Speaker 1: Warning, Today's episode contains spoilers for Dune Prophecy Episode two
Speaker 1: two Wolves. Hi, folks, I'm a boo and welcome to
Speaker 1: x ray Vision Extras and x Ray Vision Series, where
Speaker 1: we dive deep into even more of your favorite shows, movies, comics,
Speaker 1: and pop culture. Every superhero team needs side quests and
Speaker 1: our rotating panel of producers and guest hosts. We'll be
Speaker 1: suiting up to help Jason and Rosie cover all of
Speaker 1: the amazing nerd content out there today. I'm joined by
Speaker 1: my fellow Dune nerds h and Jason. Let's go from
Speaker 1: the Escape Patch podcast. Guys, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: joining me.
Speaker 2: The Dune Nerd cohort.
Speaker 3: That's right, our legion, we stretch across the galaxy. It's
Speaker 3: our time, stronger than we've ever been down here, it's
Speaker 3: our time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we've labored in darkness for twenty forty fifty years.
Speaker 2: Now the light of Max has shown upon us.
Speaker 1: That's right. Yeah, so I might say we've waited ten
Speaker 1: thousand years. Yeah, and our plans have finally come to fruition.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: We're living in a bit of a dunoisance, aren't we.
Speaker 1: Like there's been no better time to be a Dune fan.
Speaker 3: I'd say it's pretty crazy watching this show and I'm like,
Speaker 3: is this too much Dune?
Speaker 2: Am I like, as like a.
Speaker 3: Big dune head who's talked about Dune and has a
Speaker 3: Dune podcasts, I'm like.
Speaker 2: This is a lot. There's a lot of Dune for people.
Speaker 2: I hope the people want Dune because they're getting it
Speaker 2: in spades right now. It's a bumper crop season.
Speaker 4: And then the backdrop of this, you've got the full
Speaker 4: on Dune Part two FYC campaign running. You know, Denise
Speaker 4: sitting down with Nolan and Zendeas out there like those
Speaker 4: people are just on one right now. It is happening. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a lot of Dune out there, and I
Speaker 1: feel like the people do want Dune. You know, people
Speaker 1: are eating it up and being introduced to this world.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of Spice daddies out there who have
Speaker 1: been Dune fans since the eighties nineties and then passed
Speaker 1: it on to their children. But I think we're getting
Speaker 1: a new cohort of Dune fans as well, thanks to
Speaker 1: the Danny Ville Neve adaptations and all this new Dune
Speaker 1: stuff forgetting I'll.
Speaker 2: Be right back. I got to update my bio to
Speaker 2: say spice Daddy.
Speaker 4: I also think with this episode, I think this show
Speaker 4: is starting to find its footing, yeah, and really starting
Speaker 4: to kick into gears. So it'll be interesting to see
Speaker 4: how that resonates with people out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely. Well, before we jump into recapping this episode
Speaker 1: and sharing all of our nerdy Dune thoughts about it,
Speaker 1: I am curious for our X ray Vision listeners who
Speaker 1: might not have heard your guys' work. Can you each
Speaker 1: fill me in on what your history with Dune is,
Speaker 1: When did you first come across it, and how's it
Speaker 1: played a role in your life.
Speaker 4: So I read Dune at thirteen and was absolutely obsessed
Speaker 4: with how awesome it was and what it would be
Speaker 4: like to have all these super cool powers and to
Speaker 4: beat Paula Trady's the coolest hero ever out there. And
Speaker 4: I made it most of the way through Children Dune
Speaker 4: before falling off and giving up nerdom for a while
Speaker 4: through high school. So it's just been something that was there,
Speaker 4: and as I circle back around, it has been an
Speaker 4: anchor point for me, so much so that Jason and
Speaker 4: I started a Dune podcast in twenty twenty just in
Speaker 4: anticipation of the new Dune movie coming out, So that's
Speaker 4: how we got into it.
Speaker 1: Nice. What about you, Jason, Yeah, somewhat similar.
Speaker 3: And you know, it's funny because we asked this question
Speaker 3: of people as well who come on our podcast, and
Speaker 3: some of them have no history with Dune, and some
Speaker 3: of them have a very long history. The ones that
Speaker 3: do it does tend to center around the thirteen year old,
Speaker 3: mostly boy but not exclusively audience certainly that found this
Speaker 3: book and like it just was like a prescient drug.
Speaker 3: You know, it was a hallucinatory drug for a certain
Speaker 3: type of nerdy gen X boy who was like, yes,
Speaker 3: like there's a universe of special people. I knew it,
Speaker 3: and if I could only use my brain to like
Speaker 3: hone my attention and harness my body, then I too
Speaker 3: could be the universe's ultimate as super being. I think
Speaker 3: it's a message that does speak particularly to teenagers, and
Speaker 3: then I think the rewarding part of Doune is that
Speaker 3: you get older and you read into it, you realize
Speaker 3: how subversive a lot of that message is actually meant
Speaker 3: to be, and there's actual layers and nuanced to that
Speaker 3: kind of surface the uber Mench story, and that's what
Speaker 3: led us to start a podcast about it, and it's
Speaker 3: been super fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the darker side of that power fantasy, right, mm hmmm,
Speaker 1: it would actually maybe be a little awful being Spider
Speaker 1: Man as cool as it would be to swing around. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And the danger of other people getting caught up in it, right,
Speaker 4: other people being obsessed with this hero as being the
Speaker 4: real challenge.
Speaker 3: And as time has gone on, the message of the
Speaker 3: danger of a charismatic leader generally and the danger of
Speaker 3: a charismatic leader who's also a super nerd has only
Speaker 3: become more relevant to our current state of affairs. So
Speaker 3: it's really funny that Denny finally succeeded in bringing this
Speaker 3: work to the screen after so many kin of there's
Speaker 3: adaptations that we are fond of, but there are haven't
Speaker 3: even ones that really plumb the true depths of what this.
Speaker 2: Work I think Frank Arbin intended.
Speaker 3: And now we're in this place where people are able
Speaker 3: to really see it for what it is, and it's
Speaker 3: pretty great and right on time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, totally. Okay, Well, let's get into Dune Prophecy what
Speaker 1: we're all here to talk about, specifically Dune Prophecy episode two.
Speaker 1: Jumping right into our recap, we begin this episode with
Speaker 1: a credit sequence, yeah, something we didn't get in the
Speaker 1: pilot episode. We get like a very classic HBO credit sequence.
Speaker 1: Lots of sand, lots of dune imagery, lots of worm stuff,
Speaker 1: the blade with the blood.
Speaker 3: Blade with the blood pomegranate, that's right, very sexy pomegranate.
Speaker 1: A lot of imagery here. And certainly I don't know
Speaker 1: if you two watched Foundation on Apple TV Plus, but
Speaker 1: I got shades of Foundation intro sequence, yeah from this
Speaker 1: as well, for sure. And after this credit opening credit sequence,
Speaker 1: we joined Tula back on Wallack nine as she and
Speaker 1: a former Benny Jesuits sister named doctor Nazir, who is
Speaker 1: now a Souk doctor. And we know that from the
Speaker 1: female suk that's right, a female Suk doctor. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: know that from the diamond on her forehead. They examined
Speaker 1: Kasha's body and ultimately the examination is basically inconclusive. All
Speaker 1: they've been able to tell so far is that there
Speaker 1: was no use of a quote unquote accelerant in the
Speaker 1: body to look could not detect anything there, and doctor
Speaker 1: Nazir tells us that there was a quote acute imbalance
Speaker 1: in her meridian network end quote.
Speaker 3: I mean, like, who hasn't been through that honestly, Like
Speaker 3: I have two I have two children, and my meridian
Speaker 3: lines have not been balanced in approximately six to seven years.
Speaker 2: Real.
Speaker 3: Yeah, though that's unreal. She died of like improper Kundalini
Speaker 3: yoga practice, Yeah, exactly, Like it's a it's a real
Speaker 3: indictment of whatever Pilate studio she went to right before
Speaker 3: taking a nap.
Speaker 2: So yeah, bummer for her. She really just went up
Speaker 2: like a Roman candle because of that reformer Mischache. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't know, or Casha, Yeah all right, Pete.
Speaker 1: But what I find interesting is I think the show
Speaker 1: is still keeping it very open to interpretation, especially for
Speaker 1: Dene nerds like us. What this was. Are we talking
Speaker 1: in psychic magic power? Are we talking like tlaylac xue, nanobots,
Speaker 1: technology attack?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: Doctor Nazir and Toula's examination still leaves both possibilities open
Speaker 1: In my mind totally.
Speaker 3: I think that's one of the most exciting things being
Speaker 3: a dunehead but not familiar with this story in any way,
Speaker 3: is that like, up until literally these two hours of television,
Speaker 3: there is not a thing from Dune Proper that you
Speaker 3: could put on screen where I wouldn't be like, well,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 2: That's doctor Yue.
Speaker 3: He's gonna portray everyone Like yeah, I would know what
Speaker 3: was being signified by even if they were dressing it
Speaker 3: up in different terms, even if it was like Yodoroski's
Speaker 3: doing a Mick Jagger was in it or whatever. It's like,
Speaker 3: I know where the story's going because I know the
Speaker 3: bones of it. This is like this meridian misalignment combustioned situation.
Speaker 2: I don't know, I got nothing on that. I haven't
Speaker 2: seen that before.
Speaker 3: And so it is fun to finally be presented with
Speaker 3: a real mystery. And I would say in Dune there's
Speaker 3: not often a lot of real mystery because Herbert is
Speaker 3: notorious for saying there's a secret plot at work in
Speaker 3: chapter one, right, and then chapter two is the meeting
Speaker 3: of the secret plotters, who tell you exactly what the
Speaker 3: secret plot is, and so there's really not a mystery.
