Dune: Prophecy Finale Review: Prequel Ends On a Tragic Yet Thrilling Note

Disclaimer: This review contains spoilers from Dune: Prophecy.

Isn’t it satisfying when the next season of an ongoing series is greenlit just as we gear up to watch the finale? The executives behind the Dune prequel series Dune: Prophecy clearly know what they’re doing. The sci-fi series starring Emily Watson, Olivia Willaims, Travis Fimmel, Sarah-Sofie Boussnina, Tabu and others, comes to a close with its sixth and final episode. It’s a bit of a mixed bag but not necessarily in a bad way.

Towards the end of the final episode titled The High-handed Enemy, Tula (Williams) learns that Desmond Hart (Fimmel) is her son with Orry Atreides. She also learns that he is using a machine virus that basically makes him a dangerous bioweapon. However, he isn’t the enemy, he has been experimented upon by the secret powers that are at play. Tula leaves Wallach IX for Salusa Secundus to reunite with her son. During this time, Mother Valya (Watson) heads to the palace to get Princess Ynez (Boussinina) out with a prison break plan. Elsewhere, Sister Francesca (Tabu) is tasked with killing Emeror Javicco Corrino (Mark Strong) with a poisonous needle. She doesn’t go through with it, but we’ll come back to that later.

The most interesting bits of the finale arrive when the Bene Gesserit school is left unsupervised. Sister Lila (Chloe Lea) gains consciousness and asks Sister Jen (Faoileann Cunningham) to ease her restraints only to attack the latter as soon as she complies. We learn that she isn’t herself, she is possessed by Sister Dorothea (Camilla Beeput) whom Valya killed before assuming the role of Mother Superior with brute force. This is where the series drops some intriguing Dune lore. Through flashbacks, we find out how bloody the path to the Sisterhood’s making is. Without getting into the details, let’s just say Dorothea’s wasn’t the only blood that was spilt due to Valya’s power-grabbing ways. In a particularly shocking scene, we see Lila draining the pool at the centre of the school to reveal a heap of skeletons (these are the dead bodies of all the Sisters from team Dorotheo or simply anti-Valya). There are enough blood-soaked scenes that will leave the faint-hearted flinching.

Tabu delivers Sister Francesca’s emotional arc with a deeply felt performance. Her scenes with Mark Strong as Javicco realises the Sisterhood planted her as his mistress leads to an unexpectedly tragic end. Amidst all the scheming and the blood lust, these moments of genuine affection are much appreciated. Once Javicco finds out that Francesca was asked to kill him, she comes clean, telling him that it was always Valya’s plan. Sadly, the realisation comes too late as Javicco kills himself while Empress Natalya (Jodhi May) arrives upon the scene and kills Sister Francesca, leaving the star-crossed lovers in a pool of Javicco’s blood.

The long episode’s biggest drawback is just how much the writers tried to jam into one episode. It almost feels like they spent too much time on world-building earlier in the season and decided to mash up what could’ve easily been three more episodes, into one exposition-filled finale. It all boils down to how much of the narrative is left to explore.

What the first season does best is set up a promising Season 2. The studio behind the franchise was quick to announce the next instalment. While the climax sees some key players exit (we can only manifest Tabu’s resurrection after that heart-aching death scene), it’ll be exciting to see how the rest of the story unfolds especially since the finale ends on a cliffhanger. With a major teaser of the great sandworms on Arrakis, the episode ends with a promise to hook viewers back into the Dune universe for the next season.Dune: Prophecy is currently streaming on OTT. Continue reading …Read More