The Gilded Age S3 E1: The best worst show on TV is BACK!
Gladys on the loose!
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It’s no secret that it took me a little while to warm up to The Gilded Age. I was expecting an “American Downton Abbey,” which it most certainly is not—and thank GOD for that. Downton Abbey took itself quite seriously, while The Gilded Age does anything but, and therein lies its magic. I think things clicked for me last season when Mrs. Winterton had her Duke-fueled fit running up the stairs of her NYC mansion after Bertha stole the artistocrat out from underneath her.
Oh, this show knows and celebrates how campy and ridiculous it is. We’re all in on the joke!
At a time when the downward spiral of the news cycle brings us to increasingly concerning places every day, we’ve arguably never needed the escapist fantasy of Bertha Russell’s social climbing aspirations, Mrs. Fish’s love of gossip, and Agnes’s sharp tongue more. The Gilded Age knows what it’s doing—and has impeccable timing. Enter season 3!
We open on a rough terrain. Carriages rumbling. Men with shotguns. It’s hot. It’s dusty. It’s… Morenci, Arizona! Mr. Russell, affectionately known on Twitter as Train Daddy, has arrived, presumably to expand his empire.
“I’m looking forward to seeing you on a bucking bronco.” Mr. Russell, ever the flirt, says to his business partner as he walks into a saloon ready to do business. We’re barely a minute in, people! Give me 100 more episodes.
Meanwhile, back in New York City, the East 61st Street battle between the Russells and Van Rhijns has transformed into a snowball fight after an unseasonably late Winter storm. Footmen fighting maids! Girls kicking (?) snow! The scene is as frivolous as a Fragonard at the Frick.
The butlers Bannister and Mr. Church exchange pleasantries about the weather, and Bannister gives the first inkling to the new order at the Van Rhijn household, where Ada Forte’s fortune, now the source of the staff’s wages, and Agnes’s stubbornly dominating personality are clashing.
Ada has taken up interest in the Temperance movement, which Agnes is predictably judgmental about—and her frustration only grows when she realizes just how big of a meeting will be at the Van Rhijn townhouse.
That meeting will also include Peggy, who is heading back to East 61st Street from her parent’s house in Brooklyn. “You’ll catch your death going to the station!” Peggy’s mother, Audra McDonald, says to her presciently. I have to admire Peggy’s resilience: I would be wary to go from Brooklyn to the Upper East Side after a big snowstorm in the year of our lord 2025, let alone sometime in the 1880s!
Meanwhile, back at the Russell mansion, Bertha makes her entrance and is already scheming: She has hired John Singer Sargent to paint Gladys, which will need to be completed ahead of the Duke’s arriving in New York City. Perhaps for a big unveiling!?
Gladys, bedecked in 19th century snow gear, proclaims that she and Larry are going to look at the snow. Ever her mother’s daughter, it turns out that she has a scheme of her own to rendezvous in the servant’s courtyard with her secret lover!
This is when we meet Billy Carlton — clearly the Winthrop Rutherfurd1 stand in — who, I’m sorry, is delusional. Where did he come from? Why does he think that he’ll just sail right by Bertha and be able to marry Gladys once he has a chance to speak with Mr. Russell, who is out of town and needs to return before anything happens? Clearly Billy is out of the loop, and he has it coming for him.
But Gladys isn’t the only one hiding a romance! Larry and Meryl Streep’s daughter (Marian) meet in front of the Van Rhijn house. Fresh off two failed engagements, Marian notes that Dashiell’s romance was a few months ago, establishing how much time has lapsed since Season 2. She is understandably hesitant, and he’s understandably insistent and charming. I think this is a very good match, and I’m rooting for them! Don’t let us down, Marian and Larry.
Rumors are already swirling around Gladys and her potential betrothal to the Duke, which Larry admits is all his mother’s doing. I have to say, I was expecting more build up to Bertha’s plan for Gladys to marry the Duke, culminating in an explosive fight between Bertha and Train Daddy. I didn’t think we’d launch straight into the rumor mill, but it now seems like everyone in society—not just the Russells—is aware of the expectation that Gladys will be engaged to the Duke. So why is Billy Carlton being delulu?
Meanwhile, Mr. Russell is indeed plotting to acquire and take over mines and land for a revolutionary train line out west, so he can become the 1880s version of Jeff Bezos. I have to be honest: This story line doesn’t really interest me. We know how Mr. Russell goes! He’s tough and ruthless and cares about the bottom line. Rinse and repeat. But, I get it. Someone has to make the money. Get us back to New York!
