Dickinson Season 3: Why It’s Unlikely Emily Will End Up With Sue

Warning: SPOILERS ahead for Dickinson season 3, episodes 1-3!

In Apple TV+’s Dickinson season 3, Emily (Hailee Steinfeld) still loves Sue (Ella Hunt), but it is unlikely that their relationship will get a happy ending. The historical comedy uses modern sensibilities and dialogue to explore the personal life and artistic genius of Emily Dickinson in 19^th century Massachusetts. Dickinson season 3 follows Emily’s budding anxieties during the height of the Civil War and the birth of Austin and Sue’s child. Despite many obstacles, Emily and Sue still have a strong bond. Still, given Emily’s commitment to her writing and Sue’s new role as a first-time mother, their relationship may not survive the season.

In episode 1 of Dickinson’s final season, Emily struggles to find a place for herself while the country falls apart around her, realizing that what she wants is to give people hope through poems. Sue is on the verge of giving birth and tells Emily that her dream is for them to run away and raise the baby together, though Emily states that her poems are her children. Meanwhile, Sue’s marriage to Emily’s brother is also crumbling as he deals with alcoholism and depression caused by his failure to build the life he wanted for himself and his wife.

Emily’s artistic hopes of helping people through her writing, much like her decision to prioritize her family, leaves Sue feeling neglected in Dickinson season 3. In some ways, Emily and Sue’s relationship has been doomed from the start. They were best friends and lovers, Sue being the person Emily would show her poems to, but Sue marrying Emily’s brother, Austin, and moving in next door pushes them away from each other. In Dickinson season 2, Sue confesses that she loves Emily and no one else, and though this set up their season 3 reconciliation, it seems likely that in the final season, Emily and Sue still have different hopes for their lives.

In the first three episodes of the final season of Dickinson, it is clear that Emily and Sue are not on the same page. Emily’s priority is always her writing, but the war has also made her worry about her family. Sue feels like an outsider in the Dickinson family as her marriage has fallen apart, and her entire focus is on her love for Emily. Sue appears to be coping poorly and shares her daydreams of leaving the family, running away, and raising the child with Emily. Emily brushes her off in episode 3, “The soul has bandaged moments,” by saying that raising the baby together is impossible, but Sue realizes that Emily means that she doesn’t want to run away with her. Sue also admits to Emily that she wants more of her than “just her poems.”

It is possible that Dickinson will continue to make Emily and Sue’s relationship messier over the rest of the season. In an interview (via Town & Country), Hailee Steinfeld teased that their relationship and its many complexities would be the center of season 3, stating there would be more “push and pull” than in prior seasons of the Apple TV+ comedy series. The actress also shared that this season, Emily will need Sue’s help to come to terms with who she is, especially who she is outside of her relationship with Sue. As known from history, following the time period of the American Civil War, Emily Dickinson lived a very secluded life, rarely stepping out of her house or talking to anyone face to face. Though the poet remained in correspondence with Sue Gilbert until her death in 1886, it is possible that the show will at least partially follow historical facts and end with Emily isolating herself from everyone, including Sue, to focus on her writing.

Dickinson‘s final season follows the most productive period of Emily Dickinson’s life as a poet. Though the show takes several creative liberties, season 3 will continue to explore Emily’s inspiration behind some of her most famous poems. Emily’s love for Sue, the most important person in her life, has always influenced her writing. So it will be interesting to see how the remaining episodes deal with the final moments of their emotionally complex love story.