Dickinson – I’m Nobody! Who Are You?

By: Alejandra Gil M

The episode starts at the press facility and they are printing the day’s paper. It follows with a poem by Emily (Hailee Steinfeld. Two papers are being printed simultaneously, The Constellation and the Springfield Republican. The second one gets delivered to the Dickinson´s door. Emily is the first one to see it.

At the living room Lavinia (Anna Baryshnikov) is reading the poem that was published while Ship (Pico Alexander) and Mrs. Dickinson (Jane Krakowski) listen to it. They all love it, but Mrs. Dickinson asks who wrote it. “Emily did,” says Lavinia. Ship thinks the poem is about getting wasted and Lavinia says it´s about nature’s intoxicating trait.

“A poem by Emily? I don´t understand, states Mrs. Dickinson.” Emily walks in the living room and says that she´s not having breakfast today. “I couldn´t possibly eat. I’m too excited,” she says. She continues to initiate or at least she´s trying to talk to Mrs. Dickinson and Lavinia, but apparently they can not see her or hear her.  Edward (Toby Huss) sits to have breakfast while Mrs. Dickinson tries to hide the paper from him so he does not see the poem. They still do not see Emily. She jumps onto the table and yells, “Oh my God! Am I invisible?”

Emily then tries to get Ship to see her, but he cannot. He is talking to himself as a way to imagine how he will break up with Lavinia. But she enters the room because apparently she could hear him from the other room. They starts argue right next to Emily. Lavinia says she´s not normal and Ship can not accept it. Ship says that all the Dickinsons are insane and that he would be better off in Nevada and storms out. Emily is still trying to get Lavinia to acknowledge her presence.

Then, the ghost that she keeps seeing shows up and she thinks that she´s a ghost too and hat perhaps she died overnight. She goes to her room, but does not find her body on the bed. He tell her that there could be an upside to her situation – she could find out what people actually think of her poem. They go into town, walk around and hear some peoples’ thoughts on it. Some of them like it, but it´s mostly bad reviews.

Hattie (Ayo Edebiri) finds the poem offensive. Emily wonders why and it’s because it does not say anything offensive. She expected her to be political, to have an edge. Emily walks with nobody (Will Pullen) and she says that this is worse that she expected. He tells her that many wonderful things are invisible, like the air we breathe and love. “The world runs in invisible things,” Emily Dickinson he insists. Nobody starts to remember some things from his life and then vanishes leaving Emily by herself.

At the Dickinson´s barn a meeting is being held. Henry (Chinaza Uche) is giving a speech about power and change, but it´s interrupted by a fight between Hattie and Henry “Box” Brown (Ade Otukoya) which upsets Henry and he stops it. Emily walks in and hears all of it. Hattie says he´s right and that they need to celebrate. She gets up and says that she wants to dance, so they all start doing it. Even Emily joins them.

There is a drastic change to this party over to Austin (Adrian Enscoe) and Sue´s (Ella Hunt) house. There the tweens are playing a very sad violin piece. Apparently they are having a celebration for Emily, but she´s not there yet. Sam (Finn Jones) enters the room asking for Emily.

Austin goes to find her and the dance party at the barn is still going. He hears the music from outside and opens the door. He gets Emily off the floor. She´s very drunk. He takes her outside. He asks her why she didn´t go to the house. Emily says that she´s invisible now. He tells her how proud he is, but she goes off as soon as she sees Death´s (Wiz Khalifa) carriage. She goes in and he introduces her to Edgar Allan Poe (Nick Kroll). She asks Death to drop her off at Sue´s because she is a very famous poet. Emily arrives to Sue´s house. She enters looking for her. She goes to the library and Sue is there too, but she still can not see her. Sue says, “Nobody is here.” Sam enters right behind her. They start kissing in front of Emily.