Speaker 3: It's just a question of how the main character is
Speaker 3: going to bump up against the mystery. And even the
Speaker 3: main character is usually a super being who's omnipresent and omniprescient,
Speaker 3: and you know when they finally encounter the plotters, like, yeah, man,
Speaker 3: I know you've been doing this.
Speaker 2: Shit since the beginning. Oh this is that, Like, this
Speaker 2: is not a big surprise for me.
Speaker 3: The universe is super being. What did you think you're
Speaker 3: gonna pull here? But like on this one, like I'm
Speaker 3: completely in the dark age. I don't know if you
Speaker 3: knew what was going on with the combustion.
Speaker 4: No, it's I think this is a fun part. And
Speaker 4: but we specifically have not read any of Brian's books,
Speaker 4: so we are coming into this fairly open. But to me,
Speaker 4: the interesting part of this I had to look up
Speaker 4: what is the Meridian Network, and it's a traditional Chinese
Speaker 4: medicine concept. And this is again Herbert blending all these
Speaker 4: different techniques and all these religions and all these different
Speaker 4: ideas that are not just traditional Western infusing them together
Speaker 4: in a very interesting way. Like, of course the Souk
Speaker 4: would be trained on traditional Chinese medicine and chi and
Speaker 4: that stuff.
Speaker 1: So yeah, of course, y plus the connection to the
Speaker 1: Mandarin that we saw in the Villna films from Doctor.
Speaker 4: YUEI Yeah, yeah, absolutely very cool.
Speaker 1: Well, returning to our recap, Tula gives Folly an update
Speaker 1: on the Kasha situation and Volley declares, Yo, okay, I
Speaker 1: gotta go to Seleucia secundis. Things are up in the air,
Speaker 1: and I need to go fill the gap left by Kasha.
Speaker 1: I gotta get this situation with house for Chesy and
Speaker 1: the Emperor under control while I'm away, Valia, I need
Speaker 1: you to have Lilah undergo the agony.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: And so one interesting thing here she does not say like,
Speaker 4: let me go make sure and protect Inez. She says,
Speaker 4: we need to secure the princess to protect our plans. Like,
Speaker 4: it is not about Inez who need to be protected.
Speaker 4: It's just about what Valia wants. That's the only thing
Speaker 4: that matters.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which will come up again later in this episode,
Speaker 1: because Sister Jen will tell Lila, Yeah, they only care
Speaker 1: about the institution. They don't care about you as a
Speaker 1: person in particular. Right, the plan comes first, the sisterhood
Speaker 1: itself comes first for any one person.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I think you do get this great slice
Speaker 4: of tula here. I love this performance that Olivia is giving,
Speaker 4: and she to me through this, she comes across as
Speaker 4: very genuine. I had moments where I was like questioning,
Speaker 4: is she manipulating things as well? But she does come
Speaker 4: across ultimately as quite genuine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we'll touch on it. I do think she
Speaker 1: is doing some manipulating throughout this episode, in particularly with
Speaker 1: Lila in soft convincing her to go through with the agony.
Speaker 1: But the returning to Lylah. The important thing here and
Speaker 1: the big revelation we get in this episode pretty early on,
Speaker 1: is that Lilah's great great grandmother is none other than
Speaker 1: ra Kella from the first episode. And we need Lyla
Speaker 1: to undergo this agony. Is that so that she can
Speaker 1: tap into her other memories and dial in Raquela real
Speaker 1: quick and double check their facts here about the prophecy.
Speaker 3: Yes, she's gonna go check her ancestral voicemail, great great
Speaker 3: grandma find out.
Speaker 2: What exactly were you talking? What did you see? Because
Speaker 2: things have gone sideways right here in the present time.
Speaker 4: So I want to ask you a question here. So
Speaker 4: to me, the big one of the big questions for
Speaker 4: this series is you know what is this tyran rfl
Speaker 4: this reckoning that they keep talking about. Yes, so we
Speaker 4: have an open question of like, A, is it Desmond
Speaker 4: Heart and what is happening right here? B is it
Speaker 4: Paula Trades becoming the emperor and unleashing a jihad that
Speaker 4: will span across the galaxy cee. Is it the events
Speaker 4: in God Emperor of Doune and the Tyrant and all
Speaker 4: of that. I assume we're going to try and be
Speaker 4: spoiler free for that that later stuff or even d
Speaker 4: or E or whatever. Is it like the what you McCall.
Speaker 2: A prince who was promised that we won't get to
Speaker 2: because time compression in the eighth season.
Speaker 1: Exactly exactly right, something something three ad Raven Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know. I think I think like the interesting part
Speaker 1: and similar to leaving Desmond's powers still up in the
Speaker 1: air and vague, I think we're intentionally leaving a tieran
Speaker 1: RFL super vague, and it could be any of those
Speaker 1: things that you listed. It could also be more Brian
Speaker 1: Herbert type stuff like Omnius the Overmind, who's like the
Speaker 1: big robot brain overmind, evil guy. I still don't think
Speaker 1: we know. I think Valia is assuming it is Desmond,
Speaker 1: and so by the end of this episode we see
Speaker 1: her like really try to go hard in the paint
Speaker 1: against Desmond and fail spectacularly. But I think that's a
Speaker 1: very poignant question and something the show wants us to
Speaker 1: be asking in all of these episodes, and hopefully over
Speaker 1: the next couple episodes we will start getting more answers
Speaker 1: towards what that danger might be.
Speaker 4: It might just be the Benejees where it's like border security.
Speaker 2: Threat. There's a threat we have to protect the Sisterhood homeland.
Speaker 3: That's right, Yeah, like the I think that the interesting
Speaker 3: thing because of the Brian Herbert influence on it. You
Speaker 3: mentioned sort of his interest with like artificial superintelligence, and
Speaker 3: the beginning of the first episode is the first depiction
Speaker 3: we've ever had of the Baan Jahad, and the cover
Speaker 3: story for the Rashek kid dying is that it was
Speaker 3: his forbidden mechanistic toy that did it. I think there
Speaker 3: is an overriding interest in the artificial intelligence part of
Speaker 3: the Herbert universe, which is relatively unexplored in Frank Herbert's Hexology.
Speaker 3: It's backdrop, but like it's ever encountered. Brian brings it
Speaker 3: forward in the conclusion and then writes a lot more
Speaker 3: about it subsequently, and so I wouldn't be surprised that
Speaker 3: the threat of a artificial superintelligence is the lurking Big Bad,
Speaker 3: either in the person of Heart or in some other
Speaker 3: quadrant of the story that's yet to be explored.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and for but it's worth I interviewed Alison Chapter,
Speaker 1: the showrunner for Outside of x Ray, my own Dune
Speaker 1: podcast Outside of x Ray, and she did very much
Speaker 1: confirm that artificial intelligence, the dangers of technology, the human
Speaker 1: technology relationship is a central theme that they will be
Speaker 1: exploring in this show. It was something that they were
Speaker 1: very much keeping in mind.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it would be surprising given current events and that
Speaker 3: if it was just like, actually, we have nothing to
Speaker 3: say about AI, artificial general intelligence.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. All right, let's return to Seleuci Secundus and
Speaker 1: this episode, things in the Imperial Court not going well.
Speaker 1: Duke rich Hazy is absolutely livid, obviously heartbroken, seemingly over
Speaker 1: the death of his son Pruitt. As you stated, Jason,
Speaker 1: the death has been blamed on the little Decepticon robot toy,
Speaker 1: and the Duke doesn't really buy this. We know from
Speaker 1: the larger lore of the story, in particular Brian Herbert's
Speaker 1: books where rich Hazy plays a bigger role, are playing
Speaker 1: around with a lot of tech. I suspect the Duke
Speaker 1: knows this toy would not have been able to harm
Speaker 1: right someone like this and so he's really not buying
Speaker 1: what the Emperor and Empress are trying to sell him.
Speaker 4: You know, you know who is not busted up is
Speaker 4: our man Constantine, who is just he is sending f
Speaker 4: me eyes to Pruitt sisters.
Speaker 2: Yea, so hard throughout the entire.
Speaker 1: Is not the time and place.
Speaker 2: Yes, like, your.
Speaker 3: Little brother just got cooked like a microwave hot dog,
Speaker 3: and maybe you want to go back to my very
Speaker 3: ornate treehouse slumber pad after this wraps up, after we
Speaker 3: have the coffee cake.
Speaker 2: Pretty strong moves from Constantine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and to be fair, Prud's sisters also given him
Speaker 1: his back.
Speaker 2: Oh for sure doesn't care about this.
Speaker 1: Neither of them are really here for this funeral.
Speaker 3: There's a line of dialogue She's like, I didn't know
Speaker 3: that kid. Whatever, It's fine, I'm here to hook up totally.
Speaker 4: But it's interesting the Emperor doesn't show for that, and
Speaker 4: that the Empress is the one who is Perry. Yeah,
Speaker 4: we're chazy. But then jumping straight to there to Desmond
Speaker 4: and the Emperor, that scene is amazing.
Speaker 1: Yes, I loved this. This was one of my favorite
Speaker 1: scenes in this episode. We cut from that funeral to
Speaker 1: Desmond and the Emperor having a private meeting in what
Speaker 1: I've come to assume is the Emperor's podcast studio.
Speaker 4: Yes, Yes, soundproofing is excellent.
Speaker 2: Where he's like, this week we talk about everything.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and in fact, this week on the podcast episode
Speaker 1: Desmond confessing to murder.
Speaker 3: That's a good Patreon exclusive. If you you wanted it,
Speaker 3: you get the confession. Like any of the episode, it's wild.
