Lots of dramas on TV give us flashbacks to the earlier lives of current characters, to give us a sense of who they are and their motives, but Dune: Prophecy is doing it better than most, and in episode 1.3 devotes most of an entire episode to the younger Valya and Tula sisters, at the time Reverend Mother Raquella, the first Reverend Mother and founder of the Bene Gesserit, was still alive and very much in charge.
[Spoilers ahead ... ]
And this makes what Valya was able to do with her Voice -- stop Reverend Mother Raquella in her tracks -- and not do to Desmond Hart last week -- get Desmond to follow her order, given in Voice, to slit his own throat -- all the more impressive. If the Bene Gesserit are the heroes in this story, and Desmond Hart the villain -- both vying for control of humanity -- it makes the outcome of their confrontation all the more difficult to predict. Valya's Voice stops Raquella and kills Dorotea, but has little effect on Hart. (Of course, since this is a prequel to the Dune saga we already know, we already know the general outcome of this struggle. But it will still be fun to see exactly how it all plays out, and what seeds it sows for all future stories in Dune.)
The other big part of this excellent episode is young Tula, who makes a habit of doing more than expected. She kills Orry Atreides -- after they make love and he proposes to her -- to avenge the death of her beloved brother by the Atreides, because she loves her family more than the man she just made love to. And in the future -- the present in our overall narrative -- she defies the Bene Gesserit policy and keeps Sister Lila alive by some forbidden means. Although both Harkonnen sisters are very complex and therefore interesting characters, I think I find Tula a little more so. I guess I'm a sucker for defiance and going your own way. In a way, that difference between the two sisters reflects differences in the overall Sisterhood, and that's probably part of its strength.
I'm really enjoying this prequel series, and next week's episode promises even more, with a title -- "Twice Born" -- that suggests we may find out more about the origin of Hart's powers.
See also Dune: Prophecy 1.1: Compelling Prequel ... 1.2: The Hart of The Matter
and Dune, Part One: Half the Movie, Twice the Power of Most Other Complete Films ... Dune, Part Two: Not As Good as Part One
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