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This article contains spoilers for Dune: Prophecy episode 1 and details from the Dune books.
When fans went to theaters in 1984 to see the David Lynch adaptation of Dune, they were given cheat sheets to help explain the strange world invented by Frank Herbert. Even though Lynch’s movie literally begins with Princess Irulan (Virginia Madsen) staring at the screen and explaining things to the audience, the studio knew people would still be confused. And they were right.
Denis Villeneuve managed to avoid that problem with his streamlined takes in 2021’s Dune and this year’s Dune: Part Two, but the same cannot be said of the prequel series Dune: Prophecy. Set 10,000 years before the events of Dune, which is still 10,000 into our future, Prophecy takes even the elements introduced in Villeneuve’s movie and makes them stranger, compounding confusion upon confusion.
Don’t worry, because we’ll explain it all. After all, if Den of Geek were around in 1984, the studio wouldn’t have bothered with those cheat sheets.
What Are the Thinking Machines?
Viewers of Dune might recall a strange moment in that first movie, when Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac) asks his companion Thufir Hawat (Stephen McKinley Henderson) how much money the Imperium spent on the pomp and circumstance to announce his family’s stewardship of Arrakis. Hawat responds by rolling his eyes into the back of his head and rattling off a bunch of numbers.
Hawat is a “mentat,” a human who has learned how to replicate the work of a computer. Why not just use computers, you ask?
Well, we get part of the answer to that question in Valya Harkonnen’s opening monologue in Prophecy‘s premiere “The Hidden Hand.” Vayla (Emily Watson) describes a great war against the thinking machines 100 years earlier, in which Artificial Intelligence began to enslave humanity. In a familiar sci-fi trope, the humans wage war against the AIs and eventually win.
The patron saint of the revolt was Serena Butler, whose son was killed by the robot Erasmus. Serena’s anti-machine fervor was only intensified when, towards the end of the battle, a fanatic called Rayna Butler (Serena’s great grand-niece) grew to prominence. Rayna claimed that God gave her a vision, commanding humanity to refrain from making machines that think like humans. Rayna made Serena into a literal saint and added religious language to a general mistrust of machines.
Dubbed “the Butlerian Jihad,” the movement resulted in not just complex AI but all computers, including those used to navigate deep space, being outlawed. Without these computers in place, people had to rely on the precognitive abilities granted by the Spice Melange, an element only found on the otherwise unimportant planet of Arakkis.
Although Dune: Prophecy takes place about 175 years after the Butlerian Jihad, Reyna’s efforts aren’t quite as successful as it may appear. During Vayla’s narration, we learn about a birthing system used by her mentor Raquella Berto-Anirul (portrayed by Cathy Tyson in the show). Raquella believed that the Sisterhood should engineer an Emperor according to the needs of the Sisterhood. They accomplish this goal, in part, through genetic engineering, which they do through the use of a massive, hidden computer.
Obviously, Raquella kept the use of the computer secret and shared it with very few people, including Valya. As a result, Valya has privileged information about her predecessor’s plans, which helps fuel the fanaticism she shows in Dune: Prophecy.
Where Is Arrakis? What Is Salusa Secundus?
As even a novice nerd will tell you, “Dune” isn’t the name of the planet in Dune, not really. The desert planet that contains spice is actually called Arrakis. Still, every entry in the franchise has the name “Dune” in the title, so it stands to reason that Arrakis would figure heavily in each, including Dune: Prophecy.
Arrakis does get a mention in “The Hidden Hand,” when Duke Ferdinand Richese (Brendan Cowell) makes his play for control of the planet’s spice reserve. But because the Guild Navigators, the people who use precognitive abilities from spice to chart courses across deep space, are still relatively new, Arrakis isn’t quite the political hotbed it will eventually become.
Instead, most of Prophecy takes place on Salusa Secundus. Where Arrakis and Paul Atreides’s first home Caladan adhere to the old sci-fi trope of one climate per planet, Salusa Secundus looks a lot like Earth in Prophecy. That’s particularly surprising to those who recall the depiction of the planet in the first Dune. We see Salusa when Baron Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård) dispatches his mentat Piter De Vries (David Dastmalchian) to retrieve the Emperor’s super warriors called the Sardaukar. In that movie, Salusa appears gray and rainy.
That’s where the time difference between Prophecy and Dune comes into play. Prophecy takes place 10,000 years after our time, when humanity has spread across the galaxy in an event called the Scattering. Because of it mirrors Earth, and was the home of the previous ruling system called the League of Nobles, the Emperor’s House Corrino is seated in Salusa Secundus.
