Facedancers, Forbidden Tech, Dream Visions | Dune: Prophecy Episode 4 Review

0:21 Hi guys, it's Quinn here. If you appreciate my content, consider hitting the like button. It's the best way to get the YouTube algorithm to notice this channel. If you want to do more to support this channel, consider checking out the Patreon link in the description. We are now on episode 4 of Dune the Prophecy.

0:39 This episode was titled Twice Born. I really liked this episode. A lot of cool things happened in this episode, and we got at least one significant reveal, as well as a ton of other really interesting nods at book lore. And we're gonna go over this entire episode right now. So in the opening of this episode, we hear the sound of a thumper on Arrakis, and we see that a lot of the Benny Gesseret acolytes are having the same dream.

1:13 Jin actually catches Emiline sleepwalking, and she is seemingly about to cut her throat in the same manner that Dorothea did. Later in the episode, Tula is trying to get to the bottom of all this, and she gives them all spice and has them all essentially go into a trance while they're attempting to draw what they saw in their dreams, and this gets increasingly more and more erratic.

1:35 They eventually all draw the sand dunes of Arrakis, they eventually all draw these eyes looking out from a black abyss, and one of them says that these are the eyes of God watching us and judging us. These are, of course, the same eyes we've been seeing throughout the season so far, the eyes from the beginning of the first episode.

1:56 A lot of people are really convinced that these are the eyes of the God Emperor, who is of course a character that appears in the fourth Dune book. I'm still not entirely sure that these are the eyes of the God Emperor, because everything about the way these eyes look every time they show them, they seem to be glowy and they have this blue light, and this blue light seems to be in this show heavily associated with thinking machine technology.

2:21 Anytime we encounter a thinking machine, whether it's the Benny Jesser Breeding Index, whether it is the little gecko that Pruitt had, whether it's the hunter-seeker bomb device that we saw in this episode, it always has that blue light. And so even though we even see that same shot of the eyes when Desmond is swallowed by the worm later in this episode, I still am not fully convinced that these are the eyes of the God Emperor just because of the mechanical sound that it makes every time they show them, and because of this light seeming too similar to the thinking machine tech that they keep showing.

2:56 It's more likely to me that these are the eyes of some machine god like Omnius, which is a character that appears in the Brian Herbert Dune books. Now, when it comes to why exactly the sisters are having these dreams, I think it has everything to do with the fact that Lila is entombed in Spice. The book Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert does make some mention about how oracles can interfere with other oracles.

3:25 So there are many people like the navigators of the guild and other people to limited degrees that have some form of prescience. And even the original Frank Herbert text does seem to suggest that there is some form of shared space within prescience, like things can be shielded from other people in prescience if you know how to do that.

3:48 Things like the no ships later in the Dune series and the no gene later in the Dune series. Even in the original Dune book, there's the character Finring that Paul cannot see in his prescience. So what I'm saying is, even in the original Frank Herbert books, there's something about the mystical esoteric realm of Prescient space, I guess, that can affect multiple people.

4:12 I also found it very interesting that Lila wakes up in this episode, and in this scene we have Tula having a dream, and she sees basically the sisterhood crumble on top of her and the worm coming to devour her. Um she sees all of the sisterhood's lies being exposed, all of her lies being exposed, and she awakens and she sees that the tank full of spice is opened.

4:35 So it's very well, it's almost seems to be certainly suggested that the open box of spice was giving her some form of prescient dreams, and this is something that happens in the Dune series. There are certain people that are predisposed to prescient visions, and spice also enhances prescient visions.

4:57 So when Tula awakens, she finds that Lila is now alive and up and walking around, and she also has the eyes of a bod, and she says, Where am I? Now the question still remains, is this Lila or is this an abomination? If I had to lean towards my gut, I would say this is an abomination. There, Lila might still be there, but she's going to be constantly under the attack by ego memories like Dorteia, who want to undermine the sisterhood.

