Dune: Prophecy takes fans of Denis Villeneuve’s blockbuster adaptations of Frank Herbert’s beloved sci-fi epic Dune back to how the story of the Bene Gesserit and Paul Atreides all started. HBO’s Dune: Prophecy is set about ten thousand years before Timothée Chalamet‘s Kwisatz Haderach would ride a sandworm, but it’s set in a familiar world, nonetheless. There’s a sketchy Sisterhood of Truthsayers who can command people with their Voice, a feckless emperor named Corrino with a beautiful daughter, and spice flowing from far off Arrakis. However, as the final sequence of Dune: Prophecy Episode 1 “The Hidden Hand,” reveals that this HBO prequel series is mixing things up big time when it comes to Travis Fimmel‘s mysterious character, Desmond Hart.
**Spoilers for the end of Dune: Prophecy Episode 1 “The Hidden Hand,” now streaming on Max**
The very first episode of Dune: Prophecy ends with Emperor Javicco Corrino’s (Mark Strong) biggest fan, Desmond Hart, using mysterious powers to murder two unwitting victims: the pint-sized Pruwet Richese (Charlie Hodson-Prior) and the Emperor’s own trusted Truthsayer, Mother Kasha (Jihae). Both Pruwet and Kasha appear to burn to death from within and it’s clear that Desmond Hart has some sort of psychic ability to make this happen.
Dune: Prophecy‘s first episode opens with the story of how young Valya Harkonnen (Jessica Barden) originated the Bene Gesserit’s iconic “Voice,” but it ends with Desmond Hart using a magical power we’ve never seen in the franchise before.
What does it all mean? Who is Desmond Hart? How do his powers work? And why did he kill Mother Kasha and Pruwet Richese? Here’s everything we know so far about Desmond Hart on Dune: Prophecy…
Dune: Prophecy Episode 1 Ending Explained: Who is Desmond Hart?
Desmond Hart is a soldier who shocks Emperor Javicco Corrino with his arrival at House Corrino’s palace on their homeworld of Salusa Secundus in Dune: Prophecy Episode 1. We quickly learn that Desmond Hart is one of the few soldiers who has survived multiple tours serving on the dangerous desert planet of Arrakis. In fact, he was presumed dead after one recent disaster.
However, Desmond Hart is alive and he brings news of treachery in the Imperium. While Emperor Corrino believes that is only the native Fremen who are attacking spice convoys, Desmond Hart reveals that traitors to the Emperor engineered the battle that was supposed to have killed him. What’s more, Desmond Hart also survived being swallowed by a sandworm. A SANDWORM!!
Desmond Hart claims he just wants to continue to serve House Corrino so he is allowed to stick around to enjoy the festivities surrounding Princess Ynez’s (Sarah-Sofie Boussnina) engagement to young Pruwet Richese. When the little boy accidentally lets a forbidden AI toy loose at the party, it is Desmond Hart who stops the mechanical lizard from running free.
After the Emperor confides in Desmond that if only some higher power could stop Ynez’s union with Pruwet, the soldier takes gruesome action. He stumbles upon the little boy playing with his toy in the catacombs of the palace. After the little boy confesses he had a bad nightmare, Desmond talks to Pruwet of a great war being waged in plain sight. One between humanity and a new insidious force that has stepped in to do our thinking for us. (He means the Sisterhood.)
Desmond then says sacrifices must be made — including Pruwet himself. He touches his temple, concentrates, and the little boy begins to howl in agony as his body begins to immolate from within.
“That little kid was a legend. I loved it,” Dune: Prophecy star Travis Fimmel told Decider during a roundtable interview at New York Comic-Con. “He’s an absolute little legend and I felt bad. He was all upset when I was doing it. ‘I’m sorry!’”
“That was your first day,” Dune: Prophecy EP Jordan Goldberg pointed out.
“Yeah, I think it was,” Fimmel said. “It’s a pretty bad way to die, burning from the inside.”
Sister Kasha, who fled to the Sisterhood’s homeword of Wallach IX after experiencing a prophetic nightmare immediately after Desmond’s arrival, experiences the exact same “pretty bad way to die” on the other side of the universe.
She wakens up the entire school with her screams. Mother Valya (Emily Watson) witnesses Kasha’s death and whispers, “I see, Mother,” referring to the vision her mentor, Reverend Mother Raquella Berto-Anirul (Cathy Tyson), saw on her own death bed.
What Are Desmond Hart’s Powers on Dune: Prophecy? Is He A Kwisatz Haderach?
We’ve only just met Desmond Hart in Dune: Prophecy and he’s already upending everything we know about Dune. He is an original character who is NOT in the books. His powers seem to have been potentially created by an encounter with a Sandworm on Arrakis, which might make you wonder if he’s an original incarnation of that which Paul Atreides will eventually be: a Kwisatz Haderach.
“Well, I don’t want to say much as I don’t want to ruin what you learn by the end of this season of television,” Jordan Goldberg said in the same roundtable interview. “It’s a bit of a mystical situation that he endured.”
“Really, you know, with a lot of things in Dune, these myths, particularly something like Paul Atreides, how the Bene Gesserit kind of planted the mythology before he arrives. The question is what’s true, what’s not true, how did it happen and all that kind of stuff.”
Travis Fimmel conceded that “it’s a unique power” for Dune. “Is there anything in the books that? I don’t know, but it’s something different,” he said. “You haven’t seen it before.”
Fimmel also revealed that it was “difficult” to play the “superpower” on set. “I didn’t have a clue what to do,” Fimmel said, laughing. “I was just making faces, doing stuff.”
We’ll hopefully learn more about the scope and limits of Desmond Hart’s powers in the weeks ahead on Dune: Prophecy, but for now, Goldberg wants you to know that it’s “meant” to be mysterious.
“You’ll have an answer, but it’s meant to be shrouded in mystery,” he said.