At the Forte / Van Rhijn household—where Peggy Scott announces she’ll soon be a published novelist (if she survives the night, that is)—Ada and Agnes are fighting over use of Agnes’s silver as Agnes is holding the line where she can. I don’t really understand why they can’t just be co-mistresses of the house, but nonetheless I enjoyed the banter and the quiet reactions that Oscar, Marian, Agnes, and Aurora Fane (we’ll get to her in a second!!) had to the rather intense monologue about temperance during the meeting.
Across the street, Bertha welcomes John Singer Sargent as he paints Gladys. I loved this scene, the mention of his portrait of Charlotte Louise Burckhardt, and Bertha’s bringing up how the portrait of Madame X originally had one strap off her shoulder, causing quite the scandal at the salon it debuted.
Fast forward to that night, and Aurora Fane is all dressed up with no Charles to go for the 3rd act of Traviata at the Met Opera House. It’s when her oversized Ken Doll of a husband comes home that he drops a bomb: He has met someone, they have decided to marry, and he wants a divorce.
I wasn’t expecting this at all (partially because Aurora and her husband haven’t been the subject of a central story line before. We hardly know them!) but I have to say, I’m excited for Aurora to have a spicy arc this season. She needs to bring the charges of infidelity for Charles to get a divorce, and she won’t. Charles is ready to put up a fight, and I’m excited to see her weather the storm and create hell for the inamorata Elsa Lipton, who is apparently “shady.”
At the Opera, Mrs. Fish is doing what she does best: Meddle and gossip. Not only is she allowing Billy Carlton and Gladys to sit, flirt, and scheme about doomed wedding plans, but she’s also speaking with Billy’s mother about it all! I’m kinda surprised that Billy and Gladys’s romance—this is quite public, after all—hasn’t gotten back to Bertha yet? It’s at this point that we find out that Billy and Gladys are worried Mr. Russell won’t return to New York before the Duke’s arrival, which would throw a gigantic wrench in the wedding machine.
While the Carltons are descending into delusions of marriage, Peggy is in bed, descending into what seems to be a very nasty illness, which she’s trying to push through since she’s on deadline to finish a chapter of her book. I was half waiting for Peggy to start coughing blood into that lace-tipped handkerchief, but thankfully she’s showing up in later episodes, so we know she’ll be fine. I hope that racist doctor who wouldn’t treat her, though, won’t be fine, and I hope Agnes seals his fate.
Aurora breaks the divorce news to Ada, Agnes, and Marian, and I have to say: Agnes is rough, when she basically says that she wouldn’t invite Aurora over to dinner if she indeed gets divorced. I understand that Agnes is one for tradition, but this is a cousin! From the Livingston side of the family! Does that mean nothing?
Meanwhile, in Arizona, Train Daddy’s negotiations get disrupted by a very conveniently timed wire alerting him to bank trouble back in New York, requiring his immediate return home — perhaps in time to save Gladys from a lifetime with the Duke!
Now, I have to say, Larry’s business with John Trotter, the clock-inventing footman, is worrying me. At a dinner designed to inspire Oscar to work (lol), Larry clearly is trying to lead in the style of his father, pushing this clock boy out of the spotlight. I think because he’s worried that investors would be put off by John’s station as a footman, maybe? Larry knows nothing about the clocks, and I’m worried that his confidence will get in the way. After all—he’s not self made. He’s the privileged son of a self-made man. He needs the inventor, and I don’t want this to blow up in John’s face!
The show culminates in a series of scenes about Bertha’s plan to for the Duke to marry Gladys. I could watch the scene between Mrs. Fish, Billy’s mother, and Bertha in the Russell drawing room all day. That was rough, but also — what were they expecting? The Carltons clearly must be on some fringe of society if they don’t understand how Bertha pulls the strings and sets everything up.
Bertha isn’t having anyone messing up her plans. After Larry gets a dressing down from his mother, and after he and Gladys share a heartfelt moment about their secret romances, Bertha and Gladys have a fight that seems to foretell everything this season will be about: Love, marriages, happiness, and family status.
To ensure we don’t get too serious, Gladys hastily packs a carpet bag in her silly little hat with a feather on it and scurries down the flimsy fake marble staircase of the Russell mansion. She’s running away, with her hat bobbing like an indicator on The SIMs! Is she about to elope? I was sure that Mr Russell would come home just in time to stop her, but no—she and her chapeaux made a break for it. Loose on the wilds of East 61st and 5th! And that’s where they leave us until Sunday. God, I love this show.
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