Dune: Prophecy Episode 4 ended with a jaw-dropping reveal: Sister Theodosia is a Face Dancer, and it has big implications for the rest of the story.
The Sisterhood has been hiding some big secrets in Dune: Prophecy. For example, Lila was revealed to be a direct descendant of Raquella, the first-ever Mother Superior… and the granddaughter of Dorotea, who was murdered by Valya in the opening episode.
There’s also the small matter of the breeding index, Raquella’s highly controversial plan to cultivate “the right royal unions and cultivate rulers they could control” – which appears to use thinking machine technology, something explicitly forbidden across the Imperium.
Now, after Episode 4, it appears the Sisterhood has a Face Dancer among its acolytes. It’s a relatively deep cut from Dune lore (including the book Dune: Prophecy is based on), but it may have substantial ramifications.
What is a Face Dancer?
Face Dancers are effectively Dune’s version of shapeshifters, engineered by the elusive Bene Tleilax, an off-world religious group based on Tleilax, the sole planet of the star Thalim.
Interestingly, there are some parallels between the Sisterhood (aka, the Bene Gesserit) and Bene Tleilax: they’re both genetic manipulators, only the Sisterhood implements its plans over decades, if not centuries, while the Bene Tleilax is a bit more… productive.
They’re incredibly gifted at genetic engineering (often attracting the concerns of the Great Houses), responsible for the advent of Gholas (more on that later) and Face Dancers.
They’re made using axlotl tanks, effectively incubators they’d use to create a living human being from the cells of a cadaver. Crucially, they’re sterile, so they’re unable to reproduce.
As their name would suggest, they can near-flawlessly mimic anyone they meet (their form, their personality, and their voice), and they have several uses across the Imperium. Some are entertainers, others work as covert operatives.
How is Theodosia connected to the Bene Tleilax?
We knew from the outset that Theodosia had a secret. HBO’s character bio described her as “a talented and ambitious acolyte at the Sisterhood who harbors a dangerous secret about her past,” but it’s unclear how she ended up at the Sisterhood if she’s a Face Dancer.
We do know that Theodosia is Valya’s favorite acolyte, as revealed by Tula, and now the reason is clear: not only could she be an extraordinarily powerful Truthsayer, but she could also carry out the Sisterhood’s objectives without anyone knowing it was them.
“She has reason to be loyal to us. We took her in when she had nowhere else to turn. She excels in her studies. She is uniquely useful,” Tula said earlier in the series.
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At the end of Episode 4, she always used her abilities to comfort Valya after her uncle’s death, taking the form of her late brother Griffin.
More will be revealed in time, but Emily Watson teased what to expect from Theodosia’s story. “You don’t necessarily understand what the situation is yet, but Theodosia’s circumstances are very unique, and she has come as an outcast from a very difficult, desperate past to the Sisterhood in a little bit in the same way that Valya did,” she told IGN.
“Valya kind of has recognized her as having the same kind of drive, and almost it’s as if really damaged people are very, very good candidates for this kind of devotion or drive that it needs to be a really, really good Bene Gesserit.”
Is Desmond Hart a ghola?
Here’s the thing: now that the Bene Tleilax are in play, it raises the possibility that Desmond Hart may be a ghola, or at least an early version of one.
In the world of Dune, a ghola is an artificially created clone of a dead person, reconstructed from as little as a single cell. This will probably be a major part of Dune 3… but no spoilers, don’t worry. Let’s just say that gholas didn’t possess their original memories until much later than Dune: Prophecy, but the series may be changing things up a bit.
Here’s what we know: Desmond appeared to survive a Shai-Halud attack on Arrakis and emerged with mysterious abilities; more specifically, the power to burn people to death from the inside out.
There is a theory that Desmond’s body was recovered and revived off-world by the Bene Tleilax, who are considered rivals of the Bene Gesserit. As Raquella warned, “the key to the reckoning is one born twice. Once in blood. Once in spice. A revenant full of scars. A weapon born of war, on a path too short.”
As for his powers, they may come from thinking machine technology, but we still don’t know much about him.
In the meantime, find out how Orry Atreides is related to Paul, why Denis Villeneuve will never direct a Star Wars movie, and check out our list of the best TV shows of 2024.
