The ending of Dune: Prophecy episode 3 “Sisterhood Above All” raises several questions about the past and future of Tula Harkonnen. Dune: Prophecy is a six-part series based on the 2012 novel Sisterhood of Dune, which was written by original Dune author Frank Herbert’s son, Brian, and Kevin J. Anderson. The story takes place more than 10,000 years before the rise of Paul Atreidies, which is chronicled in Denis Villenueve’s Dune (2020) and Dune: Part Two (2024). Dune: Prophecy reveals the origins of the powerful shadow sisterhood known as the Bene Gesserit and how they manipulated the fate of humankind.

Dune: Prophecy episode 1 “The Hidden Hand” introduced Emily Watson’s Valya Harkonnen, a fierce and calculated leader, and her biological sister, Tula Harkonnen. Dune: Prophecy episode 2 reveals what happened to Lila and her grandmother, Reverend Mother Dorotea, after Tula and Valya Harkoennen encouraged her to prematurely endure a life-threatening ritual known as The Agony. In Dune: Prophecy episode 3, Tula takes Lila’s life into her own hands after she had apparently died during The Agony ritual and tries to resurrect her through the use of forbidden Thinking Machines concealed by Valya and the Bene Gesserit.

New episodes of Dune: Prophecy release every Sunday at 9 PM on HBO & MAX.

What Happened To Griffin Harkonnen

He died after facing Vorian Atreides on Salusa Secundus

Dune: Prophecy episode 3 introduces Valya and Tula’s only brother, Griffin Harkonnen. Back on their home planet of Lankiveil, House Harkonnen has been shunned by the Imperium as a result of their ancestor’s alleged cowardice during the Battle of Corrin by Vorian Atredies. While the Harkonnen people have become reduced to harvesting whale fur, a bold and defiant Valya refuses to allow her family name to be discarded by the Imperium.

Griffin explains to his family that he is heading out to Zimia, which is the main city of the Corrino home planet of Salusa Secundus, because Landsraad, or the body that represented all the Great Houses, accepted his petition to secure a better whale fur trade deal. While he’s in Zimia, Griffin sets out to track down and face Vorian Atreides, who Valya blames for dishonoring House Harkonnen. It’s implied that Griffin did face Vorian like Valya wanted him to and died for doing so.

Why Tula Harkonnen Killed Orry Atreides

Valya ordered Tula to fool him into love and kill him

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Valya and Tula Harkonnen dedicated their lives to avenging their family name and their brother Griffin’s death, which further fueled their hatred for House Atreides. While Valya went off to train with the Sisterhood, Tula concealed her true identity and “fell in love” with Orry Atreides on the Atriedes’ home planet of Caladan. Orry and Tula had met at a market where Orry sparked up a conversation and asked Tula to marry him only months later. Tula seems to accept Orry’s marriage proposal but reveals herself to be a Harkonnen, which devastates Orry. He steps outside to see many members of his family dead before Tula kills him to avenge Griffin’s death based on Valya’s orders.

The Bull Meaning In House Harkonnen Explained

Harkonnen means “ox-like person” in Finnish

Tula kills Orry with a relatively painless and swift poison but how more than two dozen Atreides members died is more ambiguous. After Tula kills Orry but spares a young Atreides boy who could very well be Keiran, she looks up to the top of a cliff and sees a mythical black bull. Although it’s never stated in Dune: Prophecy episode 3, it appears that the bull had murdered all the Atreides at the camp. The bull is a symbol of House Harkonnen since the name Harkonnen is based on the Finnish name Härkönen which means “Oxy” or “Ox-like person.” Since Tula could not have killed all those Atreides by herself, the mythical bull that she sees after killing Orry is the most likely culprit.

What Raquella Showed Valya In The Tunnels

She reveals how the genetic index is computed

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Dune: Prophecy episode 3 reveals how Mother Reverend Superior Raquella took a special interest in a struggling pupil named Valya Harkonnen. Raquella took Valya under her wing and started to let her in on her grand vision for the Bene Gesserit, which was to establish a massive genetic index in order to breed ideal rulers for the Imperium. Raquella is impressed by Valya’s ability with The Voice and entrusts her with carrying on her vision of the Bene Gesserit instead of her more puritanical daughter, Dorotea. Rather than learning from Dorotea, Valya is given a special mentorship by Raquella, who shows her how she assembles her genetic breeding index in the tunnels using forbidden Thinking Machine technology.

What Happened To Valya During The Agony

She discovered her ancestral purpose

It’s not exactly clear what Valya saw during her self-administered Agony ritual, which she underwent by herself in Lankiveil. She enters the same sinister spiritual realm with all of her Harkonnen female ancestors as Lila did with her foremothers in Dune: Prophecy episode 2. Valya is able to return to reality after surviving The Agony and reunites with Tula with a new vision for the future. Dissatisfied with her life on Lankiveil and detested by her parents, Valya vows at this moment to commit her entire life to her newfound family – the Sisterhood. She will return to Mother Reverend Superior Raquella to complete her Sisterhood vow.

Who Did Valya Visit At The End Of Episode 3?

Her nephew Harrow Harkonnen & her aging father Evengy

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Back in the present timeline in Dune: Propechy, Valya makes a surprise visit to her nephew, Harrow Harkonnen, and her aging father, Evengy Harkonnen. She says in the elevator on the way up to Evengy’s home, “Sacrifices must be made. Sisterhood above all.” The scene cuts out and the episode concludes before anything else can occur. In the context of the present-day timeline in the series, Valya is anxiously trying to figure out what to do after she unsuccessfully tried to use the Voice on Desmond Hart to kill him and was banned from Salusa Secundus. It’s possible that she may offer up her father and/or her nephew as some type of peacemaking or power-affirming maneuver.

How Tula Plans To Bring Lila Back To Life

Tula uses Valya’s secret Thinking Machine computers

Tula uses Raquella and Valya’s genetic indexing computers in the final scene of Dune: Prophecy episode 3 in a last-ditch attempt to bring Lila back to life with a carefully regulated dose of spice. Tula clearly has a bigger heart than Valya and will go to great lengths to bring her back from a wrongful premature death in the name of the Sisterhood. Even though Tula is not Lila’s mother, she raised her as such after her mother died during childbirth – or at least that’s what Tula claims to have happened. The computer technology that Tula uses at the end of Dune: Prophecy will try to bring Lila back to life and pull her out of the realm where she encountered Raquella and Dorotea.