Emily feigns mortal illness so her family will leave her alone in her room to write. Sue, who's already suffered so much loss, hurries back from Boston to visit what she thinks is her friend and lover's deathbed, only to find it's a hoax. And to make it worse, Emily chooses this moment to tell Sue she should marry Austin, her possessiveness apparently softened by the previous night's poetic flirtation with her father's clerk Ben Newton. 

What do we know about the real relationship between Emily and Ben? How can Emily be so insensitive to Sue? Is Dickinson treating queerness as a "phase"? And is there a poet out there who hasn't been tempted to do something they shouldn't to get time to write? 

Breezy, Jericho and Aífe, joined special guest Amber Flame, talk back to Season 1, Episode 6 of Dickinson: "A Brief, but Patient Illness."

Plus: Aífe opens up Lavinia's juicy teen diary. Jericho speaks his truth on nude selfies, dating profiles, and men who act like they would never have anything to do with abortion, when in fact they've paid for them. And Breezy has a little something for the archivists and biographers of the future.

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Poems featured in this episode:

I would not paint — a picture — by Emily Dickinson

fear; low hum by Amber Flame

Tell all the truth but tell it slant — by Emily Dickinson

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Go deeper into the Dickinson dirt: This week's bonus episode "Death on Edward Dickinson's watch" drops this Friday, January 13th.