I think our very own CHOAM Director put it best when he made the comparison to Durian fruit: "can evoke reactions ranging from deep appreciation to intense disgust."

Season 1 wrap-up

As a lifelong Dune fan, I was both excited and anxious about the fandom finally going mainstream. I loved the first Villeneuve movie, I was OK with the second one and I was optimistic about this series - the Bene Gesserit certainly provide fertile ground for the type of palace intrigue HBO has proven to be really good at.

In the books, although it's called an order, the Sisterhood is all about politics, including subterfuge and power plays. They certainly seem Machiavellian, but the Reverend Mothers have a unique view of humanity and what might be best for it, thanks to the thousands of years of experience in their Other Memories. Naturally, their plans span millennia. They create religions to move masses and they operate from the shadows.

With this in mind, I was hoping for all sorts of things… but was content to see a setup for how the Sisterhood will stabilize its power across the known universe.

I know TV is a medium with its own rules and expanding a world that already exists is not a copy-paste exercise, so I was OK to overlook changes to timelines, characters, and even events that have already existed in the prequel books.

But I'd argue that some of the lore-related things that were changed, were changed because of a fundamental misunderstanding of the universe. The careful world-building was replaced by fan service, which (while hopefully well-intentioned) didn't do much for first-time viewers and made the existing fandom cringe.

And even if I forget about the lore, I still have problems with some of the writing. A great example is our resident shapeshifter, Sister Theodosia. Even if you disregard how a Face Dancer doesn't make sense here, what was the point? What would've changed if Theo is just a random sister? When was her "ability" actually used? At the very last minute to take a stab at Desmond Hart's plot armor? Take her out of the story and it changes nothing. (And yes, you might argue she will have a role in season 2, but that was green-lit well after the scripts for season 1 were finalized.)

Don't get me wrong: there's plenty to like about the show. The production value is HBO level, most of the acting is award-worthy and I'm overall happy with the story arc. I'm certainly happy that it has been renewed for a second season and I'll continue to be one of the fans who's rooting for the creators to build something epic.

I just wish they did that with care for the existing lore and the rules of this universe.

Questions set up in the season finale

The last episode was the length of a short movie, and it delivered a lot: characters were killed off, moved to different locations, mysteries were solved (kind of), and as a result, new questions arose.

Here are my top 5:

1. Who's the other player we're up against?

Through Desmond's memories, we now know that there's someone who not only has the means to create a "fear-based virus" but who dresses in a hooded robe to oversee an eye surgery done by a thinking machine. Weird, but hey, who am I to judge?

From the existing material, the natural list of suspects include:

• the Ixians, who are famous for their advanced technology, which “borders” on the forbidden;
• Erasmus, one of the robots who was working for the main AI villain, Omnius, during the machine wars, and is one of the co-creators of the original Omnius virus;
• the Bene Tleilax, who already showed up through one of their experiments, the Face Dancer Theo AND one of whom was also involved in the creation of the Omnius virus.

Then again, all of this might be a red herring, just like the blue eyes were in everyone's fear-vision.

2. Who's the new boss?

With Javicco Corrino dead, and the heir-apparent on the run, who's going to ascend the Golden Lion throne?

Will Natalya assume power temporarily? Will Desmond rule from the shadows? Or will he try to cut out his eye due to his hatred of the thinking machines?

Will Constantine return with his new fleet? Or will events unfold in a way on Arrakis that Ynez will join forces with her brother?

Maybe one of the Great Houses will try to take over. Speaking of which…

3. What's Harrow Harkonnen up to?

Can't even be mad at the guy - he learned from the best and started to play the game.

For those who are keeping track: he pretended to cross Valya by going to Desmond, but that was only a ruse devised by his aunt, but now he used the device he got from the Bashar to collect some incriminating evidence on the Sisterhood.

Plans within plans within plans indeed.

But what's next? Will he report back to Desmond or will he try to blackmail his aunt? Maybe hang on to the evidence and use it on a rainy day?

4. What will happen to Tula and Theo?

Two Sisters headed to the suspensor cells.

Will they do an awesome prison break? Will they re-establish the Sisterhood's power from within?

Will they be completely forgotten, never to have screen time again? (Probably not.)

5. Where's the Sisterhood headed?

Seemingly the Other Memory of Mother Dorotea (wearing a Lila cosplay) has taken over and proclaimed that the Sisterhood will be returning to a more righteous path - whatever that means.

