Dune: Prophecy, Pilot Episode Review

Like many other Dune fans this weekend, I tuned into Max for the season premiere of Dune: Prophecy. The pilot episode, The Hidden Hand, met many of my expectations—both good and bad. So, in this post, I'll review what I liked about it, what I didn't, and my theories for the next episodes. Note, much of this is my personal opinion, as I haven't read the course material that the series is based on.

The Good

Costuming: My favorite thing about the episode was, by far, the costuming. When I first saw the trailer for Dune: Prophecy, I was a bit worried that they were clinging too closely to the Denis Villeneuve films in terms of aesthetics. Yknow, having the Bene Gesserit truthsayers wear essentially the same garb as the Reverend Mother Mohiam in both DV films, save for their veils being slightly different. However, I was pleasantly surprised with the costumes in the pilot episodes. What I liked most about the costuming was its accuracy to the books. I can't speak about the source material from the Brian Herbert/Kevin Anderson books (I am currently trying to get through the Butlerian Jihad), but I can draw comparisons between the 6 books from the original Frank Herbert series. In Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse: Dune, we are given a closer look at life within the Bene Gesserit. It is written that the newly indoctrinated students of the Bene Gesserit wear white robes, while acolytes wear gray. Black robes are saved for full sisters and Reverend Mothers of the Bene Gesserit. So, I was very pleased to see this dress code adhered to when they panned throughout the training sessions on Wallach IX at the beginning of the episode.

I also liked the uniforms worn by Emperor Javicco and his son Constantine. They reminded me of the military costumes worn by Duke Leto and Paul in the DV movies, which I appreciated for their understated yet formal look.

Although, for purely aesthetic reasons, I was not a fan of the red dress worn by Ynez to her engagement ceremony. I think the choice to have her character wear a red dress was in itself a fine idea, the brightly colored red hue they chose matched the lushness of the room and didn't distract too heavily. However, I thought the "strappiness" of the dress did not match the style of the costumes worn by other members of the cast. The random straps of red material on the dress and veil skewed cheap to me, like a bad rendition of one of those bandage dresses originally designed by Alaïa in the mid-1980s. I also was not a fan of the veil she wore with this dress; as it's almost identical to the veil worn by Jessica in the DV films when she first landed on Arrakis in her yellow outfit. Seeing as Jessica's outfit occurred about 10,000 years after Dune: Prophecy, it doesn't make sense for them to be wearing almost identical beaded veils. I get it; they probably wanted to give the nod to that particular outfit worn by Jessica, but I would've liked it if they experimented with a different material. Costume designer Jaqueline West somehow made the costumes worn in both DV films feel futuristic but also timeless. It's easy to envision people wearing some of those costumes in the modern world today, but also possibly 10,000 years from now. With that being said, I think the costume designer for Dune: Prophecy could've experimented with the evolution of fashion in the Dune universe. As a self-proclaimed fashion expert myself, I think it would've been more interesting for Ynez's veil to be made out of a different type of beaded material, maybe glass or wood (materials that might skew a bit more "ancient.")

World-building/set design: I think they hit the nail on the head with their world-building and set design. I was impressed with the depictions of Salusa Secundus, particularly with what I assume to be the palace/home of the Emperor and Empress (pictured below for reference.) Every single shot of Wallach IX was beautiful and exactly what I imagined the school of the Bene Gesserit would look like. The cinematography of the DV films was unparalleled, featuring some of the best shots in film history. There was no doubt a lot of pressure to create sets and scenery as beautiful as the DV films, but set designers for Dune: Prophecy went above and beyond my expectations.

Cinematography: The cinematography of the DV films was unparalleled, featuring some of the best shots in film history. There was no doubt a lot of pressure to create sets and scenery as beautiful as the DV films, but set designers for Dune: Prophecy went above and beyond my expectations. There are tons of amazing shots in the pilot episode, one of my favorites being the shot of Valya meditating by the bowl of water amongst her fellow Bene Gesserit sisters. There is another shot I could not find a screengrab of, but in the scene where Desmond Hart is introduced, we see a shot of Emperor Javicco's back as he sits facing the throne room. The intricate detailing of the throne and the line of the Emperor's shoulders are the main focus of the shot, which I think was well done.

