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The first episode of Dickinson Season Two is called ‘Before I Got My Eye Put Out’, which is one of Emily’s poems that is incorporated in multiple ways in the episode. Like most of her poetry, it has an ambiguous quality, but the common interpretation of this particular one is about the divide between the tangible and the intangible, a solitary eye against the infinite possibility of existence. Although the episode goes for a literal take by tying in Emily’s historical eye issues, which I’ll get back to in a second.
Because the episode actually starts with a disclaimer, that the next part of the story we see will be based on the evidence of her life that exists, but it’s more vague than what we got in the first season. Instead the show asks us to find the truth from her poems, so literally getting the art from the artist.
The episode starts with Haille Steinfeld’s Emily being diagnosed with ‘iritis’ (accurate, although the timeline is off) by Dr. Henry Willard Williams (the great character actor James Urbaniak), who calls himself the very first ophthalmologist (likely true for the US anyway). Naturally the potential cure (stop writing) is worse than the disease (going blind), even for Emily, but her father still cannot really say no to her.
In the meantime, Emily’s brother Austin is spending more money than their father can afford, so they bring in a young Mr. Henry Shipley (Pico Alexander), an up and coming entrepreneur with a history with Emily’s sister Lavinia. So there’s a setup of drama with Lavinia and Shipley, with a relationship that’s accelerating perhaps too quickly for her taste, while Sue has managed to get in touch with Samuel Bowles (Finn Jones, new to the show), the editor-in-chief of a local paper (he’s a real person). As for Henry, he was also real, but perhaps not in the way he’s being shown here.
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A new character is introduced, a mysterious figure that Emily (and only Emily) sees first on the train and then at the party, only called ‘Nobody’ (Will Pullen). It could be a reference to her poem ‘I’m Nobody! Who are you?’, which is often interpreted to be about feeling like an outsider. If so, that certainly fits with how they use it, with Emily always on the outside. A similar outsider vibe is shown to Henry, who is organizing his own all-black, specifically anti-slavery newspaper, in the barn right near everyone else — certainly something that will impact the season going forward as the Civil War gets closer.
The party is a pretty fun part of the episode, allowing all sorts of classic Dickinson modern day vernacular juxtaposition, like calling Sue an influencer, or hilariously saying that Emerson is ‘cancelled’ (although why I’m not sure). But then we get the tender, complicated moments between Emily and Sue as Sue praises the poems, even if they ‘make her feel things [she] doesn’t want to feel’. That’s hardcore.
But despite the complicated nature of their relationship (to put it mildly), Sue wants to help her friend — and perhaps by sharing her with the world, will allow her to remove the temptation of forbidden romance. Emily is then introduced to the charming Bowles but when asked to give a public reading, we get a retread of the eye poem, with Emily dissociating from reality as the Nobody man reappears.
Exactly what he is or represents is clearly something the season plans to explore, but it’s a fascinating new conceit — making the metaphor into visual imagery, like Death from last season (who certainly will return). It’s a strong, interesting episode, both with funny moments and complicated, emotional ones too — Haille Steinfeld remains one of the best actors of her generation (and more), but that’s no shock. I mean, I think it was ridiculous she wasn’t even nominated for an Emmy.
Okay, so it’s not Ted Lasso, but nothing else is — I’m still in the tank for this show. Two particularly good tracks from this episode that were new to me were ‘Purple Hat’ by Sofi Tukker and ‘Where Do You Go?’ by Yebba.
What did you think of the season premiere? Start a conversation in the comments section below.
New episodes of Dickinson are available Fridays on Apple TV+.
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