The first episode of Dune: We go 10,000 years before Paul Atreides, after humanity has won the Machine Wars and establishes the foundation for the Bene Gesserit order, part of the story that is not even mention during the movies, something that for me as a new Dune fan I'm very eager to know more about but for that I might have to look for the books and not for any other sequel or TV Series. In the beginning of the episode name The Hidden Hand, we see a mix of past and present, the usual time jumps that might get viewers lost if not paying close attention specially on Valya Harkonnen life, where we find out how the sisterhood became and what their first goals were when they were left with nothing after the devastating war against thinking machines. Those early days of the Empire would see two Harkonnen sisters have an impact on the rest of the galaxy through their own actions and decisions; Valya and Tula.
The Machine Wars, also known as the Butlerian Jihad; a term I actually found when looking up more about this war, where humanity fought against AI that wanted to dominate everything, from the start, we are introduced to a universe that is trying to rebuild itself after a devastating conflict, the episode skips between different time periods, it begins with the first Mother Superior’s death, then 30 years forward to where the series is now, just by this example time gaps are a thing and probably became a problem for the story telling part of the episode. To be hones some of the CGI effects during the Machine Wars flashbacks feel a little let down, a bit flat even cliche, the production values really shine when we get to rest of the episode but at first look like a cheap copy of the Matrix, the series starts to resonate with the movies and probably make sense for fans when Valya use the voice for the first time on Dorotea, big dopamine moment for fans watching the series.
Some of the first and main characters we meet are Emperor Corrino played by Mark Strong and his daughter Princess Ynez, as well as a mysterious dude named Desmond Hart played Travis Fimmel; who does a fantastic job giving me Ragnar Lothbrok vibes from the Vikings TV Series, Desmond seemed to have gotten through the meeting with the Freemen and probably sandworm on Arrakis. What's interesting about this episode is that it shows the Harkonnen family in a different light, long before they become the monsters of the latest Dune movies that I know, when we see them as somewhat decent people trying to rebuild their family's reputation after they were accused of desertion during The Machine Wars.
When you look at the bigger picture the episode raises some interesting themes of control, power and manipulation, the usual Dune stuff, multiple families trying to grasp as much power as they can, all under the umbrella of The Emperor. One of the main aspects of the episode is how the Bene Gesserit are shown in their early stages already plotting their long term breeding program which would eventually lead to the Kwisatz Haderach, from what I could find online this is a nice touches for fans of the original story, we see them use their abilities like truth saying and the first appearance of "the Voice" through Valya Harkonnen.
I’m mixed on this first episode, but leaning positive as I get to discover more details about the story and that's exactly what I want from this series to explain more detailed how everything started and not just a side story, I like how they’re trying to expand the Dune universe by showing us this important time in its history but sometimes it feels like they’re trying to juggle too many plot threads. While it’s necessary to set the background with these time jumps, it’s difficult to connect with the characters and gets to the heart of their motives, for example Desmond is a HUGE cliff hanger on episode one. There is also the political intrigue and House Corrino and House Richese's marriage arrangement are interesting, and the episode does pick up steam between this two.
The episode starts to pick up some conflicting mood when the young heir of House Richese is found with a thinking machine; a small kind of lizard who is alive, strictly forbidden after the wars, after Princes Ynez; now his wife, asks him during the betrothal ceremony what he had there playing with. When it reaches this point, there is more at stake because it reveals deeper tensions within the empire, some factions want to go back to using thinking machines, even though the horrors of the Machine Wars were still very fresh in people’s memory. The Emperor's attempt to deal with this reveal says so much about the delicate political state he is attempting to maintain, preferring diplomacy over the very quick punishment, both his wife and daughter where expecting an iron fist attitude but The Emperor is a very firm man who has decided to follow his advisor sister Kasha, the wedding is their main goal and goes over everything at the moment, there will be time for other matters.
All the tension during the weeding leads to the princess and her brother attending a spice fueled party, giving us our first peak into how spice was used recreationally in this time, very different from its later role in space travel and political power but nothing mayor other than the princess having an affair with her sword master Keiran Atreides. We also get a crucial conversation between Desmond Hart and the Emperor during these final scenes where Hart's true motivations begin to become clear, his survival of a sandworm attack that remains mysterious and his obvious vendetta against the Bene Gesserit suggest he will be a major antagonist going forward but the question is if he is alone and how he got those powers?.
There are a lot of threads left hanging in the episode, the failed betrothal, the discovery of banned technology, the increasing conflicts between the houses and the suggestion of something much more sinister at bay among those who would like to return to using thinking machines. The interesting thing about these final moments is they are similar to the events that will happen thousands of years later for Paul Atreides and that history in the Dune universe tends to repeat itself, everything goes in circles.
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