Man, what a nightmare it is to be Gladys lately. Despite her best efforts to live a life not completely defined by her mother Bertha’s rules, those wishes are all but unstoppable. After spending much of this episode hiding away in her room as the Russell home busies itself with preparations for her wedding to the Duke of Buckingham, she walks down the aisle in tears to marry a man she’s met, I’m guessing, fewer than five times. We don’t even see a reception. She’s quickly whisked to England on a boat where the marriage is, at best, unenthusiastically consummated. While The Gilded Age plotlines are often described as frivolous, Gladys’ storyline here feels a lot more like Sansa Stark than Cinderella.
Bertha is pretty sure Gladys will get over it eventually, and if she doesn’t, at least the union is a victory for her social climbing. Even Mrs. Astor is gagging. As her daughter is sobbing her way down the aisle, Bertha can only produce happy tears. Three years ago, almost no one wanted to be associated with the Russells. Now, they’re legally bound to the British Crown. The price was steep, and the marriage has been the most personally expensive part. Bertha, as an individual lady, reached a ceiling when she won the opera last season. The only way to keep climbing from that height is to elevate the standing of her children.
We’ve never learned too much about Bertha’s life before we met her in season one, but the introduction of her sister Monica (the always delightful Merritt Weaver) gives new context. Monica does not fit into the image Bertha wants to present, despite being wry, competent, and curious—words that also describe Bertha at her best. Still, Bertha is embarrassed by Monica, who, despite a deep knowledge of who her sister is, is not immune to Bertha’s manipulation. After disapproving of Monica’s clothes, Bertha arranges for Church to spill coffee on her, forcing her to change. Monica seems to live a comfortable middle-class life in Albany, a sort of ideal averageness that Bertha wants none of.
To Bertha, wanting this social capital and actual capital badly enough to break these familial bonds is worth it. It’s just the price of poker. (Some might say it’s the American way—and I don’t mean that positively!) It’s not that Bertha can’t understand why someone would want a more modest and loving life—she is completely uninterested in their viewpoint. It’s a testament to Carrie Coon’s skill as an actor that Bertha remains at all stomachable these past few episodes. Her unwillingness to take “no” for an answer has always made her the best character on the show, but she is becoming downright sinister. I hope there is more Monica, or at least more of the O’Brien side of the family, to learn why Bertha is like this. Maybe the Irish-sounding maiden name is a clue to why she long felt so close yet so far from polite society.
The Gilded Age is pretty cagey overall about who these characters were before we joined them on 61st Street. The past and the future are meeting for our other major families, though they all take a backseat to the dynamic between Gladys and Bertha. Last week, the show introduced the parents of Dr. William Kirkland, the physician who cared for and struck up a romance with Peggy after the season premiere. His father, Frederick (Brian Stokes Mitchell), is much warmer to the Scotts than Elizabeth (Phylicia Rashad), who is shockingly dismissive of Arthur when she finds out he was a former slave. We don’t get too much more development on this front yet, but it is refreshing to see The Gilded Age allow its Black characters to explore their monied hierarchies the way the white characters get to do. The dynamics are nuanced, and it’s a relief to see Peggy with a storyline that isn’t completely tragic or horrific.
Meanwhile, things are getting a little crazy in the Forte/van Reijn/Brook household: Agnes is still mourning the loss of her great fortune, and Ada is mourning her late husband Luke by enlisting a medium (played by, who else, Andrea Martin). It must be said, Ada’s methods of coping are a lot more fun to watch than Agnes’, whose primary character trait is “resistant to change.” There seems to be a growing contingent of ladies on the outs from society with Agnes, Aurora Fane, and the soon-to-be-single Charlotte Astor. Still, it hasn’t quite coalesced into anything yet amid the Bertha and Gladys show. Marian has also been spending a lot more time at the Russell residence, even becoming a bridesmaid in Gladys’ wedding, though through Larry’s action, not her own. “I just stood still while they made it fit,” she says when she appears in the dress, which sounds about right. Marian is also on the list of people Bertha dislikes, especially to marry her son, due to Marian’s downwardly mobile family. Ironic, given that the duke she just married her daughter off to is pretty broke himself.
At least one person is, visibly, upwardly mobile: Jack Trotter, who, with the help of Larry Russell, just sold his clock invention for a cool $600,000 to split between the two of them. Google (not the AI) tells me that Jack’s share is about $7.6 million in 2025 money, meaning he never needs to work again if he doesn’t want to, and certainly not as anyone’s servant. It’s a bittersweet realization because he doesn’t know anything or anyone else. Still, it’s a good problem to have, and he and Larry will surely remain the best of friends.
Stray observations:
- •George Russell’s business story feels pretty repetitive. Everyone tells him he can’t do something, but they don’t understand he’s an American captain of industry. His failure to protect Gladys from marrying the duke her mom picked out is a real bummer, though.
- •It’s somewhat ironic that this chapter of Gladys’ life ends with her being shipped off to the dark old United Kingdom, given that she spent so much of these two and a half seasons trying to escape from her mother’s home any chance she could get. She’s really gone now.
- •Enid Winterton née Turner’s rich old husband is on death’s door—sounds like someone is about to become independently wealthy!
- •It’s not immediately clear how invested Ada will be in the temperance movement going forward, but her question last week about whether the staff would have been more willing to sign a pledge had Agnes asked was illuminating.
- •The A.V. Club will return to recap the season three finale on August 10.
