Dune: Prophecy still feels like it’s just getting going, right?

The third episode of HBO’s Dune: Prophecy enriches our understanding of its central characters: sisters Valya and Tula Harkonnen. Told mostly through flashbacks, its title has a dual meaning in that “Sisterhood Above All” is the motto of the order that will someday become the Bene Gesserit, but it’s also a nod to the bond between the Harkonnen siblings, who are extremely different in approach but equally ruthless in their pursuit of what they believe. It’s a decent hour of television thanks to the work of Jessica Barden and Emma Canning as the young Harkonnens, but it does lead one to question the overall arc of this very short season. The six-episode freshman outing of Dune: Prophecy is half over, and it feels like we’re still in the prologue, right? Maybe years from now, fans will look back on this season like the table-setting opener for Breaking Bad, but one wonders if they can build momentum over the back half to make it feel rewarding in its own right too.

In the present day, Valya has just been startled by Desmond’s ability to withstand her Force-esque superpower at the end of the last episode—and she has to figure out how and why. Tula is also struggling with questions after Lila seemingly succumbed to the Agony. As they both plan their next steps, the writers jump back to their younger versions to reveal how far they’re willing to go to get what they want.

The flashbacks open on the very Hoth-y planet of Lankiveil, home of House Harkonnen. Tula and Valya live with their uncle Evgeny (Mark Addy of The Full Monty), but their worlds change when their brother Griffin is convinced by Valya to take the fight to Vorian Atreides. Yes, the battle between House Harkonnen and House Atreides that defined Dune has been raging for this long (more than 10,000 years before the birth of Paul). Griffin dies in the endeavor, helping spark the years of vengeance between the Houses. 

While the episode jumps a bit between present-day and flashbacks, let’s stay in the before time just to follow the arcs:

Young Tula is seen riding a horse with the handsome Orry Atreides (Milo Callaghan) through a field that’s filled with the lush foliage one doesn’t often associate with the Dune brand (think sand). Tula is on a hunt with her beau, and we quickly learn that she’s practical and determined, but in a very different way from her sister Valya. The first sign of her character is when a horse breaks its leg, and she gives the animal a more humane death than Orry’s knife. 

While Tula appears to be finding love, young Valya is at the Sisterhood, going through the hazing that comes with any cult-like organization. She’s forced to stand out in the rain and wind until she can speak the vow: “Sisterhood above all.” Valya is the last sister willing to submit to groupthink. Why? The episode suggests that it’s because she can’t place her new “sisterhood” above her biological one, but there’s also something essential to the character of Valya in that she has already been seen to act impulsively and, arguably, even selfishly. Would someone who could say the vow essentially murder one of her own in the premiere? Although maybe it’s this ruthlessness that will save the Sisterhood from the reckoning? Maybe she’s the only one who truly understands that the “sisterhood” is more important than the individual sisters.

Mother Superior Raquella definitely sees something special in Valya. She comes to her in the rain spouting some of the cheesier dialogue on a show that’s getting increasingly weighed down with lines like “Sometimes our misfortunes are the sails that take us to the shores we are meant to be on.” Eek. Put that on a poster and sell it at Hallmark. More importantly, Raquella takes Valya under her wing and explains to her how the Sisterhood has been playing political matchmaker, working behind the scenes to amass power. She also mentions “forbidden technology,” which one has to presume is how Valya suddenly has the power of the Voice to tell a fellow sister to slap another woman. In a show that overexplains a lot, the jump from Valya in the rain to Super Valya is pretty whiplash-inducing. It’s the inconsistency in the pacing that can be frustrating with some character beats feeling rushed while others are overcooked.

Back to Tula, who gets the better arc this episode. She’s with her man, fooling around while the rest of the Atreides Bros have a rager by the fire outside. It’s an interesting visual counter in that Tula’s flashback is hot colors (nature, fire, and the like) while Valya’s is cold (rain, drab outfits). After getting engaged, Orry wakes up to a nightmare. His entire crew is dead outside of his tent, murdered by the woman he thought he’d marry. After telling him she is a Harkonnen, Tula stabs him with a deadly syringe. She was undercover this whole time, seeking vengeance for her brother. She’s brutal and ruthless too, just in a different way from Valya.

After some bad blood and near-murder with the Harkonnen sisters and their aunt and uncle, the flashbacks end with Valya finally undergoing the Agony, although we don’t know what she sees on the other side—only that it’s Tula’s voice that brings her back. It deepens their connection and closes out with an important line: “We have a new purpose now.”

The development of young Tula is reflected in her present-day arc in this chapter, too. She didn’t give up on avenging Griffin, and she doesn’t give up on Lila. While everyone seems to think that the catatonic Lila is gone after the Agony last week, Tula doesn’t want to let go. She pretends to do so, but the end of the episode reveals that she’s holding Lila underground in some sort of mecha-spice chamber. Will she tell Valya? Or is it no longer sisterhood above all?

Stray observations

• • Emma Canning is very good here and having a truly breakthrough year, appearing in Apple TV+’s Masters Of The Air and The New Look, as well as FX’s Say Nothing. She’s charismatic and clearly very talented. (That’s why she keeps getting work.) Let’s hope the writers give her something more to do and that this flashback-heavy chapter wasn’t her only highlight.
• • It’s probably worth mentioning that the adult Valya’s arc this episode ended with the reveal that Evgeny is still alive and looking grumpier than ever. What role will he play in the reckoning or Valya’s ability to stop it?
• • The performer highlight this recap is Jessica Barden, a great actor from Pieces Of Her who hit her TV peak in the excellent The End of the F***ing World. If you want to see her in an under-seen film, seek out Holler, in which Barden does career-best work as a young woman trying desperately to escape her dire situation.