The following review contains spoilers for the fifth episode of Dune Prophecy, “The High-Handed Enemy”
Much like all that’s come before in Dune: Prophecy, there are a lot of good ideas in the finale of the first season, “The High-Handed Enemy.” From Tula’s confrontation with her son Desmond and Valya’s revelation of their relationship, to it all leading to the fall of Javvico, there is a good skeleton of drama there. But for every step forward, Prophecy always seems to take two steps back. As a fan of the books and movies, it’s almost more frustrating when they do succeed, when in the end the whole becomes less than the sum of its parts. The story being told just never finds a way to balance the pace of the series with all that needs explaining and expounding upon. And on top of that, “The High-Handed Enemy” leaves Prophecy with almost every plotline up in the air, looking towards its recently announced second season for any sort of resolution; that causes it to fail on the promise of the premiere, which laid out the various mysteries of the series.
In a lot of ways, Prophecy does the best it can with the time it’s given. This whole first season has bounced back and forth, alternating between feeling too slow and too quickly paced for its own good. “The High-Handed Enemy” falls into the latter camp, feeling rushed to get everything out despite the extra 20-ish minutes it’s given on top of the regular hour-long runtime. And it manages to do some good work with Tula’s confrontation of Desmond Hart, Valya’s realization of their relation, and the Emperor’s end, but there’s just an overwhelming sense that things were cut down for time. Constantine (Josh Heuston) doesn’t even show up in the finale, and while there are relatively good story reasons presented for him not to be around, it feels like he was unceremoniously shoved out of the story to make room for the others. Just when he was getting interesting, too.
There just wasn’t enough time to fully expound on the ideas of Prophecy in six episodes. By the end, many of the younger Sisters feel underbaked, and with their worlds rocked by the revelations of Mother Dorothea, we don’t really get to see how they react to the information. We’re just left hanging. Even a few of the main cast, from Desmond Hart to Javvico and Natalya, don’t feel as fully fleshed out as they needed to be to grasp their motivations or connect with them in any meaningful way. It’s one of the many reasons why the royal storyline often feels flat and unexciting.
What makes it worse is that so much of the episode is setup for the next season. I’m not cliffhanger-shaming here – every season finale, if the writers know they’re going to get another season or are at least confident they will, is going to tease something to come in the future to leave us wanting more. But usually there is still some meaningful resolution to the main plotlines and character arcs that have been the focus of this season (Ned Stark’s story in season 1 of Game of Thrones being the classic example) and “The High-Handed Enemy” offers very little in that regard. The return of Mother Dorotea and her influence over the young sisters as she reveals to them the literal skeletons in the closet of the Sisterhood – left for next season. The fate of Tula and Desmond as the power over the Imperium shifts due to Javvico’s death – left for next season. And while it makes sense to leave Valya’s quest to save Ynez and bring her to Arrakis open, the character arcs of Valya, Ynez, and Keiran have all been left unresolved, leaving them for next season as well. It all compounds into an episode – and by extension, an entire season – that feels unfinished.
The one area it does leave with some sense of conclusion is in maybe the most ultimate form of it: death. Javvico’s fate, as well as Francesca’s, is handled relatively well, with some proper emotions from the two of them as well as Natalya. But like I mentioned earlier, it’s just hard to connect with these characters when we’ve been given so little insight into their motivations – it just feels like there was so much more to be said that the shorter season order just couldn’t allow for.
The most egregious element of its habitual non-resolution, though, is these “high-handed enemies” themselves. The mystery of the origin and reality behind Desmond Hart’s abilities are built up throughout the season, only to reveal that that entire plotline leads towards an answer that raises more questions than it answers. That can be a good thing when done right, as Lost proved time and time again, but it doesn’t work when it’s the majority of plot lines being left behind. Who implanted the fake eye and memories into Desmond’s head, for instance? And why him? Rather than carefully planting those ideas in our minds over the course of the series and having a big revelation at the end to entice us into season 2, these questions are brought up and left unanswered all in one breath, taking the excitement out of the moment and leaving us unsatisfied.
It all comes back, again, to the too-short season, which had no room to fit another storyline to follow this mysterious new faction, whomever they might be (based on the books, it’s probably Ixians or the Tleilaxu), and have the reveal feel more grounded in things we already knew. Now, we’re just left with a level of anticipation for answers that’s aggravating more than it is exciting.