Speaker 1: He I mean, he really digs deep and doubles down.
Speaker 1: He's like, look, I killed a young boy for you
Speaker 1: once you want anyone who want to kill who's on
Speaker 1: your ship list?
Speaker 2: He's like, I think you know what you're dealing with here, right,
Speaker 2: Like I kill people, you sort of like wink sideways
Speaker 2: and people turn up burnt from the inside. Like that's right.
Speaker 2: I thought we had an understanding.
Speaker 1: Didn't we talk about this? Do you not remember the
Speaker 1: other night? And I will say, Mark Strong, it has
Speaker 1: been a highlight for me in this show.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: He plays this like inept dufics of an Emperor really well,
Speaker 1: and he's like, I, this is not what I meant,
Speaker 1: This is not what I wanted. What are you talking about?
Speaker 1: You confessing to my face on my podcast?
Speaker 2: Right now?
Speaker 4: He looks to the side. There's nobody there, dude, I
Speaker 4: know who you're looking to it like.
Speaker 1: I mean, presumably he's looking for Kasha, who's not there,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, good, good point.
Speaker 1: He like really seems incapable of making his own decisions
Speaker 1: without Kasha. She's become clearly become a crutch for him.
Speaker 1: But he does come to a decision. He says, all right,
Speaker 1: arrest this man, get him out of here. Karin A
Speaker 1: Trades come to your thing, and they take Desmond and
Speaker 1: throw him in the suspenser prison.
Speaker 2: Dude, which looks luxurious? Awesome?
Speaker 1: Does it not look kind of fun?
Speaker 2: Me in the suspenser prison? My god?
Speaker 3: Like, what how much does that treat costs? It seems great.
Speaker 3: It doesn't seem bad at all. Like, what's the downside
Speaker 3: of the suspenser prison? It seems great.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're isolated a little bit, but you know, you're floating.
Speaker 3: It is a good time to point out that the
Speaker 3: production design and the overall like set design of this
Speaker 3: show is riduculous.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh my goodness.
Speaker 3: I mean it looks like one hundred million dollars every
Speaker 3: single time they show any exterior. It's so ornate, it's
Speaker 3: so well considered. I really like that. It seems to
Speaker 3: have roots in the Patrice Vermett Denny villaneuv designed like
Speaker 3: Dune universe from the movies, but it's got more detail
Speaker 3: of more places than we've just never seen before. So
Speaker 3: there's a lot more kind of there's a lot more
Speaker 3: locations to explore and everything from the aforementioned pleasure treehouse
Speaker 3: place where the Prince has his way with the Rechef's daughter,
Speaker 3: to the Suspenser's spot to like the Emperor's like podcasting studio.
Speaker 2: All these locations.
Speaker 3: Are unreal, like they all look phenomenal, truly.
Speaker 2: That's a real strength of the show.
Speaker 1: I feel I couldn't agree more. Okay, well, let's get
Speaker 1: to an other unreal scene Constantine and Pruitt's sister. As
Speaker 1: we discussed earlier, they're bumping some purple spice and also
Speaker 1: bumping each other, yeah sexually, and we all mourn in our.
Speaker 2: Own ways differently exactly.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you just need to do cocaine.
Speaker 4: This scene is four minutes long.
Speaker 2: It's really long.
Speaker 4: It definitely goes like three.
Speaker 1: And a half minutes too long in my opinion, But.
Speaker 3: I was watching it by myself, and I was like,
Speaker 3: if I get walked in on what is my explanation
Speaker 3: going to be for this, like very extensive, like space
Speaker 3: cocaine or like sexye like this.
Speaker 4: Honey, I have to talk about it for a podcast?
Speaker 2: Is for work, This is I'm taking this is my job.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, there's a lot of politics being talked about
Speaker 1: while the cocaine in sex is also being done. And
Speaker 1: to me, I don't know if y'all picked up on this,
Speaker 1: but to me, it's clear Pruet's sister has the upper hand.
Speaker 1: She's mu more politically savvy than a boy Constantine.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and he.
Speaker 1: Basically just like wiki leaks state secrets, right, he lets
Speaker 1: the secret about Desmond out and obviously that's going to
Speaker 1: come back to bite him in the ass in just
Speaker 1: a little bit here. It's a weak moment for Constantine, Toughly.
Speaker 4: It is weak for him, but it also is is
Speaker 4: a good moment for her, Like she is playing the
Speaker 4: game right, so she knows what's happening, and this kind
Speaker 4: of like gambit just to say, like, hey, if we
Speaker 4: take a racus like it doesn't really matter. I was
Speaker 4: taking that as her reaching out to him to see
Speaker 4: if she could pull him in. Maybe he does become
Speaker 4: the Emperor, they can still seize it, pushing as out
Speaker 4: of the way or something.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this current crop of Carinos seems distink, like they're
Speaker 3: just not really good. The Emperor's befuddled all the time,
Speaker 3: seemingly dependent on one of his subordinates.
Speaker 2: For his entire military, which is not a great position
Speaker 2: to be in.
Speaker 3: It Like may have accidentally, on purpose ordered the death
Speaker 3: of a kid. And then you've got, you know, his
Speaker 3: son who's kind of a f boy, just out there
Speaker 3: doing drugs and telling family secrets around pillow Talk and
Speaker 3: his treehouse for it. It's not a great situation for
Speaker 3: the Carinos at this point in time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yanez seems to be perhaps one of the only
Speaker 1: capable ones. But the thing that bothered me was where
Speaker 1: is she this whole right? So she's very much been sidelined.
Speaker 1: Does she not know about Desmond? Does she not know
Speaker 1: what the Emperor's doing right now? Is she just in
Speaker 1: her room grieving the whole time? She seems weirdly out
Speaker 1: of the bubble at the moment.
Speaker 3: How grief stricken can she be? It's not like she
Speaker 3: was like madly in love with through it.
Speaker 2: No, No, it's not that.
Speaker 4: It's when Valia shows up for Kasha.
Speaker 1: For Kasha, yeah, because I think they had a bit
Speaker 1: of a maternal relationship there.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: Returning to Wallach nine eight in our episode, here, Lila
Speaker 1: is struggling with this major decision that Tula has asked
Speaker 1: of her to go through the Agne or not two.
Speaker 1: She consults her fellow sisters for some advice. Sister Emmeline,
Speaker 1: for example, tells her, Hey, sacrificing a human life is
Speaker 1: one of the greatest honors one can do. And you know,
Speaker 1: if things go bad and you like die or whatever,
Speaker 1: you'll just go live in other memory with all our
Speaker 1: fellow sisters. It's like heaven for the.
Speaker 2: Sister totally chill, yeah.
Speaker 1: Whereas Sister Jen has a bit more of a grounded approach.
Speaker 1: I for one, agreed with Sister Jen, my girl. She
Speaker 1: was basically like, fuck that. Yeah, should you be taking
Speaker 1: this risk or is Tula pushing you into it? Because
Speaker 1: Tula's allegiance is more to the sisterhood than it is
Speaker 1: to you.
Speaker 4: All Right, I'm just gonna I'm going out on a limb,
Speaker 4: and like, I do not trust Jen as far as
Speaker 4: I can throw her.
Speaker 2: I really, yeah, no, I.
Speaker 4: Think she's a plant or that whole thing with her
Speaker 4: like lying in the first episode or whatever. I'm very
Speaker 4: sus on her. I did not expect her. If you
Speaker 4: Volyya and your plans and Tula, that was a pretty
Speaker 4: strong move for a position for an acolyte to take.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: In general, one of my criticisms of the show would
Speaker 3: be that the Benny Jeserit and It's maybe is just
Speaker 3: era appropriate, like that Benny Jeserit a more immature or
Speaker 3: order at this point in time, but like that they
Speaker 3: seem more volatile, that there's less discipline, and we know
Speaker 3: from later from chapter House and Heretics that like there's
Speaker 3: often schisms within the Sisterhood in terms of like what
Speaker 3: people think the right direction is, and that's like a
Speaker 3: very interesting part of the Benny Jzerit dynamic. But at
Speaker 3: this point in time, all of the main characters seem
Speaker 3: a little bit more high strung and emotionally like volatile
Speaker 3: and not as in control as I imagine the Benny
Speaker 3: Jazzerit being like the Benny Jeserit are meant to be
Speaker 3: bloodless and inflappable and capable of these fairly ruthless, utilitarian
Speaker 3: decision making schemes, and both the acolytes and the folks
Speaker 3: running the show seem to be kind of figuring it
Speaker 3: out as they go along, and there's a lot of
Speaker 3: like quivering lip action as it relates to that figuring,
Speaker 3: which seems a little out of character for Benny Jazerit
Speaker 3: to me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, in fairness. When the episode finished, HBO Max suggested,
Speaker 4: I watched Dune, so I just threw it on and
Speaker 4: started watching it, and like, Rebecca Ferguson is off the map. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 4: she is like falling apart, and I get it. I
Speaker 4: actually like it. I like the fact that she pulls
Speaker 4: herself to They show her pulling herself together before she
Speaker 4: walks in to talk to the Duke, so you can
Speaker 4: see that she can exert control when she needs to.
Speaker 4: But they haven't got it dial Dan, I think, is.
Speaker 3: That yeah, but you can trast that with after she
Speaker 3: becomes a reverend mother in part two and she does sort.
Speaker 1: Of like the bloodless, very stowic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like the like you know, we're just gonna get
Speaker 2: this business done.
Speaker 4: All right, you got me there.
Speaker 3: But I don't know I would have, particularly from like
Speaker 3: value or something like that. I would have I think
Speaker 3: like a slightly more Charlotte ramplay deserved. There should be
Speaker 3: some character in there who's just like our plans are
Speaker 3: measured in millennia and like, yeah, whether or not this
Speaker 3: kid lives or dies is really not the problem.
