Dickinson episode 6 review: A sick day, of sorts

As Emily fakes an illness to get more time to write, Dickinson gets serious about the relationships at its core in a truly great installment.

Dickinson episode “A brief, but patient illness” is basically serious period drama by way of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, a ridiculous but wildly entertaining half-hour in which Emily fakes an illness to gain herself more time to write, but accidentally convinces  her family that she’s about to die.

There’s even a montage where she dances around her bedroom, celebrating her freedom from chores and social interactions. All that’s missing is the iconic hair shampoo sequence.

Honestly, this show should not work, at all.

And, yet, what starts off as a largely throwaway premise becomes an outlet for better understanding Emily, her family, and even Sue in the end. In fact, it might be the best episode of Dickinson yet. (Though, to be honest, I adore “Wild nights.”)

The premise allows for some real character insight to almost every major player in Emily’s life. We learn that her mother didn’t want kids, that her father once used to be a (yikes!!!) drug-taking playboy, that Austin’s been lying this whole time about Sue writing to him while she’s off in Boston.

In these brief moments, in which the rest of the Dickinson clan thinks they’re about to lose Emily forever, that they manage to become their truest selves, and to finally really show those selves to her. It’s both unfortunate and understandable that Mrs. Dickinson’s first words to a miraculously healed Emily are a reminder to watch her sick bed sheets – that magical liminal space where they were able to speak honestly with one another is clearly no more.

The best part of this episode is probably the introduction of Ben, the handsome lover of spooky books and depressing poetry who just so happens to be working as an assistant to Emily’s father during the campaign season. He’s adorable and has instant chemistry with Emily, likely because they’re both lonely weridos who like books better than people. Even their straight-out-of-a-rom-com nighttime trip to the local watering hole is perfect. Mostly because it’s so nice not just to see someone understand who Emily is, but who doesn’t ask her to apologize for it. Instead, Ben seems to just want her to be even more fully herself.

He even likes her poetry, because of course he does.

I know, I know, we were all in on Emily and Sue, like, two episodes ago, but the heart wants what it wants.

The thing is, this is precisely kind of messy storytelling I want from this show. I know how the real Emily’s life turned out – spoiler alert: It was lonely and sad, and her greatness was never recognized within it. This show can 100% give me an Emily who finds multiple soulmates, who writes and shares and loves with abandon, and I’m fine with it. It’s an idea of Dickinson that we probably owe the real life version of this woman.

Interestingly, this also marks the first episode in which the poem referenced by its title isn’t the same one that Emily composes during it. “A brief, but patient illness” is a line from “Summer Obsequies”. But the poem that Emily writes to give to Ben is “Tell all the truth, but tell it slant”. (Which, IMO, is the superior of the two, if you were curious. You weren’t, I’m sure. But still.)

In many ways, that’s what this show is doing. Tell the truth, but tell it slant. Show us the Emily that might have been, the one we want to believe existed, the one we see in the beauty of the words she left behind.

That’s why we love her. And it’s why this show is great.

All episodes of Dickinson are now streaming on AppleTV+.