The Bad

Dialogue: The worst part of the pilot episode was, by far, the dialogue. Don't get me wrong, not all of it was bad! There were some pieces of it I actually enjoyed, such as Dorotea's ideological preaching during her grandmother Raquella's wake. But the parts of the dialogue that were bad, were really bad. Such as Valya and Dorotea's exchange whilst Dorotea is looking for the key to the breeding index.

"Mother Dorotea, what are you doing?" — Valya
"What should've been done long ago." — Dorotea

Yeah.... it's not great writing by any means. This part of the episode was so disappointing to me because the use of dialogue in both the DV films and the Frank Herbert books was always very intentional. There were none of these cliche phrases or exchanges found in the books or films. This single exchange is also so shocking to me because what Bene Gesserit sister would utter such cliche answers? This isn't the only example of bad dialogue in the first episode. Some of the later exchanges between characters such as Desmond Hart and Pruwet Richese in the final scenes which I found quite forced and unnatural. I was very disappointed to see such simple writing present in this seemingly high-budget series, it honestly just seems like a lack of effort on the writer's part.

The Club Scene: After the Princess's engagement ceremony to the nine-year-old Pruwet Richese, she and her half-brother Constantine go out for a last hurrah before she is sent to Wallach IX for Bene Gesserit training. I take particular umbrage with the entirety of this scene, from where it began on the train to where it ended in the 'club.' The notion that the Princess and her half-brother would partake in a last-minute celebration before she is to leave for another planet is not outrageous. However, the scenes that encompass this celebration read more like scenes out of a poorly written teen show like CW's Riverdale. To start their festivities, Princess Ynez and Constantine appear to snort bumps of what seems to be spice off their hands. I have no protests against the portrayal of drug use on TV shows, but to have them snort spice like it were cocaine seems shockingly out of place for an episode that had, up until this point, taken itself pretty seriously. Cut to the next scene, Princess Ynez and Constantine walk into what appears to be a club, with some type of EDM music playing in the background. The premise of this scene is what stumps me, by no means does the club seem to be exclusive or private. There are seemingly random people in this club, drinking, dancing, and having fun. In what world would the heir to the Golden Lion Throne (the throne that rules the entire known universe) be allowed to go to a public club? With not so much as a single security guard accompanying her? I mean, what the hell was this sequence doing in the pilot episode? The final scenes in the club are even more devastating to me. Princess Ynez, of course, bumps into Keiran, her swordmaster, who she has romantic feelings for. She asks if he wants to share what appears to be some vial of a substance that she later plugs into a vaporizer. Like in any teen show where sexual tension and vapes are involved, she blows the vapor into his mouth, and they start having sex in the underground floor of the club. This entire sequence was a huge letdown for me. It didn't at all match the tone of the rest of the episode, which was pretty serious and mysterious up until this point. This scene just felt like a poor attempt to attract a younger audience to the show. Spoiler alert: teenage audiences don't want weirdly placed sex scenes in TV shows, they want relatable characters and an exciting plot line.

Kasha's Nightmare: Another, albeit smaller, grievance I had with the first episode was Kasha's nightmare sequence. It's obvious to me that the creators of Dune: Prophecy are trying to impart a mysterious and almost divinatory sense of foreboding to the series. We know from the premise of the series that the sisterhood will encounter forces that seek to dismantle it, and prophetic visions from both Raquella and Kasha allude to this force as being somewhat mystical. I think the uses of dream sequences and visions are great tools to foreshadow what is to come, but Kasha's nightmare, on top of Raquella's earlier vision, seemed a bit overdone and dramatic to me. Kasha's nightmare of a pomegranate, symbolic of Ynez's engagement to Pruwet, infested with maggots reeked of the cheesy motifs commonly used in many young-adult TV shows (see CW reference above.) Having one oracular vision would have been fine, but the decision to portray Kasha's nightmare as containing much of the same imagery as Raquella's seemed repetitive. I understand this was done to advance the plot but at this point in the episode, seeing another ominous vision felt a little silly and redundant.

My Theories

Raquella and Kasha's visions: I've seen many people online drawing parallels between the visions seen by Mother Superior Raquella and Reverend Mother Kasha to Leto II. Upon her deathbed, Raquella sees a "reckoning," the Tiran-Arafel. When Valya tells Tula, Kasha, and Francesca of Raquella's ominous visions, Kasha knows of the Tiran-Arafel and remarks that it is "A holy judgment brought on by a tyrant," seemingly an obvious reference to Leto II, the God Emperor. I agree that Kasha's insights about the Tiran-Arafel are probably a direct allusion to Leto II, but many people online said that the glowing blue eyes seen in both their visions were probably Leto II as well. Upon my second viewing of the pilot episode, I think that the glowing blue eyes in both Raquella and Kasha's visions are thinking machines. When the blue eyes appear in both their visions, they are accompanied by a robotic sound, the same sound that plays when Pruwet's lizard-machine toy activates and escapes his grasp. Maybe the threatening blue eyes from their visions could allude to the resurgence of some type of thinking machines; perhaps we'll finally see some Ixian characters/technology.

