On Giedi Prime, Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen’s seventeenth birthday is marked by a public holiday and an arena spectacle in which Feyd is expected to kill his hundredth slave-gladiator. Count Fenring and Lady Fenring attend as Imperial observers, noticing that the Harkonnen display of festivity and order is sustained by fear, armed control, and widespread misery.

Before the games, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen presents Feyd-Rautha to the Fenrings. Feyd is drawn to Lady Fenring and attempts to dedicate his arena kill to her, but she sharply refuses. After Feyd leaves, Count Fenring speaks privately with the Baron and delivers the Emperor’s concerns: Rabban has not resolved the Fremen problem, reports suggest plant life in Arrakis’s south, and the Baron’s accounts and political loyalty are under scrutiny.

The conversation turns more dangerous when Fenring reveals Imperial knowledge that Thufir Hawat is alive and working for the Harkonnens. Fenring orders the Baron to eliminate Hawat, but the Baron refuses without a sealed Imperial command. Fenring also hints that the Emperor has not officially approved Feyd as heir, meaning Feyd’s performance in the arena will help determine whether the succession is acceptable.

In the arena, Feyd begins with calculated showmanship, dedicating the fight to the Baron rather than provoking Lady Fenring. Feyd knows the gladiator is part of a scheme devised by Hawat: the slave is undrugged and dangerous, but conditioned to freeze when Feyd says the key word “scum.” Feyd also adds his own secret advantage by poisoning the long blade instead of the traditional white-gloved short blade.

The gladiator proves to be a skilled former Atreides fighting man and openly challenges Feyd, confirming the appearance of treachery before the spectators. Feyd wounds the man with barbs and then struggles with him at close range, nearly losing when the slave tries to turn Feyd’s presumed poisoned knife against him. Feyd speaks the key word, the gladiator briefly freezes, and Feyd cuts him with the secretly poisoned long blade; the dying man kills himself with his own knife to avoid becoming a display of Harkonnen torture.

The crowd demands the slave’s head, but Feyd orders the man buried intact with his knife, a gesture that unexpectedly inflames public adoration. The Baron orders a fete to release the crowd’s excitement, while the Fenrings conclude that the fight was planned and bears Hawat’s design. In private, Count and Lady Fenring decide Lady Fenring will seduce Feyd, conceive his child, and implant conditioning phrases in him to preserve and control his bloodline; they also reflect that Paul Atreides may not be dead without a body.