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The first three episodes of season two of Dickinson were all released at once, so this review will combine a discussion of Episodes 2 and 3. The first is called ‘Fame is a Fickle Food’, which is an evocative Dickinson poem that is often interpreted in the obvious ways (fame is ephemeral and unpredictable) and more subtle (calling it food to give fame a physical quality, as food also does not last long).
The episode focuses primarily on Emily and her pursuit of winning a local baking contest. This is actually based on reality, as Emily was known to be a prolific and talented baker, and the black cake mentioned in the episode is quite a decadent recipe. But that’s really a way to discuss the theme of confronting fame, and Sue makes this explicit later, saying it’s absurd that Emily seemingly would prefer fame as a baker than as a poet.
But Emily’s poems are personal and emotionally connected to her and her relationship with Sue, whereas her baking can be enjoyed by anyone. It’s hard not to believe in Emily’s conviction to win with Hailee Steinfeld’s pitch perfect delivery of ‘I am gonna give this town a moist, sticky, generously spiced ass-kicking’. And I will admit, I did find Austin’s terrible puns (like ‘Let’s moo-ve’) to be funny in that ‘so bad they’re good’ way.
The episode gives us some classic Dickinson modern juxtaposition humor, like the other baking competitors calling the contest ‘rigged’ or ‘baking contest so white’ (that one a direct comment on the Oscars So White campaign). There’s also the funny asides, like a few random people talking about technology moving so fast these days with the invention of Morse code. Although the most direct fourth wall break was the Native American sailor Lavinia flirted with saying that there are ‘A lot of Native American sailors in this time period’.
We get a cameo from the legendary and always welcome Robert Picardo as one of the baking judges, and another appearance of the ‘Nobody’ apparition at the same time as Emily is being judged. But when Emily gets her approbation from the judges, we get what I’ve called (mostly in my head) as the ‘Steinfeld Smile’ with a pretty ridiculously charismatic grin from her.
This all leads into newspaperman Samuel Bowles trying to convince Emily to give him a better interview or her poetry. He gives a pretty ridiculous, on the dot, description of his wife who basically sounds like Emily, since she’s dark and over-thinks everything — it feels like manipulation, given his flirtatious nature and especially what we see in Episode 3.
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The third episode ties in pretty easily with Episode 2, called ‘The Only Ghost I Ever Saw’, which is (based on my research) a more controversial poem to interpret. Some think it’s about Emily’s fascination with death and the afterlife, others think it may be a metaphor about whom the ghost represents — a dead loved one maybe or representative of life itself.
We follow a continuation of the stories from before, including more of Lavinia and her more expansive, progressive role as she is once again talked down to in a sexist way from Mister Shipley. The dude literally says that women possess black magic and references an ex called Lola Montez (the show adds a stereotypical guitar string that I’m not sure really works) as the devil incarnate.
But we also see a real sisterly bond between Lavinia and Emily, as they support each other’s bravery and have similar ideas — they need spiritual guidance, so that means it’s time for a seance. I was wondering how the show would handle it, but at least in this episode, it is made explicit that dark spiritual things are happening. Attending the seance are the usual gang of young people, who arrive with a delicious beat drop, and they bring on Hattie (Ayo Edebiri) as the medium.
Apparently Hattie is the real deal, although at least she’s getting paid. There’s a lot of comedic moments at first, like Jane worrying about being a ‘hot young widow’ or Abby wanting to know if she has any allergies (same!). But it gets more complicated as scenes of Emily’s mother pleasuring herself to thoughts of a missing sea captain are juxtaposed with Emily’s vision of Mr. Nobody getting shot, which is a more harrowing image.
This leads though to Emily’s decision that she doesn’t want to be famous posthumously, and brings some of her poetry to Samuel Bowles, who is visiting Sue once again (odd — is there something going on between the two of them?). But although Samuel drops the epic line that he ‘likes balls’ and therefore is a ‘baller’, he simply dismisses the poems and tosses them to the top of his ‘pile’.
So what was the purpose of his manipulations of Emily or Sue? At this point, he seems to be more of a cad than anything else — an interesting point to continue from. We also have Lavinia’s growth, the disconnect of their parents, and the continuing fears of Austin wanting a child from Sue, who still hasn’t told him of her miscarriage.
It’s a lot of setup, but the episodes were both quite entertaining, and in a way work better together, as the more woolly pieces of the baking episode lighten up the more heavy moments we see in the seance episode. So far, it’s a pretty decent set of episodes to start the season.
What did you think of these episodes? Start a conversation in the comments section below.
New episodes of Dickinson are available Fridays on Apple TV+.
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