‘Dune: Prophecy’s twisty Season 1 finale, explained

Throughout its first season, Dune: Prophecy has hit us with a potent combination of space politicking and sci-fi strangeness, with everything from prophetic visions to magnificent sandworms on the table. In its Season 1 finale, Dune: Prophecy brings all this together for a revelatory conclusion, answering some of our biggest questions from the season, while raising others that will be explored in Season 2.

From revelations about the Omnius Plague to game-changing flashbacks, let’s break down Dune: Prophecy‘s Season 1 finale, “The High-Handed Enemy.”

Flashbacks reveal that Tula is Demond Hart’s mother — and why she gave him away.

Olivia Williams in “Dune: Prophecy.”
Credit: Attila Szvacsek/HBO

Episode 5 of Dune: Prophecy revealed the true reason behind Desmond Hart’s (Travis Fimmel) hatred of the Sisterhood. His mother was a Sister, yet she gave him away. Turns out, his mother was none other than Tula Harkonenn (played by Olivia Williams in the present and Emma Canning in the past). That means his father is the late Orry Atreides (Milo Callaghan), killed by Tula’s own hand.

In a flashback, Tula discloses her pregnancy to her sister Valya (played Emily Watson in the present and Jessica Barden in the past), who is supportive of her decision to keep the baby. She becomes even more supportive after a trip to Mother Superior Raquella’s (Cathy Tyson) breeding index, which shows that a cross between the Atreides and Harkonnen lines would result in a child with extraordinary potential. (Paul Atreides says hi from 10,000 years in the future.)

However, Tula has some misgivings about Valya’s desire to mold and shape her son into a powerful figure from birth. Without Valya’s knowledge, she swaps her newborn baby with the stillborn child of a laborer on Wallach IX. She hopes that in getting her son away from the Sisterhood, he can make his own path. But how could she have predicted that path would have led him right back to the Sisterhood with vengeance in his heart?

More flashbacks show Valya’s bloody rise to power, leading to chaos on present-day Wallach IX.

Jessica Barden in “Dune: Prophecy.”
Credit: Attila Szvacsek/HBO

“The High-Handed Enemy” remains in the past for more major reveals. In the aftermath of Valya’s murder of Sister Dorotea (Camilla Beeput), she, Tula, Kasha (Yerin Ha), and Francesca (Charithra Chandran) confront Dorotea’s disciples in order to assume total control of the Sisterhood. They offer them a choice: Follow Dorotea’s path into death, or follow Valya into the future of the order. When the Sisters don’t choose right away, Valya, Kasha, Francesca, and a hesitant Tula use the Voice to compel them. Most slit their own throats. Only Sister Avila (Barbara Marten) sides with Valya.

The incident would have been lost to history, if it wasn’t for Sister Lila (Chloe Lea) in the present. After undergoing the Agony in episode 2, Lila has become unstable, with her ancestors possessing her body for hours at a time. In episode 5, that ancestor was Raquella. Thanks to her, Tula was able to understand that the cause for present-day Kasha’s (Jihae) death was something similar Omnius Plague, a bioweapon used by thinking machines in the Butlerian Jihad that was long thought to be gone.

But in episode 6, a new ancestor grabs hold of Lila. Sister Dorotea takes control and uncovers the mass grave of her old followers, proving to the current acolytes that the entire Sisterhood was built on blood. Dorotea-as-Lila then leads the acolytes to Raquella’s thinking machine Anirul. She destroys it, possibly taking the breeding index with it.

That’s where Dune: Prophecy leaves things on Wallach IX, with the acolytes disillusioned and ready to destroy everything Valya and Tula have built. But since those two are off-planet, they’ll just have wait until Season 2 to learn about the consequences of their actions.

Salusa Secundus falls into disarray.

Jodhi May in “Dune: Prophecy.”
Credit: Courtesy of HBO

Wallach IX isn’t the only planet in the Imperium where all hell is breaking loose. On Salusa Secundus, Empress Natalya (Jodhi May) arrests her own daughter Ynez (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina) for trying to break Kieran Atreides (Chris Mason) out of his suspensor cell. Since Ynez is Valya’s strongest prospect for having a Sister on the throne, she decides to intervene, getting herself arrested on purpose in order to free Ynez. With the help of the Voice and Sister Theodosia’s (Jade Anouka) shapeshifting abilities — which she received as a result of genetic experimentation by the Tleilaxu — Valya, Ynez, and Kieran escape. Theodosia stays behind and disguises herself as a wounded soldier. She almost kills Desmond with the element of surprise, but he wounds her and plans to have her imprisoned. Next season, expect to learn more about her role as a Face Dancer, and the mysterious Tleilaxu who made her this way.

