Sue Gilbert

Sue Gilbert is Emily Dickinson's closest friend and the person she loves most, a sharp, guarded young woman who has known loss early and learned to armor herself with wit and composure. She moves through Amherst society with a poise Emily envies, even as the two share a bond that feels like the center of both their lives.

Ella Hunt plays Sue as someone always calculating her own survival, which makes her tenderness with Emily land harder — it's the one place she seems unguarded. The show never lets her be just a romantic object; she's ambitious, wounded, and self-aware about the limited choices open to her, and Hunt makes every deflection feel costly.