Dune: Prophecy gracefully delivers another rich episode without holding back any punches in “Sisterhood Above All.”
The third episode takes a break from Valya and her drama with The Imperial House and Desmond Hart to provide deeper insight into Tula and Valya’s motivations by revisiting their past. It reveals the tragedy that tipped the dominoes to who they are today. As you may have noticed, I said “Tula and Valya”, instead of vice versa. This time she takes the lead while Valya is closely behind.
Ninety percent of the episode flashes back to the Harkonnen Sisters’ young adult years when they struggled with their family name like it was a dreaded curse on their bloodline. We see them fighting parallel battles because of it. Tula struggled to be accepted, while Valya struggled to accept her new home. Ultimately, the sisters accepted each other.
Emma Canning and Jessica Barden’s Tula and Valya mirrored their senior counterparts with the poise, courage, and cunning Harkonnens are famous for while adding more relatability to them. The ways they show us this cruel colorless world through their young eyes enhance the story and provide deeper context into their characters, especially Tula.
Dune: Prophecy’s “Sisterhood Above All” is really Tula Above All. It’s Tula’s show starring Emma Canning. She remarkably presents the younger Harkonnen sister with a demure nature and secret resolve to fight for those she holds closest to her heart. There is never a dull moment watching Canning’s take on Tula. She leads viewers with her eyes, smiles, and frowns through the inner workings of her thoughts and emotions to her will to fight for her family’s name. Though Valya takes a step back to let her little sister shine, she is still very much a force to be reckoned with in the past thanks to Jessica Barden. She is exactly like her senior counterpart but less patient which is not anything out of the ordinary for a teenager. She makes her presence felt whenever she is on screen and when she has something to say, she makes everyone listen, voice or not.
I can go on raving about Canning and Barden, but it would be foolish to neglect to mention the spectacular writing. I was initially disappointed to find this being mostly set further into the past due to how invested I was in last week’s episode. My disappointment quickly faded away as this masterfully turned out to be one of those cases where we need to go back before we can move forward. The Harkonnens’ history is ripe with tragedy, loneliness, and the death of innocence. All those elements are weaved with twists and turns that lead Tula and Valya on converging paths to their Sisterhood.
The one issue I have with the third episode would be Emily Watson’s Valya scenes. Her scenes aren’t necessary here, they just feel like they’re there to remind viewers of her presence but they accomplish nothing in pushing this episode’s narrative. Other than that, “Sisterhood Above All” is a fantastic episode of Dune: Prophecy. It provides a deeper look into the Harkonnen Sisters with impeccable writing and flawless performances by actors who do right by their senior counterparts. The stage for the rest of the season is set and I can’t wait to see what episode 4 brings.