But like every ruler in Herbert’s world, the Corrinos make massive mistakes with huge costs. Sometime around the reign of Emperor Javicco Corrino (Mark Strong) in Prophecy, an atomic weapons attack destroys the environment of Salusa Secundus, turning it into the hellscape we see in Dune. Javicco’s successor Hassik III moves the Corrino seat to a planet called Kaitain and turns Salusa Secundus into a prison planet. In this increasingly harsh environment, Salusa Secundus becomes the ideal ground to breed the remorseless Sardaukar.
What is the Status of the Harkonnens, the Atreides, and the Great Houses?
At this point, fans of the movie might be saying, “Wait a minute! I thought Dune was about the Atreides and the Harkonnens! Who are these Corrino people?”
Although they didn’t get much overt attention in Villeneuve’s movies, the Corrinos were present. The Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV (Christopher Walken) and his daughter Irulan (Florence Pugh) appeared in the second movie. However, as Paul (Timothée Chalamet) himself noted, the Corrino line had, by that point, grown atrophied and corrupt, a tool of the Spacing Guild and the conglomerate known as CHOAM.
Because Prophecy takes place 10,000 years earlier, the Corrinos aren’t in quite as bad shape. The line still rules, despite the obvious weaknesses of Emperor Javicco Corrino, weaknesses that Valya Harkonnen and others seek to exploit.
Speaking of the Harkonnens, Dune introduced that family as the movies’ overall villains and the initial stewards of Arrakis. After being removed from Arrakis, the Harkonnens leave for their home planet Giedi Prime, but the Baron makes his plans to retake Arrakis.
Prophecy finds the Harkonnens still early in their time on Giedi Prime, which was a key battleground in the war against the machines. They get sent to the planet as a sort of insult, as the Imperium believes that the Harkonnens disgraced themselves in the war. Conversely, the Atreides were exemplary in battle, which gives them more attention from Javicco and leads to swordmaster Keiran Atreides being in the court on Salusa Secundus.
Of course, Valya frames these perceptions as lies from the Atreides. Not only does she seek to restore honor to her house throughout Prophecy, but these lies also begin the conflict that will lead to the battle between Paul and the Baron in Dune.
Are Jihae’s Kasha Jinjo and the Sisterhood the Same as the Bene Gesserit?
One of the more striking moments in “The Hidden Hand” occurs when a teenage Valya uses the Voice for the first time. Instead of the low rumble used by Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) and Paul in Dune, we hear a high-pitched shriek, which doesn’t even fully control the subject. We learn that this was the first public use of Voice, which serves as an important reminder of the show’s place on the timeline.
The Bene Gesserit do not yet exist in Prophecy. Instead, Valya belongs to the Sisterhood. What’s the difference? Well, that will be the plot of Prophecy, but the short and simple answer is that the Sisterhood exists largely on the fringes of society, whereas the Bene Gesserit have power and influence, which earns them a great deal of mistrust.
Of course, we see that mistrust beginning in “The Hidden Hand,” with Jihae’s character Reverend Mother Kasha Jinjo. As a Truthsayer in Javicco’s court, and his former lover, Jinjo strikes some of the power players as a potentially subversive element. But, at this point, it happens on more of a personal level than as a representative of the Sisterhood in general, especially after what happens to her in the episode’s final moments.
Why Do People Catch on Fire at the End of Episode 1?
Although most of “The Hidden Hand” involves exposition, the episode does end on a striking note. In the last moments, we see people begin to combust, apparently spontaneously, while the mercurial soldier Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel) looks on.
The meaning behind the flames will be explained in later episodes, but it’s likely a variation on a “stone burner.” Stone burners are a type of atomic weapon in the world of Dune, one that’s considered extremely dangerous. It will play a major part in the later book Dune Messiah, which only makes its potential use here all the more devious.
But the most notable element might be the aforementioned plot point about Salusa Secundus. Prophecy doesn’t directly adapt any of the previous Dune books, but rather takes place 60 years after the Great Schools trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. Given the fact that the exact date of the destruction of Salusa Secundus isn’t explained in any of the books, this event might be something for Dune: Prophecy to explore, free from the burdens of other books and movies.
For right now, all we need to know is that someone is willing to go to extremes to disrupt the court on court on Salusa Secundus, which will only create more trouble for Valya and the Sisterhood.
Dune: Prophecy airs new episodes every Sunday night at 9 pm ET on HBO and Max.
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