SECRETS REVEALED, Who Is The Ultimate Enemy? | Dune Prophecy Episode 6 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. So this was definitely the best episode.

0:40 I enjoyed the pacing a lot, which makes me think that perhaps every episode should have been an hour and 25 minutes, because the pacing was superior to basically all the other episodes. It really worked for me as far as the pacing went. Also, we've finally got some answered questions in this episode, plus more mysteries, and we got some confirmation on things that I had predicted from the very beginning, so I'm pretty excited about that.

1:11 All in all, I had fun watching this episode. I thought it was a good episode, and the best part is this show has already been confirmed for season two, so that is extremely exciting. We are going to get some kind of follow-up to this, and that makes me very happy. More Doom content in the future. Let's see where this all goes.

1:32 So, first and foremost, we're going to talk about what I am most excited about, and that is the reveal of what the eyes in space were. The eyes and the weird voice. A lot of people thought it was the God Emperor. People were convinced. I got loads of comments telling me it's obviously the God Emperor.

1:54 I don't know why you think it's a machine. And I thought it was a machine because of the light, as I said, and the sound. It was a very mechanical synthesized sound, and the light and the color of it matched all the other machine technology that we had seen in this show so far. So to me, it was very obviously machine, and that is what it was revealed to be in this episode.

2:18 From what we saw, what appears to have happened is Desmond was somehow found after being swallowed by the sandworm. His body was somehow recovered, perhaps, and through use of a thinking machine, his body was rebuilt, but also implanted with a piece of technology, a biological machine virus. Now, from the very first episode, I predicted that it would be some kind of machine technology that was allowing him to do this.

2:54 I particularly thought it could be the Ixians, and they have not revealed who it is in the show yet. I do believe that it is still a possibility that it is the Ixians who are behind this, and I also believe that it is possible that the Tlelaxu have some involvement because the Tlelaxu were masters in genetic engineering, not necessarily machine engineering, but genetic engineering, and this weapon seems like a combination of the two.

3:23 They do mention the Tlelaxu by name in this episode, except they use the older form tullaxan or tulaksa, which is the way um you say it in the Brian Herbert books, because it's earlier in the timeline. Now, some more questions that I have are how did they recover his body from the sandworm? And also, did they even do that?

3:47 Or is the body that we're seeing on what looks like a medical operation table merely a reconstruction of the original Desmond Heart by means of Tlelaxu technology, or I should say, tullaxan technology. As I mentioned in my very first review of Dune Prophecy Episode 1, Desmond very well could be a Gobla, and I still think that is a distinct possibility.

4:17 In the vision, we do see some kind of robed figure, so I think that is definitely implying that this is some kind of human effort utilizing thinking machines and not thinking machines acting on their own. And that is very in line with Frank Herbert's vision of the threat of thinking machines. And I also think the fact that it is this biological machine virus helps to explore more of that dialectic between the biological, the flesh, the human and the real, and the mechanical.

4:58 That's a big part of what the Doom series explores, and I think that is a major theme of this show. Now, I said in my last review that Volya appeared to really be losing grasp of the sisterhood, and this comes to fruition in this episode. Now, what I predicted as soon as we had the episode where Lila took the spice, and Doritea said, I will destroy your hope, was that Dorothea would eventually possess Lila, and that Lila would be a threat to Valley's vision of the sisterhood, and that is exactly what happens in this episode.

5:37 We see Lila become fully possessed by Doritea, and with the help of her disciples, who we had been seeing time and time again throughout this season, and I've been pointing them out, saying that when Dorothea awakens again, she will already have followers. And also in this episode, we learn more of the truth of what happened to Dorothea's original disciples, who had supposedly left the Sisterhood after Dorothea committed suicide, or aka was murdered by Valia.

6:15 But in truth, Valya and her followers commanded them through voice to commit suicide, as she did with Dortea. Sister Avila is the only one that does not commit suicide and chooses to instead follow Valia. This adds a lot more darkness to the character of Valya and to the sisterhood itself. I think a part of this show is we're meant to question the way Valya rules and if she should be the leader of the Bene Gesserit.