Things continue to fall apart for Emperor Javicco Corrino (Mark Strong). He learns that the Sisterhood has been steering his life from the very beginning, sending Sister Francesca (played in the present by Tabu) to imprint on him in his youth and setting up his match with Natalya. Now that he is no longer useful to the Sisterhood, Valya sends Francesca to kill him with the poisoned gom jabbar needle. But Javicco chooses to grab hold of what little agency remains to him and dies by suicide instead. As Francesca grieves, Natalya uses the gom jabbar to kill her.

With Javicco gone and any trace of the Sisterhood’s council removed from the palace, the Imperium presumably falls to Natalya’s control. But remember, Javicco made his and Francesca’s son Constantine (Josh Heuston) the commander of his fleet in episode 5, meaning that Season 2 could see him fighting Natalya for control.

The cure for the Omnius Plague is basically the Litany Against Fear.

Olivia Williams in “Dune: Prophecy.”
Credit: Attila Szvacsek/HBO

At the very start of the “The Heavy-Handed Enemy,” Tula and Sister Nazir (Karima McAdams) research the mysterious bioweapon that killed Kasha, Pruwet Richese (Charlie Hodson-Prior), and members of the Landsraad. How could Kasha have withstood this virus for so long, while Pruwet and those in the Landsraad died after very little exposure to Desmond?

Turns out, Kasha had a “unique ability to live in the face of fear,” and that kept the virus at bay for a time. Nazir and Tula realize that the virus feeds on fear, explaining the nightmares of the sandworm and those glowing blue eyes that the Sisters have been having. Nazir attempts to create an antiviral by transmuting the virus within herself — similarly to how Sisters alter poison when they undergo the Agony — but fails.

However, when Valya is exposed to the virus in her confrontation with Desmond at the end of the episode, she’s able to make it through thanks to help from Tula. “You have to let go of your fears,” Tula tells her as Valya fights through a vision of the death of their brother Griffin.

She continues: “All the fear. All the pain. You can’t run from it. You can’t fight it. You have to let it pass through you.”

Sound familiar? The emphasis on withstanding fear here calls to mind the Litany Against Fear in Frank Herbert’s original Dune novels, which Lady Jessica and Paul both call upon to center themselves in dire times.

“I must not fear,” the Litany goes. “Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

Tula’s words to Valya sound like a precursor to the Litany, something we’ll no doubt see take form in Season 2 of Dune: Prophecy. But in Season 1, they work just as well. In her vision, Valya stands and allows the fear to pass through her. She witnesses the sandworm nightmare that has horrified so many of her fellow Sisters, but she also sees beyond it, learning what those monstrous blue eyes have been all this time.

What were the blue eyes in Dune: Prophecy?

Travis Fimmel in “Dune: Prophecy.”
Credit: Attila Szvacsek/HBO

As Valya sees, the nightmare that’s plagued her Sisters isn’t just a nightmare: It’s what Desmond Hart experienced after the sandworm attack on Arrakis. When he awoke, he came face to face with a large machine, the blue lights of which are the eyes from the nightmare.

In a gnarly sequence shot from Desmond’s point of view, we watch as the machine pulls one of Desmond’s eyes from its socket and implants his optic nerve with what must be the nanobots that transmitted the virus. A mysterious figure watches the procedure from a nearby window flooded with golden light, suggesting whoever carried out this operation was stationed on Arrakis.

With that knowledge in mind, it’s off to Arrakis for Valya, Ynez, and Kieran, who hope to find the truth behind their hidden enemy. Meanwhile, Tula stays behind in the hopes of saving Desmond from the pain the machines have caused him. But after a silent reunion, Desmond calls for Tula’s arrest. At least she’ll have Theodosia to keep her company.

So after that jam-packed finale, the biggest question remains: Who is the hidden enemy who mobilized Desmond against the Imperium and the Sisterhood?

Whoever it is would have to have access to thinking machines, and no qualms about using them. There are a few possibilities from the Dune novels we could look at. First up is the Richese family, who played a prominent part in Dune: Prophecy‘s first episodes. As longtime makers of thinking machines, they’re clearly more lax about possessing and using them, even though they’re outlawed. However, why would the Richeses use Desmond to kill and maim members of their own family? Could we be looking at a splinter faction within the family?

Another more likely possibility is the Ixians, inhabitants of the planet Ix who continued to manufacture thinking machines. Dune’s “Terminology of the Imperium” section describes Ix as having “escaped the more severe effects of the Butlerian Jihad” alongside House Richese. Now, it’s “supreme in machine culture.” With that in mind, it’s very likely that Dune: Prophecy could be setting up Ix as the next big enemy the Sisterhood and Imperium will face. After all, it’s another important faction from Herbert’s universe, so why not get it on the board for Season 2?

Season 1 of Dune: Prophecy is now streaming on Max.