5:26 And I think that's what we're going to see in the next couple of episodes. So this whole thing I thought was really cool, and it's going to be interesting to see where it goes from there. Another thing to point out is also that if Lila does become possessed by Dorteia, they are showing us in this episode that Dorothea's followers essentially still exist.

5:47 They are reading the Orange Catholic Bible. They say that Dorteia's words and her wisdom did not die with her. So she has a following if Dortea does possess Lila. And that could be something very interesting to see because it might end with Tula having to kill Lila, aka Dortea. And that could be a very dramatic emotional moment in this series.

6:11 Now, the events on Seleucus Secundus in this episode are all intertwined. You've got the involvement of House Harkonen, you've got Valya and the Sisterhood and their workings, you've got the Emperor, the Empress, and Yenez and Constantine, and also Kieran Atreides, and of course Michaela, the Benny Jesseret slash Fremen Girl.

6:31 There's a lot happening on Seleucus Secundus this episode. So for one, the plot to destabilize the Landsrad by Kiernan and the Rebels is underway. The Benny Jesseret, aka Valya, is going to let it happen, and then she is going to step in and save the Emperor and look like the hero. That is her plan, essentially.

6:54 Kiernan and the Rebels have met up with an Ixian to acquire this forbidden technology, a thinking machine. It's like a hunter-seeker bomb, basically. And I'm very excited about the Ixian in this episode and the mention of the Ixians. A lot of people were saying to me that I was a little bit too optimistic about hoping to see Ixians in this show.

7:16 And here we are, we got our mention of Ixians. We even see an Ixian on screen, and I thought that was really cool to see. Again, that technology has the same tinted blue glow as those eyes we see. So again, that's part of the reason why I do think that those eyes were not the eyes of the God Emperor and that it was a thinking machine.

7:35 I could be wrong, but I'm not convinced now. So Kieran and the rebels are planning on detonating this device during the Great Council meeting and you know destabilizing the Lanzrad and of course weakening House Carino. At the same time, the Princess Yenez is really guilty about the fact that Pruitt was murdered.

7:55 She really has it out for Desmond Hart. She knows it was him. Someone has been spreading the rumor that it was the Imperial House that murdered Pruitt. But Ynez doesn't need the rumor, she's pretty much convinced, and she eventually decides in this episode that she is going to speak out in front of the entire lands rat and accuse her father and Desmond Hart of the murder of Pruitt reaches.

8:20 She tries to get Constantine to go along with it, but he chickens out at the last moment. But before that even happens, you have the other side of Valia Harkonnen's plot. Now, to even save the Emperor from this attack that she knows is supposed to happen, she needs to be present during this council meeting, and she can only be present if she is the truthsayer to one of the great houses that's there, but she's not.

8:46 So she becomes the truthsayer to House Harkonen. And so that's the reason we see her going to House Harkonen at the end of the last episode. It's not to make amends with her family, it's so that she can manipulate them. So she basically manipulates Harold into allowing her to be his truthsayer, and then using the other Benny Jesbert who are installed amongst the other great houses in the Landsrad that are meeting.

9:08 She convinces a couple of these great houses to invite Hara Harkonen to the Landsrad so he can be the one that speaks up and accuses the Emperor. So that is essentially Valiar Harkonnen's plan to get into the Landsrad Great Council meeting. But there's a wrench thrown into everything, and that wrench is the Empress who goes to Desmond Heart and basically convinces him to show a display of power.

9:35 And Desmond ends up sending out the Emperor's police or soldiers to go up and round up anyone that's selling forbidden technology, any Ixian technology, any thinking machines, go out and round them all up. And so we finally get to the council meeting scene. And it's very tense the way they set it up.

9:54 Think uh Cersei Lannister and the Great Sept of Baylor, if you've ever seen Game of Thrones. It's very tense the way they're setting it up, and you're thinking, like, is are we about to see some big massacre? And I really liked the tension building up. And we have Haro Harkonnen, he steps forward, Valley is there, and he's about to accuse the Emperor, and he's kind of getting cold feet a little bit, and Inez steps up and she accuses her own father, and it's this huge, dramatic moment.

