Dickinson Review: Does Emily Want to Be a Nobody? (Season 2 Episodes 1-3)

Reader, I must confess something.

I wasn’t an instant fan of Dickinson‘s first season. Dickinson defies easy genre categorization and tonally it swings from brassy and tongue-in-cheek to passionate and earnest.

In Season 1, this could be distracting and its execution was frenzied, but with Season 2, Dickinson has figured out how to harness and direct its energy. 

The series is still not easy to explain (you gotta see it to believe it!) but it does have a better sense of its own identity.

Its narrative choices are clearer and more confident and it’s also finally given its ensemble more room to explore their identities outside of their connection to Emily (Hailee Steinfeld, who makes this part work in a way I doubt any other actress could pull off).

Part of this clarity of focus comes from having worked out some of its kinks in its first season, but there’s also a sense that the writers feel a little freer.

While the show is peppered with indicators of research (Dickinson Season 2 Episode 2 “Fame is a fickle food” is a nod to Emily’s notoriety as a baker, after all), the season’s preamble explains that there are fewer records about Emily’s life after Sue (Ella Hunt) and Austin (Adrian Enscoe)’s marriage, which has given the show permission to be even more imaginative and bombastic than it already was.

Based off of the first three episodes, a few primary themes have emerged and I anticipate these will be the stories that dominate the remaining seven episodes (contrary to Season 1’s one-and-done drop, Apple TV+ will be rolling out one Dickinson episode a week from here on out).

First, there’s the matter of explaining how the Emily we meet in Season 1 — passionate, independent, and strong-willed, becomes Emily Dickinson, a recluse and poet mostly heralded for her genius posthumously. That transformation obviously didn’t happen overnight, and it certainly won’t happen over the course of a single season, but there are building blocks to it.

Early on Dickinson Season 2 Episode 1 “Before I got my eye put out,” Emily is diagnosed with a congenital eye disease, which will worsen over time and with exposure to sun. Oh exposure to sun is a problem now? You don’t say.

More importantly, there’s the matter of fame. At the conclusion of Season 1, Emily stood up to her father and made it clear he couldn’t stand in the way of her writing. So if it’s not her father who impeded her from wider renown, then what was it?

Season 2 Episode 2 “Fame is a fickle food” in particular plants some seeds, warning of the dangers of acclaim, and it’s clear throughout all three episodes that Emily is struggling with the notion of publishing her poems.

She clearly wants validation for her work, which she gets from Sue, but at the same time, is that alone enough for her? Or will more notoreity corrupt her art and damage her spirit?

Nobody (Will Pullen), a mysterious specter who seems destined to play a larger role later on the season, warns her “Do not seek fame. Fame is not genuine. It will use you. It will destroy you.”

I’m deeply curious about who Nobody will turn out to be. Is he a manifestation of Emily’s subconscious, trying to steer her away from harm? Is he a creative premonition come to life? Or is he something more sinister, like a metaphysical stand-in for Emily’s long-rumored mental illness?

Emily feels everything and feels it deeply, so it’s not completely out of the question that her anxiety about fame might materialize in the form of Nobody…but methinks this is something else.

The third theme likely to dominate the season is the looming Civil War. It’s revealed that the family’s Black servant, Henry (Chinaza Uche) is running an underground publication.

Dickinson uses its anachronisms in a variety of ways, but it’s never better than when it uses these to comment on modern day issues. Given how much race is at the forefront of our current, everyday conversations, I’m looking forward to seeing how they draw comparisons to the fight for liberation, both past and present.

While I think the show has hinted enough at what its focuses will be this season, I am curious to see how two particular things develop.

Lavinia, or Vinnie, (Anna Baryshnikov) quickly became one of the funniest and most irreverent characters last season, and that’s no small accomplishment given this show’s entire brand is irreverent.

Over the course of much of Season 1, Vinnie wanted a more conventional life (for the time), but she’s found her inner feminist, and watching her fight against the constraints of the time this season is sure to be thrilling.

Lastly, I am concerned as to how the Sue/Emily relationship is going to develop. (Maybe step away for a second, EmiSue shippers).

Emily and Sue have always been very different people; that much has always been clear. However, in the past, they’ve at least felt like two halves of one whole. This season they seem to be living in completely different universes. They’re more like puzzle pieces you’ve wedged together to fit.

Sue’s priorities are different — she’s an influencer now, y’all! — and she has hints of cruelty and vacuousness that weren’t as readily obvious before. Additionally, she seems very persistent about pushing Emily to publish, but given her new lifestyle, it’s not always clear why.

Is she trying to support Emily because she believes in her work? Is she overwhelmed by being the single recipient and focus of all of Emily’s poetry? Or, can she simply not imagine a life where you wouldn’t want to have attention and praise and is pushing Emily that direction because that’s what she wants for herself and expects for the people around her?

When Emily rushes to Sue on Dickinson Season 2 Episode 3 “The only Ghost I ever saw,” and tells her she wants to pursue being published, the two of them couldn’t seem more different. Emily is seemingly undone and wild-eyed with even her hair loose. Meanwhile, Sue is constrained, hair tight, fully done up.

It’s a sad visual contrast, especially when you consider it alongside a moment the two share in Season 2 Episode 1 “Before I got my eye put out.” In a moment of vulnerability, they sink into each other, almost forming a calm, protective bubble between them, only for Sue to break the moment and insist she should be out hosting her salon, not huddled up with Emily. There are people waiting for her!

Despite the love that they share, these two are heading in increasingly opposite directions, mostly because of Sue’s choosing. It doesn’t bode well for the rest of the season at all. 

I think it’s going to break my heart, but it’s going to break Emily’s even more.

Stray observations:

• My absolute favorite moment of the all three released episodes comes in Season 2 Episode 1 “Before I got my eye put out” when they discuss how Emerson is “cancelled.” Utter perfection. (But also as someone who likes Emerson, is he like, for real cancelled? Youths, help me out).
• The soundtrack to Dickinson has always been good, but damn, it is great in Season 2.
• Is Austin…perhaps…developing…moral character? He seems more focused and morally sound than he did last season, especially after his rather abhorrent behavior in Season 1’s finale.

What did you think of the first few episodes of the newest season of Dickinson? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The first three episodes of Dickinson are available to stream on Apple TV+. Moving forward, new episodes will premiere on the service on Fridays. 

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