Diksha Sundriyal
Reaching its mid-mark, HBO’s ‘Dune: Prophecy’ takes a breather after the tense events of Episode 2 and resorts to flashbacks to give the audience a better understanding of the situation. The arrival of Desmond Hart marks quite a trouble for the Sisterhood, but Valya Harkonnen is not ready to give up just yet. An insight into her past shows us exactly how capable she is of dealing with her enemies and to what extent she can go to have what she wants, even if it means leaving something behind. SPOILERS AHEAD
The History of the Harkonnens and the Atreides
The bad blood between the Harkonnens and the Atreides serves as a running theme in the ‘Dune’ universe. It is one of the inciting things behind the events that take place in the ‘Dune’ movies, and HBO’s prequel series serves to shed more light on the matter. The first episode mentions the war with the thinking machines and how Atreides took the credit for winning it while the Harkonnens were branded cowards for leaving the battlefield. Due to this, they are left to fend for themselves, and there is barely anything for them to survive with. A young Valya is dissatisfied with this treatment. She believes that her family has been stripped of the honor they should have received because of a lie spread by the Atreides clan.
Rather than submit to fate, she wants to change things, and this is where her brother, Griffin, comes in. He is the leader of the family now, and while the rest might not agree with Valya’s plans and ambitions, Griffin trusts her. Due to this, he agrees to find and talk to Vorian Atreides, hoping that the rival clan will agree to take back their lives and help resuscitate the Harkonnen reputation. It is not clear what happens in this meeting, but Griffin ends up dead, and Vorian is considered the culprit. The death of her brother makes Valya burn for revenge, but her family decides to send her to the Sisterhood, which had been the original plan for her. Tula, however, is left behind, and Valya sees her as the only way to get her revenge.
Tula takes on a different identity and finds and befriends Vorian Atreides, aka Orry. He has no idea that she is a Harkonnen and falls in love with her. Eventually, he takes her to meet his family, where Tula spends a few days with them. By the end, Orry proposes to Tula, but he doesn’t realize that she has poisoned the entire village. The next morning, Orry wakes up to the horror of watching his entire family dead. But before he can do anything about it, Tula poisons him as well. It’s a shame because even when Tula tells him she is a Harkonnen, Orry doesn’t outright reject her and believes that their union could mark a new chapter in the turbulent relationship between their families. But then, Tula shows her true colors and dies. The only Atreides left alive that day is a young boy, and from what we have seen so far, he seems to be Kieran Atreides.
The Sisterhood Gives a New Purpose to the Harkonnen Sisters
At Wallach IX, Valya struggles to mingle with her new sisters, but she still forms a connection with young Kasha and Francesca. During the pledging, she is asked to leave behind all thoughts of her family and origins and dedicate all of herself to the Sisterhood; she is unable to make that commitment. However, Mother Superior Raquella decides to give her a chance, especially after she discovers that Valya has something called the Voice. Valya soon wins Raquella’s trust and is even told about the genetic records and how the Sisterhood uses them to make matches and control the fate of the Imperium. Valya takes it as a sign of Raquella’s intention to make her the next Mother Superior.
Meanwhile, Raquella notices the divide created in the Sisterhood due to Valya and Dorotea’s following. She decides that they should be co-Mother Superior, an act intended to heal the divide between the two factions. But as we already know, it only ended in tragedy. In any case, both of them have to go through the Agony to earn their place, and while Dorotea has no trouble doing it, Valya backs out of the ceremony. Raquella realizes that this is because Valya is still attached to her family and home and the history that comes with it. When Valya receives a message from Tula, she is told to figure out what she truly wants. She must return to Wallach IX after going through the Agony, or not at all.
Back at home, Valya is glad to hear of the massacre of the Atreides clan, which is not supported by her family members, especially her uncle. She is blamed for causing more trouble than it was worth, which angers Valya to the point that she uses the Voice on her mother and almost makes her kill herself. With her brother’s death avenged, Valya has nothing else left on her home planet. She decides to take the poison and go through with the Agony, which she survives only when her sister comes looking for her. Valya is also happy to discover that Tula has decided to join the Sisterhood, and it is great news because Valya has a new purpose now, and she needs her sister by her side to accomplish it.
The Sisterhood Regroups Following the Loss at Salusa Secundus
In the present day, Valya is still reeling from the shock of not being able to use the Voice on Desmond Hart and the expulsion of the Sisterhood from the Corrino palace. As the Sisters regroup, Valya is still in the middle of figuring out how to best tackle the situation. If the ruling family doesn’t want anything to do with the Sisterhood, it wouldn’t be long before other families follow suit, and Valya cannot allow this to happen. On top of this, she discovers that Sister Lila didn’t survive the Agony, but she did leave a message, which proves that Desmond Hart is the enemy they had been fearing for so long. With no other path in sight, Valya decides to go back home and meet her uncle, whom she hasn’t seen since she left home many years ago.
Meanwhile, Tula struggles with the loss of Lila. Even when the girl is declared dead, Tula keeps her on the machines, hoping that a way will be found to bring her back to life. Technically, Lila is in a state of brain-dead coma. The other Sisters are given a chance to say their goodbyes and Sister Jen takes the loss of her friend particularly hard, so much so that she openly blames Tula for letting Lila go through with the Agony when the acolyte wasn’t prepared for it. In any case, the parting words are said, and tears are shed, and everyone believes that Lila’s funeral is done and she is gone forever.
But then, Tula gets an idea. She knows that spice has a rejuvenating quality, and she wonders if that can bring Lila out of her braindead state. She secretly takes the girl’s body to the secret underground place that only the Mother Superior and her inner circle know about. It turns out that they have kept a thinking machine in the basement, even though it is expressly forbidden in the Imperium. While the machine too declares Lila braindead, Tula forces it to use spice treatment on the girl. It remains to be seen whether this maneuver works and how Valya will react to it, but it does show how much Tula loves the girl.
Read More: Why Doesn’t the Voice Work on Desmond Hart?