Desmond Hart: The biggest wild card from this episode would be Desmond Hart, the soldier who somehow survived being engulfed by a sandworm and now has the ability to burn people with his mind. When Kasha evaluated his explanation for survival, she deemed he was telling the truth, or at least believed himself to be. While she was in her truthsaying trance, she seemed to become transfixed on his eyes, which through the entirety of the episode were an odd shade of pale blue, with eerily round pupils that didn't seem to change size with the light. It might be worth noting that before he entered the palace, he walked through the gates while toying with a piece of black cloth in his hand, which seemed to be a scrap of clothing with some embroidering (similar in detail to the Emperor's own uniform?) I've seen some theories online speculating that he may be a ghola of the original Desmond Hart. This theory seems plausible, especially since, at the end of the episode, we see the Emperor observing what appears to be footage of the sandworm attack that eradicated Desmond Hart's troop. The footage shows the sandworm crashing on top of Desmond Hart, an assault that should've killed him instantly. The last scene we see of Desmond Hart is the most confounding, he sits across from Pruwet Richese and remarks that through his survival on Arrakis, he has been gifted a "great power." This power seems to be the ability to physically burn people using only his mind. Desmond Hart puts a finger to his temple as he sits across from Pruwet who is burning alive, before he eventually succumbs to his injuries. Interestingly enough, Kasha who is all the way over on Wallach IX suffers the same fate, dying from the same burn injuries as Pruwet.

I've read some posts that theorize the deaths of Kasha and Pruwet to be the result of some type of poison, but there's no clear scene of them ingesting a common substance. Other theories speculate that Desmond Hart may be some type of ghola or robot with the ability to influence nanobots to burn his victims. While the nanobot theory seems farfetched, I think this is the most reasonable. Every single power or ability within the Dune books written by Frank Herbert has some type of scientific or logical explanation. So, it seems improbable that Desmond Hart would have some psychic ability that lets him burn people alive. I personally think he is altered in some type of way, maybe like a cyborg, though this still doesn't explain how he burned Kasha, who was planets away from him. The only reason I don't think he's a ghola is because, as far as we know, the Bene Tleilax don't develop the methods to impart a ghola with his original memories until Dune Messiah. So, if Desmond Hart were truly a ghola, he shouldn't have the original memories of his past life.

As for his motives, it seems that Desmond Hart is opposed to the Bene Gesserit's growing control of politics. In his exchange with Pruwet, he remarks that even though there are no more thinking machines to subject humans to their control, there is a new force at work. Regardless of who he works for, Desmond Hart did seem to fulfill the Emperor's wishes of ending Princess Ynez's marriage to Pruwet. I'm curious as to why he seems so eager to do the Emperor's bidding, perhaps he hopes to ask for a boon as a reward.

Overall Conclusion

This episode was pretty good for a pilot. When I first watched it, I didn't realize that this season would only run for six episodes. I thought it odd that the pilot episode introduced so many different plotlines, but seeing that the season will be so short, it makes sense that they were so ambitious. I think all the costumes and different sets and worlds that we got to view in the pilot episode were great, and I'm very excited to see what the future episodes have to offer. That being said, I do hope future episodes don't have too much of the cheesy teenage bait scenes, like the club scene I hated so much. I think the actors did a good job with the dialogue they had, though I was a little upset that, in typical inclusive fashion, they killed off the only East Asian Reverend Mother in the first episode...

Overall, I would rate this pilot episode a 6.5/10. While many things were done well, such as the costuming, set design, actors/actresses, and CGI, the first episode left a lot to be desired in terms of dialogue and cliches. By no means is it a bad first episode, I'm just very judgmental when it comes to TV shows, especially shows that happen to be about my favorite book series ever. Despite all my harsh criticisms, I'll definitely be tuning into next week's episode, and I can't wait to see what this series has to offer!

Dutifully yours,
Mother Superior