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Dickinson has always known its strengths, which are the three ‘H’s’: heartache, hilarity, and Hailee (Steinfeld), and thankfully Season 3 is no different, immediately making me laugh and then hurting my soul right after.
Episode 1 is called ‘Hope is the thing with feathers’ after one of Emily Dickinson’s most well known and most mysterious poems:
Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –
And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –
I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me./em>
There is a common interpretation that the poem uses birds as a metaphor for hope, and the season premiere nearly makes this explicit. The episode starts with Emily dressed as a Union soldier, trying to save people but often failing. She then finds herself in an abandoned house, creeping through until, with a mysterious transition, she drops her gun and opens the windows — sunlight hits the room and it’s her own room again.
Reality can never be taken for granted in Dickinson, so we don’t have the luxury of wondering what it means — but thankfully it’s spelled out soon enough. Emily wants to be that source of hope to her family and to the world in general. This comes because she sees a mysterious bird at her Aunt Lavinia’s funeral and believes it’s a message — but perhaps only Emily can even see the bird, as no one else seems to notice it.
The show as usual deals with darkness with great humor, having the priest come to the wrong funeral and Death complaining to Emily about the boring old deaths getting repetitive. This conversation is so wonderfully resonant, I had to rewatch it a few times.
Death points out that Emily’s life is fairly repetitive too yet her poems are brilliant and unique — thus he asks for her purpose, which is to do something that matters. Emily states that she believes poetry has the power to reverse death in its own way, and Death admits that she inspires him. We also discover that Sue is very pregnant with Austin’s baby and she admits to Emily that she wishes they could be the parents instead (which is revisited later).
And then we get a weird, funny, but fascinating scene as Mister Conkey (Robert Picardo) proposes marriage to Emily. The optics imply a fairly absurd age difference, although in reality Ithamar Conkey was only six years older than Austin, who was himself only a year older than Emily — and if the timing is close to reality, Emily would’ve been in her early 30s by now so being called ‘old’ for the time actually feels like it could’ve happened — but it’s more important thematically that Emily wants to make people happy. Just like a bird.
And she even admits that ‘hope is a thing without feathers’ doesn’t entirely make sense even to her, but it doesn’t have to. There are also hints of things to come as Betty worries about Henry off on the road without any word in several weeks. The episode ends with an epic, dramatic scene with the family together with Emily offering a lovely eulogy and then Austin giving an anti-eulogy that in fact the family is toxic and it’s mostly due to Edward.
Who then has a heart attack — but this is quickly resolved in episode 2, which is called ‘It feels a shame to be Alive’:
It feels a shame to be Alive—
When Men so brave—are dead—
One envies the Distinguished Dust—
Permitted—such a Head—
The Stone—that tells defending Whom
This Spartan put away
What little of Him we—possessed
In Pawn for Liberty—
The price is great—Sublimely paid—
Do we deserve—a Thing—
That lives—like Dollars—must be piled
Before we may obtain?
Are we that wait—sufficient worth—
That such Enormous Pearl
As life—dissolved be—for Us—
In Battle’s—horrid Bowl?
It may be—a Renown to live—
I think the Man who die—
Those unsustained—Saviors—
Present Divinity—/em>
This poem is commonly interpreted as a classic plea of worry and guilt about standing on the sidelines while others risk their lives for a greater cause (in this case, defending the Union against the Confederacy). This guilt about Emily and her capacity in helping people will always come back later.
The episode is all about Sue’s birth, which is shown taking a long time (in a touch of actual real world accuracy), and even Emily gets bored by it. At the same time, Austin wants to be closer with Jane, who he’s been having an affair with — but instead Jane is moving to Vietnam and marrying a dude named Pierre. She also discards the same fantasy Sue brings up, wanting to raise the baby in a way society would not allow.
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But the real drop is when Frazar shows up again, our old friend Mister Nobody looking for Emily. He asks her for a counter message to the last episode, saying not to be fake and happy. That she’s only one brave enough to face the truth, not peddle some false hope — but maybe a real hope instead? She gifts him a poem that she wrote for ‘nobody’ and they both know tragedy will soon come.
Finally episode 3 is called ‘The Soul has Bandaged moments’ after a poem often interpreted as being afraid and in love or perhaps restrained, in horrid, fascinating imagery:
The Soul has Bandaged moments –
When too appalled to stir –
She feels some ghastly Fright come up
And stop to look at her –
Salute her, with long fingers –
Caress her freezing hair –
Sip, Goblin, from the very lips
The Lover – hovered – o’er –
Unworthy, that a thought so mean
Accost a Theme – so – fair –
The soul has moments of escape –
When bursting all the doors –
She dances like a Bomb, abroad,
And swings opon the Hours,
As do the Bee – delirious borne –
Long Dungeoned from his Rose –
Touch Liberty – then know no more –
But Noon, and Paradise
The Soul’s retaken moments –
When, Felon led along,
With shackles on the plumed feet,
And staples, in the song,
The Horror welcomes her, again,
These, are not brayed of Tongue -/em>
In this episode we see more consequences as Edward wants to settle things in his life and be remembered for something. At the same time, Vinnie despairs over the theoretical boyfriends who are dying in the war and Betty is said to be helping someone write their life’s story. And Sue and Mrs. Dickinson argue about holding the new baby.
All Emily wants to do is help, even if it’s complicated — we get a drop of the poem ‘Is it true, dear Sue?’ which is 100% about Sue having a baby. The drama continues as Sue wishes Emily could take her side instead of splitting between Sue and Emily’s family — wanting to feel ‘chosen’. She wants Emily more than her poems, all of her — a different perspective.
The humor mostly comes from jokes about Jane in Vietnam and Vinne’s inappropriate mourning about people she doesn’t know, but then it is pointed out that Walt Whitman (the greatest poet agreed by the group, except poor Vinnie who said ‘Emily’) is actually a field nurse, doing more than writing. Suddenly Emily is unsure about her position of hope and poetry. Yet she kindly turns down George’s invitations by admitting she loves someone else. It also happens to be true.
The episode ends with the reveal that Betty is helping write the story of the legendary Sojourner Truth (Ziwe), who claims to be 66 (despite the actress being late 20s, but they lampshade it). That would make it 1863, so Emily is 33 or so — that is, if the show was at all interested in the standard version of reality.
Then we hear a letter from Emily (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1891/10/emily-dickinsons-letters/306524/) to a one Thomas Wentworth Higginson who is leading an all black squadron — and indeed, we see Henry there, fighting with his actions and not just his words like last season.
It’s a complicated few episodes, if uniformly watchable and excellent — the cast is so fun and engaging, and the world so dark and light at the same time. Dickinson has not yet disappointed me, and while it is sad that this is the final season, hopefully they’re going out how they wanted. And finally, some great music drops are ‘Introvert’ by Little Simz (which actually gets narrated out loud in a great touch) and ‘Hard On Everyone’ by Kathleen Edwards.
What did you think of the season premiere? Start a conversation in the comments section below.
New episodes of Dickinson stream Friday on Apple TV+.
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