Editor’s word: The under recap comprises spoilers for Dune: Prophecy Episode 3.

In its third episode, Dune: Prophecy takes us again to the standard origins of Home Harkonnen. “Sisterhood Above All” is split into previous and current timelines, delving deep into why sisters Valya (Emily Watson) and Tula Harkonnen (Olivia Williams) are how they’re, and the way their shared previous informs not solely their current, but in addition probably their future. With the Sisterhood in peril, their loyalties to the order and their household will each be examined.

Valya Plots To Regain Her Maintain Over Home Corrino in ‘Dune: Prophecy’ Episode 3

After being casually dismissed from court docket by Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel) in Episode 2, “Two Wolves,” Valya and Sister Theodosia (Jade Anouka) go away the imperial palace with a mixture of anger and frustration. The subsequent day, they meet the opposite Sisters within the harbor, and Valya instructs them to return to their assigned noble homes and do something to not lose their maintain over these, and that she is going to regain management over Home Corrino herself.

Throughout this assembly, Sister Mikaela (Shalom Brune-Franklin) seems with information from Wallach IX. Sister Lila (Chloe Lea) did not survive the Agony, however was in a position to attain Mom Superior Raquella Berto-Anirul (Cathy Tyson), who left a mysterious trace: “the important thing to the reckoning is one born twice; as soon as in blood, as soon as in spice.” Valya instantly understands that Raquella is speaking about Hart, and says {that a} journey residence is named for. On the finish of the episode, Valya and Theodosia arrive at an expensive residence in Salusa Secundus. As soon as Valya facilities herself by chanting “Sisterhood above all,” they’re greeted by Baron Harrow Harkonnen (Edward Davis), who calls her “Aunt Valya” and asks about “Aunt Tula.” On the fire, Valya’s aged uncle Evgeny Harkonnen (Mark Addy) says he thought he’d “by no means see the day.”

‘Dune: Prophecy’ Episode 3 Explores Valya’s Previous

From Salusa Secundus, we’re taken to the frigid planet of Lankiveil, the homeworld of Home Harkonnen, an unspecified variety of years up to now. Younger Valya (Jessica Barden) returns residence from shopping for groceries and solely hears complaints from her mother and father, Sonia (Polly Walker) and Vergyl (David Bark-Jones), however finds help from her siblings, Griffin (Earl Cave) and younger Tula (Emma Canning). Uncle Evgeny mentions that Vorian Atreides is mysteriously again, and Valya sees this as a chance to get him to take again the lies he instructed the Landsraad about Home Harkonnen so they might regain their standing. She says that Vergyl’s grandfather, Abulurd Harkonnen, was a hero who prevented a genocide, not a coward.

The adults inform her to cease being grasping, and Valya storms off, with Griffin following her. They reminisce a couple of time when Griffin fell right into a lake of icy water, and Valya rushed to rescue him. He says that he had already given up, however when she screamed for him to swim, his physique mysteriously acted by itself and swam, thus saving him from dying — her first-ever use of the Voice. He agrees to trace down Vorian Atreides as a result of he believes in Valya, however, within the very subsequent scene (set a while afterward), his physique is returned to Lankiveil, killed by Vorian. Valya vows revenge in opposition to the Atreides regardless of her mother and father sending her to hitch the Sisterhood on Wallach IX, and tells Tula to discover a means out of Lankiveil.

Valya’s Feud With Sister Dorotea Shapes the Sisterhood in ‘Dune: Prophecy’ Episode 3

On Wallach IX, Valya’s feud with Sister Dorotea (Camilla Beeput) begins when she questions the right way to use fact and lies when serving a noble home. Dorotea says that it is a Sister’s duty to tug them to humanity’s higher nature, however Valya sees fact as a software that ought to be used to serve a objective. Dorotea then taunts Valya in entrance of her class and, within the subsequent scene, takes the Acolytes to a check: meditating whereas standing within the pouring rain till they’re able to forsake their household bonds and embrace Sisterhood above all. After an entire day, Valya is the one one left and is as soon as once more provoked by Dorotea, who says she is going to all the time be a Harkonnen. Valya continues to meditate, although, till Mom Raquella reveals up. She makes use of the Voice to inform the Mom Superior to cease, and, later, again inside, they focus on this potential, and Raquella tells her that the Sisterhood is about advancing the human species.

Someday later, the Mom Superior reveals Valya all of the Sisterhood’s secrets and techniques and takes her to the tunnels to see her “life’s nice work,” the genetic matrix containing the DNAs of all of the Nice Homes. To construct this index, Raquella needed to depend on computer systems, one thing strictly forbidden, and Valya complies with conserving this secret. In the meantime, Dorotea, who’s a Butlerian (a zealot in opposition to computer systems and expertise), preaches that “thou shalt not make a machine within the likeness of a human thoughts” simply outdoors the tunnels, and stares at Raquella and Valya in jealousy. Later, Valya tells her mates that she is aware of Raquella will select her as successor, and reveals them the Voice.

