Other Memory, The Suk Doctors, and The Voice | Dune: Prophecy Episode 2 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. Another episode of Dune Prophecy just aired, and we're going to talk about it.

0:40 We're gonna go through all of the major things that happened, and then we're gonna get into some of my other thoughts about the episode. So this episode opens up, we see a ship flying down to Wallet 9, and we see a Suk doctor come out to greet the Beni Jezeret, and this doctor is here to examine Kasha.

1:00 This is actually a Souk doctor who was originally a Beni Jezerit. The Bene Gesserit have spies and Bene Jezeret all over the place. They've infiltrated many worlds, many systems, many different groups of people. If you don't know, the Souk Doctors are the best doctors in the Imperium. They are conditioned against doing harm, and this usually works.

1:24 In the case of the original Dune Book, we of course have Doctor Yui, who of course betrays House Atreides and goes against his conditioning, but cases like Yui are thought to be pretty rare. The Suk doctor examining Kasha says that somehow Kasha was burned from the inside, acute imbalance in the meridial network.

1:48 It's still a mystery, however, as to how this happened. Pruitt Ricchies is also in the same state across the galaxy on Seleuce Secundus, burned to a crisp, dead. His family is very angry about it, particularly his father, the Duke Ritchies. The Emperor pretty much immediately knows that it was Desmond Hart that did it.

2:10 He has him arrested and thrown in a cell, but I don't think he immediately wants to do away with him because he's still wondering how he can use Desmond, and the Empress later convinces him that it's better to use Desmond, and that's ultimately what they end up doing. Vaya has also heard the news of what has happened on Seleuce Sukandas, and she is headed there along with Acolyte Theodosha in order to kind of get a hold of the situation.

2:38 She also tells Tula before they leave that they are going to need to unlock the other memory of Lila in order to be able to speak to Reverend Mother Raquela so they can get clarity on her vision. Now, this of course is a very dangerous process. We see this in Villeneuve's Doom Part 1. This is something that Lady Jessica ultimately survived.

3:03 Now we haven't really seen the Paul Atreides timeline way that the mini Gesseret would do this, but in this more primitive version, they are using the Rosek poison. Now the Rosek poison is a reference to the poison that Reverend Mother Raquela converted, leading to the awakening of her genetic memory.

3:25 Someone attempted to kill her and she survived, and this led to the awakening of her genetic memory. Raquela was one of the witches of Rosik originally, which were kind of the precursors to the Benny Gesserit. The process of awakening these memories is called the agony in the show, but the spice agony by the time of Paula Traides, because by the time of Paula Trates they use the truthsayer drug rather than the Rosik poison.

3:50 In the Vilnouve movie, we see the Frimin version of the Spice Agony and the use of the Truthsayer drug, which is the bile of a drowned sandworm. Lila is the great-great-granddaughter of Raquela, so theoretically she should be able to access Raquela's Other Memory, though they mention that Other Memory is not an exact process.

4:13 The most refined version of Other Memory that we see are in characters like Paul Atreides and later his son Leto II Atreides. And also his daughter, Ganema Atreides. Now, the spice agony, or the agony as they call it, in the show is a very dangerous process, and ultimately Lila does not survive this process.

4:34 In fact, she is for a while possessed by Doritea, who does not allow her to complete the spice agony. Now, when watching this, as someone that's read all of the Dune books, I thought that she would potentially be possessed permanently, and this is something that the Benny Jesseret call abomination. It's when the ego memories kind of overcrowd um the persona that's there, and this happens when the persona that's already there is kind of not substantial enough to stand up against the multitude of egos that are pushing against it.

5:09 So I thought potentially she might be possessed by all of these egos, or that she might be possessed by Doritea permanently, but she ended up, of course, dying. But she does say something before dying, and these are the words of the Reverend Mother Raquela. The key to the reckoning. One born twice, once in blood, once in spice, a revenant full of scars, a weapon born of war on a path too short.

5:39 Tula does not get an answer when she asks what the nature of his power is. So we still don't know what the nature of his power is, if it's technological, or something else. Born once in blood and once in spice seems to be a reference to the fact that Desmond was once born normally and then born again after being consumed by Shy Halud.

6:05 Which, as I said in my other video, there's a limited amount of ways that this could happen in the Dune universe. His chances of surviving being eaten by Shy Halud are very slim. One theory is that he was somehow rebuilt with a partially machine body, like Clairby in Chapter House Dune. He could be a cyborg.

6:27 Another theory is that he is a gola. A gola is a kind of technology mastered by the Tlailaksu, which involves creating a clone of someone that's been killed. They only need a single cell of this person, so if they could recover just a single cell, they could make a gola. And then the final part of what she says is a weapon born of war on a path too short.

