Last week’s “Dune: Prophecy” chapter ended with Desmond Hart squaring off against Mother Superior Valya Harkonnen and deflecting her homicidal use of The Voice to get him to kill himself, and Sister Lila now lost in a coma after experiencing the horrors of genetic memory while enduring The Agony. We’re going to juggle different timelines here as we dive into the new chapter so hang tight!
In this third installment, “Sisterhood Above All,” we begin with a shellshocked Valya exiting the palace gates on Salusa Secundus with Sister Theodosia. Fearing that the Sisterhood’s hold on the great houses is quickly slipping, they must act fast to regain control, especially with the Emperor’s House Corrino.
But first we drift back into the past on the harsh frozen planet of Lankiveil where the wrongly-disgraced House Harkonnen has been exiled. Young Valya (Jessica Barden) sits around a dinner table with her Harkonnen family arguing over Vorian Atreides’ lies about their distant relative Abulurd Harkonnen — who was wrongly accused of war crimes during the Battle of Corrin — and that something must be done to set the record straight to restore the Harkonnen name.
As an aside, seeing the giant alien leviathans beached along the shore being sliced up for their meat here greatly enhances the series’ exceptional worldbuilding.
Her brother Griffin agrees and insists that he must confront Vorian and have him rescind his devastating lies. However, this plan does not go well and Griffin is killed in an encounter while doing business in the city of Zimia on Salusa Secundus.
Leaping to the present, Valya contemplates her next move while consulting with her Sisterhood at the harbor. She receives word from Tula that Lila didn’t survive The Agony but that Raquela spoke through her as to the precise nature of the prophecy that points to Desmond Hart. Or does it?
On Wallach IX, Tula mourns the tragedy of Lila, who’s being kept in a medically-induced coma. This triggers a memory of her courtship with Orry Atreides decades earlier on Caladan and her time on a big game expedition with the Atreides clan. During the bull hunt, a horse trips and breaks its leg. Before it’s put out of its misery by Orry’s blade, young Tula (Emma Canning) rushes back to camp and procures a toxin taken from a bait creature and eases the horse’s suffering by injecting it.
In yet another flashback, we hop forward to young Valya’s initial time with the Sisterhood in the aftermath of Griffin’s murder at the Atreides’ hands. Initiation rites committing to the Sisterhood are revealed, where Valya is reluctant to state her vows. Here we get the origins of The Voice as something Valya cultivated since she was a girl, as told to Mother Superior Raquela, who believes she can be a great asset to the Sisterhood and help shape the course of the Imperium.
We jump back to Tula and Orry in a quiet moment after the hunt. It’s obvious that Tula has hidden her family name from him after their first meeting at a marketplace. He kneels and proposes to her, not knowing her heritage. Later, after making love, Tula reveals her Harkonnen ancestry and that his family killed her brother, Griffin. He suddenly questions why it’s quiet outside and as he investigates we see that she’s somehow poisoned the entire Atreides party. He’s stunned and she plunges a needle into his neck containing the lethal toxin. Valya’s apparent grand plan has succeeded.
Entrusting Valya with forbidden technology that helped to create a vast genetic library to influence Imperium rulers, Raquela shows Valya a subterranean vault that employs AI Thinking Machines to store and analyze the DNA data. Later we revisit that spooky cavern with Tula after Lila is taken off life support, where we see Lila’s body in a glass chamber being administered by an illuminated Thinking Machine. As the camera pulls back we’re treated to the awe-inspiring sight of flowing blue data currents running along the chamber’s pillars and walls.
Finally, in a daring move to reposition herself after being ousted from the palace, Valya and Theodosia made an unexpected visit to her nephew, now the Baron Harrow Harkonnen (Edward Davis), and her ancient uncle, Evgeny Harkonnen (Mark Addy) at their austere home on Salusa Secundas. Since we already know of Valya’s cunning, will she offer up one of her family in some sacrificial offering to navigate her way back to House Corrino? We wouldn’t put it past the sly sorceress.