Dickinson started the second season with Emily receiving some scary medical news … along with an opportunity to share her poems with the world.
Friday’s premiere starts with a history lesson, with a narrator telling us that the details of Emily Dickinson’s real life after Sue and Austin’s wedding are incomplete, and perhaps we can only find the truth through her poems. Emily is still writing letters to Sue, who now lives next door with Austin. But when her vision is blurred and painful, her father takes her to a doctor who is not very friendly. (When she says she writes, he says, “You may want to stop doing so much of it.”) Her vision is failing, the doctor concludes and advises her to sit in dark rooms and avoid the sun. He is also not optimistic: “It will only get worse,” he says gravely.
On the train home, Emily’s father murmurs about the doctor’s heavy bill and she says to him, “Sorry for being so expensive.” He reassures her, saying that Austin really is the problem; his new home with Sue cost a fortune and then the market hit rock bottom. When he walks away, Emily is approached by a strange man, who says to him, “I am nobody. Who are you? “She is convinced he looks familiar, but he leaves without saying his name – and when her father returns, the man is gone. Hmmm.
Meanwhile, Lavinia is confused when her mother accepts a new guest: Mr. Shipley, Lavinia’s ex with really beautiful hair. (“What’s going on now?” Asks Lavinia.) Shipley boasts that she has been very successful in selling medicines, but has returned with the intention of marrying Lavinia. He is looking for a traditional girl who exhibits “submission, chastity and willingness to do household chores”. Lavinia insists it is not her – and proves it by throwing him on the bed and straddling him. OK then!
When Emily and her father return home, her mother worries about her severe diagnosis: “Why is this happening to me?” Lavinia wants to gossip, but Emily runs up the stairs to write, “My mind is bursting with ideas.” (Her father warns her about her eyes, but she is not intimidated.) Lavinia is excited to go to one of Austin and Sue’s fabulous parties tonight, as there has been a lot of buzz about them. (“Sue is an influencer,” she gushes.) The newspaper’s editor and rising media mogul Samuel Bowles will be there, she adds. Emily tries to write, but the noise of the party next door makes it impossible. “It looks like they are making the last cats,” jokes the maid.
At the party, Sue makes the cut in a chic dress while Mr. Shipley marvels at the oysters. (“Oysters are actually cheap and readily available food,” Lavinia sighs.) Shipley gives Austin a brotherly greeting and says that he and Lavinia are “engaged” … although she never agreed to that. That bunch of Emily acquaintances is there too, declaring Ralph Waldo Emerson “canceled” and feeling sorry for poor Jane, now that she’s a widow with a baby. Emily finally drops her writing and goes to the party with ink stained on her face. Sue tries to help her clean up, but Emily doesn’t care what she looks like: “I’m here to see you.”
She demands to know what Sue thinks of her poems, and Sue says that they are better than ever … but they are too much for her: “Your poems … they make me feel things that I don’t want to feel”. They remind her of her recent miscarriage, which she hasn’t yet told Austin about. Sue wants Emily to meet Sam Bowles and thinks he can publish his poems in his newspaper, which must have been around for a long time: “I can’t be your only reader anymore.” On the spot, Sam appears, calling Sue “Suzie” and casually bragging about his travels. He knows all about Emily’s poems and wants to hear one – but when Sue encourages her to read one out loud at the party, Emily says “not tonight” and leaves. (She also has another glimpse of that “nobody” guy. Is he a ghost or what?) As she runs home, she turns and sees Sam watching her leave. We’re guessing that these two will see each other again, huh?
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