The ‘Dickinson’ Siblings Are Growing Up in Season 2

When you’re watching the show Dickinson which is ostensibly about the life of the poet Emily Dickinson (Hailee Steinfeld), it’s important to remember this: the show isn’t called Emily. And nowhere is that clearer than in Season 2, which further expands the world of the series to explore the lives of everyone in the expansive ensemble; notably Emily’s siblings, Lavinia Dickinson (Anna Baryshnikov) and Austin Dickinson (Adrian Enscoe).

Both of Emily’s less poetic housemates went through major changes at the end of Season 1. For Lavinia, due to the 1800s equivalent of slut shaming, it was the realization that she didn’t need a husband and children to be happy, and instead wanted to embrace her own artistic muse. For the sweet, simple Austin, it was getting everything he ever wanted by marrying Sue Gilbert (Ella Hunt) despite knowing she was actually in love with Emily.

When Season 2 rolls around (the first three episodes premiere on Apple TV+ on Friday, January 8), the duo will have to deal with brand new challenges that seek to put them back in the boxes they thought they escaped from. And without delving into spoilers, the episodes follow how they grow to new heights, and beyond.

“A big question about Lavinia is why she never got married and had a family when she seemed to, in Season 1, want pretty conventional things,” Baryshnikov told Decider referencing the real Lavinia. “In Season 2, she is confronted with the reality of actually getting those things and realizes that she doesn’t fit in that box. She’s much weirder and more eccentric, and wants much more control and power in her own life.”

Unfortunately, this is also stymied by Henry “Ship” Shipley (Pico Alexander), a boarder living with the Dickinsons who sets his sights on Lavinia as the perfect wife and mother of his children.

“Playing it all with Pico was just so much fun, because he’s such a gifted comedian,” Baryshnikov continued. “And he’s so handsome that he never gets to play those roles, so he was just ecstatic to be able to do whatever he wanted. He was so playful.”

Over the course of the season, the push and pull between the hilariously misogynistic Ship and the increasingly frustrated Lavinia takes a number of twists and turns before its resolution (if you read a few paragraphs up, you might be able to figure this one out). But in between, as usual with Dickinson, things are as applicable to the 1800s as they are to now. “These two people clearly are interested in each other, but at the same time, what they want is completely incompatible,” Baryshnikov said. “In the context of 2020, when maybe something like an open relationship would have been on the table. Or maybe when Ship was more able to realize that he was limiting Lavinia might have worked; but in the parameters of the 1850s, Lavinia feels so stifled by the dynamic. We really had a blast with it.”

Austin, on the other hand, is coming into Season 2 with significant challenges in front of him. Sue doesn’t really love him, something he’s well aware of. He’s not the smartest tool in the shed, something that constantly puts him on uneven footing with the brilliance of Emily, as well as his own dismissive father Edward (Toby Huss). But unlike his siblings, who are busy playing at being adults, slowly, in the background, Austin is the only one who starts to truly figure out what adulthood means.

“I’ve had this conversation with [showrunner] Alena [Smith] where Austin could’ve very easily become a likable douchebag,” Enscoe said. “Like the beneficiary of the patriarchy and the family, and somebody that you’re constantly being like, ‘Oh, he gets everything, even though Emily’s the genius!’ But we found, in shooting Season 1, that Austin had a very real undercurrent of tenderness. He was just kind of being obscured by the toxic masculinity, that 1850s masculinity, had [been] instilled in him.”

In Season 2, particularly given the counterpoint of Ship and Lavinia, Austin is able to grow more into his own.

“He wants someone to love, and he wants to make a difference in the world,” Enscoe continued. “Those are things that I very much relate with, so it was very fun to put those aspects of my personality into Austin.”

Still, you might want to hold back a little bit of love for the man who ended Season 1 screaming in rage at his sister Emily, particularly when it comes to the already greenlit Season 3.

“I’m really also excited for us to explore other sides of Austin further down the road,” Enscoe teased. “Because Austin was not always a great guy. Often [he] did some harmful things to the people that he surrounded himself with. It’s just a journey. And I’m on the ride for it.”

The first three episodes of Dickinson Season 2 premiere Friday, January 8 on Apple TV+, with new episodes every Friday thereafter.

Stream Dickinson Season 2 on Apple TV+