The penultimate episode of Dickinson season 2 drops Feb. 19, and HollywoodLife has an EXCLUSIVE sneak peek of the episode. A very excited Sam (a little too excited, no?) shows up to tell the Dickinson men about the “absolutely crazy news coming out of Virginia” at the moment. He reveals John Brown tried to raid Harpers Ferry, which piques Edward’s interest.
“The guy thinks of himself as some kind of biblical prophet,” Sam (Finn Jones) says. He adds that John Brown has “all the makings of a celebrity.” Austin (Adrian Blake Enscoe) presses for more information about the raid.
“Well, turns out he formed a ragtag little army and tried to raid the federal arsenal down at Harpers Ferry,” Sam explains. “I’m told his plan was to instigate a massive slave rebellion in the South.” Now Austin is worried. “Did it work?” he asks. Sam replies, “Of course not. It was a total sh*t show. Most of his men were killed. The rest of them, including Brown, will be in custody soon. Brown will be hanged for treason. I wouldn’t be surprised if this heats things up all the way to a civil war.”
Edward (Toby Huss) believes there’s no way a civil war will happen. “Cooler heads will prevail,” Edward says. Sam doesn’t think so. “This country’s a tinder box, and this could be the match that lights it,” Sam tells Edward.
Ultimately, Sam thinks this whole situation could actually be “good for us.” That’s when Austin intervenes to ask what that means. “War sells papers, my friend. War sells papers,” Sam stresses.
As we all know, a civil war is exactly what happens. The American Civil War breaks out in 1861 and lasts until 1865. The show has been building up to the breakout of war. Austin has been helping Henry and Hattie print their abolitionist paper, The Constellation. In the previous episode, Henry revealed that the money from the paper sales was being sent to John Brown.
The title of the episode is “I Like a Look of Agony.” The new episode of Dickinson drops Feb. 19 on Apple TV+.