02x07 - Forever - is composed of Nows

[bunniefuu]

Get up, Emily.

No.

Okay. Get up, Emily.

Don’t make me go.

Today is gonna to be good for you.

But I hate my life and I truly wanna die.

And that’s exactly why we need a spa day.

Everyone, remember to pack towels otherwise they’ll charge us.

This is ridiculous.

Now, you’re gonna spend even more money on some experimental voodoo after we wasted a fortune on that silly opera.

Emily is sick. She could barely get out of bed.

What if she has the measles? Or worse, spiritual measles?

What the hell is that?

I don’t know, but I don’t wanna find out.

Don’t worry. Emily will feel whole again after today.

You see? Aunt Lavinia swears by this.

I mean, if we’re talking about chakras–

We’re not.

She will come back better than before. More aligned than a newly built railroad.

Don’t you dare try to put this in terms that I can understand.

Sue.

Are you coming with us?

Well, I’ve been reading a book on etiquette.

Sounds like a real page-turner.

And it says if your mother-in-law invites you to the water cure, you must accept the invitation.

That’s right, you must.

Well, thank God.

I am desperate to talk to you.

Can we please find time to be alone?

Of course.

Okay.

But, Emily, I am hoping today will be relaxing.

A chance to unwind and de-stress.

I have not seen you since the opera and we need to talk.

Does everyone have everything they need?

Tinctures? Essential oils? A fresh perspective?

I only packed my bad attitude.

Emily.

Bugger. Bastard. Bitch!

What?

What is it?

What’s wrong? What’s the matter?

I can’t find my most powerful crystal.

Where was the last place you saw it?

On my shrine.

What does it look like?

Obviously, it’s an obsidian.

I’m trying to protect myself from bad energy.

I feel tired. God.

Dad, keep that bad energy away from me.

Oh, it’s fine, I have an extra.

All right, everyone. Let’s get going.

Goodbye.

You know that we can’t afford this.

Edward, your daughter is sick.

There’s only one place we can hope for her to get well.

No price too high for wellness.

Are we sure this is mud?

Hydrotherapy, or the water cure, can best be described as the practice of treating ailments by soaking different parts of your body in water.

Sue! Sue!

Emily. Pay attention to your Aunt Lavinia.

She’s traveled all over the world and brought back mystical secrets.

Yes, I have, girls.

You’re about to engage in something that was used in all the ancient civilizations.

Egypt, Greece, Rome.

I mean, people call it “alternative,”

but I’m open to any alternative as long as it works.

I agree.

I mean, sure, doctors may not approve, but what do doctors really know?

Very little.

Mark my words, at the end of your time in the water cure, you won’t be the same sick, disease-ridden, melancholy women you are right now.

What if that’s my brand?

Emily, enough.

We’re here for you, remember? You’re the one with the problems.

No, sister, we all have problems. The issues are in the tissues.

Oh, dear God. It’s hot in here.

But we can’t leave yet. This is expensive.

Oh, give in to the heat. Give in to the flow.

Let the water cure you.

Do not let your energetic boundaries leak.

What happens if they do?

My sweet Vinnie.

Energetic leaks can lead to anything from unhealthy relationships to the urge to eat food that tastes good.

Oh, good.

Sue.

What?

Let’s sneak out of here and go talk.

I thought we were going to relax.

Let’s relax while we talk.

For some reason, I don’t think you’re going to let me do that.

Come on.

Remember, water is medicine.

And truth protects.

Well, I’m definitely feeling a lot better. So…

Where do you think you’re going? We paid for 17 more minutes in here.

Oh, well, I thought it might be nice for us to try the body healer?

I’ve heard great things about her. She’s very moon oriented.

Exactly. Big fan of that.

Well, I spent a lot of time planning out a very strict schedule here, but sure.

You go do your thing, I suppose.

Cool, we’ll meet you at the plunge pool.

Such bad energy.

Next session!

So, the point is, I ruined everything.

I should have never written that letter to his wife.

And I shouldn’t have tried to sit in his box at the opera.

Now Sam is never gonna publish my poem. He’s done with me.

Emily, of course he’s going to publish it.

He’s going to publish everything you write.

He’s been telling everyone.

I know he has, but I messed up.

Now he hates me.

I don’t believe that. You’re seeing things wrong.

Sam is going to publish you for sure.

Sue, it’s been weeks.

I mean, every day I check the paper and nothing. No poem.

If he really thinks I’m this exciting new voice, then what is he waiting for?

The answer is he’s not.

After he left me at the opera, he probably threw my poem in the trash.

Flip.

Emily, this anxiety you’re experiencing, it’s natural.

This is a big step for you and your career.

You’re putting yourself out there and it’s stirring up a lot of emotion.

But that’s good.

I mean, you of all people, you know what to do with emotion.

Put it on the page, write about it.

Turn it into art.

But I don’t believe in myself anymore.

Wait, what?

I used to have this confidence. This power. But not anymore.

Not since I met him and, Sue, I hate to say this, but it’s your fault.

My fault?

Yes, because you pressured me into this.