6:52 The meaning of this line, I think, is more ambiguous. A weapon born of war could imply the fact that Desmond was created to be a weapon specifically against the Beni Gesseret. This also implies that there is something behind him, which is also what Valia suggests in this episode. She doesn't know who is behind him, but she seems pretty certain that someone is behind him.

7:20 A weapon born of war implies that Desmond was born as a part of some kind of struggle, ideological or otherwise, that was already going on. So he can't really be at the center of it. He can't really be the one who is leading all of this. There has to be some other figure behind him. On a Path too short is interesting as well.

7:42 I have a theory that there is a limited amount of evidence for. At this point in history, it is questionable how developed the Tsleilaksu are, even though this version of the timeline is a little shaky in comparison to the Frank Herbert timeline. So if he were to be a Gola, he would be a very primitive version of a Gola, an early version of a Gola, who maybe doesn't live as long as the Golas that we see later in the series.

8:12 This potentially could be what the line on a path too short is in reference to, but I don't know for sure. So after Vala arrives on Seleucusacundis with Theodosha, several other things happen. Valya essentially sends Theodosha to get to know the Princess Yenez. And Valya herself goes to talk to Desmond Hart.

8:36 And Desmond Hart doesn't seem to be shaken by her at all. She tries to find out what he wants, and he says he wants the best for the Imperium, and he's telling the truth. And there's a couple of times in the episode where she asks him this, and he's telling the truth each time. So he really believes it, and that's also what Kasha says in the first episode.

8:58 He believes what he is saying. To me, this is not a hint that he's absolutely telling the truth. He could very well be telling what he believes is the truth, but that doesn't make it the truth. In Children of Dune, Ganima conditions herself to believe that Leto II is dead, specifically so that they could trick a truthsayer should she be put to the test.

9:22 The fact that Desmond Hart is so convinced that what he's saying is true gives me the impression that he might be under some sort of conditioning. So this display of her asking him what he actually wants and him saying that what he wants is what's best for the Imperium actually earns points between Desmond and the Emperor and the Empress, and they come out of this more on his side than they are on her side.

9:48 There's a few other revelations that come on Seleuce Secundas. We finally learn the identity of the girl with the eyes of Ibad from the first episode. She is a part of the rebellion that Kirin Atreides is also a part of, and this is a rebellion against the great houses of the Lanzarad, and they want to take out the Emperor.

10:11 But Michaela is actually a double agent. She is actually a member of the Bini Gesserit Sisterhood. The Sisterhood has essentially been behind the whole rebellion the entire time. As they do, they manipulate all sides of a situation at once. But now there's no longer a use in this rebellion, so they want to basically stifle it.

10:32 Michaela gives up the name of the Atreides Swordsmaster as a member of the rebellion, and Valleya gives a very interesting look when she hears the name Atreides, and I wonder if this is somehow related to the feud between House Harkonnen and House Atreides, which is pretty complex and it goes back to Brian Herbert's book, The Battle of Corinne.

10:51 In the book Sisterhood of Dune and onward, Vaya Harkonen's real objective is to restore the name of House Harkonnen. She is motivated by the feud against House Atreides, but there seems to be a pretty big difference between the Brian Herbert books where that is concerned and this television show. In this show, it seems that her main focus is the Benny Gesserit sisterhood and its future.

11:16 It remains to be seen how much the feud between House Atreides and House Harkonnen means to this version of Valya at this point in time. Now at the beginning of the first episode, she did say that she set out to restore the name of House Harkonnen, so I have no doubt that that might have been her objective at one point in time, but she seems to have changed at this point in history, thirty years removed from what we see last in the Brian Herbert books.

11:42 The last major thing that occurs in this episode is the final confrontation between Valya Harkonin and Desmond Hart, and it gets very interesting. She uses the voice on him, she gets him to take his blade out of his pocket, to put it to his neck, but when she gives the command to cut his throat, he manages to resist the voice.

12:04 Now being able to resist the voice is not unheard of. In fact, the only person that's absolutely guaranteed to be able to control you with the voice is probably the god Emperor. If you know the Benny Jezer's tricks or their ways, or if your mind is just particularly strong, then you can absolutely resist the voice.

12:27 And Vaya Harkonen has never seen this before, so it definitely shakes her up. And it's a very interesting moment where Desmond essentially checkmates her. And it's also curious because in this scene, it doesn't seem like Desmond is really sure what's going to happen either. Like he wasn't sure if he could resist the voice.

