Peggy watches a baseball game with William, and who is there but T. Thomas Fortune, the married newspaperman.
Photo: Karolina Wojtasik/HBO
It’s the most exciting The Gilded Age has ever been. The relationships and story lines that have been building for seasons are coming to a crisis point. I mean, it’s mainly the Russells with the crises, but the Russells are the center of our story, she argued correctly. Gladys is facing her new life as a duchess (a duchess!), Larry is becoming his father, George is on the brink of ruin, and Bertha is facing the possible destruction of all her hopes and dreams. If these were people we knew, it would be very sad, but since this is fiction, I am delighted.
Everything is moving quickly for our characters. I would insert a railroad metaphor, but I don’t think I know enough about trains. George wants to own majority control in the Illinois Central Line, but his assistant, Clay, can get him only 30 percent of it. No one wants to give up control of Chicago. Yeah, suck it, other cities! Chicago rules! The Merrick family would be able to hand Illinois Central over to George, but they weirdly don’t want to give up their power. So counterintuitive to human nature. George asks Bertha to invite Alfred Merrick, a Met board member, over for dinner to charm him.
In addition to Clay’s failure with the Chicago trains, he hasn’t been able to buy the Arizona land because the mine owners won’t sell. George is furious. He says that the old Clay would have trodden on his mother’s grave to get him those mines. Very “you never pick me up at the airport anymore” energy, but instead “you never tread on your mother’s grave for me anymore.” Then George fires Clay. George! That’s your Girl Friday! Who understands you like Clay? George is venturing into mentally unwell territory, distancing himself from everyone who doesn’t back him 100 percent. The problem is that, while he has a grandiose scheme, this was the age of grandiose schemes, so it wasn’t seen as a problem (necessarily). Clay says that George is going too far. George thinks he doesn’t go too far enough.
Now, I am not a businessperson. I am a recapper. But on one hand, George has made his fortune by taking big swings, being unscrupulous, etc. On the other hand, if literally everyone, including your long-time backers and fellow unscrupulous individuals, is saying, “Well, maybe stop,” then that seems worth listening to. However, I also remain a person hesitant to throw out the box my iPhone came in, so George and I seem to operate on highly different levels of risk tolerance. What if it all pans out and he is the Railroad King! Then he’ll get to say “I told you so” to so many people. Maybe he’s operating on sheer spite at this point.
If we’re looking deeper into it, it’s clear that he feels things are careening out of his control, and George hates that. Gladys is in a very expensive marriage that makes her miserable; George’s partners are abandoning him; he can’t bend people to his will like he used to; and now Bertha is flirting with the man who won’t do business with him. Is that her fault? I mean, no, George asked her to charm Merrick, so they had him over for dinner, and she did so. I think we can all agree that George is being a real dick to Bertha. I mean, yes, she did ruin her daughter’s life. That was not great. But we’ve all moved on, and now he’s just excluding her from his business plans and making all sorts of accusations. Everyone’s marriage is shaky right now!!
Speaking of, let’s check in on Gladys. Okay, I love the Gladys story line. I want more of this. More Gladys in England with the horrible yet amazing Lady Sarah and the ducal tenants who pelt the carriage with flowers like it’s 1513. Sidmouth is beautiful. It’s so beautiful. Gladys could pull a full-on Beauty and the Beast here with Sarah as the beast. I can envision it all! Sarah begrudgingly tells Gladys that she guesses Gladys can use the library if she wishes and then they keep running into each other in there. One day, after a lot of tension and book discussion, they make out. Then Gladys is like, but we mustn’t. But then Hector is like, ‘No, this works out because I’m ace and didn’t want to do any of this in the first place.’ Then Gladys and Sarah would be buried next to each other and historians would talk about their close friendship. Ugh, Gladys/Sarah would be so good. Why is this show so un-gay? The only gay couple literally just sit opposite each other at a table and chat about con artists. Which, I mean, yeah, we do that, but we also make out.
In terms of canon events at Sidmouth, Sarah is being a real knob about etiquette, and yet she doesn’t change her place at the table until Hector does it for her. Come on, Sarah, at least be consistent. All the English nobles laugh at a joke, and when Gladys doesn’t get it, Hector says, “It’s because he confused the valet with the rector.” Sarah says it’ll take time for her to get their sense of humor. You can all go to hell. That joke’s not even good. When Gladys doesn’t stand up with the other women after dinner, Hector says, “Are you staying for some port? Ho ho ho.” Shut up, Hector. (Hector’s actually semi-standing up to Sarah and therefore seemingly not terrible, but I’m still mad at him.) Sarah fires Gladys’s maid and sends her back to America because she’s not good enough at teaching her to be a duchess. I mean, okay, I get it. But you can’t just fire her, Sarah! Only she can because Lady Sarah is a caricature of a person, and it is very fun. I mean, not for Gladys, but for me.
