The Emperor promotes Desmond who instantly goes to war on the rebels. House Harkonnen fragments, Lila wakes up. Then Lila wakes up again. And the sisters discover who, and what, Desmond really is.

The penultimate episode of a season is normally where everything is moved around to set up the finale. Dune: Prophecy just blows things up instead. After a deceptively sedate start, in one case literally. We get a string of massive reveals that set up a finale with even higher stakes than we first thought.

It does this by finally drawing every element of the large cast together and giving them all something to do. Constantine’s past, and present, are smartly resolved as we find out he’s the son of Francesca (Tabu), a powerful member of the Sisterhood and the Emperor’s first love. Who, of course, arrives this week. Josh Heuston has been given little to do but look decorative for a while but this episode both he and Chris Mason as Keiran Atreides get some really meaty scenes together, as does Sarah-Sofie Boussnina as Princess Ynez.

All three reflect the others in different ways, showing different facets as we change perspective, Ynez is a powerful future Sister rendered irrelevant by the clash with Valya who realises she’s doubly irrelevant because Constantine is a male heir, albeit an illegitimate one. For Constantine, Ynez is an ideal to be protected but not listened to. For Keiran, they’re both vital parts of the man he’s been told to be but not the man he is. None of them make good choices, all of them make understandable ones and the show gets some incredible moments from their interaction: Keiran’s disgust at realising who he’s really been working for. Constantine’s pride at being handed the poisoned chalice of the Arrakis fleet. Ynez being pushed into the arms of the one person no one wants her to go near: Keiran. The future is here, and it’s furious and sick of the past’s nonsense. Jodhi May too gets some excellent material this week as Empress Natalya who sees her old rival return, sees her husband start to bloom and makes a choice very similar to her daughter’s. Ynez finds comfort in revolution. Natalya finds it in the true power behind the throne: Desmond.

Travis Fimmel has been given one of the oddest jobs on this show and over the last couple of weeks we’ve seen further and further behind the convincing human mask Desmond wears. He’s an empty vessel filled with trauma and self-awareness, and Fimmel shows us the man bouncing around inside that shell this week. He goes from smug, to terrifying, to terrified and somehow is even more dangerous for that last one. Desmond seems to know he’s damned. The Empress doesn’t care. Both of them leave this episode on the same side in the most dangerous of ways. It’s incredible work from Fimmel and May and I’m thrilled to see where they go in the finale.

This episode’s most impressive work comes from Chloe Lea as Lila. Or rather, Lila and Raquella. Maybe. The shift in her character post-Agony is incredible, and the scenes where she sweeps around doing Science about Desmond are wonderful. Lea plays old, experienced and determined brilliantly and given the talent she shares the screen with that’s especially impressive. As is the implication that Dorotea, who Valya murdered for the Sisterhood, may actually be who has returned rather than Raquella. Lea plays two, maybe three people at once and shows you all of them without confirming who is who. It’s remarkable work.

The ending impresses too. In a move that’s both obvious and somehow still a surprise it’s revealed that Desmond is a member of both the Harkonnnen and Atreides families. His bloodline is what saved him from Shai-Halud and as the episode finishes we’re left with another moment of delicious ambiguity; a tearful, rapturous Tula looking at the results. Either she thinks Desmond is the Kwisatz Haderach or he’s the door to it. Either way, he’s not the saviour everyone hopes he is.

Verdict: Next week, I suspect, things are going to burn. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart