Dune: Prophecy, Episode 4 Review

OMG, did you guys catch that at the end? That's right, we saw an actual depiction of a Face Dancer! I am SO excited to see how this plays out. But, besides Theodosia's shocking revelation and Desmond Hart's outburst, this episode didn't feel as exciting as last week's. Nevertheless, it was a decent episode, albeit being a filler, and it set up some exciting plot lines to uncover in next week's episode. So, let's review this episode in the order of what excited me the most.

Theodosia's "Condition"

In episode 3, when Valya asks Theodosia to come with her to Salusa Secundus, Theodosia agrees to accompany her but states, "You are aware of my condition?" Valya affirms that she is, and we are left to wonder what exactly Theodosia is talking about. BUT, in this episode we learn that she is a Face Dancer! For those unfamiliar, Face Dancers as we know them in the time of Paul Atreides, are the genetic eunuchs bred created by the Bene Tleilax as experiments. Face Dancers, as seen in this episode, can change their features and "shapeshift" into presumably anyone. The process of their transformation is never explicitly described in the Frank Herbert books, though it seems to be painful as we see Theodosia revert from Griffin Harkonnen back to herself. I was ecstatic that Dune: Prophecy decided to incorporate and depict a Face Dancer in the series, mostly because I was doubtful we'd ever see them on screen, ever. There is a prominent Face Dancer plotline in Dune Messiah, so I was very curious to see how Denis Villeneuve might depict them. That being said, I think the creative liberties that Dune: Prophecy took when depicting Theodosia's Face Dancer abilities were brilliant. Oftentimes, shapeshifting humans are portrayed in films and TV shows as having the effortless ability to transform into other people. The process looks mostly the same in every movie/show, with facial features just blending from one transformation to the next. So, I loved the way they depicted the Face Dancer transformation as painful and intricate. When Theodosia transforms from Griffin Harkonnen back to herself, you can hear her grunting in pain, as well as the sounds of bone and cartilage rearranging themselves. I especially liked that during her transformation, her veins and arteries were illuminated by her glow from within. It reminded me of when you place your hand on a plasma globe.

The Acolytes' Nightmares

At the beginning of the episode, we see all the acolytes, besides Jen, suffering from nightmares. Emmeline, in particular, experiences sleepwalking and almost kills herself with her knife but is saved by Jen. Tula decides to guide them through a hypnotic Spice regression in order to recount their nightmares, but she loses control of them as they get lost in a trance, and their drawing takes on a frantic pace. Though all their nightmares started differently, the drawings eventually converged on the same images of dunes, sandworms, and those ominous blue eyes that plague so many visions. In a previous post, I speculated that those blue eyes might belong to Desmond Hart instead of the God Emperor, as so many people theorized on Reddit. But now, I am not so sure. At the end of the Spice drawing session, Emmeline states that "God is watching us, judging us. The reckoning is here." This is the quote that gave me pause, with the characters themselves saying that this is the work of "God" I am inclined to also believe that these ominous blue eyes could be those of the God Emperor. HOWEVER, in the next scene of Desmond Hart's that I discuss, he experiences a vision of a sandworm and the same imagery of the glowing blue eyes, which then fade outward into his own. So, maybe those blue eyes could be linked to both Desmond Hart and the God Emperor, after all. Hopefully, we'll find out by the end of the season.

Desmond Hart's Performance

Amidst the convening of the Landsraad and Harrow Harkonnen's inquest into the death of Pruwet Richese, Desmond Hart publicly admits to murdering Pruwet, and then pressures the Emperor into letting him publicly murder four more people. Granted, they were members of the rebellion who were planning on attacking the Emperor and the other Great Houses at the Landsraad, but still, what a PR nightmare for the Emperor!

What intrigued me the most about this display of Desmond's powers was how it affected him physically. Telepathically burning four people as opposed to one seemed to take a toll on Desmond, as he was seen to be bleeding from his back and hands. He conveniently smeared some of his blood on the table in front of Valya, who aptly took a sample of it, I, for one, cannot wait to see what they discover from his blood sample. Nevertheless, the physical effects that Desmond Hart experiences from using his power are telling. Since he bleeds like a human, I don't think he's a full-fledged robot anymore, but the jury's still out on whether he's a cyborg. Perhaps his ability to burn people could be the result of an implant within his body that projects some type of particle at his victims, and when he has more than one target, the implant has to work in overdrive and hurts him also. Who knows, hopefully, we'll get an answer at the end of the season!

Lila is awake!

Lila lives! She's back and with bluer eyes than ever! It also seems that she has superhuman strength now with the way that she broke out of her Spice incubation box. What's that about? I loved that we also got to see Anirul's AI display of the breeding index. I thought displaying the genetic lines and actual trees was clever and quite modern.

Valya's mixed morality

This episode is chock full of good ol' family arguments between Valya and her uncle Evgeny Harkonnen. His arguments stem mostly around the fact that Valya is a vindictive murderer and pressured her sister into following her desire for revenge by murdering the Atreides (valid). Valya's arguments against her uncle are mostly just accusations that her family as a whole is weak and should have listened to her and that if they had, they would be a lot more powerful than they are now. This honestly just screams narcissism to me, and I'm very surprised to see this much uncontrollable emotion coming from the Mother Superior! I feel like the writers are determined to portray Valya as a morally ambiguous character. The cherry on top for me is how Valya tells her uncle, "This house is nothing without me. You exist because I allow you to exist." I mean, who talks like that to their family? It just seems very vain of her to think that way because I assume she's been on Wallach IX for the past 30-something years, becoming the Mother Superior, so she hasn't really been contributing to House Harkonnen. At the end of this argument with Evgeny, she withholds his oxygen, and he dies as a result of this! That's psychotic behavior coming from the Mother Superior, and at this point, it just seems like she hates anyone who disagrees with her, family or not! Obviously, I'm not too excited about the portrayal of the Bene Gesserit sisters as being so emotional, as we see with Tula and Valya. However, I guess this series is meant to explore deeper aspects of the Bene Gesserit that normally we wouldn't be privy to, such as their struggles with their own personal histories and desires vs. their duty to the Bene Gesserit.

This episode was good but not as exciting as last week's episode about Tula's Atreides killing spree. I can't believe we only have two episodes left! I think this episode did a good job of setting up the last two episodes of the season, it feels like they'll be action-packed for sure.

Dutifully yours,
Mother Superior