Prophecy Episode 2’s Big Death Isn’t As Tragic As It Seems

Key Takeaways

• Bodies pile up in Dune: Prophecy, hinting at future war between the Great Houses.
• Lila dies in tragic sacrifice, adding to the Bene Gesserit’s strength.
• Lila’s death raises questions about her mysterious mother and potential return in the future.

Diane Ademu-John and Alison Schapker’s Dune: Prophecy is only in its second week, but already, the bodies are piling up. The Great Houses aren’t quite at war yet, but with a rebel insurgence on Arrakis and the Bene Gesserit already showing fractures, things are heading in that direction in Dune: Prophecy season 1.

Set 10,148 years before the birth of Paul Atreides, the Dune prequel charts the rise of the Bene Gesserit under the stoic Mother Superior Valya Harkonnen (Emily Watson). While the Bene Gesserit have plans to put one of their own on the throne, their ranks lost another in November 24’s episode, ”Two Wolves.” It was suitably tragic, but fear not. Sacrifice only makes the Bene Gesserit stronger.

Who Dies in Dune Prophecy Episode 2?

It was a short but sweet stint in Dune: Prophecy for Chloe Lea’s Lila. Although Tula Harkonnen (Olivia Williams) foresaw her as a future Reverend Mother, Lila perished in the Sisterhood’s quest to save itself. While Valya was away dealing with the deaths of Lord Pruwet Richese (Charlie Hodson-Prior) and Reverend Mother Kasha (Jihae Kim) in the first episode, she left her sister in charge of the school and asked her to put Lila through “the Spice Agony.”

Tula was seen preparing the Rossak poison, which is a nod to the ritual being tied to its discovery on Rossak in the books. 2004’s Dune: The Battle of Corrin by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson fleshed out the ritual when it confirmed that Raquella Berto-Anirul (Cathy Tyson) was poisoned by Rossak Sorceress Ticia Cenva, and managed to successfully convert the drug into a harmless substance. One of the side effects of the substance is an ability to visit the combined ego and memories of someone’s female ancestors. However, as Lila’s death proves, they aren’t always happy to receive visitors.

The Agony is already familiar to fans of Frank Herbert’s original books and the movies. Both Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) and Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) have been put through it. Most famously, Paul undertook the Agony in Dune: Part Two and emerged on the other side as the fabled Kwisatz Haderach/Lisan al Gaib. The Spice Agony involves aspiring Reverend Mothers ingesting the blue substance, but as terrible as it is for them, it’s worse for men. As noted by reverend Mother Helen Mohiam in Dune, all the men who have tried to transmute the Water of Life have died.

After being inflicted with a deadly poison, Lila metabolized the toxin and successfully took her consciousness to meet her ancestors in her Other Memory. She met with Raquella, who was not only the first leader of the Bene Gesserit, but Lila’s great-great-grandmother. Although Raquella looked like she was there to help her relative, things were interrupted by the spirit of Sister Dorothea. 30 years before the main events of the series, Valya first used ‘the Voice’ and forced Dorothea to kill herself.

As a vengeful Dorothea warned Tula, Valya took her future, so now she’s going to take her ‘hope.’ With Lila being something of an adopted daughter to Tula, Dorothea delivered a harrowing gut punch by killing Lila on Wallach IX and therefore killing her physical form. Considering Lila seemed like an underrated character who was full of promise without the ego of some of the other girls, it was a shock to see her bow out so early – especially considering her connection to Raquella and the fact that Dorothea was her own grandmother.

Lila’s Death Makes Perfect Sense

There are already swirling theories that Lila might not be gone for good. Herbert’s Children of Dune shows Paul’s sister, Alia (briefly played by Anya Taylor-Joy in Dune: Part Two), possessed by the spirit of Baron Harkonnen – her biological grandfather. Dorothea was out for revenge, and if she could possess Lila while tricking Tula into thinking she’s still alive, there could be serious trouble at the school.

Most importantly, Lila’s death allowed Raquella to warn the sisters about the upcoming Tiran-Arafel, with her telling the young acolyte:

The key to the reckoning is one born twice. Once in blood. Once in spice. A revenant full of scars. A weapon born of war, on a path too short.

The first episode foretold a great reckoning that would come at the hands of a tyrant, with ominous imagery teasing the destruction of the Bene Gesserit temple on Wallach IX. Even though it looked like this was foreshadowing Leto Atreides II as the God Emperor of Dune, the fact that Demond Hart (Travis Fimmel) ‘died’ on Arrakis and was reborn amid the war, he’s another potential player as the fabled Tiran-Arafel.

It also threw another mystery into the mix, with fans asking what happened to Lila’s mother. The young girls are taken from their biological mothers at birth to prevent them bonding, and although Tula told Lila her mother died in childbirth, it seems this was another lie from the Harkonnens. A hopeful Lila suggested she might see her mother in her Other Memory, but when Dorothea emerged from the shadows, she told Lila that her mystery mother wasn’t there. Instead, she suggested that the Bene Gesserit used it as a tool to get Lila to go there.

It’s clear that Lila’s mother didn’t die in childbirth. Since she isn’t there in her Other Memory, there could be some major ramifications if she’s still alive. Whether she’s a character that’s already been introduced or someone still to debut, the great-granddaughter of Raquella could be a powerful ally or a powerful enemy. There’s a reason Valya and Tula are keeping her fate a secret, but with Lila now dead, the past could catch up with the Harkonnen sisters. After all, Desmond Hart has already shown Valya she’s not as powerful as she thinks.

Even if Lila is gone in a physical form, she could appear further down the line. As Sister Emeline (Aoefie Hinds) told Lila before the Agony:

Reverend Mothers know better than anyone that the dead aren’t gone.

There’s an element of tragedy that Lila made the decision to undergo the Agony herself. But while the Raquella lineage has lost another, it feels like the continued mistakes of the Harkonnen line will come back to bite Valya and Tula. The show’s opening said it was about correcting inaccuracies of House Harkonnen’s history, but Mother Superior could be heading toward her own Duniverse version of Macbeth.