her last name is Harkonnen—and he reacts to the news that his bride-to-be is from his family’s hated rival clan… surprisingly well. He doesn’t mind that she lied about who she is, and he thinks the feud between their families is old enough now that it shouldn’t stand in the way of their happiness.

© Attila Szvacsek/HBO

Except, well… Griffin. He literally just died, right?

“Why is it so quiet?” Orry wonders. Oh boy. The couple steps outside their cabin and Orry realizes that not only is every single man on the hunting trip dead (it’s implied Tula poisoned their drinks), she’s got a syringe loaded with fatal juice ready to plunge into his own flesh. She seems a little sorry to do it, but she doesn’t really hesitate. Payback! There’s just one survivor, a young teen who garners Tula’s mercy—could this be future palace spy Keiran Atreides?

On Wallach IX, Raquella and Valya are now so chummy that Raquella has revealed the Sisterhood’s deepest secret: the genetic library and the fact that it “relies on forbidden technology,” something we just saw Dorotea specifically preaching against. Armed with this closely guarded information, Valya is excitedly telling her besties (including the young Kasha, RIP) she’s now a lock to be the Mother Superior’s successor. Then, she shows off the Voice and—despite forcing one friend to slap another—they’re delighted and demand to learn how to do it.

But it’s not a smooth journey into the Sisterhood’s top spot. Raquella summons both Dorotea and Valya into the “operating theater” room—where Lila died last week—and tells them they are the two strongest candidates to lead after she’s gone. She pulls out the vial of blue liquid we know very well means “the Agony,” but Valya refuses to participate. (“Coward,” someone hisses at her, and you know that had to sting.)

Tula conveys the news of the Atreides massacre to Valya via a coded letter the Mother Superior intercepts and immediately sees through; “You have unfinished business with your house,” she correctly deduces. She hasn’t given up on her prized pupil, but she also knows she can’t name a successor who’s not fully committed to the cause. Valya takes a trip back to the Harkonnen home world clutching one of the dreaded blue vials; Raquella tells her “Return a Reverend Mother or not at all.”

On Lankiviel, Tula and Valya have a tearful reunion; “Griffin would be proud,” Valya says, but Tula’s not so sure. And though it was Tula who’s now a mass murderer, the older Harkonnen generation blames Valya, who clearly had a hand in manipulating her younger sister’s actions. A tense moment in the family home (Valya almost makes her mother stab herself using the Voice, to which Valya’s uncle calls her “sorceress,” his voice dripping with disgust) leads to Valya heading outside and undergoing the Agony alone on a snowy hillside. It’s all the more impressive considering what we saw Lila go through, in a much more controlled environment, last week.

That said, we don’t see what she experiences or what knowledge Harkonnen women of the past share with her, but we do see her wake up when Tula frantically pleads with her to return. “I lost Griffin, I won’t lose you too,” she says, and we learn that’s why Tula decided to join the Sisterhood too. “A fresh start… we have a new purpose now,” the sisters agree.

Back to the main timeline, and Tula has finally accepted that it’s time to let Lila go. All of the acolytes get a chance to say good-bye—Jen in particular expressing her extreme displeasure at the whole situation; she feels Tula and company took advantage of Lila, a naive girl excited to explore her ancestry, and pressured her into the Agony when she wasn’t ready.

© Attila Szvacsek/HBO

We cut back to Valya and Theodosia pulling up to a sleek building: “the last place anyone would expect me to be,” Valya explains, before muttering, “Sacrifices must be made. Sisterhood above all.” When they enter, they find a smarmy young man—this is Baron Harkonnen, who we first encountered in episode one at that (ill-fated) royal engagement party, trying to get the Emperor excited about whale fur.

He greets the Mother Superior as “Aunt Valya” (he also asks after “Aunt Tula”—though might this be Tula’s son, after that carefully placed sex scene earlier?). There’s also an older, crustier Uncle Evgeny in a hover-wheelchair who says he’s surprised to see his niece, but there’s a guarded look on his face that suggests maybe he’s not all that surprised after all. (After all, as we learned earlier, House Harkonnen has been asking for a Truthsayer over and over, and Mother Superior Valya has continually denied the request.)

How the Harkonnens advanced from slurping stew on an ice planet to a place of what looks like renewed, rising power isn’t explained—but Dune: Prophecy is leaving that for another episode. We’ve got one more shocking nugget back on Wallach IX, and that’s the reveal that not only is Tula keeping Lila “alive” in suspended stasis within the genetic library, the task involves the use of… an extremely forbidden computer.

New episodes of Dune: Prophecy arrive Sundays on HBO and Max.

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