6:49 Now it's pretty obvious that Lila isn't going to have longevity as the Bene Gesserit Mother Superior. It's pretty obvious that she is not going to be remembered fondly. After all, the Bene Gesserit don't call the possessed abominations for nothing. I think in the story with Lila we are seeing the origin of why the Bene Gesserit are so fearful of abominations and why, in the future, they kill them on sight.

7:18 So two major things happen with Lila at the Sisterhood. She shows them that Valia has been lying to them about the origin of the sisterhood and its bloody past. She drains the pond and she shows them the bodies of her disciples who Valia killed, and then she shows them the Aneral Computer, and she destroys it.

7:41 She says that she is going to return the Sisterhood to its righteous path. I definitely saw this climax at the end of this season coming, and I think that it was executed well, and I'm looking forward to season two, and I'm interested in seeing what they do with this plotline. Now, before all of this happens, Tula leaves Wallach 9 without telling anyone.

8:07 And the reason she leaves is to go find who she now knows is her son, Desmond Hart, and this is after a series of flashbacks that we see. One of the things that we learn is that Tula gave up Desmond Hart voluntarily. I think a lot of us just assumed that it was Valia that forced her to give up Desmond Hart because the Benijeret aren't allowed to keep their children.

8:32 But no, Tula gave him up voluntarily to who she thought was a mother of good means. I wonder what happened with that because Desmond describes his past as pretty awful, but she thought he would have a better life outside of the control of the Benijeret, and most importantly, outside of Valya's control.

8:50 We also get a scene with Tula before she leaves Wallach Nine, where she is talking to the Souk Doctor, who is also his sister of the Benijeret, with Pranabindu training, and they are talking about how they can potentially transmute the virus. And Tula volunteers to do this, but the Sukh Doctor says that she will do it, saying that she is best equipped to do it.

9:13 I thought the scene was interesting and demonstrating the Benijeret's ability of internal control. The Benny Gesserit have the ability to manipulate their bodies on a cellular level. So I thought this was an interesting way of showing this. Now, of course, the sisters in this show aren't as good at doing this as the sisters later in the Dune series.

9:37 So this is kind of an earlier proto form of doing this, and ultimately the Suk Doctor is not strong enough to overcome this virus, which isn't a normal virus. It's this weird, engineered machine virus, so she ultimately succumbs to the virus and dies. I think this moment leaves Tula really dejected and hopeless, not knowing what to do.

10:05 All of this is part of the reason why she leaves Wallach 9 to go find Desmond Hart on Seleucus Secundas, and maybe she can reach him somehow and stop all of this from happening. On Seleucia Secundas, we have a series of events that lead to Valya's final plan being set in motion. So it starts off with Yenez attempting to break Kirin Atreides out of jail.

10:34 Her mother, the Empress Natalia, catches her and has her arrested. The word gets out to the Emperor, and he's not happy about it. And the word also gets out to Valia, and she's not happy about it, and she says, Well, it's too late. The Emperor has lost control. I am going to end it now, and I'm going to do away with the Emperor.

10:58 I am going to get myself arrested. I am going to break out Ynez. And Theodosha will help us do this. Ynez is what they've been working for this entire time. She's the product of their breeding program. I really enjoyed the scene earlier in the flashback where Valya was showing Tula and the others how the computer has calculated the best match, and how the computer suggests this match between Javico and Natalia.

11:30 It was always their plan from the beginning. So Ynez is key, and she cannot afford anything to happen to Ynez. So I very much enjoyed watching this episode, and I enjoyed watching the sequence of events unfold, but I had a few problems with the way things happen, and I thought a few things were a little bit questionable.

11:51 But we'll get to that in just a second. So Francesca essentially convinces the Emperor to talk with Vaya. So he allows Vaya into the palace, and when he walks into the throne room, she is sitting on his throne, which right there should be an irrestable offense. But he doesn't care because he knows he needs her help.