You introduced me to him, you started filling my head with all these ideas about fame.

And as soon as I gave him my poem, I lost everything.

The flow I used to have, it got cut off.

I used to be inspired by everything.

And then, suddenly, the only thing that mattered to me was him.

What he thought, how he felt. It’s like he invaded me.

He’s all I can think about.

I used to have a drive that came from somewhere else and now it all comes from him.

Whoa.

What?

There’s a lot going on over there.

What do you mean? Where?

It’s like your brain is on fire.

That tracks.

Can you please say something? Because I feel like I’m losing my mind.

Emily, relax.

All you need to do is do nothing.

Breathe, exhale.

I promise you, it’s all going to be okay.

Sam is going to publish your poem. You just need to trust him.

Next!

Okay.

Next session!

Now with divine love and incessant hydration, we can heal ourselves.

What is happening to her?

She’s having a paroxysm.

Oh, it can be a very, very cleansing experience.

If we’re lucky, we all just might have one.

We just need to clench our lower anatomy.

Now breathe out everything that’s troubling you.

Get centered, get centered, girls.

Live in the moment, not in the past.

Not in the future. Forever, after all, is about right now.

Forever is composed of nows

What’s going on? You seem upset.

I’m fine.

“Fine” is not a very Emily word. You would never say, “I’m fine.”

You would say, “I lost a world the other day,” or something like that.

Tell me what’s going on.

Nothing. Nothing is going on.

No, nothing other than a man ruining my life.

Shut up.

Yeah, it sucks.

I thought you were above stuff like that.

What made you think that?

Come on. Emily, you’ve always been completely independent.

You turned down marriage proposals and, I mean, that’s so brave.

You know, sometimes I wish I had said yes to those marriage proposals.

Maybe if I was married with a baby, life would be simpler.

That is the craziest sh*t I’ve ever heard you say.

We need this water cure to heal you because your aura is negative right now, and I need you to be positive.

I need you to be strong.

Emily?

Yes?

You’re my hero.

Must be hard on your own.

You get used to it.

So, you want help writing your will now that your husband has…

Yeah, I want everything to go to Billy.

Well, that solves the question of beneficiary.

And who do you want to be the executor of your will?

It should be someone that you trust to carry out your wishes once you… you know, expire.

I trust you.

It’s funny, the stuff I worried about last year.

I know. We were kids then.

Now we’re in our mid-twenties.

Writing my will.

Heavy sh*t.

Adulting is hard.

And should anything happen to you, God forbid, before little William comes of age…

I know you haven’t gotten a lot of what you wanted, but… I always had this feeling that you would be such a good father.

And I’d want you to look after him.

Jane, I would be honored.

Well, all right.

Why don’t you take a look at this?

Let me know if you want to add anything before I draft it.

Do you want to hold him?

Really?

Hey, Billy.

Hey.

Wanna see what’s outside?

You see your mama’s horses?

You know what sound a horsey makes?

Yeah.

Everything looks good to me.

Great.

Well, I will fill in the details and get this notarized and then we will be all squared away.

There you go.

Come here, Billy.

There you go.

There you go.

Goodbye, Billy.

I’ll walk you out.

Austin?

We made our decisions.

And I think they were the right ones.

Yes, of course.

Thank you for bringing me back to my senses.

I didn’t mean to…

You were seeing me out.

Right, right.

Dad!

What are you two doing here?

Mama had to deliver a dress to the Dickinsons.

Can we stay with Daddy?

No, we have to go home now.

Will you be home for dinner?

Hey, why don’t you go pick me the most beautiful wildflowers?

For your mama. Go, go, go.

So, should I keep cooking for just two then? Or…

We have a new edition coming out.

Our subscriber numbers are up. We’re getting down to the wire.

This is getting too big, Henry. You get death threats every day.

I like to call them polite letters from the South.

We are beyond joking about this.

You are putting our daughter’s life in danger.

Her life already is in danger and it will only be more so if we don’t fight.

Trust me.

Emily Dickinson?

George?

Oh, my God. What are you doing here?

I’m getting a shvitz in.

I learned that during my travels across the country.

You truly meet every kind of person on the road.

Man, am I delighted to see you.

How have you been?

Yeah, yeah, I’ve been…

Sorry. What are you doing on the East Coast?

Well, my journey out west didn’t exactly go according to plan.

So, you didn’t strike gold?

I never got to California.

Oh, no.

Look, the Oregon Trail is not easy, okay?

Every time we got to a river, we had to caulk the wagon and float it.

Our pace was grueling, rations were meager, and if you hunted too much in a certain area, game became scarce.

Sounds rough.

Yeah.

But weirdly, it was fun.

And what about your wife?

Oh, Ellen?

Yes. Ellen Mandeville Grout of the Princeton Grouts.

Unfortunately, she got dysentery.

That’s… That is awful. Did she die or is she–

No, no, no. No, no.

Oh, okay.

She’s fine, but it was pretty gross.

Dysentery is kind of a lot.

We needed some space.

Anyway, enough about me. Catch me up on everything.