Speaker 1: And so in my opinion on that has always been like,
Speaker 1: I think this is a just a challenge with a
Speaker 1: translation from the page to the screen. Yeah, you can
Speaker 1: have a very stoic, cold, distant character on the page
Speaker 1: because we can be inside their head and still be
Speaker 1: understand their emotions on the screen. If you just have
Speaker 1: like a cardboard cutout of a character the whole time,
Speaker 1: we're not react. You're not giving the actor anything to
Speaker 1: work with, and you're not giving the audience anything to
Speaker 1: read on the screen. So I think it's an inherent challenge.
Speaker 4: What if you just put their inner monologues as voiceover
Speaker 4: there we go I could never go.
Speaker 3: H, I think you're onto something, So Benny Jesuit track,
Speaker 3: it was like a bonus feature.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: Returning to our recap, what I find absolutely hilarious is
Speaker 1: while Tula is preparing the Russick poison, one of Volia's
Speaker 1: confidants comes in and she's like, he is the agony
Speaker 1: still happening right? Just to get done?
Speaker 2: He's still doing the agony tonight, right?
Speaker 1: Are we still doing it? Or is it still on
Speaker 1: the agenda?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: I haven't gone.
Speaker 2: Because I made meat loads right right?
Speaker 1: I made the meat loaf. I didn't get the calendar invite.
Speaker 1: Where's the meat loaf going? And I found this really
Speaker 1: interesting because I think it tells us a lot about
Speaker 1: Vallia herself. Valia very much clearly a bit of a
Speaker 1: control freak here, even someone as close to her as
Speaker 1: her sister Tula, she does not trust to run things
Speaker 1: and make the hard decisions, and she's left someone behind us.
Speaker 1: It's sort of like a watcher and caretaker to make
Speaker 1: sure things get done. In a following scene, we then
Speaker 1: see Tula trying to get things done. She speaks with
Speaker 1: Lilah and reinforces like, Lilah, this is your choice. I
Speaker 1: want you to be the one who decides to do
Speaker 1: the agony or not. But also, like.
Speaker 2: Your mom might be, maybe you'll meet your mom.
Speaker 1: Don't you want to meet your mom?
Speaker 2: This is one hundred percent your choice, but it is
Speaker 2: also your one chance to see your dead mom. So
Speaker 2: weigh that, uh huh in your general calculus, and yeah,
Speaker 2: let's let me know what you decide. Chill either way,
Speaker 2: no problem.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it's an interesting position to put Tula in.
Speaker 4: She obviously cares desperately about Lila, yes, but she also
Speaker 4: knows that she quote unquote has to do that it
Speaker 4: has to happen. So I felt like she was genuine.
Speaker 4: I give her like maybe at least sixty forty or
Speaker 4: maybe seventy percent innocent, maybe thirty percent tainted, I don't.
Speaker 3: Know, only thirty percent sending her to her death using
Speaker 3: her dead mother.
Speaker 2: That's right, Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 1: Only thirty percent emotional manipulation and blackmail exactly. I agree, though.
Speaker 1: I also read Tula's emotional moments in this episode as genuine,
Speaker 1: and I think she does care for Elilah, but she
Speaker 1: has been sort of living under the thumb of her older,
Speaker 1: much more colder sister for the last thirty plus years
Speaker 1: and clearly knows what has to get done, and here
Speaker 1: she is doing it. All right, guys, let's take a
Speaker 1: quick ad break here as we do. We got to
Speaker 1: pay our spice bills, but we'll be right back in
Speaker 1: a little bit. Folks to continue our recap and keep
Speaker 1: talking about doing prophecy. All right, welcome back everyone, Let's
Speaker 1: continue talking about doing prophecy. Episode two, returning to Seleucias, Secundas,
Speaker 1: Vallia arrives just in time to diffuse a very heated
Speaker 1: confrontation between Havoco and to crit Chesy. Obviously, Rachesy has
Speaker 1: learned about Desmond. He's demanding to meet the man who
Speaker 1: killed a pru it. Havoco's trying to bluff his poorly
Speaker 1: bluff his way out of this. Yeah, and how about
Speaker 1: just when.
Speaker 4: The doors just pop open and she walks in.
Speaker 1: It's like a very mic drop moment, a pretty cool, very.
Speaker 4: Big entrance that she makes, and she like does a
Speaker 4: quick hand signal to Richesi's Benajezra advisor, and he is
Speaker 4: on the leash and on his way out the room,
Speaker 4: like very strong.
Speaker 2: Get him out of here, move this party outside. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I do think this show is at its strongest
Speaker 1: when we see very directly in scenes like this, the
Speaker 1: Benny Jesuit pulling strings, pulling the strings of the very powerful.
Speaker 4: It's a little weird that like these guys can't figure
Speaker 4: this out. Watch she shakes her hand and like the
Speaker 4: guy gets pulled out.
Speaker 2: Well, I have like what's her face?
Speaker 3: The ri chazy Betty jesuit like literally nods like okay,
Speaker 3: you got it, Like it's not like it's not as
Speaker 3: her subtle hand signal back for yes is nodding.
Speaker 2: Directly at her right. I don't know. I don't know
Speaker 2: if you need Prano Bindu training to decipher that and
Speaker 2: the meaning behind that one. Yeah, but you know it's
Speaker 2: still fun to see them, yeah, you know, use their
Speaker 2: special powers.
Speaker 1: I do agree. As much as I like seeing the
Speaker 1: Benny Jesuit pull the strings, Yeah, I would like some
Speaker 1: pushback as well. I'd like some nuance there. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: we get a little bit. I mean, the Emperor's like,
Speaker 1: was Kasha lying to me? Falia? Did you tell Kasha
Speaker 1: to lie to me? There's a bit of questioning, but yeah,
Speaker 1: all of these men in charge do seem to just
Speaker 1: be going along with what their advisors are telling them.
Speaker 4: This is interesting though, when she says that she wants
Speaker 4: to When Balio says that she wants to interview Desmond, yes,
Speaker 4: the Emperor initially says no, and the Empress says.
Speaker 2: No, why don't you go ahead?
Speaker 4: And let her interview. Yeah, and he's like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 4: she likes debate or whatever.
Speaker 1: So like she likes debate, the debate team.
Speaker 3: She did debate back in you know, finishing school, Empire,
Speaker 3: finishing school, she was a Lincoln.
Speaker 2: Douglas champion, And that's her viewpoint on the whole thing.
Speaker 4: But in my opinion, the Empress has been giving big
Speaker 4: warning red lights, big big.
Speaker 2: Yeah Lady Macbeth vibes.
Speaker 4: So do you think her take was that Desmond would
Speaker 4: just deal with her, like putting her in front of
Speaker 4: Desmond would allow her to get taken out.
Speaker 1: I think I agree that I'm getting major vibes, weird
Speaker 1: vibes from the Empress. I think this was her chance
Speaker 1: to learn more about Desmond. I think she very much
Speaker 1: wants to use Desmond. But again, if you've never shot
Speaker 1: a gun and someone's like, you want a loaded gun,
Speaker 1: she's maybe wanting someone to just check that the safety
Speaker 1: is still on before she picks up the gun. Right,
Speaker 1: she wants, perhaps Volia to do a bit of a
Speaker 1: gut check on Desmond.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's right.
Speaker 3: I write it as like, let's see what this thing
Speaker 3: can do, Like we got this guy, like we've got
Speaker 3: this child toaster, Let's see, you know what he can
Speaker 3: do against the Benny juzzer with truth there?
Speaker 2: Yeah, like find out what else it might be useful.
Speaker 3: Like it goes along with the general theme, which is
Speaker 3: best example fight in this episode of this it's not
Speaker 3: the spice azing but the Rosac poisoning agony, which is
Speaker 3: like that crisis is what's necessary to bring about change. Yes,
Speaker 3: and so that's why the poison brings out these special
Speaker 3: abilities and people because it puts them through this crisis.
Speaker 2: And she's similarly like.
Speaker 3: Trying to provoke a crisis by seeing what happens when
Speaker 3: she puts this kind of untested weapon with the Mother Superior,
Speaker 3: and she says, oh, it's not every day we get
Speaker 3: the Mother superioror it's like, let's see what kind of
Speaker 3: trouble we can get into.
Speaker 1: Here, right, Ken Desmond danced toe to toe with the
Speaker 1: best of the best. Yeah, the Mother Superior.
Speaker 4: She has not had any beg training, right, the Empress,
Speaker 4: not that I know of.
Speaker 1: Okay, certainly not in the books either. Yeah, but she
Speaker 1: does seem to be giving off some religious fives. Later
Speaker 1: on in the episode, she like ask Desmond if he's
Speaker 1: a price you don't just like go around asking people
Speaker 1: whether their profits unless you already have something religious in mind.
Speaker 1: So I agree there's a big question mark about the
Speaker 1: Empress till that I think we will learn more about. Well,
Speaker 1: let's go to the interview itself. Vollia interviews Desmond. They
Speaker 1: do a bit of shit, talking back and forth for
Speaker 1: a little bit, and ultimately Desmond once again confesses that
Speaker 1: he has killed pruing. He loves it.
Speaker 4: He loves confessing.
Speaker 2: He loves to confess.
Speaker 1: Honestly, he can't wait to confess, Like, my guy, can
Speaker 1: you wait. It's like, look, can you plead the fifth verse?
Speaker 1: I burn kids with my eyes. That's my thing. His
Speaker 1: lawyers like, God, damn it, stop.
Speaker 2: Kink shaming me. That is just what I do.