12:12 And then she just kind of lays into him. She tells him that he is a weak man, and she tells him that we have manipulated every aspect of your life for as long as you can remember you are but a puppet. And do you even think Francesca really loves you? She really lays it into him, and here we're seeing more of just the ruthlessness of Valia Harkonnen.

12:38 Yes, she wants to get arrested, but she also wants to wound the Emperor. And ultimately, this does wound him. In my opinion, Valia knew that Francesca loved Emperor Javico. So I think as a backup plan to using the Gam Jabar, the high-handed enemy, Valia kills him through essentially a form of voice. She wounds him mentally and emotionally to the point where he thinks that nothing is within his control.

13:17 So in a final act to take control of his life and his destiny, he kills himself. I think that very well could have been a part of Valya's plan. And if that is something that was on the mind of the writers, that is possibly the most Bene Gesserit thing that I've seen in the show so far. It speaks to the subtlety and the ruthlessness of the Bene Jezeret when it comes to accomplishing their goals.

13:45 Plans within plans. So the Emperor kills himself, and as Francesca holds him in her arms, the Empress Natalia comes behind her with the high-handed enemy, and just a single prick is all that it takes, and Francesca is dead. Very Romeo and Juliet, very Greek tragedy. There's a hint of melodrama that honestly to me feels very familiar when I think about the ending of each Dune book.

14:18 Dune and Dune Messiah and Children of Dune certainly all end with this similar sense of melodrama. Paul's fight with Fayed Ratha, and so on and so on, because there's no point in spoiling the endings of Dune Messiah and Children of Dune to those that might be listening that don't want to know the exact ending.

14:37 But if you've read those books, then you probably know what I'm talking about. So it looks like now the Empress is in power, and Desmond is her right hand man for now. Meanwhile, Valya makes her way into the cells, and she has the guard kill himself. She breaks out Ynez. Ynez demands that Kieran come along, so Valya agrees, and here Theodosha's role comes into play.

15:06 Theodosha is to switch places with Ynez and pretend to be Ynez. Except this makes no sense in this episode because she immediately blows her cover. No one sees her as Ynez, other than Valya and Kirin. And the real Ynez. So why did she even need to appear as Ynez in the first place? If she was just going to pretend to be a guard and immediately blow her cover.

15:45 That was a a little bit confusing to me. But perhaps there are more things to Volga's plan that are to be revealed. Because that to me is is slightly confusing. And I don't think it makes a lot of sense right now at face value. But like I said, there could be more things to be revealed. There could be something else to this that I'm not seeing, but I'm missing right now the reason that she was Ynez at all.

16:16 So Volya and Kirin and Ynez escape the palace. They're going to smuggle themselves on a Highliner and escape. Valya sends Ynez and Kirin ahead, and they have their own cool action sequence, and Volya goes face to face with Desmond and his soldiers. It was really cool to see Valya command the soldiers through voice and the way they were just useless in the presence of her.

16:46 That is the power of the sisterhood in action. So in this scene, Valya comes face to face with Desmond and he attempts to activate his machine virus on her. And it essentially wounds both of them and knocks both of them out, but kills neither of them. And that is what triggers Valya's vision that we discussed earlier.

17:11 She sees the complete vision this time that reveals that the eyes are in fact a machine. And so with them both passed out, Tula arrives, and Valya awakens with the knowledge that Desmond Hart is the source of the virus and that he needs to be killed, but Tula can't have it. She uses the voice on Volya to stop her from killing Desmond and tells her that Desmond is her son.

17:40 Valya thinks it's for the best that Desmond dies, but ultimately she leaves the choice up to Tula, because Valya now realizes that there is a bigger threat. Desmond is just a tiny piece. Desmond is just a weapon. Someone is using a thinking machine against the sisterhood, and Valya needs to find out why.

18:02 So she heads off to get on the High Liner, and we get a really cool scene at the end of the episode of folding space, which looked really interesting and cool. Different, I think, than the way it was seemingly portrayed in the Villeneuve movie. But the Villaineuve movie is very vague on the way it works, and this looks like a more straightforward representation of folding space, where we kind of literally see space fold, and it was cool, and we see them land on Arrakis.

