Following the massacre on Landsraad, Valya Harkonnen sends her sister, Tula, a sample of Desmond’s blood to run through the genetic project run by a thinking machine. The machine is able to not only determine Desmond’s familial heritage, but his specific parents. But what Tula found shook her world much more than Lila’s death and resurrection. Desmond was born from Harkonnen and Atreides parents, and conveniently, Dune: Prophecy showed a love scene between Tula Harkonnen and Orry Atreides in Episode 3. Desmond corroborates the machine’s findings with an aggrieved story about his upbringing, starting with him being abandoned by his mother, who was a Sister.
Desmond’s True Parentage Makes His Disdain for the Sisterhood Understandable
Dune: Prophecy 99% confirms that Desmond is the son of Tula Harkonnen and Orry Atreides with Tula’s stunned reaction masked by tears and Desmond’s enraged reasoning for targeting the Sisterhood. His hate for them isn’t political as previously assumed, but personal. Desmond sees himself as a victim of the Sisterhood’s chase for power, and no one can blame him for these vengeful feelings. As he claims, he was abandoned by his mother to be raised by Scavengers, forced to starve and steal to survive.
That leaves open to question why Tula would give her child an unforgiving fate. She’s not a saint, as demonstrated by her readiness to murder an entire Atreides party on Valya’s orders, but she’s also not a monster like her sister. Her giving up Desmond as a baby was perhaps forced by Valya, as a means to strip Tula of her humanity and connection to the Atreides family. Or the choice could’ve been completely made by Tula, either in a heartless act that she gravely regrets or as a means to give Desmond a normal life outside the Sisterhood.
As Dune: Prophecy is set 10,000 years before the time of Paul Atreides, the Bene Gesserit’s core values and practices are still in the works. Valya is only planting the seeds of what will eventually turn into the strict breeding program that will pave the way for the Kwisatz Haderach’s birth, a male Bene Gesserit who could access the memories of both his female and male ancestors. At this moment in time on Dune: Prophecy, the Kwisatz Haderach isn’t someone the Sisterhood is pursuing. Breeding children to continue generations and combining families isn’t the biggest focus of the Sisterhood, so there’s no telling what kind of life Desmond would’ve had in the all-female Sisterhood. Tula may have been trying to save him from a strange life with no purpose, but Desmond would never see it that way.
Tula and Valya May Reach a Breaking Point After This Revelation
Valya could also be a key factor in the decision, or lack thereof, of Desmond’s abandonment. Valya isn’t exactly what one would call a people person. She may speak highly of herself as an advocate for the Harkonnen family, but her greed and impulsivity only caused the family’s destruction. Tula herself is aware of the negative influence Valya has had on her. Valya corrupted Tula past a point that Tula can never bring herself back from. One possibility is that Tula sent Desmond away to prevent Valya from brainwashing him.
Another possibility is that Valya herself made the choice for Tula. It’s not far beneath Valya to take out her scorn for the Atreides family on a baby who didn’t choose his father. But if Valya made the call to erase Desmond from Tula’s life, there would be more animosity between them, even as grown adults. Regardless of the circumstances that led Desmond to where he is now, this revelation could be the motivation Tula needs to finally stand up to her sister.
Tula has sacrificed everything for Valya. Her baby, her family and Lila have all paid the heavy price of Valya’s entitlement. Desmond’s fate as a man tortured by a lost past and an unknown power will likely send Tula into a whirlwind of blame. Not just on herself, but on Valya. Tula being the guilt-ridden person who is yearning for connection, she may seek out a resolution to the conflict between Desmond and the Sisterhood, rather than jumping to his death as a solution. She would feel responsible for his pain and condition. But finding peace would mean getting into Valya’s crossfire, and there’s no telling if she’d even make it out alive.
Has Dune Overdone the Atreides & Harkonnen Plot Twist?
Yes, the “Luke, I Am Your Father” trope is not old news for Dune. It’s actually very easy for Dune to pin its faith on this trope to deliver an unexpected turn of events. The Atreides-Harkonnen blood feud is the nastiest, most disgraceful in that world. A person born from both families is the product of this strange combination of passionate hate and love. In Dune: Prophecy‘s defense, the blending of the Harkonnen and Atreides families being done in Dune: Part Two doesn’t water down the provocative scandal on the show. Desmond being Tula and Orry’s child does heighten the stakes. It shakes up the conflict so much that it’s impossible to tell where the story goes from here in Dune: Prophecy‘s finale.
Dune: Prophecy’s Season 1 finale premieres next Sunday at 9 PM ET on HBO.
