Emily and Lavinia Dickinson are transported to the future in the latest episode of Apple TV+’s Dickinson, titled “The Future Never Spoke.” They learn of the twentieth century’s misconstrued legacy of Emily Dickinson’s life. While Emily may be dissatisfied with the false perception of her life, Emily is made to face the reality that she has a very real love to live for in the present day.
Strange Power | Emily (Hailee Steinfeld) has received a letter from author and abolitionist Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson (Gabriel Ebert). He writes:
“Sometimes I take out your letters and verses, dear friend, and when I feel their strange power, I find it hard to write. I think that if I can once see you and know that you are real, I might fare better. It is hard for me to understand how you can live so alone with thoughts of such quality coming up in you; Yet, it isolates anyone to think beyond a certain point or to have such luminous flashes as come to you…”
Hearing Higginson’s awe for her words pleases Emily a great deal.
Emily’s sister Lavinia (Anna Baryshnikov) interrupts Emily’s contemplativeness with two empty pails that need to be filled from the water well. Apparently, Mrs. Dickinson (Jane Krakowski), hasn’t left her bed and the Dickinson housekeeper, Maggie (Darlene Hunt), has the week off. This means that Emily must fetch the water. Emily makes a snide remark about how she believes she was born in the wrong century.
Dating During Wartimes | Betty (Amanda Warren) and her friend Sojourner Truth (Ziwe Fumudoh) are enjoying the springtime sunshine on the front lawn of Betty’s home. Betty’s husband Henry (Chinaza Uche) still hasn’t written her or her daughter and she fears the worst – that Henry may have died. Sojourner places her bets on another explanation: Henry has fallen for someone else. Sojourner encourages Betty to begin dating again.
Taking her friend’s advice, Betty agrees to have lunch with the mailman, Freddy. Freddy and Betty go for ice cream and while they’re talking, Freddy tells Betty that Henry is in Beaufort, South Carolina with the South Carolina volunteers.
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The Orchard | “Emily,” Sue Dickinson calls from an orchard tree. Emily is walking through the orchard that she and Sue used to meet in. Emily hears Sue call for her, but she brushes it off as if she heard it only in her head. After all, Sue and Emily haven’t spoken to each other since Sue learned about Emily’s correspondence with Higginson. “Up here,” Sue tells Emily. Emily is surprised to see Sue in the tree waiting for her.
Sue questions Emily as to why she hadn’t visited her. Emily didn’t think it was appropriate to visit since Sue had been angry with her over Higginson. Sue is certainly angry but it’s because Emily had once told her that she only wrote for Sue. Sue is disappointed that she no longer has the privilege of being the only person to read Emily’s work.
In Emily’s defense, she has felt that Sue hasn’t had the time to read her poems since becoming a mother. Emily also feels that Sue is biased in her critiques, unlike Higginson who doesn’t personally know Emily. The most important conflict that’s revealed during their discussion is that Sue needs more from Emily. Yes, Sue wants Emily’s poetry, but she also wants what Emily can’t give her in words. Sue wants Emily.
In this moment of conflict, Sue reflects on her desire to live her life with Emily; to be with her; to fall asleep with her; to have Emily with her, always. Emily breaks Sue’s fantasy with the harsh reality that Austin (Adrian Enscoe) would never let that happen. Sue tells Emily to kiss her, but Emily rejects her demand.
Time Traveling Gazebo | As Emily arrives back to the Dickinson home, she finds Lavinia sitting in the gazebo sobbing. Together, the two sisters commiserate over the difficulties of recent family hardships, war, and lost relationships. Emily wishes she could transport to the future so that she may skip over the Civil War and relish in a world where everything is different than it is now.
Just as she tells Lavinia this desire, lightning strikes the gazebo they sit in and the gazebo begins to buzz with rose-colored electrical currents and spin in circles above ground. When the gazebo stops spinning, Emily and Lavinia find themselves in a very different Amherst. It’s year 1955.
YOLO | Mr. Dickinson has found cannabis growing in Emily’s greenhouse and he brings it to Mrs. Dickinson for her to see. Mrs. Dickinson is still in bed, but she perks up at the idea of smoking the plant and experiencing “all sorts of ecstasies, dreams, [and] delusions.” Mr. and Mrs. Dickinson spend the day in their room smoking the “devil’s weed” and laughing hysterically.