10:21 But what no one is expecting is for Desmond to have already gotten ahead of all of this. He has rounded up some people that have been trading Forbidden Technology, including the guy that Kirin Atreides was working with. So it remains to be seen right now whether anyone in the Imperial House knows that Kiran Atreides is a trader.

10:43 I guess we'll see in the future. So at this point, not only has the plan of Valya been thwarted, all the wind gets taken out of Yenez's accusation because Desmond just says, Yes, I executed him. You all saw it, he used thinking machine technology, and that's like our biggest rule. It was not a murder, it was an execution.

11:07 It was a lawful execution, and he's like, Now I'm going to execute these guys right in front of you, because if it wasn't for me, you would all be dead because of this Ixian bomb. So this is where Desmond displays his power in front of everybody, and he burns several people alive in front of everybody.

11:25 But we do get to see that this is not just some infinite power that he has. It hurts him when he does this. He's got scars on his back. He seems greatly weakened after what he does. So it's not he's not all powerful. And also in the scene, we see that Volya collects some of his blood, and we know that they're going to send that back to the sisterhood and test it and kind of try and figure out who exactly he is and what is going on with him.

11:53 Another cool thing that happens in this moment is we get a shot of Arrakis. It appears to be from Desmond's memory, it's from his perspective. We see the thumper, we see the s dust and the sand being kicked up and the worm coming. It looks absolutely epic, and we see him once again get swallowed by the worm, and within the worm we see these god eyes again.

12:14 Is it the god emperor? This seems heavily suggestive as the God Emperor, but there's something about those blue glowing eyes and the mechanical sound that it makes that make me think not God Emperor. And I'm pretty sure this is intentional on the part of the showrunners. They know that everyone is thinking God Emperor, but there's certain things about the way they're displaying it that makes me think that the whole God Emperor thing is a red herring, as far as these eyes are concerned.

12:44 And I haven't thought these were the eyes of God Emperor from the first episode because Well, while the God Emperor would have blue eyes, they wouldn't be glowing blue eyes necessarily, and he also wouldn't have this mechanical sounding voice being an organic being. I think that voice doesn't sound very human at all.

13:05 And I know the comments that I'm gonna get, the God Emperor is not a human anyway. The God Emperor is simultaneously the most human thing that's ever existed, and the least human human that's ever existed at the same time. He is obviously inside of this worm body, but within him he contains all the multitudes of human experience within his mind.

13:29 So I don't think that he would sound so mechanical and machine-like. Again, it remains to be seen. So at the end of this episode, we get some more interesting moments. We see Valya allows her uncle to die. Obviously, she wants him out of the way, he's too obstinate, she views him as weak, and she knows that she can better manipulate Haro Harkonnen if he is out of the way.

13:55 But to me, that's not the most interesting thing that happens in the scene. Obviously, the most interesting thing that happens before the credits roll is we finally understand what Theodosha's hidden ability is, what her hidden talent is. She appears to be a Tlelaxu face dancer, and that is the coolest thing ever, because I was assured by just about everyone that we weren't gonna be getting face dancers or anything Tlaylaksu in this show.

14:21 Everyone was like, Quinn, you're you're thinking too many steps ahead, they're not gonna do the Tlelaxu thing, they're not gonna do the Ixian thing. Well, it seems like here we are, this is clearly a face dancer, and in the Dune universe, face dancers are Tlaylaxu creations. It's very interesting to me that they would introduce the Ixians and the Tlaylaxu in the same episode, and I also heard the mention, I believe, Padashaw Emperor for the first time in this episode, and I also heard the mention of the Mintat, perhaps for the first time in this episode, but I could be wrong, they might have mentioned the word Padashaw and the Mintat in earlier episodes, and Mintats, if you don't know, are the

14:59 human computers of the Imperium. Nonetheless, lots of really cool nods to the lore in this episode. I'm so curious to see how they're going to go about this face dancer thing and how they're going to utilize this face dancer thing. When it comes to Theodosha, it seems like she had vowed against using her face dancer abilities, and I wonder why.

