Title: “Episode 3 of ‘Dune: Prophecy’ Unveils Young Tula Harkonnen’s Attempt to Destroy House Atreides Using Stealth, Seduction, and Poison”

Back when Decider was present at HBO’s panel for Dune: Prophecy at New York Comic Con, lead actress Olivia Williams intriguingly referred to Tula Harkonnen as the “misunderstood younger sister.” Despite being asked for more details in a roundtable interview, Williams remained elusive, citing the need to avoid spoilers. However, she did offer a tantalizing hint, suggesting a complex dynamic involving the noisy kid, the squeaky wheel, and a master manipulator before stopping herself from divulging further.

A crucial flashback in Episode 3 of Dune: Prophecy titled “Sisterhood Above All” sheds light on Tula potentially being the more lethal and perilous Harkonnen sibling.

**Spoilers for Dune: Prophecy Episode 3 “Sisterhood Above All,” now streaming on Max**

This is illuminated through a sequence revealing how young Tula (portrayed by Emma Canning) orchestrated the near-total annihilation of the Atreides lineage with a combination of strategic foresight, allure, and manipulation.

Dune: Prophecy Episode 3 “Sisterhood Above All” takes us back to the Harkonnen homeworld of Lankiviel, a desolate and frigid place where the once great family scrapes by on meager cuts of whale meat. The ambitious Valya (Jessica Barden) urges her beloved brother Griffin (Earl Cave) to confront Vorian Atreides about lying about House Harkonnen’s actions in the Machine War. Griffin promptly returns to Lankiviel dead. Valya blames Vorian for the murder and confides in Tula that she wants “the Atreides to suffer like we have.” However, Valya is stymied in her plan for revenge as she is about to be shipped to Wallach IX to join the Sisterhood.

“Whatever path you choose,” she tells Tula, “don’t stay on this nightmare of a planet.”

When we next see Tula, we see she has taken her sister’s advice. She’s on an idyllically beautiful planet, riding on horseback with a handsome young man named Orry (Milo Callaghan), who is excited to introduce Tula to his family. She’s nervous, explaining her family has essentially disowned her. However, she’s soon welcomed by everyone who has gathered for a sacred hunt — particularly Albert (Archie Barnes, aka House of the Dragon‘s Oscar Tully), a teenaged boy she teaches how to castrate wild animals for a specific purpose. The scent of the creature will lure a rare Salusan bull to the hunters, she explains. But you have to be careful, because part of the animal also secretes a super lethal poison.

As night falls and festivities begin, it soon becomes clear that the family Tula is so nervous about impressing is none other than House Atreides. She has seduced Orry in order to get close to her family’s nemeses so she can kill them all. How does she do this? She puts the poison she told the kid about in the liquid bait the hunters paint themselves with.

There are two catches to Tula’s otherwise perfect plan. One, she seems to truly love Orry and he loves her. Even after she confesses she is a Harkonnen, he affirms his love and devotion to her. He still wants to marry her. You know, until he realizes she just killed his entire family. As soon as he sees his kinsmen dead, Tula injects him with the poison, causing him to die in her arms. “I’m sorry,” she says, tears in her eyes.

The other catch? Well, Albert also avoided the poison warpaint. When Tula sees him, she simply whispers, “Go.” Letting this one Atreides live means she hasn’t actually eliminated the entire house, allowing Kieran Atreides (Chris Mason) to be born and Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) to eventually live.

It’s a dramatic subplot that feels ripped from mythology or gothic romance. In fact, a version of these events take place in the Dune prequel novel, Mentats of Dune, by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. In the books, Valya orders Tula to marry Orry Atreides and then murder him on their wedding night.

“We just slightly altered the events,” Dune: Prophecy showrunner Alison Schapker told Decider during a roundtable interview. “I think we stayed very true to the spirit.”

“We wanted to contain it in a certain way and hopefully surprise fans who even read the books. And I think it does the work that it did in the in the in the novel, but a little bit differently.”

In the HBO show’s version of events, Tula is visited by the Salusan bull after the massacre. Bulls have been associated with House Atreides since the original Dune novel, in which we’re told that Duke Leto’s bull-fighting father died after being gored in the arena. A totem of this moment lives on as set dressing in Denis Villeneuve’s film version.

Dune: Prophecy’s version is also far more dramatic, while imbuing Tula with far more agency. She chooses to murder the man she loves because she puts the desire of her literal sister above all. And she chooses to commit her mass murder via care planning, poison, and seduction.