What I’m Watching: Dickinson (Season Finale)

Dickinson: Season 1, Episode 10 “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” (B+)

If there was any doubt about Ben’s fate in the hallucinatory, sometimes terrifying previous episode that saw Death come for him as he and Emily had a perfect night together, it was confirmed that he’s gone by the sight of the tombstone in the opening shot and Emily’s devastation about his being gone. Lavinia, who’s rarely one to bolster others to do anything, was encouraging of Emily to get out there and do something enjoyable, and Emily’s misery ended up translating into something even worse when Austin found out about what she had written Sue that had made her cry. Asserting his role as man of the house and locking her in the bedroom so that she couldn’t come to the wedding was cruel, and the timing of Edward’s arrival back home moments before the ceremony made it so that she seemed like a child unable to cope with her brother getting married rather than revealed to be the sick and suffering person she was at that time. Her mother wasn’t in much better shape, putting poison in her eyes to look young and then somehow springing back to life when her husband returned. The wedding was nice even if Austin and Sue aren’t meant to be together, and hopefully Sue and Emily can rekindle their relationship in secret when this show returns for a second season. This show has been undeniably peculiar in its eager pursuit of anachronistic tones and a stylistic dramatization of Emily’s writings, and I’m happy to continue with it and see what comes with season two.

Season grade: B+
Season MVP: Hailee Steinfeld as Emily