15:23 That could have something to do with the fact that the face dancers are considered to be um kind of despicable, kind of not great. There's a lot of negative vibes about the Tlelaxu in the Dune universe. People just kind of don't like them because of the way they, you know, manipulate genetics and the way they kind of cross the line of what it means to be human exactly.

15:46 So there's a lot of like disdain for the Tlelaxu in the Dune universe. So it makes sense that Theodosha would keep it a secret that she was a face dancer, because you know, people always look at the Tlaylaxu with suspicion. So since we've now gotten the mention of the Ixians, since we've now gotten the mention of the Tlelaxu, we've straight up seen a face dancer, I think it's even less out of the question that we could potentially have a Gola appear in this season.

16:15 I still think it's totally possible that Desmond Hart is a gola. I said this in my very first review that it was possible that Desmond Hart is a gola. And how else can we explain him being swallowed by a sandworm? I don't understand how someone can get swallowed by a sandworm and survive in the Dune universe.

16:36 But the Tlaylaxu have these things called axolotal tanks. They can take DNA and they can code it however they want, and they can grow a person and they can give them specific abilities and traits and they can train them in specific ways. And later we learn that the Tlaylaxu figure out how to restore the old memories of the person.

16:56 Now that doesn't happen till Dune Messiah, which is, you know, 10,000 years after this happens, but we're already seeing phase stancers here, so that's showing us that you know the timeline is, you know, they're playing with the timeline a little bit. So it's not exactly one-to-one with the original Frank Herbert stuff.

17:12 And that's okay with me because ultimately the themes are the most important. And when this show is over and we can look at all six episodes, and we can really say this is definitively what this show is about. These are the themes of this show, this is what this show is trying to do. Then, you know, we can have a full judgment of it.

17:29 Now, when it comes to this specific episode, I really liked this episode. I know a lot of people really liked episode three, and that was one that I didn't like as much, but I'm really happy that you guys seem to really like episode three. I really enjoyed this episode for its inclusion of you know the Tlaylaxu face dancers, it seems like, and for its inclusion of the Ixians.

17:50 I really like seeing, like I always say, the Benny Jezerit work. I liked the sequence of just the Benny Jesseret going around manipulating everybody, spreading the rumor, saying subtle things, really working the rumor. They didn't start the rumor, they work the rumor. I really liked seeing that. I really noticed in this episode, and they've done this in other episodes as well, the use of the other memory with Vaya and Tula.

18:15 Um sometimes these other memories are criticizing, sometimes they're offering, you know, wisdom. So it's very interesting to see those whispers. And there is a sequence too where it almost seems like Vaya is kind of fighting with the other memory. She seems agitated and irritated by those other memories.

18:31 So I wonder what it's like inside of the mind of a reverend mother, someone that's undergone the agony. Because is there a constant war in your head because of the other memories that you just have to live with? That would be something interesting for them to explore and go through. So, what I can say is I am excited about the next two episodes, the last two episodes.

18:54 This episode just tickled my brain in a lot of the right ways. I feel like stuff is really hitting the fan right now, and we're really about to see the reaction of the Landsrat to all this. We're really about to see how the Benny Gesseret deal with this whole conflict because we know that the Emperor is going to spin things, they're trying to oust the Benny Jesseret from the Lansrad.

19:15 This is all out war against the sisterhood, and I am so curious to see how these next two episodes play out. It seems like everything is kicking into high gear with the introduction of the face dancer, and you know, we're talking about Ixian technology now. Lila is awakened with the eyes of Ibad, what's going on there?

19:34 There's so much to get into in the next two episodes. So, guys, tell me what you thought about this episode. Tell me if you liked it, tell me if you disliked it, tell me if there's anything that I missed. Don't forget to watch my livestream on Tuesday. We always talk about various different theories, try to figure out what's going on in the show.

19:51 We tie it back into Dune lore. We usually go for a few hours, so check that out. Thanks so much for watching, guys. Peace out, and I'm gonna get a lot of money.