Review: Dune: Prophecy, "Twice Born" | Season 1, Episode 4
I'm coming to the conclusion that six episodes for a dense sci-fi fantasy is...not enough
Last week, I noted the balance issues created by spending so much time in the first half of Dune: Prophecy’s short season in flashbacks, and I want to be clear that I don’t think this means the flashbacks are unproductive or extraneous. For every scene we’ve seen in the past, there has always been an echo in the future, and that continues into “Twice Born” on multiple levels.
Let’s take, for example, the premiere’s emphasis on the tension between Valya and Dorotea in the period of Raquella’s death. At the time, we naturally saw this as a backstory for Valya’s role as Mother Superior, but in the wake of Lila’s death there is a new tension emerging within the Sisterhood as her fellow acolytes struggle with what they’re being asked to accept. The idea that Dorotea’s teachings have lived on within the Sisterhood is a reminder that there are echoes that go beyond Tula’s nightmare about people learning the truth of Dorotea’s death, and they’re playing out a crucial time for the Sis…
