In tonight’s finale, Dune: Prophecy saves the real action for season two

It turns out that the majority of the six-episode first season of HBO’s Dune: Prophecy has been set up for future stories to tell in this world created by Frank Herbert. That’s a problem. One of the things people loved about The Penguin was how much it stood on its own. It was a drama that worked even if one hadn’t seen Matt Reeves’s The Batman and was worth watching even if there wasn't another season. The fatal flaw of Dune: Prophecy is how much it’s tied to the past and the future, relying heavily on the love of this world through the books and movies and using much of its final episode to set the stage for future ones. Still, the inherent stakes of a season finale finally allow for some emotional heft in the performances from this strong ensemble, even if it’s getting harder and harder to care about what happens to the characters they play.

“The High-Handed Enemy” consists largely of putting in motion a plan that Valya Harkonnen has been enacting for generations, using Emperor Corrino as a puppet to get a sister in power. While Valya has been moving the pieces on her side of the chessboard, an insurgency is rising back at the Sisterhood, led by the reincarnated soul of Dorotea, the sister that Valya murdered so many years ago. The episode ends with Tula Harkonnen connecting with the vicious Desmond Hart after realizing that he’s the son she gave up so many years ago. 

At a feature length of 81 minutes, the pacing of “The High-Handed Enemy” can be inconsistent. At times, it feels like a truncated season led to too much being crammed into this finale, but it’s also bloated and repetitive in other places, as if the writers have been tasked with stretching out things to make the last episode feel more important. It’s a largely dissatisfying installment, even if it contains some series-best work from Emily Watson, Olivia Williams, Chloe Lea, and Travis Fimmel.

It starts with the revelation that young Valya wasn’t alone when she used the Voice on Dorotea. Young Tula, Kasha, and Francesca all saw the crime and witnessed the fallout, which included the same violent act being inflicted on all the sisters who would have sided with Dorotea, leaving only Sister Avila and the core four standing. They all put a plan in motion using Anirul—the device that allows them to plan bloodlines that will put them in power—to get Javicco and Natalya together. It’s an interesting idea that’s only thinly-explored: the concept that politicians are manipulated in ways they can’t even imagine, influenced and shaped by forces beyond their control. Even Javicco’s love Francesca and truthsayer Kasha were a part of this multi-year plan. He has done nothing in his entire, pathetic life that wasn’t influenced by the Sisterhood.

Of course, the episode also reveals what we all expected after the end of the last one: Desmond Hart is the son of Tula Harkonnen and Orry Atreides, sent off to be adopted so many years ago but now carrying those two essential bloodlines into a violent future. It’s also revealed that Desmond was altered by a “thinking machine” on Arrakis, given the power he has now in a procedure that someone was overseeing. But who? That’s one of the main questions for season two.

The thrust of “The High-Handed Enemy” revolves around eliminating Javicco Corrino from power, but it turns out that Valya isn’t his only enemy. Empress Natalya has also decided that she no longer needs her husband, especially now that he’s trying to restart his relationship with Francesca. It’s almost a race to kill Corrino as Valya brings a drug-laced needle to Salusa, ready to take out her puppet now that he’s served his purpose. Arguably the best scene of the season comes when Valya drops the curtain on poor Javicco. “You were only ever an assignment,” she tells him, revealing that every aspect of his life has been orchestrated by the Sisterhood and that it’s time for Ynez to lead. And this is after the poor guy has been told by his wife that she plans to use him as a puppet herself, running the universe from behind the scenes with Desmond. 

Javicco tries to reclaim an ounce of control by kicking out Francesca, but even that doesn’t get him anywhere. He realizes that the only way he can take any agency is to take his life, stabbing himself in the gut in a truly sad scene. As Francesca moves to save the father of her child, the Empress pokes her in the neck with a needle, killing her instantly and stopping any resuscitation efforts on her husband. She watches her truly pathetic husband die. Dune: Prophecy is going to miss the gravity given to the show by Mark Strong and Tabu. In season two, let’s hope they find actors of equal caliber to replace them.

Before I get to the climactic scenes, I need to talk about Lila/Dorotea. It starts when she convinces Emeline to loosen her restraints and drugs her for the favor. She comes to the rest of the sisters, looking for Valya and her allies, only to learn that everyone on her side was killed shortly after her. As the episode progresses, Lila/Dorotea seems to get more powerful, bringing in the sisters as allies to her cause. “I will return us to our righteous path,” she says. Valya and Tula are going to have a brutal homecoming.

The season has built to the final scenes of “The High-Handed Enemy.” After escaping Salusa, Valya, Nez, and Keiran land on another planet, chased by Desmond and his soldiers. She uses the Voice to dispatch them quickly, setting up a showdown. “You say you’ve seen my end,” she says. “Show me.” And then things get weird. There are gasps, wide eyes, and shots of Arrakis. They both pass out, and suddenly Valya is on a snowy, icy landscape, cutting between the Watson and Jessica Barden versions of the character. She hears Griffin yelling for help. In reality, Tula tries to save Valya from whatever mental prison has her, and the show finally gets a little creative in its visual language, incorporating natural elements like wind, snow, sand, and ice into a threatening montage. Dreamscape Valya stands to face what’s coming, and the scene shifts to one of its most Dune-esque images: a sandworm coming directly at the camera. 

After recovering, it’s revealed that Valya and her allies will go into the shadows, presumably to try to reclaim power from Natalya/Desmond in season two. Tula hugs Desmond, giving both performers a good bit of dialogue-free, emotional acting, but Hart does have his men arrest his mom. And then the trio of Valya, Nez, and Keiran lands on Arrakis. “The path to our enemy begins here,” she says. It’s always nervy to end a season with the words “begins here.” Let’s hope the creators know where they’re going next.

Stray observations

• • It’s worth noting that this episode was written by two women and directed by a third. Despite its many weaknesses, it is a show with a strong female POV. Think about the worthlessness of Javicco and how even Keiran feels like a passenger on this journey. The strongest characters—Valya, Tula, Lila/Dorotea, Nez, and even Natalya in this episode—are given added resonance by turning duties that are still too male-dominated in this industry over to female creators.
• • Give Emeline more to do in season two. Watching her break her hands to get out of Lila’s restraints is an episode highlight. She’s kind of a badass.
• • Do we ever need 81-minute episodes of television? Just throwing that out there.
• • So who’s the season-one MVP? Probably Watson or Fimmel, although I was more intrigued by the unfamiliar performers, especially Chloe Lea as Lila and Sarah-Sofie Boussnina as Ynez. If the show gets better, they’re the ones to watch for breakout potential. 
• • Thanks for reading this season! See you next time.