Back in New York, everyone is finding out that Jack made $300,000 on his clock, but he doesn’t want to talk about it. Ada has another seance, and we find out why mediums could make very effective therapists in the late-19th century. Also, is Andrea Martin wearing dead rabbits on her chest? Peggy is very tenuously connected to our other characters this week. She watches a baseball game with William, and who is there but T. Thomas Fortune, the married newspaperman. He asks Peggy if she wants to travel to Philadelphia and interview Frances Ellen Watkins Harper about her suffrage event. Peggy is INTERESTED, and of course she is, because FEW Harper is amazing. For a long time, it was claimed that she was the first Black woman to publish a novel. As with many “first” claims, people have offered up other examples, but she still published a very popular novel and was among the first Black American women to do so. She was a poet, she was an abolitionist, she fought for temperance, and she argued for the right of women’s suffrage. Let’s all hope she shows up next week.
Anyway, Peggy says she’ll do the interview and travel to Philadelphia. William accompanies her to the train station, where T. Thomas Fortune is unexpectedly waiting to accompany her. Peggy handles herself with, dare I say, aplomb. She tells him she’s going alone or not at all (boundaries), and when William tells Fortune that he should leave, Fortune SHOVES William. It escalates so quickly!! Peggy tells Fortune again that she will write the piece by herself or go back home. Fortune leaves. Thank God. What was your plan, dude? I mean, we all knew your plan, but boooooo. Also, William did a good job supporting her. If only he could do this with his mother.
Marian and Larry are full steam ahead (well, shoot, there’s my train metaphor). After George asks Larry to take over for Clay and go to Arizona, Larry tells George that he intends to propose to Marian. George is very supportive, thank God. But also he tells Larry to book it to Arizona. So Larry and Marian take a walk in the park, where she tells him that John created the clock, and the two of them sold it. “That’s a true partnership,” she says. Is it, Marian? Or did Larry just use his connections and literally nothing else? If anyone on Shark Tank had asked for a 50 percent stake in Jack’s patent, every viewer would be like, excuse me?? Fifty percent?? And Lori isn’t even offering QVC? Truly astounding.
Larry pulls Marian under some willow trees. Don’t judge me if those aren’t willows, but that’s what I’m calling them. He proposes, she accepts. We get a nice long shot of them kissing. Ada and Agnes congratulate them later, and Larry informs them he’s (1) going to Delmonico’s for dinner with some buddies, and (2) heading to Arizona tomorrow and will be back in a month. Only “Delmonico’s” was code for “sus club” and Larry takes Jack to The Haymarket. There are women boxing, men playing fiddles, and Larry says you can find women there — or “men, if you fancy.” Do you fancy, Larry? We all saw that one scene with Jack. Larry sees a woman he recognizes. I absolutely thought it would be Laura Benanti, a.k.a. that woman he had an affair with, and I do not remember her character’s name at all. But it is Maud Beaton, who stole all of Oscar’s money.
The next morning, Larry says good-bye to Marian and tells Oscar that he saw Maud. Oscar sits at a table with John Adams (gay behavior) and talks about whether he should go see her. John thinks that if Oscar’s motive is revenge, she’s been punished enough by having to work at The Haymarket. I do hope he catches up with her and finds out why. Why, Maud!
We have a brief foray to Newport for a charity event hosted by Mamie Fish. Aurora goes to the event with Marian, only for Mamie to say, Errr, you might not want to stay. Mrs. Astor is there, and she is displeased about Aurora’s marital status. While the other women at the gathering shun Aurora (booooo!), Bertha is very kind to her. Bertha is a multifaceted lady. She tells Aurora that Mrs. Astor is likely using Aurora’s divorce as a distraction from her daughter Charlotte’s marital woes. Not cool, Astor. Aurora leaves with Marian, and Mamie tells Mrs. Astor that she must either accept Aurora into society or exile her own daughter once she gets divorced. Mrs. Astor does not respond.
I know we were all already worried about George and Bertha, and this episode certainly solidified that. After his coldness to her, George is pushed to the brink by a letter from Gladys, in which he discovers that she is, in fact, very unhappy in her marriage. This makes sense to a degree, right? He spent money that he now cannot afford to lose on a marriage that was supposed to be the best thing for his daughter (according to his wife), and now he is on the verge of insolvency and his daughter hates her life. And he thinks Bertha is flirting with Alfred Merrick. George says that she made him weak, and he finds that hard to forgive. Bertha, flustered, tells him that she’ll go to England and she’ll fix it; she’ll fix everything. George replies, “Don’t expect me to be here when you get back.” What! Where will you go, George?? The club?! My goodness, the DRAMA of it all. Five stars. This is what I’ve wanted all along. Let’s have Bertha fight for George.
• Alfred Merrick told Bertha Russell her dress was haunted and seemed to mean it as a compliment. Discuss.
• We all thought George was going to Indecent Proposal Bertha to Alfred Merrick, right? But then it took a turn?
• Are there enough gay people on this show? Feels like no.
The Gilded Age Recap: Marriages Crumble
