Blood and Bene Gesserits. That is how Dune: Prophecy, the latest installment in the Dune saga begins. The events of Dune: Prophecy take place 10,148 years before the birth of Paul Atreides. And interestingly enough, the series takes a different direction by focusing on the Harkonnens instead; in particular Valya Harkonnen.
Find out what happens in Dune: Prophecy episode 1 with our full recap directly below.
A new vocation
The show details the Harkonnen family’s fall from grace after a great war between machines and humanity. We are told, from the perspective of Valya (Jessica Barden), that claims about an Atreides leading humanity to victory, while a Harkonnen deserted the battle, led to the banishment of the Harkonnen family to a desolate world. Consequently it also led to machines being outlawed. However, Valya protests that the stories of the Atreides victory are untrue, as she vows vengeance to rectify the injustice committed on her family.
Valya joins the Bene Gesserits and gains favor with the first Mother Superior, Raquella Berto-Anirul (Cathy Tyson). Raquella seeks to use the Bene Gesserits to guide rulers to peace and justice in the galaxy. But finds that the greed and selfishness of most leaders won’t allow for this. So she, controversially, believes they need to use genetics to influence how better leaders could be born and bred.
Valya supports the cause while Raquella’s daughter and Reverend Mother, Dorotea (Camilla Beeput), opposes it. On her deathbed, Raquella calls for Valya and shares with her a prophecy of an apocalypse, turning the universe into ash and death. She entrusts Valya to grow and safeguard the Sisterhood, believing her to be the one to “see the burning truth.”
A violent schism for power then occurs between Valya and Dorotea, leading Valya to use a power called “The Voice” to mind-control Dorotea into stabbing herself with a dagger, killing her. Valya assumes control of the Bene Gesserits not long after.
Influence of an empire
Thirty years pass, and Valya (now played by Emily Watson) is the Mother Superior to the Bene Gesserits, who have been providing their influence on rulers for decades. We are introduced to the current emperor, Javicco Corrino (Mark Strong), and his children, Princess Ynez (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina) and Constantine (Josh Heuston). With great hesitation, Corrino is planning on marrying Ynez to the son of Duke Ferdinand Richese (Brendan Cowell) to consolidate their fleets to help with Fremen turmoil on Arrakis, which they are trying to mine for spice.
In the midst of the wedding preparation, Emperor Corrino receives a visit from a soldier who survived an attack on Arrakis: the mysterious Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel). Hart claims the attack wasn’t actually a Freman attack, but one from an insurgent world who attacked Hart’s fleet to steal their spice harvest. He requests a job at the palace, which Corrino obliges, and invites him to stay as a guest for the wedding.
Elsewhere, we meet Tula Harkonnen (Olivia Williams), a Reverend Mother, teacher to the young sisters and the biological sister of Valya. We also meet some notable apprentices, including Sister Jen (Faoileann Cunningham), Sister Emeline (Aoife Hinds), Sister Theodosia (Jade Anouka), and Lila (Chloe Lea). Together with Valya, they prepare the sisters to receive Princess Ynez as a new admission to the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood. They plot to pair Ynez with a buddy — someone they can trust. Tula reveals her affinity for Lila. However their meeting is cut short by the arrival of the Emperor's Truthsayer, Reverend Mother Kasha Jinjo (Jihae).
It’s revealed that the Bene Gesserits have had a hand at plotting the union between the Corrinos and the Richeses. However, Kasha has had premonitions that this marriage could mark the coming of an apocalyptic event. She tries to convince Valya to stop the marriage before it’s too late. Valya scoffs at the notion and forces Kasha to carry on with their plans and the wedding, despite her reservations.
A tainted celebration
During the wedding, the Corrinos meet Ferdinand’s son, and Ynez’s betrothed, Lord Pruitt Richese, who is 9 years old. The ceremony proceeds. At the reception, Ynez finds Pruitt playing with a forbidden toy robot. Pruitt loses the toy, and it gets exposed to all the guests, who panic, until Hart destroys the toy. Javicco decides, in the interest of civility to overlook the issue.
Following the commotion, Hart meets Javicco in a private moment. He states that other worlds under the empire are starting to question how only the royal families seem to be benefitting off the spice trade, and whether or not outlawing machines was wise. He begins to sow mistrust in the Bene Gesserits. Javicco defends the Sisterhood, but also confesses to Hart his deep disgust in both letting the wedding happen and his dependencies on House Richese.
Elsewhere, Ynez spends her wedding night going off to a club to meet with her fight trainer, Keiran Atreides (Chris Mason). They party together, take drugs and make love. Ynez insists on having a great time since she’ll be shipping out to the Sisterhood soon anyway.
Late that night, back at the palace, Javicco is disturbed by his conversation with Hart. So he investigates recordings of the attack Hart survived on Arrakis. He sees Hart as the last man standing of his troop. But the recording shows he was actually swallowed whole by a sandworm, with Hart actually surrendering to it in a trance-like state. Javicco stands there shocked and perplexed on how the stranger managed to survive the attack and come back.
In parallel, Hart finds Pruitt. He begins ranting to him that there’s a war within the palace waged by those who appear to be indispensable, and that sacrifices must be made to end it. Hart somehow uses supernatural abilities to make Pruitt spontaneously combust. And simultaneously, back at the Sisterhood, far from the palace, Kahsa wakes up screaming, as she experiences the same fate. Like Pruitt, she burns alive in front of her sisters, as Valya and the rest of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood watch on in horror.
New episodes of Dune: Prophecy premiere on HBO and stream on Max on Sundays in the US. The show airs on Sky TV in the UK.
