Is Dune: Prophecy going to midi-chlorinate us?

Dune: Prophecy is a very complicated show. Sure, part of that is the fact that there are so many characters, plots, and counterplots coming together in every scene. But more simply put, it’s just really hard to explain to people whether or not I like this show. Simply put, watching it feels like a chore, the line-to-line writing isn’t particularly fun, interesting or engaging – and yet for every thumping character or boring line, the show also has a short bit of plot or Building a Dune Universe which I’m just fascinated by.

But the show can’t run on the fumes of these ideas forever, and as the season 1 finale approaches, it seems to me there are two paths forward for Dune: Prophecy. And as is par for the franchise, only a narrow and convoluted path will allow it to come out clean on the other side.

(Ed. remark: This post contains spoilers for Dune: Prophecy season 1 episode 5.)

The future of the show – or at least our indications of what it could be – all depends on Desmond Hart (Travis Fimmel). The first option, and the one I fear the show is heading towards, is the simple option of Desmond Hart being the proto-Kwisatz Haderach; the Bene Gesserit’s first glimpse of a man with supernatural abilities and the direct, stated inspiration for them to work towards an equally powerful man they can control instead.

This version of the show would be simple and clean, and way too good for a world like Dune. If that’s all Desmond Hart really is, it would be incredibly easy to see how the rest of the show could fall into place. The war against Arrakis that episode 5 teases would see the Fremen claim victories thanks to the Bene Gesserit, and Mikaela (Shalom Brune-Franklin) would watch sadly as her people are fed a lie about Lisan al Gaib. The Sisterhood would learn to harness the voice and be perfectly recognizable to fans of the Denis Villeneuve films by the end of the show. In other words, Dune: Prophecy would the Solo: A Star Wars Story of the Dune universe, a short adventure that somehow fully explains the backstory of everyone involved, shrinking the universe while robbing it of its mystery.

The other version of Desmond, and the show as a whole, is messier. We call it the midi-chlorians path. The show should stop connecting the dots for this one. Let the revelation of Desmond’s shared Harkonnen and Atreides blood be a revelation purely for Tula and the audience, rather than something more important to the universe. Sure, these two bloodlines play a role in the Bene Gesserit plan to create the Kwisatz Haderach, but that doesn’t have to be part of the plot of this show.

This would provide the opportunity Dune: Prophecy‘s season 1 finale to open the door to the bigger, weirder parts of the Dune universe. It could show us the Spacing Guild and its bizarre Guild Navigators; it could open up the idea of ​​a complex, massive war against Arrakis, and small hints of the kind of battle that would force the Bene Gesserit to evolve into the clandestine organization we know it to be when the series begins in earnest. Like The phantom menace‘s one-time mention of midi-chlorians, which Dune: Prophecy needs of today is world-building through unanswered and unanswerable questions, rather than through overly simple facts. If this season is all setting the table for a stranger universe, then its clumsiness would be easy to forgive.

Obviously, midi-chlorians have a bit of a negative connotation for science fiction fans as a betrayal of the elegant world-building of the original Star Wars trilogy; Dune: Prophecy that would never be the case. What I’m saying is that at this point we can really hope for the ambition of the Star Wars prequels, which continually expanded its galaxy in both good and bad ways, rather than the tight corporate pressure of Disney’s time with the series, so far that simply made it smaller and tighter with each entry.

But to step away from all the Star Wars analogies for a moment, Dune is a series that has always been at its best when it’s at its strangest and most ambitious. The original book is a masterpiece with one of the best and most interesting science fiction worlds ever created. It’s well made not because of the careful connection of all the wires, but rather because of the messiness Frank Herbert has left around the edges, little threads that he can pull later if he feels like it.

And Dune: Prophecydespite all the boring scenes and overly important lines it’s had so far, it’s still able to create those wonderfully ragged edges in the first season. But to do that, the finale will have to be big, messy, and ambitious in a way that the show has only hinted at thus far.