What I love about the confrontation is that Jessica is so frustrated that Hawat can't see past his suspicions of her to use his Mentat abilities to solve other problems that she just sits down and uses her 'Bene Gesserit Witchery' to short circuit and hijack his brain to solve the problems she wanted him to solve in the first place. She plays him like an instrument and simultaneously shows him a glimpse of her actual power and just that glimpse nearly dwarfs him. It's beautiful.

One of the most important characters in Dune's beginning is Piter. This whole confrontation between Jessica and Hawat was orchestrated by Piter via the 'intercepted' scrap note

The Thufir/Jessica mutual distrust and how it stops either of them from working out Yueh has been flipped is an excellent bit of plotting.

not only is there absolutely no reason that could not be translated to screen, it would make for an amazing scene. And a scene that would last more than 2 or 3 minutes. There are countless scenes left out, and many scenes in the movie that are extraneous. Frustrating that no one can really turn the book into a film. Just pieces, hints and visuals.

My favourite chapter in Dune. An example of Jessica's power. At this point she is one of the most powerful beings in the book, if not the single most powerful. At least if we just look at power on an individual and not an institutional level. It can't get into my head, how she gets depicted so emotional, weak and frail in the movie.

The Bene Geserit are a cipher to the Mentats.  They do not understand then and thus have no basis to predict them.  They thus have no effective counter to them.

Worse:  she doesn't need to kill you.  She can defeat you without lifting a finger.  Think Doctor Who's "Doesn't she look tired?" question.

I am going to post this here as well, but I would argue that the movies also demonstrate that the Atreides know it is a trap but they don't know the specifics of the trap.

At the beginning there is the signing where you can get the sense that it is an ominous event rather than an exciting event of gathering a new fief and a powerful fief at that. If they didn't think it was a trap they would have been very excited at the opportunity. In fact it the exchanging of hands of the planet is extremely suspicious. The line that Leto gives is very much "we do this because we must."

In his conversation with his son, Leto points out that the taking of Arrakis is meant as a maneuver to start a war and to weaken both houses. The only issue is that they don't know when the attack against them will happen and they think they have much more time than they do.

Then of course the movie almost spells it out the most that they know it is a trap with Gurney's conversation with Paul. "You don't get it do you; you don't really understand the grave nature of what is happening to us. 80 years Arrakis belonged to house Harkonnen, 80 years of owning the spice fields can you imagine the wealth.... They are brutal, you have to be ready." To be fair there is a sense with Gurney's line that also points out the opportunity (which is a sentence of "imagine the wealth"), but that there will also be some sort of trap integrated with the transference.

Thufir is barely in the Vilneuve's films. Mentats generally...

Technically, Thufir was right. Jessica was connected through the Bene Gesserit plotting. She may not have been the knife in this case, but she was a serpent in their midst.

My favorite part of Drunken Idaho is that as soon as he takes offense and her giving him an order he drops the inebriation and speaks clearly. I still get chills just seeing the book scene in my head. Especially knowing how part of the reason he's upset is that he's been secretly in love with her the whole time so he really feels conflicted and betrayed. The chemistry in that scene in my head is something the movies could never match.

To be fair to Thufir, Jessica is in fact somewhat disloyal: She submitted Paul for the gom jabbar, and would have let Mohiam kill him if he failed the test.  Although in fairness to her, she saw the test as the only way to save him, since the BG would not have let him live without confirmation of his humanity.

This and the banquet are phenomenal scenes.
Dialogues are just.. <Chef's Kiss!>

"We truly exist only to serve"
I really like the Bene Gesserit. They're powerful, charming, tremendously canny, ruthless, and yet.. they exist only to serve.

Thank you for featuring this scene. It’s a very important scene and the results are consequential.

Thufir and Jessica's conflict reflected Mentats' own distrust of the Bene-Gesserit.
As far as Thufir was concerned, Jessica was no concubine:
just a viper who'd weaseled her way into Duke Leto's circle.

Giving thufir’s emotional bond with Paul to Gurney in the movies was a mistake. Thufir’s entire arc in the books culminating in that final line to Paul before he dies is just devastating. You don’t get that with Gurney. Thufir carried this horrible guilt about suspecting Jessica as well and that was all so much more compelling than “I wanna be the one to beat up Rabban” like what we got with Gurney in the movie.

Really enjoying your takes on this series. Thank you for continuing to post these. Well done!

Oh, "swallowing in a dry throat" (or trying to) - one of Herbert's favorite phrases.

Notice how we get to see Piter's plan work, exactly as he intended. We are encouraged to see Muad'Dib as being driven by fate, but this is not true. The Atriedes plan, Leto's desperate gambit, works. His son is trained, from birth, for the role he plays. The myths were seeded by the BG generations ago. It is shown to us as a dramatic near death experience for the House, but in reality, everything is just a plans within plans within plans.

Yueh was the perfect choice because of this- he is the blind spot between Mentat and Bene Gesserit. Neither one can believe the imperial conditioning was broken, even when all other options seem not possible. This is the arrogance of the houses in a microcosm that lead to the downfall of the Emperor. Again and again we will see threats from the periphery become the most dangerous. The fremen, Paul, the worms, the spice, all weaponized in ways these factions can’t imagine.