What Happens to Lila During the Agony in ‘Dune Prophecy’?

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Dune: Prophecy Episode 2.

This week’s episode of Dune: Prophecy gives us a great look into one of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood’s most important rituals: the Agony. In “Two Wolves,” the series fully leans onto horror, with young Sister Lila (Chloe Lea) having to navigate the dark corners of her consciousness and deal with the genetic memory of her forebears. It’s a great scene, raising questions not just about the ritual itself, but also about what is really going on at the Sisterhood.

‘Prophecy’ Gives Us a Detailed Look Into How the Agony Works

The Agony (or “Spice Agony,” as it’s also called) is a key moment in a Bene Gesserit Sister’s life, symbolizing her growing into a Reverend Mother. It’s a dangerous ritual, resulting in death for the Sisters who do not succeed. Submitting Lila to it at such a young age is basically a death sentence, but she bravely understands the stakes that require her to go through with it.

In Dune: Part Two, Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) and Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) both go through the Agony by drinking the Water of Life on Arrakis, but Prophecy provides a more detailed look into the ritual. Mother Tula Harkonnen (Olivia Williams) drops the Rossak poison on Lila’s eye, who then has to “break down the poison” into only molecules until awakening her Other Memory, the genetic memory of one’s forebears that resides in their genes, and being able to find the memory of her great-great-grandmother, Mother Superior Raquella Berto-Anirul (Cathy Tyson),

Tula warns Lila that, when a Sister undergoes the Agony, her ancestors are “wild and hungry” after being dead for such a long time, and will prey on their own living descendants, but the visual representation is chilling. Lila awakens in a huge open hall, where darkness and thunder shed a pale light on the memories of her forebears.

What Lila Learns Implies the Sisterhood Has Greater Secrets

Besides finding Raquella, Lila also wants to find her own mother, who Tula says died in childbirth. She also explains that Lila may not be able to find her mother in her Other Memory and that she can’t control the voices that come to her. The twist is that, besides finding Raquella, Lila also finds Mother Dorotea (Camilla Beeput), who turns out to be her grandmother.

Dorotea was Mother Superior Valya Harkonnen’s (Emily Watson) rival from her youth and led a faction of zealots inside the Sisterhood. Her own grandmother, Raquella, favored Valya’s more practical and strategic approach to leadership. Dorotea being Raquella’s granddaughter is surprising and explains why Raquella wanted Valya to share leadership of the Sisterhood despite not caring much for Dorotea’s faction. Like Valya with her Harkonnen blood, Raquella also had secret family ties inside the Sisterhood. After Raquella dies in the series premiere, Valya then uses the Voice to order Dorotea to commit suicide and become the sole leader.

However, Dorotea reveals to Lila that her mother (who then would be Dorotea’s daughter) isn’t in her Other Memory. This means Lila’s mother probably isn’t dead, and that Tula lied to her. The Harkonnen sisters could have lied to Lila in order to get her to comply and go through with the Agony, but that leaves another problem: where is Lila’s mother? Besides that, if Raquella knew Dorotea was her granddaughter, had she foreseen Dorotea’s death at Valya’s hands but chose to sacrifice her so the Sisterhood could thrive? Prophecy then uses the Agony to further build into the mysteries of the Sisterhood at its earliest moments, using Lila as the vessel for such reveals.

Dune: Prophecy is available to stream on Max in the U.S. New episodes air weekly on Sundays.

WATCH ON MAX