18:32 And Vola says, our path to the enemy begins here. So it looks like season two, Vaya is going to be operating from Arrakis. Tula is arrested by Desmond Hart. In season two, Tula will be a prisoner along with Theodosha on Seleuce Secundus, and the Empress really hates Bennie Jezret, so I feel really bad for them.

18:56 Now, one of my questions is why did Valya choose Arrakis? Is it because she believes that the enemy is stationed on Arrakis? Which would make sense if they recovered Desmond's body on Arrakis? And it also kind of makes sense because the vision that we see, we see a hooded figure, and there's a kind of orange Arrakis-like glow that might vaguely hint at it being Arrakis related.

19:29 And also we've seen several images of the desert and the worm. So a lot about what we've seen so far implies that Arrakis is the place to be, and I think Volya has picked up on that. Now there should also be mini Gesserit groups or outposts on Arrakis. The Bini Jezerit have little pockets everywhere essentially.

19:52 So I'm also really curious to see that in the next season. Also, in this episode, we see that Haro Harkonen was recording Balya. It appears that the device that Desmond Hart gave him in another episode was actually some kind of recording device, and we get a short sequence of Harold Harkonen viewing the recording device and smiling very Harkonen-like.

20:19 I think that Haro Harkonen will live up to his last name in the next season. There was also several little things that I liked about this episode. I loved how it opened up with this epic shot of Wallock 9 mostly in darkness. It looked really cool, and it opened up with Tula hearing the other memory, criticizing her decision to follow Valia.

20:45 You hear very clearly you should have never followed your sister. Really cool opening. And this has been in other episodes as well, but I've never called attention to it. I like how the pond that the Benny Jesseret have is shaped like an egg or a seed. And this is similar to the Benny Gesserit ship in the Villeneuve Dune movie.

21:08 And also towards the end of this episode, lots of cool shots that were very Blade Runner 2049-esque. I really enjoy the look of Seleuce Secundus. I really like the look of all of the vehicles and the highliners and the ships that they showed throughout the season. I really do appreciate the show for having such a cohesive look.

21:32 Again, I really enjoyed Vola at the end of the episode when she sat on the throne. It was epic. I really enjoyed Vola at the end going off on the soldiers. Epic. I also think the Lila possession by Dorothea was a really good idea. I really liked the reveal of the thinking machine at the end, and I love how they threw the god Emperor in as a red herring.

21:55 I think this episode really came together and tied a bunch of loose ends together, although it didn't fully answer everything and it did introduce some new questions. I'm pretty satisfied by this ending and I'm definitely excited for season two. So this was not a perfect season of television, but is this show worth watching all six episodes?

22:19 I definitely think that it is. I think this show manages to respect a lot of the themes of the Doom series. It does include some material and content from the Brian Herbert books, and I know a lot of more purist book fans aren't the biggest fan of that, but I think they blended it in a way that remained respectful to Frank Herbert's original books.

22:43 And I also think it's important to keep in mind that these are the early Bene Gesserit, so a lot of like my questions about the way the sisterhood operated could be explained by the fact that this is the beginning of the Benny Gesserit Sisterhood. This isn't even the Benijeret Sisterhood by name yet.

23:01 They don't say that in this show, they're just the sisterhood at this point. So with that in mind, yes, I really like this show, and yes, I would recommend it. I know some people aren't gonna like it as much. It's not gonna be for everybody, but I think it's a well-made show. I think it's a show that's made by people that care.

23:21 So yeah, I'm pretty hyped. Make sure you watch my livestream tomorrow. It'll be at 5 p.m. PST on Monday. I'll be streaming with Alt ShiftX and Nerd Cookies. We'll go into depth about this final episode and all of our thoughts. It'll be lots of fun. You won't want to miss it. Thanks so much, guys. Make sure you like and subscribe for more Quinn's ideas.