Now, obviously, that's a big problem for the Harkonnen sisters, both of whom are off-planet, but I'd hope that the Sisters on Wallach IX will provide at least a little bit of resistance. Here are my reasons:

1. The Bene Gesserit are very hierarchical - there’s an almost militaristic order to how they operate. So while Valya and Tula aren’t around, I’d hope that the chain of command still exists. Admittedly, this is not the Bene Gesserit order yet, so the writers could make the argument that Valya micromanaged the Sisterhood and without her, everything falls apart.
2. We’ve established that all the super religious sisters have… decided to look for opportunities outside the organization. So whoever’s left was molded by Valya, right? Especially if we’re saying that she micromanaged every aspect of the order. So are we now saying that these mini-Valyas will suddenly follow Dorotea? Really? All of them?
3. Lila/Dorotea is an abomination. Sister Avila said so herself when it was Mother Raquella inhabiting the poor girl’s body. I’m not sure why Avila’s not pushing the same message with Dorotea, but I hope that someone will sober up and oppose the leadership of a literal undead woman.

Loose threads from previous episodes

1. Who was Mother Raquella talking about?

When talking to Jen, tied down in Lila's body, she said

If HE succeeds… humanity will backslide into self-destruction.

And while the previous pieces of "prescience" and "prophecy" would've fit both Desmond Hart and Leto II (and to an extent, even Lila), this piece seems to point to someone else completely.

Maybe someone we'll see in season 2?

2. Will we see Sister Mikaela again?

I say yes.

In her last scene, Valya gave her the means to go to Arrakis, so she'd be perfectly placed to guide our merry band of adventurers.

And even if she's done with being part of the Sisterhood, there aren't many places that could cater to her Spice addiction.

3. Is Lila's mom important?

I can't decide if mentioning her was only needed to establish the familial relationship between Lila and Dorotea and that's why we got almost zero details about her, or if the writers are setting up some big reveal.

Mind you, Brian Herbert's prequel books are amazing at connecting everything with everything.

To give you a single example: Reverend Mother Raquella is not only the founder of the Sisterhood, but also the granddaughter of Vorian Atreides, the founder of House Atreides, and also a direct ancestor of Gaius Helen Mohiam and Jessica Atreides and thus Paul and Leto II. She was a doctor during the Jihad and worked and (for a while) lived with Mohandas Suk, who (you guessed it) is the founder of the Suk School of Medicine. If that's not enough, it was she who discovered that Spice had a curative effect on people afflicted with the Omnius scourge.

Connecting everything with everything.

4. Who is Desmond Hart, really?

We've now established that genetically he's the son of Tula Harkonnen and Orry Atreides, but we still don't know anything else about him.

What exactly makes him special? What's this potential Anirul has predicted?

Did he really survive a worm attack? Or was that just a memory implanted during an elaborate brainwashing?

Is he maybe a tleilaxu ghola? A clone of the original Desmond with artificial memories?

Why does he hate the Sisterhood so much? Yes, his mom was a Sister and gave him up for adoption, but is that really reason enough to dedicate his life to destroying the whole order? And even so, why and how would he know so much about their workings?

And while we're at it, how did he resist the Voice? Which, in this adaptation, seems to be working quicker and more reliably than any mind trick a Jedi could pull.

5. How exactly does the virus work?

We only had six episodes, but in that span of time, this bio-weapon went from completely undetectable, even by a Suk doctor, to being a modified version of the Omnius virus, to now being some kind of nano-scale thinking machine.

The Sisterhood was (for whatever reason) absolutely certain that the infection causes limited and very specific prescience about Shai-Hulud and someone's blue eyes - but in the last episode, it turned out that it was only Desmond's most frightening memory.

So, you know, I wouldn't trust the Sisterhood about what is and isn't prescience. And that includes Mother Raquella's deathbed prophecies.

We don't know how exactly the virus spreads - it seemingly infected the whole school on Wallach IX, but we haven't had reports of nightmares from anywhere else. Also, does it need Desmond to issue the kill command or is it deadly on its own?

I'd assume the only answer we'll get is that "it's a thinking machine thing" and that its only real target is the Sisterhood (thus humanity as a whole is not in danger), and the Sisterhood needs to write the Litany Against Fear to survive.