I wanna hear all the adventures of Emily Dickinson.

There’s really not much to tell.

Come on. How’s your writing? God, I miss reading it.

“Water, is taught by thirst. Land by Oceans passed.”

Wow, you still remember that one.

Of course. This place reminded me of it.

I’m always getting reminded of your poems. Those lines, they stick with me.

You know, I’m actually getting published.

What? That’s amazing.

Well, I’m supposed be getting published.

The editor has had my poem for ages now

and he says he’s going to do it but hasn’t actually done it yet.

Well, he sounds crazy.

If it was me and I had your poem?

It would be on the front page the next day.

So are you back for good?

I’m not sure.

I’m trying not to make plans, you know?

Gotta go where the road takes you. Life is a journey, right?

Sure.

But I would love to come visit you and Austin while I’m around.

Maybe then you can show me some of your new poems.

I miss being your audience.

That would be nice.

Or maybe I’ll just see them in the paper.

Right. Yes.

Cool. Well, I gotta go soak my feet in some freezing water.

This place has really helped me awaken my truth.

Hey, George.

Yeah?

Listen, I know we ended things badly.

And maybe I never said this properly, but thank you for believing in me.

I always will.

Emily!

There you are. You missed the rubdown.

Mom, your skin.

I know. I’m very raw.

Where is everyone else?

They’re all lying on hot coals.

I didn’t quite feel up to that, so I thought maybe you and I could do something a little more calming.

Like what?

There’s a treatment called the “cocoon rebirth.”

I do like cocoons.

Oh, God.

It’s so cold.

Why are the sheets so cold?

I’m having a great time.

It’s like you’re back in my womb.

You remember when you were nestled tightly in my womb?

Not well, Mom.

I’m in a cocoon.

I’m nestled in here and I won’t be the same when I come out.

I won’t be the same anymore.

Everything will be different.

Mom?

Are you warm?

I don’t understand. These sheets were freezing a second ago. Why am I so hot?

I feel it too.

Get me out.

What?

Get me out!

Mom, I can’t get you out. We have to wait till they come and unwrap us.

No, no, I need out.

Someone unwrap us!

Get us out, please!

Mom, it’s okay.

Everything is going to be okay.

Oh, my God, Emily.

Emily, I forgot how to breathe.

Mom.

Emily, teach me how to breathe.

Okay.

Well– Help. Somebody, hello!

Hello!

Help us. We are going to die.

Oh, God. Okay.

What are you doing?

I can’t get out.

Got it.

I hate this place.

Aunt Lavinia.

Emily? What’s wrong?

I think I’ve fallen in love.

In love?

I’ve been completely overtaken by someone.

Infected, just diseased by him!

I don’t know what else it could be, Mom. I think I’ve fallen in love.

Who is this person?

Who is this person?

Doesn’t matter, you wouldn’t approve.

Well… whoever this person is… he shouldn’t be making you feel like this.

Someone who loves you,

someone worthy of you, shouldn’t make you feel sick.

That’s not what love is.

Look, I know my marriage to your father isn’t perfect, not by any stretch.

But even when he makes me so angry that I could,

I don’t know, undust his study, I know he wants what’s best for me.

I know he’d sit by my bedside if I needed him.

Taking care of me.

Can you say that about this person?

Okay, look. I know I’ve always been very hard on you about marriage, but you don’t deserve to feel unwell.

I didn’t carry you into this world for that.

I didn’t.

Mom?

Nothing about this place has made me feel better except for what you just said.

I feel almost healed for now.

Well, I suppose for now is the best that we can do.

Time for last treatment!

It’s time for our last treatment.

Do we have to?

Well, we already paid for it.

Who knows? This one could be fun.

I have to say, I…

I feel better.

I do too.

Maybe you’ll be able to write tonight.

Maybe I will.

I’m rooting for you.

See you around, neighbor.

Forever is composed of nows

‘Tis not a different time

Except for Infiniteness

And Latitude of Home

I’m telling you, Dickinson, we’re onto something.

I certainly hope so.

Emily. You have a glow of health.

What are you doing here?

Just convincing your father to hop on board the Sam Bowles Express.

Sure. I’m going to invest in his paper.

Not just a paper, my friend. An empire.

I hope it does better than my last investment.

This is print journalism. There’s no way it can fail.

Let’s have a drink in my office.

I’ll be right there.

Excellent.

Emily.

I’m happy to see you.

Are you?

Yes. You’re looking really well.

I was finally able to stop worrying about the poem.

What do you mean?

My poem.

You’re obviously not going to publish it and I’ve made peace with it.

Well, I have some news for you.

What?

Your poem, it’s on the front page of the paper.

Tomorrow.

Emily, did you hear what I said?

You–

You’re publishing it?

Yes. Of course I am.

I was just waiting for the right moment. And it’s finally arrived.

It’s now. You just had to trust me.

Wait here.

I’ll just be a second.

I wanna give you all my poems.

All of them?

Yes, all of them.

Every one I ever wrote.

Take them.

They’re yours.

Wow.