In its third episode, Dune: Prophecy looks to the past to show us just how Valya and Tula Harkonnen became the ruthless Bene Gesserit leaders we now know them as. After the end of Dune: Prophecy episode 2 saw the Bene Gesserit expelled from the emperor’s home and inner circle, Valya has been backed into a corner. Now, after her confrontation with Desmond Hart, the series takes us to Lankiveil, the home planet of House Harkonnen, where much of this episode’s action takes place as we track the formative years of Valya and Tula.
Dune: Prophecy Episode 3 Reveals Valya & Tula’s Past
An Atreides Massacre & A Broken Family Set The Stage For The Future
Though we’ve seen young Valya and Tula with the Sisterhood before, we finally get to witness them among the Harkonnen family, and they lead what look to be miserable lives. Stuck on Lankiveil where the primary export is fur and the environment is cold, wintry, and desolate, the Harkonnens seem to be a bitter people, but Valya hopes to channel that into something greater.
During an early scene, she rebukes the weakness of her house and speaks of her disdain for the Atreides and the role the rival house played in how their family ended up seemingly impoverished. “I don’t want to just endure,” Valya says as her relatives look at her with scorn. Her brother, Griffin, chases after her though his mother warns that Valya is a “wolf” and that, if he isn’t careful, Valya will “devour” him.
…[Valya] is rebuking the Harkonnen name while reworking its meaning to represent something sturdier and, perhaps, more sinister.
When Griffin dies during an encounter with the Atreides, Valya is cast out to join the Bene Gesserit. However, it’s clear her intentions for the organization are to gain personal power and restore glory to her name. It’s not for her family, though, as much as it is for herself; it’s as if she is rebuking the Harkonnen name while reworking its meaning to represent something sturdier and, perhaps, more sinister.
While Valya is in training on Wallach IX, Tula has embedded herself within the Atreides family to perpetuate a violent massacre in revenge for Griffin’s death and, in a larger sense, the way the Harkonnens are now viewed by the Imperium. Tula is forced to kill the Atreides boy she has come to love while sparing another, much younger scion of the great house.
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These key events of Valya and Tula’s young lives culminate in two important moments in the show’s present day timeline. After Lila’s botched Agony attempt, Tula is unwilling to let go of her young prodigy. Instead, she intends to keep her alive in the hopes that Spice will restore her mind, hiding this from the rest of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood. Meanwhile, Valya goes back to where it all began, forging a desperate alliance with her Harkonnen relatives in the hopes of outsmarting the emperor.
Gone is the veil of mystery. By Dune: Prophecy episode 3, everything has been laid out on the table for our two key players. Now the series can be about how they navigate the challenges presented to them. Tula is clearly the more emotional of the two — you can draw a direct line between her sparing the life of the young Atreides boy and Lila. It’s hard to see Valya being upset about her decision to save Lila, though, when so much is on the line.
Valya visiting her Harkonnen relatives is clearly an act of desperation and whether it pans out could shape how she handles the ongoing conflict with the emperor. Speaking of him, we don’t see what the royal family of Desmond Hart is up to in this episode, though that may be for the best. Right now, their story is merely a mechanism to which Valya can react, telling us more about her than about anyone involved in the goings-on on Salusa Secundus.
How Valya will use the Harkonnens to regain favor with the emperor will be key to how the Bene Gesserit moves forward and to how far Valya will go to ensure a Bene Gesserit is put on the throne. With the season halfway over, there are many questions left and very few answers to come so far. As Lea Seydoux said in Dune: Part Two, there are plans within plans, mysteries within mysteries. With this latest episode, Dune: Prophecy seems to be gaining the confidence it needs despite this conundrum.
Dune: Prophecy episode 3 is now streaming on Max. Episodes continue airing every Sunday until December 22.
- Flashbacks expand on Valya and Tula in fulfilling ways.
- Focusing on the show’s two leads allows for a tightly structured episode.
- The Harkonnen’s history gives vital context to who Valya and Tula are.
- The show still has left plenty unanswered halfway through the season.