Recap of The Gilded Age S3 E1: Who Is In Charge Here?
Welcome to the Pretty Passionate podcast. I'm your host, Doctor. Ruth Celestin, and we're going to be discussing today, The Gilded Age. If you're familiar with this period drama, then you know why I am so excited. I love this show.
Dr. Ruth:The costumes, the writing, the scenery, the set deck is incredible. All of it comes together and is just done so beautifully in a way that only HBO can. So, if you haven't seen seasons one and two, please understand this is the only spoiler alert you're getting because we're covering episodes one through three of the Gilded Age season three. I'm not recapping the first two seasons, but things will come up that happened in those seasons. Okay, fair warning.
Dr. Ruth:Alright. So episode one starts with a recap. We get a little taste back to that Metropolitan Opera drama. We see Jack who invented that alarm clock, so they remind us that he was on a trajectory. The end of season two, we see Peggy quitting her job at the paper because the editor kissed her and he's a married man.
Dr. Ruth:And we see Ada finally finding love with Reverend Forte and then losing her husband in a heartbreaking fashion. We see Marion turning down the role of being a tradwife and then actually kissing Larry Russell, who turns out to be her actual love interest, you know, that kind of friends all along thing. George Russell's daughter, Gladys, makes a very important deal with him that she'll be able to choose her love match, and she will not be forced into a marriage of convenience or a marriage of prestige like her mother wants for her. Meanwhile, her mother Bertha Russell is shown wheeling zealand to make this Metropolitan Opera thing happen, and in the end she wins because if you recall the Duke of Buckingham, obviously fictitious, comes to attend at her event, and that makes her event. And at the end of that episode, it's very clear that there's a pay for play happening here, and we'll learn more about it in season three.
Dr. Ruth:Also, at the wrap of season two, the Van Rynes lose their entire fortune due to some terrible dealing done by Oscar Van Ryn, who was swept off his feet, not really, by Maude Beaton. So right when they're about to vacate their 60 First Street home, Ada Forte, now missus Forte, finds out that she's filthy rich, like richer than the Van Rynes rich because her late husband, the Reverend Forte, actually had a family fortune he did nothing with. He just had it. So there's a new sheriff in town. They also take care to remind us that our hero, or is he a hero?
Dr. Ruth:George Russell was involved in some union busting in Pittsburgh for one of his factories. And in the end, he avoided a disaster by not opening fire on the crowd of workers, but I think we got a good preview on what kind of business dealings he's into. At the end of the recap, we are reminded that the very large question that remains on our minds at the start of season three is what is this deal that Bertha Russell made with the Duke of Buckingham in order to win the opera battle? So opening scene, you think you're about to see horse drawn carriages in the streets of New York and no, actually, they take us to Arizona. George Russell is going to meet with some copper mine landowners to discuss expanding his railroad.
Dr. Ruth:This is very important because it kind of takes him out of New York and out of the picture to influence what's happening there. So we head back to New York and there's a snowstorm happening. It's a late spring snowstorm and Ada and Agnes are arguing about whether or not temperance has its virtue. In case you're not familiar, the temperance movement of the mid-1800s led to prohibition, basically. This attitude that alcohol is just bad, bad, bad, bad for you, the body, the mind, the spirit, the family, that it's against God, and therefore not that you should moderate your alcohol consumption, but that you simply should not partake at all.
Dr. Ruth:So Ada's super gung ho over this because she thinks that this is something that the late reverend Forte would support. And it's their first, like, real power struggle in the house now that Ada is technically the one with the money. Gladys is still trying to see her boyfriend, Billy, and it's clear that she wants to marry him, and she wants him to ask her father for her hand in marriage because she believes in, remember that promise that George Russell made to her, that he won't force her to marry someone she doesn't love. Is Billy Carlson the one for her? That's a good question.
Dr. Ruth:On over to Larry and Marion, they are flirting heavy. But are they together? Not quite. Marion is exercising extreme caution. Based on her romantic missteps from the last two seasons, it's as if she has to really be careful about her next moves here because women, remember, at this time, were not free to just date freely.
Dr. Ruth:It had to be for the purposes of marriage. And now in society's eyes, she's had two failed relationships that did not result in marriage, and so not succeeding a third time could land her firmly in Spencer territory. Then they move on to what I think is probably the most heartbreaking scene of the episode. Whoo. Aurora Fane's husband.
Dr. Ruth:Whoo. Ciao. His discussion with her is savage. You know, last season, we got hints that he wasn't around that much. There was always an excuse about where he wasn't there.
Dr. Ruth:And if you were really astute at noticing that, you might have picked up on some possible marital weakness. But I never saw this coming. It still came as such a surprise to me. And ultimately, Charles Fain walks up to her and tells her the marriage is over. I've been seeing this woman for however long, and there's no chance of reconciliation.
Dr. Ruth:This marriage has been over for an extremely long time, and you know it. She's distraught, understandably. Not just because she didn't see this coming, but also because in that time period in the mid eighteen hundreds, the only way that you could get a divorce was for infidelity. So, someone has to file a petition suing for divorce due to infidelity. Well, Charles Fane tells her he's not going to file this petition.