12:45 I'm a big fan of the mystery surrounding Desmond that is being built here. Now, onto some smaller things about this episode. I really enjoyed the look at a more primitive Highliner in this movie. We see a version of a Highliner that's definitely less sleek than the version we get in Villeneuve's Tune, so it shows you that the technology is older, less streamlined.

13:10 The guild obviously exists at this point in time because they would have no means of safe space travel if it did not, but it is not the same exactly as it is 10,000 years later. Also, something else that was mentioned multiple times in this episode, the burning truth, Tyran Arafel that Raquela saw, lots of things about this episode seem to imply that Arafel is already here.

13:36 But that can't be the case if this Arafel is referring to the same thing that Leto's Arafel in God Emperor of Dune is referring to. But if you really think about it and you go back to the line, the key to the reckoning, one born twice, once in blood, once in spice, that could also refer to Leto II, God Emperor, who was once born normally, I guess, quote unquote normally, if you consider being pre-born normal, and consider being born awakened with all of your ancestors' memories normal, but born blood once normally, and then reborn in spice when he becomes the god emperor.

14:16 So that could very well be a reference to Leto the Second as well. And then also the line: a weapon born of war on a path too short. A weapon born of war could also technically refer to Leto the Second, in my opinion. Paul names his daughter Leto's twin Ganema, which literally means spoil of war. On a path too short could refer to the fact that spoil alert, even though I said spoilers in the beginning, Paul Atreides' path is also ultimately cut short.

14:50 And one more thing that I thought I would mention. There is a possibility that Desmond's ability to burn people from the inside is somehow related in some way, tangentially or otherwise, to the fact that the sandworms, at least in the books, on the inside have a fiery furnace. So in fact, when they open their mouths, you're supposed to be able to see the glowing furnace that's inside of them.

15:20 And you can see this in Heretics of Dune, specifically where the worm comes up to Odreid and Shiana, and they can see inside of its mouth and smell the spice, and it's kind of this internal furnace or fire. So potentially since he was swallowed by the worm, and since they are being burned from the inside, that could refer to that in some way, but I don't think it's a direct thing, because the worms of Arrakis, Shihalud, are in no way really mystical or magical.

15:50 The Frimen attach mysticism to the worms, but they aren't themselves really mystical, are special beyond the fact that they are these giant alien creatures that roam around the desert in sand and grow to be very large. Now, of course, later in the series, after late to the second, there is more to the worms, but not at this point in history.

16:13 So things that I appreciate about this episode is that it in fact moved the plot along more than I was even thinking that it would, and I'm very glad because we only have six episodes in total, so a lot happened in this episode, and I feel like we've already moved past this was it Desmond, was it not Desmond?

16:33 I didn't know how long they were gonna play up the mystery of trying to figure out who committed these acts, but it seems like very quickly in this episode everyone knows that it was Desmond, and it moves on to the point of what do we do about this? Because he's not lying about it, it's out in the open, so that's very interesting.

16:50 I'm very curious to see in the next episode how Tula and Valya interact now that Lila is dead, because Lila was very much like a daughter to Tula, and Valya essentially sacrificed her even though she was not really ready to undergo the spice agony, and I wonder if this is going to cause some kind of fracture between the relationship of Valya and Tula, because though the Benny Jezerit do have high levels of emotional control, it doesn't mean that they don't have emotions.

17:26 And time and time again, including in the Frank Herbert Dune books, we see that the Benny Jezerit often act emotionally. We see that with the Lady Jessica and the fact that she disobeyed Bini Jezeret orders and gave birth to a son. We see that with Odreide in Heretics of Dune, a huge part of that book is about the internal struggles of Odreide and what she is feeling.

17:52 So the Benny Jezreet do have emotions and sometimes they will act on those emotions. All in all, I think that episode two of Doom Prophecy was pretty compelling. I enjoyed it. It's hard watching something that is one entire arc week by week because for me, with a story like this, you have to judge it as a whole.

18:14 I can't judge pieces of it and say this is definitely good or it's definitely bad. I see I have to see what this arc looks like before I can really say is it worth your time or not, because lots of things start off looking promising but fizzle out towards the end. And it might work in favor of the show the fact that it is only six episodes long because it means that they can cut out a lot of the fat.

18:38 And there wasn't really any filler in this episode. Maybe just one scene that went on slightly too long, but for the most part, I think that's a very good sign that they are moving the narrative along and that we are continuing forward with the story at a good pace. Looking forward to next week's episode.

18:57 Tell me what you guys thought about this episode. Are you going to continue watching? Are you looking forward to future episodes of this show? Let me know in the comment section below. And I will be streaming on Tuesday, November 26th, about episode two to go more in depth about everything that I saw in the episode.

19:15 So make sure you stay tuned for that. Thanks, guys.