Dune: Prophecy improves in an intense second episode

“We’re all just pieces on the board to be played in the pursuit of power and spice,” says Nez, really putting the themes of Dune: Prophecy in bold font in case they’re unclear. Now that those pieces are in place, the writers of HBO’s new prestige drama are able to define the rules of the game in this second episode, “Two Wolves.” It’s clearly going to be a show about not only how power is gained but how it is maintained, through not just force but mental manipulation. By dispensing with some of the hoity-toity set-up of the premiere, “Two Wolves” moves at a better clip, even if it still struggles a bit with some of the common trappings of modern TV, including some bloated storytelling and, even worse, drab filmmaking. Still, the performers already seem like they’re getting more attuned to the voices of their characters, which is what’s most likely to really hold this show together moving forward.

“Two Wolves” opens with the fallout of the deaths that ended the premiere, the young Pruwet Richese and the Emperor’s Truthsayer Kasha. The Sisterhood is discussing the latter, noting that Kasha knew something horrible was coming. She had a vision that came true. When Valya and Tula learn that Pruwet died the same way, they suspect that “The Burning Truth” that Mother Raquella spoke of years ago is coming to fruition. Valya decides to go to Salusa Secundus to learn more and takes Theodosia with her. 

It's revealed that the story going around Secundus is that it was the boy’s “thinking machine” that burned him alive, but there’s tension in the air over the obvious lie. Emperor Javicco Corrino goes to Desmond to get to the bottom of what happened, both on Arrakis and to his potential child son-in-law, and discovers that his soldier thought he was operating under the Emperor’s implied demands. “What I did I did for you, and I can do it again,” he says. They send Desmond off to “the suspensor cells,” and Mark Strong sells the wheels turning in Javicco’s mind, wondering if having a human weapon as his closest ally may be better than having a member of the Sisterhood or a politically driven marriage.

The character who takes the most interesting journey this week is Sister Lila (Chloe Lea), a young acolyte who is the great-great-granddaughter of Raquella and the daughter of Dorotea, the sister that Valya murdered years earlier. Tula wants to use a technique known as The Agony (sounds fun!) to basically send Lila to the underworld, where she can communicate with lost relatives, and get to the bottom of Raquella’s vision and how it’s playing out today. It’s revealed that Raquella had something called “Tiran-Arafel”: the prophecy of a tyrannical force that would destroy the Sisterhood. Is that force working through Desmond Hart? Maybe Lila can get some answers.

After a bit of a diversion to remind viewers that this is on HBO in a sex scene between Constantine and Pruwet’s barely-grieving sister Shannon (Tessa Bonham Jones), Prophecy spins back to the seat of power as Javicco tells the Empress about what’s happening with Desmond. He was swallowed by a sandworm and came out different. She’s the first to verbally express that having an ally who can burn people with his mind might come in handy if there’s a war on the horizon.

It's a thought that Javicco carries into a fight with Duke Ferdinand Richese (Brendan Cowell) about what happens now that the marriage is off. It’s interrupted by Valya—good timing!—who arrives just in time to see Javicco lie about there not being a suspect in the killing. She also informs them about the death of Kasha and insists on interrogating Desmond about both deaths. He admits to killing Pruwet for “justice” and Kasha because she was “unworthy.” It’s not a mystery, although it does feel like Desmond is hiding his true motives.

Another theme emerges as it becomes clear that what the Sisterhood is asking of Lila is dangerous. It’s about the “Sisterhood,” not the “Sisters”—or rather, the system, not the individual (and how the former uses the latter to survive). That’s always a key dynamic in any show with this kind of political subtext. 

The main world-building development this episode comes with the revelation that there is a strong resistance seeking to topple the Corrino regime, and that swordmaster Keiran Atreides is basically a mole, even bringing the rebels hologram maps of the palace. Will he be a liability because he cares about Nez? Probably. That’s made even clearer in a later scene between him and Nez as they spar and flirt under some of the drabbest lighting on TV this year. Turn some lights on! We all know this is an epidemic now on TV, but there’s no reason for a show like this to look washed-out as often as it does. Use color, shadow, light, anything. Nez and Atreides are shot so poorly in this scene that they almost look A.I.

Now that my rant is over—sorry—let’s go back to the pair of series-crucial scenes that end the episode. First, Lila goes through The Agony. After some CGI shots of blue stuff overtaking red stuff in her system, she’s in what looks like purgatory, surrounded by whispering sisters with shrouds over their heads. (Again, it’s so drab.) She learns of “a weapon born in war,” which is presumably Desmond, before things go very wrong. Dorotea appears and shows Lila what happened to her—when Talya used her Voice to murder her—before saying, “You stole my future. Now I’m taking your hope.” Lila appears to die, or maybe she’s just stuck in the Upside Down forever. Yikes.

Finally, Desmond starts to use his Fire Force on Ferdinand, and Valya learns the true extent of his powers. He wants to wipe out every trace of The Sisterhood. It’s power vs. logic, might vs. faith. She goes to use the Voice on him, and it doesn’t work. “It’s not that no one will hear you,” he says to a shocked Valya. “It’s that they’ll hear you and just won’t care.” 

Stray observations

• • New credits! The first episode didn’t have any so it’s neat to see the tone-setter for Dune: Prophecy even if it does feel pretty predictable. It hits all the right beats, but it’s not going to be as effective as Game Of Thrones, Succession, or, heck, even Westworld. (Those credits ruled.) 
• • Anyone recognize Horace? It’s Sam Spruell, who was so great on the last season of Fargo. Maybe John Cameron got him the gig? A producer on both that FX show and this one, the TV vet got the director credit here, his first since the final season of Legion in 2019.
• • Fans of the excellent Dune: Part Two may recognize the ceremony that Lila undergoes in this episode as Rebecca Ferguson’s Lady Jessica experiences a similar process called “Spice Agony” in the film. It doesn’t look like fun.
• • Every week I’ll pick a member of the ensemble and highlight an under-seen performance from them. Emily Watson is quite simply one of the best of her generation, from Breaking The Waves to today. There’s a small drama working its way through arthouses now called Small Things Like These, in which she’s fantastic. Seek it out and you’ll also find one of the best performances of Cillian Murphy’s career.