If you’ve just finished the Dune: Prophecy finale, there’s a good chance you’re scratching your head – a lot happened, but almost nothing was resolved, and there are two big questions it still needs to answer.
Going into Dune: Prophecy Episode 6, there’s only a few things you need to remember: Desmond is Tula’s son, Theodosia is a Face Dancer, Valya still wants to get Ynez on the throne somehow, and Lila is still alive (albeit often possessed by another Sister, like Dorotea or Raquella).
Even though it’s as long as a movie, the finale gets through a lot: Javicco kills himself, Natalya kills Francesca, Lila (well, Dorotea) takes back the Sisterhood and appears to destroy the breeding index, Tula reunites with Desmond, and Valya takes Keiran and Ynez to Arrakis.
However, it doesn’t feel like a finale – and there are two big questions that Season 2 needs to address (if it happens).
What will happen to Tula?
At the end of Dune: Prophecy Episode 6, Tula is arrested by Desmond. Will she survive, or will he kill her for sending him away as a baby?
When she hugs him, he briefly embraces her, suggesting he may have the capacity to forgive her for what she did; after all, it was for his benefit, given a childhood in the Sisterhood would have corrupted him. She couldn’t have known what suffering he’d face down the line, and perhaps he’ll be able to see that.
However, we know he really hates the Sisterhood, and he may be blinded by his anger. “The woman who gave birth to me sent me away to live among scavengers, who left me fighting for scraps just to survive. She was a Sister,” he told Natalya in Episode 5.
Here’s the problem: Dune: Prophecy may be based on Sisterhood of Dune, but it also borrows plot details from other books, like Navigators of Dune and Mentats of Dune. It isn’t a straight adaptation, so good luck trying to work out what happens to Tula in the source material (and, to be clear, Desmond Hart isn’t in any of the books).
We know she feels extraordinary guilt over murdering Orry Atreides in the books, and she still has a child with him, but it plays out a little differently: Valya wants to use the Atreides baby to get revenge against the rival house.
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Who gave Desmond Hart his powers?
This is the big one. We now know that Desmond Hart’s powers come from thinking machines; specifically, nanotechnology used to augment his right eyeball. However, we still don’t know who was responsible.
Towards the end of the finale, Valya overcomes the virus – but she sees Desmond’s Shai-Halud attack through his eyes. After he’s swallowed the worm, bright blue eyes emerge from the darkness, as we’ve seen before in the show.
However, this vision goes further than before: it’s revealed to be a large thinking machine (it looks a bit like a Cymek, but it might just be a sophisticated robot), which removes one of his eyes, implants nanotech, and augments his eyeball so he can use it. He glances to his right, and we see a silhouette of someone watching, but it’s unclear who it is.
With Episode 6 confirming Theodosia as a Face Dancer, he could be the work of the Bene Tleilaxu, an off-world religious group particularly adept at genetic engineering. Also, the virus is similar to the Omnius Plague, a thinking machine disease created by Erasmus and the Tlulaxa Rekur Van, bolstering this theory.
There’s also a chance (if the series pulls from the books without considering the timeline) that it could be a twist on the reborn Erasmus, the Thinking Machine leader’s assistant, looking to reassert technology’s power over humanity.
Here’s another possibility: what if the Ixians are using him as a weapon to destabilize the Imperium? They’re famously a dab hand with nanotech, so they fit the bill.
Either way, we won’t find out until Dune: Prophecy Season 2. Until then, find out what’s happening with Dune 3 and check out the best movies of 2024.