Speaker 4: I saw one of the showrunners say that the specifically
Speaker 4: the way they what they like about him is that
Speaker 4: that's his thing. He just tells the truth and he
Speaker 4: is moving forward, which I think is an interesting idea.
Speaker 4: And Jason, to what you were saying earlier of Herbert
Speaker 4: putting stuff out there for people to see, it's interesting.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think that's a strong point age because in a world,
Speaker 1: in an imperium where lies are a major currency. Here
Speaker 1: is a man who comes in and keeps saying the
Speaker 1: uncomfortable right truth about killing children out loud, right, and
Speaker 1: I think that that makes them quite dangerous but also
Speaker 1: quite attractive, as we'll see with the Emperor and Empress
Speaker 1: wanting to utilize him.
Speaker 4: But he's not. He doesn't have a positive vision that
Speaker 4: he's communicating for what the imp He says, he's a
Speaker 4: soldier of the Imperium. He's working only for the Imperium.
Speaker 4: But it's not clear that, like Kieran, we have a
Speaker 4: sense is motivated by.
Speaker 2: Some ideological ideals.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's inequity that needs to be addressed, but we
Speaker 4: don't get that sense from Desmond that this is like
Speaker 4: a crusade for him for a reason.
Speaker 1: Right right, he's the wild card friend.
Speaker 3: It's almost as if Desmond is has got some underlying
Speaker 3: programming per se that like says, oh, like he's meant
Speaker 3: to serve the imperium. And if that means that everyone
Speaker 3: needs to be turned into a paper clip in order
Speaker 3: to better serve the efficiency of the imperium, like that
Speaker 3: is how he will execute the commands.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, he also admits, in addition to admitting to
Speaker 1: killing Pruitt. He admits to killing Kasha as well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: mostly right, yeah, mostly.
Speaker 4: He didn't say yes, I killed her, but he did say,
Speaker 4: like I found her wanting or whatever what. I can't remember.
Speaker 2: Exactly she had to go.
Speaker 1: He kind of talked around, yeah.
Speaker 4: But you definitely got the impression. Yes, But I thought
Speaker 4: that was an interesting choice that he didn't. As much
Speaker 4: as he loves saying.
Speaker 1: It right, he was a little more circumspect with that one.
Speaker 1: He also tells Valia that Shai Hallud has taken his eye,
Speaker 1: the eye that we keep getting like close ups on
Speaker 1: and camera, and given him the power to see things
Speaker 1: that even you, Valia Harken in Mother Superior cannot see.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: So obviously that makes us think of quez Asterak, the
Speaker 4: idea that he can go to the place where they're
Speaker 4: afraid to look. Yeah, and so right, you're getting us,
Speaker 4: You're putting the hooks in, right.
Speaker 1: A lot of fun little breadcrumbs like that for Dune
Speaker 1: fans to pick up on throughout these episodes. Unfortunately, I
Speaker 1: guess confessing to multiple murders doesn't really have any consequences
Speaker 1: here for our guy Desmond. No, because by this point,
Speaker 1: the Emperor and Empress are much more interested in using
Speaker 1: him as a political weapon against we're chasing in particular,
Speaker 1: but I'm sure other enemies they have as well.
Speaker 3: Yes, well we know they're short on weapons, Like we
Speaker 3: know these Carinos are somehow in powered just right, not
Speaker 3: how many ships or anything.
Speaker 5: Like.
Speaker 2: All they've got is this like amazing architecture. So then
Speaker 2: now they've got Now they've got a guy who can
Speaker 2: barbecue people from across the galaxy.
Speaker 3: Like all right, well that's gotta be good for something. Yeah,
Speaker 3: we're just trying to rub two sticks together and you.
Speaker 2: Know, make a fire. You're like, you know, like see
Speaker 2: what we can get done.
Speaker 1: That's a great point.
Speaker 4: These guys are going to rule this the Imperium for
Speaker 4: ten thousand years.
Speaker 2: They're at a weak point right now.
Speaker 3: They've become too reliant on influence from outside activist groups
Speaker 3: and they need to really reconfigure how they're thinking about
Speaker 3: the administration of their state.
Speaker 1: Certainly. Well, meanwhile, we cut to here into Treadees doing
Speaker 1: some like three D scanning for like a school project.
Speaker 1: I'm sure in the palace we also hear in the
Speaker 1: back garn Constantine getting yelled at, which I thought was hilarious.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 4: I didn't get it until I put the subtitles on.
Speaker 4: I was like, why don't you stop talking? Go play
Speaker 4: your ballast?
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, go to your room.
Speaker 1: I did like that detail. We cut from Kieran doing
Speaker 1: his three D scanning back to what I think is
Speaker 1: the Club Barbara on the first episode Club, and here
Speaker 1: he is meeting with his fellow rebels. As we come
Speaker 1: to learn, he is part of a larger rebel plot
Speaker 1: and they are seemingly working against the Carinos or the
Speaker 1: great Houses, the lands Ride in general, people in power.
Speaker 1: I guess in general, their mission statement seems quite vague.
Speaker 3: I will say, yeah, this is where when I was
Speaker 3: reading your very helpful show rundown of what was going on,
Speaker 3: I was like, okay, thank you for letting me know
Speaker 3: what was going on in this scene. Because, and this
Speaker 3: is one of my other criticisms of the show, is
Speaker 3: that I love the set and setting.
Speaker 2: I love the doomedness of it.
Speaker 3: I think it's very faithful to like Dune vibes, both
Speaker 3: in production design and palace intrigueness of it all. I
Speaker 3: think there's cool, mysterious hooks in it. I think some
Speaker 3: of the actual writing is a little bit clunky or
Speaker 3: opaque are I think just from a dialogue perspective, it
Speaker 3: doesn't really sing in any particular way. It's very serviceable,
Speaker 3: but it often devolves into exposition theater of like, oh,
Speaker 3: here comes that guy who's descended from Like in this scene,
Speaker 3: it's like he's literally descended from a new traders who.
Speaker 2: Fought against a little buddy. It's like, all right, great,
Speaker 2: well you could have put that on a title guard
Speaker 2: or something, mean, you know, like you had.
Speaker 4: Us on a tradees like we were in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we know who they are. I agree.
Speaker 3: I think what the motivation of this group is who
Speaker 3: you know meets at the only bar on Solucis Secundas
Speaker 3: repeatedly it's a very hot bar that to me was
Speaker 3: not drawing me in.
Speaker 4: Well, okay, listen two things. First of all, when the
Speaker 4: guy started talking about the guy that was there opening
Speaker 4: the briefcase or whatever looking at it. When he's like,
Speaker 4: we got to take this rebellion public, I was like, oh, okay,
Speaker 4: So the note they got with somebody you know two
Speaker 4: years ago, three years ago, they're working on the show
Speaker 4: and and and Or's happening, and they're like, okay, yea, yeah,
Speaker 4: this is the greatest thing. Ever, how do we shoehorn
Speaker 4: and or in here?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Then the second was there was a question last week
Speaker 4: for the first episode of why is there such a
Speaker 4: big deal with this Fremen character that's working in the bar.
Speaker 4: She's got the blue on blue eyes. But she's a
Speaker 4: named cast member, so we know we're going to see
Speaker 4: her again, And here we see her as part of
Speaker 4: the resistance, and then in the very next scene we
Speaker 4: learned that she is in fact Sister Mikayla of the
Speaker 4: Benejezer Order, who is helping to orchestrate this whole thing.
Speaker 4: That's right, Yeah, which I will say, we went from
Speaker 4: a scene that absolutely didn't work for me, this rebel scene,
Speaker 4: this here in the trade scene. Jason, I agree with
Speaker 4: all of your criticisms here about the writing. I think
Speaker 4: you put it beautifully like the writing does not sing
Speaker 4: at all in the scene.
Speaker 1: It's very clunky. It's all tell and practically no show.
Speaker 1: We then cut to a scene that really worked for me, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because we cut to then Volia meeting with Sister Mikayla
Speaker 1: on a pretty cozy looking boat, and here we learn
Speaker 1: that sister Mikayla was responsible for the attack that Desmond
Speaker 1: survived on Aracus. So the Sisterhood is orchestrating things on
Speaker 1: a Racus. They're pulling much bigger strings than we thought
Speaker 1: from behind the scenes, right, And this whole plot that
Speaker 1: Kiaran Atrades has wrapped up in is also just another
Speaker 1: Sisterhood scheme that they're using to undermine the Emperor.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think that was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: And I like, I do like this.
Speaker 3: This is what I'm talking about with like the ruthlessness
Speaker 3: of the Benny Jeser was like, well, look, we're gonna
Speaker 3: have to give him something. It's like, all right, we'll
Speaker 3: give him this a trading sword master. I really like that,
Speaker 3: just like throw him over, Like that's fun. And I
Speaker 3: think to Age's point, it does feel like an and or,
Speaker 3: Like it gives me the and or fuzzies, because I'm like,
Speaker 3: all right, it's like, you know, yeah, talk to me
Speaker 3: about the Sunless space.
Speaker 2: Just please, Like I just need I just need a
Speaker 2: little hit to last me over until I Door season
Speaker 2: two comes out.
Speaker 4: April of twenty five.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, close.
Speaker 2: So far.
Speaker 4: Oh man, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: We then cut to the spy himself, Kieran a trade's
Speaker 1: he is sparring with the princess once again. Princess Yez
Speaker 1: working through some grief and anger about Kasha's death, and
Speaker 1: she shares with Kieran a traumatic kidnapping that has been
Speaker 1: scrubbed from the history books because you don't want to
Speaker 1: make the Karinas look bad. But it has a great name,
Speaker 1: the Broken Chain, the Broken Chain rebellion. And she sort
Speaker 1: of lays out I think for me again, a little
Speaker 1: clunkily and on the nose, opaque writing here, but she
Speaker 1: kind of lays out the thesis statement of the show.
Speaker 1: It's all politics. We're all just pieces on the board
Speaker 1: to be played in pursuit of power and spice.
Speaker 4: Did we mention this price?
Speaker 2: I wish she had said it exactly like that. I
Speaker 2: wish it'd have been the ASMR space.
Speaker 4: Well, it's interesting because when we had last episode when
Speaker 4: Kasha said when I first found you and you'd been
Speaker 4: captive for years.
Speaker 2: And we were like, what is that about?
Speaker 4: What is that story? It is very clear here that
Speaker 4: this was a Benejeza plot to have her be kidnapped
Speaker 4: and then to have her be rescued, like this whole
Speaker 4: thing has been completely set into motion controlled every step
Speaker 4: of the way.
Speaker 2: And that's fun. That's what the Beg should be doing.
Speaker 3: They should be kidnapping royal princesses for plans that pay
Speaker 3: off in twenty five years.
Speaker 2: That is their bread and butter.
Speaker 3: If they're not good at that, all they have left
Speaker 3: is some fish soup recipes. I'm like, they don't really
Speaker 3: have a lie going the meat loaf, Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2: Salia's some questionable dinners back on Wallach nine.
Speaker 1: That's right, But she does.
Speaker 4: Inez does call it off with Kiri. He tries to
Speaker 4: get close to her and she's like, look now, it
Speaker 4: ain't happening.
Speaker 1: So that's right.
Speaker 4: That's some space. That's interesting to see how he develops.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I also liked that in this scene we confirmed an
Speaker 1: extra bit of lore about shields technology. The soft cheek
Speaker 1: caress does pierce the shields.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you can have your shield on and still
Speaker 1: be making out. That's great tonight.
Speaker 4: Nice.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, while all of this is happening, Empress Natalia goes
Speaker 1: to Desmond and asks him the question that perks my
Speaker 1: ears up? Are you a prophet? Desmond Heart? His answer
Speaker 1: is quite interesting. He says, I would have said no
Speaker 1: in the past, but now I don't know. Clearly he's
Speaker 1: had a bit of a rebirth as well, perhaps a
Speaker 1: spiritual rebirth or a physical one. Still TBD on that,
Speaker 1: and Natalia decides to free Desmond because it's time. It's
Speaker 1: time to point the loaded gun at Duke for Chazy,
Speaker 1: and that's exactly what we see happen in a couple
Speaker 1: of scenes here Duke for Chesy once again confronting Havgo,
Speaker 1: but this time Desmond makes an entrance and sort of
Speaker 1: lightly cooks.
Speaker 2: Him, puts him on defrost. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, he's just as it was happening.
Speaker 3: I was like, how are they gonna explain this? They're
Speaker 3: just gonna kill the head of like a major house. Yeah,
Speaker 3: And I was like, oh, okay, they're not gonna kill him,
Speaker 3: They're just gonna toast the marshmallow a little bit here.
Speaker 2: I was like, is that easier to explain that? Yeah? Like,
Speaker 2: my guy ended up getting Freddy Krueger a bit.
Speaker 3: I'm in the throne room and now is going to
Speaker 3: show up at the next Lanzard meeting with a little
Speaker 3: bit of the hound makeover.
Speaker 1: He's going to show up like Jay Leno and be like,
Speaker 1: I fell down set of stairs exactly.
Speaker 2: Bro, you didn't fall down stairs. I was staying out
Speaker 2: of the Kinton. I'm a lay billionaire, was staying on
Speaker 2: the kit in and I fell. I was taking a ramp.
Speaker 4: I fell and uh yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: It's very confusing how they think that's gonna work out.
Speaker 3: But I do think it's sort of there, like, well,
Speaker 3: you know, now we've got this guy, we can get
Speaker 3: away with stuff that we didn't before.
Speaker 2: They feel emboldened.
Speaker 1: They are emboldened, certainly, I just don't feel like they
Speaker 1: should be that bold.
Speaker 4: That's my take. Fundamentally. It just doesn't feel like it's
Speaker 4: that much of a game changing power. I mean, maybe
Speaker 4: if you can nuke people from across the galaxy that
Speaker 4: that's actually pretty good.
Speaker 2: That's what he can do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and perhaps that's what he should have done, you know,
Speaker 1: like why play your trump card in a way where
Speaker 1: Duke for Chazy's just gonna go to the Landstrode and
Speaker 1: be like, hey, he's got like a he's got like
Speaker 1: a bluetooth like.
Speaker 2: Rose, he's got this remote activated laser cooker. Not good.
Speaker 2: You can use it against you too.
Speaker 1: If the guy in the trench code walks into the room.
Speaker 1: You gotta leave get it exactly. Yeah, it's a questionable
Speaker 1: political move, and I can maybe come to terms with
Speaker 1: it by just writing it off as like Havoco is
Speaker 1: not the most politically savvy emperor, right.
Speaker 2: And I think he likes feeling.
Speaker 3: I think he's felt so unempowered, he's felt so weak
Speaker 3: and dependent on that he's willing to just like run
Speaker 3: with it. And like, you know, he's kind of been
Speaker 3: worked into a corner now by his wife and you know,
Speaker 3: everything else. So it's like, all right, I guess we're
Speaker 3: gonna run with it. It is like kind of a big
Speaker 3: beast situation.
Speaker 1: Totally all right. Returning to Wallach nine, we see what
Speaker 1: I think is actually my favorite sequence of this episode. Yes,
Speaker 1: Lilah undergoes the agony. I thought, this is this is incredible,
Speaker 1: this is top.
Speaker 2: This is what can make a series. This scene of
Speaker 2: the other memory.
Speaker 4: Is hold on before we even get to it, just
Speaker 4: like I poisons that location where they're doing it. She
Speaker 4: goes to caress her, but then takes her head and
Speaker 4: lays her down. All of the acolytes are watching, and
Speaker 4: then the language all that matters is the light for
Speaker 4: this poison. There is no antidote. I was like, hell, yes,
Speaker 4: let's yes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 1: Yes, it was good.
Speaker 3: I think you're right to call out the setting because
Speaker 3: it does do this fun thing that like Dune does well,
Speaker 3: which is this combination of ritual and science right where
Speaker 3: like it looks like a laboratory, but they're doing like
Speaker 3: a religious ceremony of some sort. That combination is very
Speaker 3: fun and very on brand for the universe. And we've
Speaker 3: just never seen this, like, this isn't the Spice agony,
Speaker 3: and this is canonical, Like they do not always make
Speaker 3: reverend mothers using the Spice essence, like they use other
Speaker 3: forms of agony and treatments that they just need to
Speaker 3: provoke some kind of interior crisis. But we've never we've
Speaker 3: really never seen this. Even in Villano's Dune, we don't
Speaker 3: get the interior life of what the contact with other
Speaker 3: memory looks like. So it's a new development for Dune heads.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think appropriately horror coded. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: appropriately a difficult thing to undergo. Yeah, and it explains
Speaker 1: so much about how the Benny Jesuit will operate for
Speaker 1: the next ten thousand years in terms of abomination, in
Speaker 1: terms of how delicate they are with other memory and
Speaker 1: the use of it. I think it shows us like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, if I underwent this, I too would be
Speaker 1: very careful around this sort of superpower. It's horrifying stuff.
Speaker 4: I also just want to call out briefly, there hasn't
Speaker 4: been consistency in how other memory works over the course
Speaker 4: of the series.
Speaker 2: That's true within Herbert as well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like initially it was like reverend mothers would share
Speaker 4: with each other. In the later books, like at the
Speaker 4: moment of death, they connect and then they pass over
Speaker 4: their essentially their consciousness as opposed to just having the
Speaker 4: memory or you have in God Emperor, like someone is
Speaker 4: reliving memories of being on Canterbury Tales like walking.
Speaker 2: So like my question is it's unclear.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, if you are accessing your genetic memory, but
Speaker 4: sometimes the person who shows up at the end of
Speaker 4: this episode in other memory, their reactions were based on
Speaker 4: having been betrayed, which was something that happened after they
Speaker 4: had passed on their genetic material. Yes, so is the
Speaker 4: concept here that consciousness is something that transcends time and space,
Speaker 4: and that access through genetic memory is what allows you
Speaker 4: to basically get a beacon to connect to that consciousness
Speaker 4: which still exists in some way.
Speaker 3: Or there's a simulacrum of that person's consciousness that persists
Speaker 3: in this like the memory space. It's not actually like
Speaker 3: the real person, but it's the matrix uploaded version of
Speaker 3: that person that like has like agentic will as though
Speaker 3: they were that person.
Speaker 2: But abu, where is.
Speaker 4: That running aws? Or like where is that?
Speaker 1: And that's the thing which cloud server is. We're all
Speaker 1: where we're uploading.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: It's that Black Mirror episode where they upload all the
Speaker 1: after people die and they upload the consciousness. Right, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: there is no law answer to this, right, I think, Jason,
Speaker 1: you just said it. Frank Herbert himself just did whatever
Speaker 1: he wanted with other memories as far as like telling
Speaker 1: his stories. I don't think he nailed down exactly how
Speaker 1: other memory worked. It continued to evolve and change in
Speaker 1: every book. There's other examples. There's a certain character that
Speaker 1: returns to Children of Dune for folks who know that
Speaker 1: comes back via other memory and is like doing stuff
Speaker 1: that like practically makes no sense for another memory to do.
Speaker 1: I think the show, at least for me, gets a
Speaker 1: free lore pass to use other memory how they want
Speaker 1: in this instance, and Age, you're right, we are getting
Speaker 1: this like we're tapping into Dorote who comes back and
Speaker 1: takes over Lila in like a truly horrific moment. Dude,
Speaker 1: got me?
Speaker 4: That got me?
Speaker 1: That was great. Yeah, to see abomination in that way
Speaker 1: was and huge props to the actor as well.
Speaker 4: And the visual effects of the dead face and stuff
Speaker 4: like that.
Speaker 1: Was really amazing stuff. But yeah, they really are sort
Speaker 1: of like they're on who Wants to be a Millionaire
Speaker 1: and they're just dialing in Riquella for help on the
Speaker 1: million dollar question. And is that how Frank Kerbert intended
Speaker 1: other memories to work. We don't know. I think it's
Speaker 1: quite elusive and the lore never quite nails it down.
Speaker 1: But it was still really fun to see here. And
Speaker 1: I think the interpretation of all these spooky personas closing
Speaker 1: in on you and you perhaps losing yourself within them
Speaker 1: as they drown you. I thought it was really well done.
Speaker 4: Yea Tula saying that they wake up hungry was amazing. Yes,
Speaker 4: that was scary, But then Rackuella's message, the key to
Speaker 4: the reckoning is one born twice once in blood once
Speaker 4: in Spice, a revenant full of scars, a weapon of
Speaker 4: war on a path too short.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this made me think doctor SEUs could never honestly.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but this read Paul to me, right, like he
Speaker 4: he did not take the Golden Path. So like that
Speaker 4: was how I was looking at it.
Speaker 3: Well, one born twice is very hard to read. Is
Speaker 3: not Gola related, right, I mean, like that is certainly
Speaker 3: very Gola coded.
Speaker 4: No born the second born in Spice? Is the water life?
Speaker 4: Is Paul taking the water of life?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: The coma scene perhaps, yeah? Yeah, maybe again vague, it's fair,
Speaker 1: It's fair. Gola seems realistic. I think you could transplant
Speaker 1: this on practically anyone, you know, Desmond, Yeah, for sure,
Speaker 1: which maybe is the obvious red herring that the show
Speaker 1: is wanting you to guess. But yes, Paul, certainly, I
Speaker 1: think is a strong candidate. Another character after Paul, I
Speaker 1: think is perhaps a great candidate as well. I will say,
Speaker 1: I think the thing that this maybe shoots down is
Speaker 1: like Omnius ai overlord, because like that, to me, is
Speaker 1: not a character who is born in blood once and
Speaker 1: then reborn in.
Speaker 2: Spice, right, definitely not born in blood.
Speaker 1: So this to me, at least is pointing towards a
Speaker 1: person and perhaps not a robot.
Speaker 3: I would like it not to be in a Trade's
Speaker 3: ten thousand years from now. Like similarly, you know, I
Speaker 3: would like it not to be somehow Paul Trade's returned.
Speaker 2: I would like it to be something that's like a
Speaker 2: new bit of lore.
Speaker 3: And like I kind of agree that Desmond feels like
Speaker 3: a head fake, like he's the obvious one right now,
Speaker 3: but I would like it to be something else. But yeah,
Speaker 3: it's fun. We get a prophecy. The name of the
Speaker 3: show is like and it rhymes. It's a classic one.
Speaker 3: I like that were in this dark, ghosty afterlife insane
Speaker 3: asylum with their melty faces or whatever.
Speaker 2: It's like, all right when we pass this message on.
Speaker 2: The important thing is that it's in rhyming couplets.
Speaker 3: Yes, like we've got we've got Yeah, We've got to
Speaker 3: make sure we've got a good meter.
Speaker 1: Riquello's other memory is like real bored and coming up
Speaker 1: with a number of different rounds. She's got like a
Speaker 1: notepad with scratched out, so it was.
Speaker 3: Like, we're not doing it as a limerick for Christ's sake,
Speaker 3: Like how many times I have.
Speaker 1: To tell you I am a big pentameter sixteen sixty nine.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but then that ancestor from sixteen sixty nine is no,
Speaker 4: we gotta have it.
Speaker 1: This is the I A bet that. All right, Let's
Speaker 1: wrap up this summary with the final scene, which, oh oh,
Speaker 1: this was juicy. In our final scene of episode two,
Speaker 1: Valia returns to the palace, only to be confronted by Desmond,
Speaker 1: who lets her know that she's been laid off. This
Speaker 1: is a tough way to leave your job.
Speaker 4: She's not extremely hardcore.
Speaker 1: Your replacement is the one who tells who hands you
Speaker 1: the pink slip and is like, you're laid off today.
Speaker 2: Your email no longer worries.
Speaker 1: Yeah, her slack account has been new to deactivated. A
Speaker 1: tough day for Volley in the office. Desmond is like, look,
Speaker 1: the Emperor doesn't trust you and the Sisterhood anymore. It's
Speaker 1: all me, all the time now, baby, and Vollo puls
Speaker 1: her trump card, the thing that she came up with
Speaker 1: that we know that she invented the voice. She tries
Speaker 1: to pull another Dorotea on Desmond and orders him to
Speaker 1: remove the knife from his jacket, hold it to his throat,
Speaker 1: drive it into his throat and seemingly he's able to
Speaker 1: resist it, or maybe he's just playing along and duping
Speaker 1: her on purpose, but we see him completely resist the voice. Valia,
Speaker 1: shaken to her core, doesn't know what to do in
Speaker 1: this moment, and Desmond does have a zinger for her
Speaker 1: because he's like, your worst fear is to speak and
Speaker 1: not be heard, which I thought was quite poignant.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well yeah, not that they wouldn't get, not that they
Speaker 4: wouldn't hear you, but that they would hear you and
Speaker 4: just and just not care.
Speaker 1: Yes, which takes even further, you know, for an institution
Speaker 1: whose entire purpose is to influence.
Speaker 4: And there were high fives in the writer's room that day.
Speaker 2: I will tell you we got one on that one. Yeah, yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was good.
Speaker 1: This was a great scene to end on I think.
Speaker 4: Super strong, super strong.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it made me very excited for the like, But
Speaker 3: like I had my critiques, Like I was confessed in
Speaker 3: the first half of this episode, I sort of had
Speaker 3: my doubts about episode one as well, where I was like, Okay,
Speaker 3: it's a lot of setup, Like we're getting a lot
Speaker 3: of set up and I don't know really what it's
Speaker 3: point to. They're kind of making a lot of bets.
Speaker 3: We'll see what they can pay off. And then this
Speaker 3: episode two is like, we're still getting a lot of
Speaker 3: set up. I don't really know what we're pointing at yet.
Speaker 3: And then the second half getting the scene of other
Speaker 3: memory is like enough to lock me into this series
Speaker 3: for the whole thing. And then this you know, oh,
Speaker 3: actually I've got the voice combo breaker and you're gonna
Speaker 3: have to like take You're gonna have to take that
Speaker 3: power pack to the shop and see if you can
Speaker 3: work on another version. That was real strong. So I
Speaker 3: was very excited about the second half of the episode went.
Speaker 4: But ABU, if you're flying in from Wallach nine to
Speaker 4: like set things right, maybe don't take off for four
Speaker 4: to six hours to go meet your secret agent on
Speaker 4: the nice boat while everything is happening and then show
Speaker 4: up in the middle of the night and you're already right,
Speaker 4: Maybe stick around.
Speaker 1: Totally, Delegate, delegate, delegate right, like exactly, the mother Superior
Speaker 1: be in the most important spot, which is right next
Speaker 1: to the emperor, you know, send somebody else to meet Mikayla.
Speaker 3: Yes, she does, bring dear Theodosia with her back to
Speaker 3: Solici Sekonda's that's right, one of the accolades for no
Speaker 3: particular reason in this episode, well, just a bond.
Speaker 2: But like I like this character. I like this Theodosia character,
Speaker 2: so I'm.
Speaker 1: Interested to see. I think there's more to come. I
Speaker 1: think that this was a setup for potential stuff in
Speaker 1: episode three. Perhaps, well let's take another quick breather, guys
Speaker 1: and toss to an ad break. But we'll be right
Speaker 1: back with our final thoughts, and maybe we'll tap into
Speaker 1: presciens and predict what we might see in the future episodes.
Speaker 5: We'll see you in a minute.
Speaker 1: All right, we're back, Jason h. This has been such
Speaker 1: an incredible conversation. I've loved geeking out with the two
Speaker 1: of you. To wrap up today, I'm very curious zooming
Speaker 1: out big picture thoughts were now two episodes into a
Speaker 1: six episode first season of Dune Prophecy. Where are you
Speaker 1: at with this show and where do you think we're headed?
Speaker 4: I think the show is firing now. I'm stoked to
Speaker 4: see how it's going to develop. It's going to be
Speaker 4: super interesting. Now we're going to jump back right and
Speaker 4: see young Valia and her story with her family and
Speaker 4: how she got going and I actually think the young
Speaker 4: actresses that are playing in those early days with Raquela,
Speaker 4: I think that is a part I would have almost
Speaker 4: liked for them to have just started there and rolled
Speaker 4: through so that we were established with them from the beginning.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I can't wait to see what that turn is.
Speaker 4: I'm also super curious, like in Denise World, we've never
Speaker 4: met the Tilaxu, we've never met the Ixians, we haven't
Speaker 4: seen navigators. So I'm curious if there's any stuff that
Speaker 4: they're gonna be able to drop here or whether they
Speaker 4: just like WB like holding them in check. So I'm
Speaker 4: just curious to see how that develops and as they
Speaker 4: just get more more confident and roll through the season.
Speaker 3: It is interesting we've gotten through the first act I
Speaker 3: guess of the show, and you know, we've seen sort
Speaker 3: of the limits of like the main.