1955 – Still Depressing | Emily and Lavinia are freaking out on the doorstep of what was their home, unable to enter because the front door is locked. A young woman (Chloe Fineman) with bright red lips, a red headband, and pants rolls up on a bicycle. The young woman gives Emily and Lavinia one look and assumes the sisters have dressed up for Smith College’s “mountain day”. The local all-women’s college is out of session for the day and the students are making their way outside to hang out and have fun.
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Emily is bewildered to learn that women are allowed to attend college in the future. “Women’s lives in this decade seem pretty great,” Emily says excitedly. The young woman delivers disappointing news, however, and informs Emily and Lavinia that women’s lives are still depressing, even in the twentieth century. She then takes the spare key from below the doormat and unlocks the door to head inside. It turns out that this woman is an aspiring poet and a huge fan of Emily. Silvia Plath is her name.
Not So Radical After All | Henry visits Higginson in his office to request that Higginson give weapons to the volunteer men of the First South Carolina Regiment of the Union Forces. The group of men has been trained, drilled, and prepared to fight in the war, but President Lincoln hasn’t allowed them to have weapons for reasons only attributed to racism. Higginson declines Henry’s request, but advises Henry to intercept the next shipment of guns to the camp and to distribute them among the volunteer men. Higginson won’t be involved, however.
Original Sad Girl | Emily, Lavinia, and Sylvia go to Emily’s room. Emily is bothered to find her room rearranged and newly decorated. At least her writing desk is still in the southwest-facing window where it belongs.
Sylvia takes a seat at Emily’s desk where she believes she’s able to commune with Emily’s spirit. When Sylvia finds it hard to contact Emily’s spirit, she pulls a book from a boxset on the fireplace mantel. It’s one of three first edition books, a collection of Emily’s poems. Emily and Lavinia are elated to discover that Emily is a famous poet in the future… Well, according to Sylvia, not quite famous, but a local legend.
Sylvia goes on to tell Emily and Lavinia that Emily is known as an “obscure, strange, female poet who lived a sad miserable life.” People of the twentieth century believe her to have been “morbidly depressed… [and] that she spent her entire life alone… Never got married; Never found love.” Emily is appalled to hear this misinformation. Sylvia also tells her that Emily was known to have had an unrequited love affair with an unidentified man. Again, this is completely false and Emily grows annoyed.
Lavinia is intrigued by the prospect of her sister having a secret love life and begins to list off men in Emily’s life to which Emily denies having relationships with any of them. “Lavinia, I have never in my life been in love with a man,” Emily states.
Sylvia interjects to say that a book had been published a couple of years earlier claiming that Emily was actually a lesbian. Lavinia looks to Emily and asks if it’s true, but Emily isn’t prepared to tell her sister that it is.
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Draft Dodger | Austin is at a local bar with a friend. Austin tells him about being drafted. His friend gives him the idea to pay someone to take his place in the draft so that he doesn’t have to go. After giving it some thought, Austin decides to dodge the draft and he makes a deal with the bartender to replace him.
“It’s Sue” | Emily and Lavinia are trying to figure out how to get back to 1862, when Lavinia brings up Emily’s sexuality. “Is it true – what she said about you loving other women?” Lavinia asks. Emily finally musters up the courage to tell her sister about her love for Sue. “It’s Sue,” Emily tells Lavinia. “It’s always been Sue. I love Sue.” Hearing this from Emily isn’t a shock to Lavinia. Lavinia’s always known.
Emily confides in Lavinia that she believes she’s ruined her relationship with Sue. She confesses that it’s “easier to be in love when… writing a poem than when [she’s] not.” Lavinia tells her how lucky she is to have someone to spend her life with. If she had the opportunity to be with the person she loved, she’d “run in right into their arms and never let them go.” It finally dawns on Emily that she had “everything in the present. [She] had Sue.” Emily’s epiphany breaks the time-traveling curse and the sisters are transported back to the present day in 1862.
1862 | Emily and Lavinia are back in 1862, but it seems that Emily was the only one to have been transported to the future. Emily’s imagination ran away with her again, but she did confide in Lavinia about her love for Sue.
While the two sisters are talking, George (Samuel Bowles) arrives breathless and distressed. Frazer has been killed in battle.
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