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