In the present, Valya regroups after being banished from the Court. In the past, Valya and Tula take very different paths to the Sisterhood.

This is the episode I’ve been waiting for. Monica Owusu-Breen and Jordan Goldberg’s script cleverly uses the seismic events of the last episode as a chance to take a step back and give us all the context we can take. It also manages the near impossible; sympathy for the Harkonnens.

Jessican Barden’s young Valya is an uncanny match for Emily Watson’s adult Mother Superior and burns with a rage that we see tempered in later life. Her clashes with her family and Dorotea are where that rage burns but it’s focused by her scenes with Cathy Tyson’s Mother Superior Raquella. This is a series about games within games, and it’s only at the end of the episode that Valya, and we, realize that Raquella has defined her choices for her, opening doors to Valya’s future and trusting her to go through them. It’s a clever ruse, and one that speaks to why Valya is the logical successor to Raquella. Her schemes cross generations, transcend ethics and attempt to build a utopian future out of a foundation of murder and blood. The fact that murder is all done in the name of familial reputational redemption is either mercenary, idealistic or both. Valya’s development of The Voice, and its adoption by the sisterhood speaks to both.

Tula’s actions are just as ambiguous. Emma Canning’s performance is just as uncanny as Barden’s. Where Barden explores Valya’s rage openly, Canning shows us the moment Tula realizes she’s damned. An extended interlude sees her dating Orry Atreides (Milo Callaghan) and clearly falling in love with him. This Tula is practical, hands on, compassionate and arguably even more ruthless than her sister. Canning’s performance here is extraordinarily good, showing us Tula’s pride and happiness and how she burns all of that for vengeance for her murdered brother. It’s a tough call to make and an even harder one to land given the murder is offscreen but Canning does it. The scene where Milo realizes the hunting camp has gone silent and we discover Tula has poisoned (almost) everyone is one of the most horrifying beats you’ll see this year.

These two performances anchor the episode and the series to date. Along with excellent work from Emily Watson and Olivia Williams as the adult sisters, Tyson’s Raquella and Barbara Marten’s work as Tula’s friend Avila, this is a script that seethes with Harkonnen rage, vengeance, terrible acts and context for all of them.

Verdict: Viciously dark, painfully human, with an absolute jawdropper of a final scene, this is the best episode of the show far. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart