After a weak episode of extensive flashbacks, Dune: Prophecy is back with a spicy bang. Episode 4, "Twice Born," is the best outing so far, intertwining the multiple strands of storytelling created in the previous three hours and knitting them together in an explosive third act. There are no flashbacks to the past, no additional new subplots and characters to weigh down the exposition, and little time wasted with lengthy teases. Instead, "Twice Born" effectively brings its myriad storylines together in a great episode that feels reminiscent of the best political episodes of better series like Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica, or shows like Game of Thrones. It also does a great job setting up the final two episodes.
✕ Remove Ads Valya's Plan to Gain Power for the Sisterhood & House Harkonnen
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Follow Followed Follow with Notifications Follow Unfollow Dune: Prophecy Episode 4: Twice Born 4.5/5
All acolytes of the sisterhood have the same nightmare. Tula tries to understand its origins. Before the great meeting of the Landsraad, Valya plans to rehabilitate House Harkonnen.
Episode Number 4 Season Dune: Prophecy - Season 1 Runtime 1h 4m Director(s) Richard J. Lewis Series Dune: Prophecy Release Date December 8, 2024 ProsAn excellent episode capitalizes on previous episodes' exposition and character development.Brilliantly executed narrative twists and political machinations.Tense and exciting throughout despite an interrupting subplot that's nonetheless fascinating. Expand
The first two-thirds of "Twice Born" is a tightly edited look at pretty much every main character in the world of Dune: Prophecy, and the plans they've been developing in the shadows. In the previous episode, Valya was kicked out of the Imperial Palace and basically replaced by the formidable Desmond Hart (still the show's best character and performance, courtesy of Travis Fimmel). We see her elaborate plan coming to fruition in this episode, as she meets with her estranged family at House Harkonnen, where her dying uncle and sad, weasely nephew are holed up.
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Valya's plan has to do with the upcoming gathering of the Landsraad, which is essentially the intergalactic Senate in the world of Dune, composed of leaders of each House and their respective Truthsayer from the Sisterhood. The Landsraad is set to gather with Emperor Corrino, who is the subject of countless rumors over his involvement in the death of Pruwet Richese, his daughter's tiny fiancé. For a recap of all this to jog your memory, read this article about the first episode of the series.
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Valya knows that the rebellion plans to essentially bomb the Landsraad with an expensive little drone, thanks to the rebel and 'man on the inside,' Keiran Atreides, Swordmaster of House Corrinothe. He previously mapped the palace for schematics that could be programmed into the explosive drone, but his developing romance and frequent tongue hockey with the Emperor's daughter, Princess Ynez, has obviously created some emotional conflicts about the whole "killing her father" thing. Nonetheless, he will be the one to let the drone into the building. Little does he know that Ynez plans to do the right thing and march into the Landsraad, exposing the crimes of her father.
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Valya, of course, has been in communication with the rebellion and has worked with them, and knows about the plot; she intends to publicly stop the explosive bomb and save the day to get back in good graces with the Emperor. But how can she get into the Landsraad after being kicked out by the Emperor? She decides to join her family, House Harkonnen, and attend the Landsraad with her nephew as their personal Truthsayer, after years of preventing that House from having any member of the Sisterhood.
Everyone Thinks They Have a Plan in 'Dune: Prophecy' ✕ Remove Ads
Of course, Valya isn't the only person working secretly from the sidelines to manipulate others. The rebels think they have everything figured out too, but the future laughs at human plans, as they say. The rebellion, like Valya to some extent, haven't accounted for Desmond Hart, who has received some unexpected support from Empress Natalya (the underused Jodhi May). Unbeknownst to the indecisive Emperor, his wife has given Desmond Hart a little bit of power, handing over security files to him concerning known or suspected criminals that might pose a threat to the Empire.
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Desmond gathers the palace's forces and sends them out on a manhunt using the information in the files to arrest rebels, black market dealers, and people using or selling thinking machines. When the Landsraad takes place, and Emperor Corrino is accused by House Harkonnen and Princess Ynez, Desmond brings the prisoners into the building and uses his crazy eyes to burn them alive, intimidating the hell out of everyone as he threatens retaliation against those who challenge the throne. He also thwarted the rebels' plot before Valya could, crushing the drone with his foot. No, there's no outwitting Desmond, it seems.
✕ Remove Ads Desmond Hart and the Reckoning Close
Desmond's immense display of power seems to have taken a toll on him, blood seeping through his jacket thanks to deep wounds on his back that look like the lashes of a whip. The Emperor later walks into his room and sees Desmond hunched over in the corner like a child, his bare back bloodied. He touches his shoulder and commends him. It's a strange, unnerving scene, and further proof of how interesting Desmond Hart is. There's a purity, a loyalty, and a deep pain to him that makes him so much more than a villain.
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Though if the prophecy uttered by Lila while she was suffering The Agony is any evidence, Desmond may be the reckoning himself. The former soldier, seemingly swallowed by a sandworm and transformed into a powerful person, fits the bill of that prophecy:
The key to the reckoning is one born twice. Once in blood. Once in spice. A revenant full of scars. A weapon born of war, on a path too short.
It will be fascinating to learn more about Desmond in the final episodes, and hopefully the showrunners don't let us down. There are many theories out there, the most prominent being that he may be a ghola (a kind of clone created from a dead person). If Desmond died in the sandworm attack, perhaps that's what happened. Gholas are created by the Tleilaxu, an ostracized group of people that have experimented extensively with genetic engineering, something that seems to resonate with Valya and Tula and their breeding index.
✕ Remove Ads Theodosia the Face Dancer? Close
There's even more evidence of the Tleilaxu becoming a significant part of Dune: Prophecy in Episode 4. Valya has taken the acolyte Theodosia with her for the past few episodes, and remains with her at House Harkonnen. There's a cryptic conversation about a secret power of Theo's that she doesn't wish to perform again, but that Valya may be depending on. The episode ends with Valya visited by her dead brother, Griffin, much to Valya's joy. Of course, this isn't Griffin, and as his face lights up and changes, we realize that Theodosia's power is shapeshifting.
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In the Dune canon, this could make Theo a "Face Dancer," which are Tleilaxu mimics capable of transforming into doppelgängers. While that taxonomy isn't mentioned whatsoever in the episode, which ends with "Griffin" turning back into Theo, it would make the most sense. The interesting question then becomes, did Valya use Theodosia's skill at the Landsraad? Was Theo replacing someone there? She wasn't in the scene at all, so perhaps she was mimicking someone, but who, and why? It's one of several great questions that Dune: Prophecy implies at the end of this excellent episode.
Dreaming of the the Eyes of God with Tula & Lila ✕ Remove Ads
There is a subplot that slightly slows down the flow of Episode 4, but it's nonetheless interesting and very well done. Tula has been in charge of the Sisterhood at their compound while Valya has been off-world, and things have gotten dark. Lila has "died" after the Agony, though her body is in a sort of suspension tank hidden underground. The young acolytes all seem to have the same distressing dream, similar to the circular visions seen in Episode 1 -- the well, the mouth of the worm, the roundness of glowing blue eyes.
One acolyte, in a somnambulist trance, walks to the same spot where Dorotea was killed by Valya's Voice, and almost does the same thing (slicing her own throat with a blade), but is stopped by the sole acolyte who didn't experience the disturbing dream. Tula tries to understand this by bringing all the girls into a room with desks fitted with paper and charcoal. She puts them under a kind of hypnosis to try and draw what they saw in the room, resulting in some overacting but generally a great, harrowing scene that's brilliantly filmed by director Richard J. Lewis.
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We see all the girls drawing different things until they get in sync and begin drawing the same disturbing images, furiously making circles with the charcoal before drawing a completely black page with just two blue eyes. Tula can't bring them out of the trance, but it seems like the fear of that final image, the two blue eyes in the darkness we've seen before, snaps all the acolytes out of their trance.
We've discussed the importance of circles in our recaps, and it's a thrilling thematic moment to see all the Sisters madly drawing circles, before we get to see those terrifying blue eyes. We're still not sure who they belong to. Desmond? If he is a ghola, they are supposed to possess "metallic eyes" that shine. Or are they the eyes of Paul Atreides in the future? Or the God-Emperor? Or the eyes of God itself, judging them, as one Sister mentions? We should find out more, whatever it is, considering at the end of the episode, Lila wakes up. Twice born, you could say.
✕ Remove Ads The Bloody Horror of Honor and Respect Close
Trying to control the future will backfire, and pursuing honor at the price of morality is a doomed game. Those are the major themes of this episode and of the franchise in general, and they're brilliantly fleshed out through imagery, dialogue, and narrative here. While the Sisterhood are guilty of trying to engineer the future, we see the men of Dune all succumb to the devilish desires of honor and pride. It's how Valya and Theodosia manipulate young Baron Harkonnen. "Aren't you tired of the way they look at you? Harkonnen, the cowards of Corrin?" Valya asked him.
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It's also why Emperor Corrino keeps choosing the forceful power of Desmond Hart over the protestations of his children, choosing fascism over democracy. "My father, when he walked into a room, all eyes would look at him. My forefathers battled titans, forged a new imperium," he tells Desmond. "But me, they just see me as a beneficiary of my bloodline, nothing more." This desire for respect, this pride drive, is a dangerous path, something that Swordmaster Keiran Atreides tells Princess Ynez in the episode:
You give any person that much power, the only path becomes to try and preserve it.
Of course, nobody talks like this, but it's all fantasy, and the dialogue serves the purpose of the series' themes. It's about as great a summation of Dune: Prophecy as we can get in one line of dialogue. It's akin to the old Immanuel Kant saying, "The possession of power inevitably spoils the free use of reason." Desmond Hart has more power than ever before, now. It should be exhilarating to see what he, and this show, does with it. Dune: Prophecy is streaming on Max through the link below:
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