Speaker 2: Pieces on the board.
Speaker 3: I don't know if, given like the relative limited run
Speaker 3: of the show, if they have a lot of leeway
Speaker 3: to start bringing in a lot more different pieces in
Speaker 3: terms of yeah, you know, and like okay, and now
Speaker 3: the Ixians are here now, like the tile Laxu. You know,
Speaker 3: it's like it will require a lot more sort of
Speaker 3: exposition to start bringing that in, and I'm loathed for
Speaker 3: them to do that because i think they've got some
Speaker 3: cool pieces on right on the board right now. And
Speaker 3: I like the structure of this where it's kind of
Speaker 3: unclear who the protagonist of this show is at this point. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, who are you actually four on this show?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Like, who are you actually hoping to succeed? And
Speaker 2: it's like they.
Speaker 3: Killed off one of the people that was maybe a
Speaker 3: cannon for that in this episode, and so I'm interested
Speaker 3: to see who end up who ends up being the
Speaker 3: audience proxy most closely in the next couple episodes.
Speaker 2: I think you can make an argument for five or
Speaker 2: six different characters at this point.
Speaker 4: Well, spoiler, Lilah is still alive. Right in the Coming Attractions,
Speaker 4: they showed Lilah like in some sort of tank or something.
Speaker 2: Oh they tanked her.
Speaker 1: Yes, I believe she's in some sort of coma based
Speaker 1: on the preview thing that they showed.
Speaker 4: Okay, all right, right, so maybe she'll find her way back.
Speaker 1: I'm rooting for her then, But I do agree. I
Speaker 1: think one of my central criticisms so far, as much
Speaker 1: as I'm enjoying the show, I'm still feeling a little
Speaker 1: emotionally lost right right, Like who am I supposed to
Speaker 1: invest myself?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Connect to who am I supposed to connect to most?
Speaker 1: And I would have hoped that by the time we
Speaker 1: were at the end of this first act again a
Speaker 1: very short season where a third of the way through
Speaker 1: it already with episodes one and two. I would have
Speaker 1: hoped by now that I the viewer would have known
Speaker 1: who I've been rooted for.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I'm deminitely not rooting for these like rebel
Speaker 3: right weirdos, like they seem like clowns like they do. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna need I'm gonna need someone else to be
Speaker 3: four than them.
Speaker 1: And Mark Strong is fun to watch, but like, am
Speaker 1: I rooting for these seems terrible?
Speaker 2: Yeah, we don't want them to do well.
Speaker 3: Valia like kind of Vala seems like actually might just
Speaker 3: be the antagonist of the show, like it might be
Speaker 3: the one that has to like might have to go
Speaker 3: away because she's just done a bit too much murder.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's hard to know who we're supposed.
Speaker 3: To be for in this And like Tula, like going
Speaker 3: back to the beginning of our conversation, like reads as
Speaker 3: like the nice cop, Benny juzzer it who has more
Speaker 3: interest in still Acab exactly.
Speaker 2: I'm not really I'm not really buying it. Like I
Speaker 2: think she might be I think she might be sus too.
Speaker 2: So yeah, hard to say who we're for, hard to
Speaker 2: say who we're emotionally invested in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like he know I'm with ing z.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do too, she's my ride or I I agree.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I really hope that in the third episode things
Speaker 1: start to coalesce. Like Jason, to your point, adding more
Speaker 1: things now I think would be a bad idea because
Speaker 1: of the shorts run time. I think actually more focus
Speaker 1: is what's needed now, Like I would like thanks to
Speaker 1: coals together and for a forward thrust.
Speaker 4: But somebody's behind Desmond, Yes, right, that's the thing. It's
Speaker 4: not just I don't think Shai Halud chose Desmond and
Speaker 4: turned him into something. I think that's I think that's
Speaker 4: our story that we have. But I think someone else
Speaker 4: is doing something for Desmond, and we don't know who
Speaker 4: that is yet, gotcha. So that's what I'm waiting to see.
Speaker 1: Right, and whether that's till till I lack you Exian,
Speaker 1: I suppose that's whatever Guild whoever that might be.
Speaker 4: We'll find out, We'll find out.
Speaker 2: I'm excited.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm definitely gonna I'm definitely gonna watch it if
Speaker 3: you convince me. Yeah, Well, last thirty minutes of this
Speaker 3: one convinced me that I was excited for the show,
Speaker 3: which was yes, which was great.
Speaker 4: It's for us, It is for the three of us
Speaker 4: for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4: I don't know about anybody else, but I mean that is.
Speaker 2: I mean maybe we could if you have, like who's
Speaker 2: watching this show? Like is this working for each meal?
Speaker 3: Like cause it's it is a deeply nerdy show like
Speaker 3: this one's even compared to like the Expanse or something.
Speaker 2: The Expanse has.
Speaker 3: A bit more of like a whizbang kind of space
Speaker 3: adventure aspect to it.
Speaker 1: It's got it's got sort of like a Western vibe
Speaker 1: to it that I think might attract to Yeah.
Speaker 3: Maybe Foundation is like the closest analog for this one,
Speaker 3: where it is like this pretty cerebral, intricate, galaxy spanning
Speaker 3: like generational, weird kind of thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think that's a great question. I will be very
Speaker 1: interested to see at the end of a six episode run,
Speaker 1: are they stoked where this show lands, yeah, and who
Speaker 1: it's captured, right, Like, I don't necessarily have I'm obviously
Speaker 1: known among my friends and family as the as the
Speaker 1: Dune guy, So I don't really have like any aunts
Speaker 1: or moms texting me questions about Testamond, you know, which
Speaker 1: is usually a good barometer, right, like for shows that
Speaker 1: are really popping into the mainstream. Yes, I will get
Speaker 1: texts from like weird people I don't talk to, you know,
Speaker 1: family members, is what I mean by that. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: family members, Like what's happening in House of Dragon right now?
Speaker 1: Can you explain it?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Yes, And I haven't gotten it.
Speaker 4: It's not there. It's not doing House of Dragons numbers
Speaker 4: for sure, Yeah, for sure, for sure some penguin people
Speaker 4: may be asking, but.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. Well, Jason h. This has been so lovely.
Speaker 1: I want to give you both space here at the
Speaker 1: end of the episode to sort of tell the X
Speaker 1: ray Vision listeners where they can find you and your
Speaker 1: work online and what you're up to and plug anything
Speaker 1: you want to share.
Speaker 4: Well, definitely check out the podcast. So we have done
Speaker 4: two hundred and twenty three episodes over the last four years.
Speaker 4: We get into all of your favorite movies. We've done
Speaker 4: all the Dune books, the first six books that Frank wrote,
Speaker 4: and we have guests every single week. I boo, we
Speaker 4: got to get you on the pod. Absolutely, I would
Speaker 4: love to. We just had Rosy on last month for Twilight.
Speaker 4: We had Rosie on for Chronicles of Riddick. We had
Speaker 4: Jason and Rosie on for X Men two thousand and
Speaker 4: so it's just we have a great time and we
Speaker 4: get deep into the movies you love, so come check
Speaker 4: it out.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 3: I think we started off as a Dune podcast during
Speaker 3: the pandemic, So if you go back to the earliest
Speaker 3: run of the show and you're into Dune, you can
Speaker 3: find literally hours and hours on Dune stuff. And then
Speaker 3: because the movie got pushed and we just kept and
Speaker 3: we found like a community of people were interested in
Speaker 3: listening to the pod. We just kept doing things that
Speaker 3: we liked, and that for me was like, I want
Speaker 3: to cover war games. It's like, we what does that
Speaker 3: have to do with Dune? Absolutely nothing that tries to
Speaker 3: destroy the world. And so we just started doing movies
Speaker 3: that we liked, mostly from our childhood, and it's been
Speaker 3: really fun and we have like you know, discord with
Speaker 3: people that we hang out with online. And it's I
Speaker 3: think one of the reasons we call the podcast escape patches,
Speaker 3: both because the movies represent, you know, an escape from
Speaker 3: everyday life, but the community, the online community that we
Speaker 3: founded proved to be a nice escape patch from the
Speaker 3: dominant paradigm of social media that was descending into madness
Speaker 3: over the last couple of years, and it's proven to
Speaker 3: be a nice respite from the broader discourse.
Speaker 2: As I say, you're.
Speaker 1: Here, that's wonderful. And we'll have links to all that
Speaker 1: stuff in the show notes below, folks, so definitely check
Speaker 1: out Jason n H's work. On tomorrow's very thankful episode
Speaker 1: of X ray Vision, Jason and Rosie will be sharing
Speaker 1: their favorite Thanksgiving movies and asking the very important and
Speaker 1: confounding question what even is a Thanksgiving movie? And then
Speaker 1: on Friday's episode, Joelle and Carmen are beginning their journey
Speaker 1: into the Robert Eggers cinematic universe with a deep dive
Speaker 1: into which and they will be working through the Robert
Speaker 1: Eggers movie catalog leading up to Nos Faratu on Christmas.
Speaker 2: Incredible, very excited for that one.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's it. For the episode. Thanks so much
Speaker 1: for listening everyone, Bye, Thank you, Jason nho.
Speaker 6: X ray Vision is hosted by Jason Gisubson and Rosie
Speaker 6: Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our executive
Speaker 6: producers are Joelle Smith and Aaron Kaufman. Our supervising producer
Speaker 6: is a Boo Zafar. Our producers are Carmen Laurent and
Speaker 6: Mia Taylor. Our theme song is by Brian Basquez. Special
Speaker 6: thanks to Soul Rubin and Chris Laude, Kenny Goodman and
Speaker 6: Heidi
Speaker 5: Our discolld Moderata