Within the subsequent scene, Raquella calls each Valya and Dorotea to undergo the Agony collectively, saying they’re each the strongest Sisters and are each the long run leaders of the order. In “Two Wolves,” we be taught that Raquella is definitely Dorotea’s grandmother, so in addition they share a forbidden household tie. Simply as Raquella is about to drop the Rossak poison on Valya’s eye, Valya stands up, apologizes, and says she will’t undergo with it. Later, Raquella tells Valya {that a} coded message from Tula arrived from Lankiveil, and that Valya ought to go. She additionally offers Valya a vial of the Rossak poison, telling her she ought to return as a Reverend Mom, or by no means.

Tula Carries Out a Brutal Mission in ‘Dune: Prophecy’ Episode 3

After Griffin’s funeral, the next flashback sees younger Tula being welcomed by her boyfriend Orry’s (Milo Callaghan) household tenting on a forest world, getting ready to hunt a Salusan bull. They know her as Tula Vale, however she modifies the topic every time somebody asks her about her household. Orry’s household is good to her, and he or she is equally heat to all of them. When a horse falls wounded, Tula tries to reserve it, however Orry’s uncle Shander (Benedick Blythe) tells her it should be put down — “we do what we should” — so she helps them sacrifice it painlessly. At night time, Orry asks Tula about her household, and he or she says that, after her brother died, her sister was indignant and went to high school, and her mother and father barely noticed her of their grief. Orry then proposes to Tula, and, as they spend the night time collectively, the boys of the household collect by the hearth outdoors and scream their household identify: Atreides.

Within the morning, Tula tries to sneak out of her and Orry’s hut, however Orry wakes up. Feeling responsible, she confesses to Orry that her final identify is not Veil, however Harkonnen. Orry is shocked, however argues that their households selected to hate one another over one thing that occurred greater than a century in the past, and that, collectively, they’ll write a future for themselves. Tula rejects him, saying it should nonetheless be an Atreides who killed her brother and, echoing what she heard that day, tells Orry that “we do what we should.” He then realizes the camp is eerily quiet, and finds all his kin useless outdoors. Tula then tells him that he did not see her, both, and kills him. Younger Albert (Archie Barnes) is the one one Tula permits to outlive, and runs away. As she mourns Orry, whom she did love, a Salusan bull stares from afar.

On Lankiveil, Valya and Tula reunite at Griffin’s tomb. Valya tells Tula she did not suppose Tula may kill the Atreides like that, and that Griffin could be proud, however Tula is not so certain. Again at residence, Sonia, Vergyl, and Evgeny all blame Valya for the bloodbath, saying she did not take into consideration the implications the household must face. Indignant, Valya makes use of the Voice on her mom and nearly tells her to kill herself. Earlier than she will do something with extra tragic penalties, Valya storms off, with Evgeny calling her a sorceress. On the spot the place she mentioned goodbye to Griffin initially of the episode, Valya takes the Rossak poison and emerges as a Reverend Mom as Tula finds her in agony. Tula decides to hitch the Sisterhood, and Valya guarantees a recent begin for each of them, with a brand new objective.

Tula Struggles With the Lack of Lila in ‘Dune: Prophecy’ Episode 3

Between the flashbacks, Tula faces a problem within the current. On Wallach IX, she is conserving Sister Lila in a vegetative state, not totally able to letting her go but. Sister Avila (Barbara Marten), who seems as one in every of Dorotea’s followers (Sarah Oliver-Watts) within the flashbacks, brings Tula some spice tea, however Tula forbids her from turning off Lila’s life help. Tula sees the spice in her tea, and has an concept. Later, Tula summons the Acolytes to say goodbye to Lila, and, when Sister Jen (Faoileann Cunningham) lashes out at Tula for “killing” Lila, Avila intervenes, saying Lila’s sacrifice ought to be honored as a result of she knew the dangers, and that Tula and Valya would by no means have requested her to do it if it weren’t needed.

Later, Avila once more commends Tula for letting Lila go, saying that Valya could be proud. Tula then says she goes to the storeroom, however goes into the tunnels that Mom Raquella reveals younger Valya in one of many flashbacks. Inside, a chamber lights up in digital blue, and we see Sister Lila inside a small glass mattress. Tula prompts a man-made intelligence, which is strictly forbidden, named Anirul, and orders it to flood Lila’s glass mattress with spice, saying that, if it makes use of the right dosage, the spice may rejuvenate Lila’s thoughts. The considering machine objects, saying that Valya would not approve, however Tula overrides this by saying she is the one in cost, and Anirul lastly complies.

Whereas “Sisterhood Above All” is a superb piece of storytelling contained in the Dune universe, it is also proof of the irregular pacing of Prophecy to date. For a six-episode collection with 60-minute episodes, having an entire episode devoted to flashbacks appears somewhat an excessive amount of, though it actually supplies fascinating perception into its two primary characters. This is not essentially a symptom of how the collection was deliberate, however of the present tv and streaming panorama, which is all the time searching for fast hit collection with shorter seasons — Home of the Dragon suffered with this identical difficulty, for instance. The flashbacks will now inform each Valya’s and Tula’s subsequent steps, each as Harkonnens, and as members of the Sisterhood, but it surely seems like there’s simply an excessive amount of that should occur with solely three episodes left.

Dune: Prophecy is accessible to stream on Max within the U.S. New episodes air weekly on Sundays.

WATCH ON MAX