In Dune: Prophecy, we’ve not gotten to the point where everyone in House Harkonnen shaves their head and starts loving sadism, but the series is certainly laying the groundwork for how and why the most depraved and arrogant group in the Imperium became that way. While Dune: Prophecy draws on previously established lore from Frank Herbert’s Dune (1965), it fleshes out those specifics from much newer books. In fact, the extended flashback in the third episode, “Sisterhood Above All,” focuses on a pivotal murder from the book Mentats of Dune, published just 10 years ago, in 2014.
It's in this moment, and the episode overall, that we begin to understand the long rivalry between House Atreides and House Harkonnen. Yes, House Atreides has a right to be mad here, but the beginnings of House Harkonnen probably aren’t what most fans assumed. Spoilers for Dune: Prophecy’s “Sisterhood Above All” ahead.