Dr. Ruth:He tells her he needs her to do it because he's trying to do her a favor. Really, understands that a man in his position, there's not really a consequence. He might not be welcome in some snootier, more holier than thou circles in the future, but as a man with money in the mid eighteen hundreds, he's going to be welcome in plenty of social circles that he wants to be a part of. Whereas, even though it's not her fault technically, as in Aurora did not commit the adultery, she'll be the one to suffer the most here. A divorced woman is like untouchable.
Dr. Ruth:She's not someone who's going to be welcome in polite society. So what Aurora is really looking at with this divorce is an existential crisis. This is coming for her entire life and how she lives it as she knows it. So, of course, it seems she's resolved to try and figure it out and resolve the matter and not give up on her marriage, which given the situation that she's in, I completely understand. Then we catch up with Oscar Van Rine.
Dr. Ruth:He's obviously been humbled by his experience with Maude Beaton, and he's been embarrassed because he lost the family fortune. He's lucky his mama didn't put him out the house, okay, for losing all of her money, which is horrific if you really think about it. And he's kind of moping about in his sadness and rich boy mindset. Marion, on the other hand, has a worker spirit. She wants to go to work.
Dr. Ruth:Her aunts hate the idea because at the time, women of a certain class level didn't work. It was considered shameful. It was considered a signal that something was wrong. So she resolves that she's going to work at the normal school with people of different backgrounds, I think tutoring English, and they can barely accept that but are consoled by the fact that she doesn't plan to actually earn money. And this is an interesting part of the episode because it's really showing class struggle, and you can see that most clearly between Jack and Larry interacting when they're talking about his business idea.
Dr. Ruth:It's awkward for Jack because the footman has to serve him, which one of his colleagues later gets in his face, Edelhide, gets in his face about. Like, oh, now you're too big for your britches. Why are you embarrassing him by having him serve you? So definitely a lot of, like, class struggle happening, and I love that they're not afraid to dive deep into that. But he still has his friends really supporting him about this clock idea despite the ops.
Dr. Ruth:Peggy. My girl, Peggy. Well, she's quit the paper, right? But she's back home in Brooklyn, and she's breaking some really important news to her family that she gets to publish in The Christian Recorder, which is a really prominent and real life publication that existed at the time. So this is a pretty big deal for her.
Dr. Ruth:Her parents are like really excited, and she actually heads off to the Van Rynes house. When she arrives, what is she doing? She's going to be secretarying for the new boss in the Van Rhyn house for Ada due to her temperance meeting. So she's gonna be taking notes, I guess, there. And this really pisses Agnes off, by the way, which is hilarious.
Dr. Ruth:And Agnes is always coming in with her one liners that steal the scene. But then they actually do something that scares me. They give Peggy a little cough. She's given a little sick when she goes back to her room. Scary and definitely something to be watching because I don't know if you know this, but in the mid eighteen hundreds, a cough could equal death, like within days.
Dr. Ruth:So I always get nervous on a show like this, a period drama, when they give a character a cough because it could be pneumonia, tuberculosis, cancer, all very scary things that they didn't have really good treatments for or really great treatments for at the time. So hopefully they're not about to kill off one of my favorite characters in the show. Ultimately, Peggy's condition deteriorates, and the Van Rynes, out of the kindness of their hearts, call a doctor to come see her. That doctor comes and refuses to see Peggy because she's black. Obviously, we're living in our time here.
Dr. Ruth:And although missus Van Rhine is refreshingly not racist, sometimes it feels like she's out of touch that the rest of the world is very much still racist. You get really nervous for her at this point in the episode, and that's when they decide that they're going to send Jack to deliver the news to her family that she is ill. Smart move, finally. Then we head over to the Met, and they went to go see La Traviata. Mrs.
Dr. Ruth:Fish actually gives Mrs. Carlton a heads up that Mrs. Russell plans fully for her daughter to be with the Duke. And she kind of tries to explain to her how Bertha Russell be moving, and Mrs. Carlton's like, oh, their kid's in love.
Dr. Ruth:And she's like completely refusing to accept reality that Bertha Russell is not going to be interested in your son no matter how much they're in By the end of the episode, it is very clear that Bertha Russell is not interested in anyone running around saying that Billy Carlton and Gladys Russell, her daughter, are just about engaged. She's done a lot of work. She's made a lot of promises. She's laid a lot of groundwork, including planting articles in the news like any concerned mom would do, you know, just to ensure that Gladys gets to marry this Duke who she doesn't want to marry. But Gladys remains confident at this point that her dad will come in and save the day and call the shots, put her mother in her place and let her marry for love.
Dr. Ruth:It does definitely call into question what exactly Bertha's motives are. I mean, an argument could be made that she's just being a good mom. She's looking out for her daughter who's only, I believe, 17 or 18 at the time. What does she really know about marriage? About love?
Dr. Ruth:About what the ingredients of a successful marriage are? She's looking at her parents saying, you guys are a love match. Why can't I have that? And Bertha's insisting that marrying the Duke will put her in a position in society as a Duchess that is untouchable, that money almost can't buy because titles from Europe, obviously, are not for sale, except they are. At this particular time in history, there was a lot of this going on.
Dr. Ruth:If you recall, one of the creators of the show, Lord Julian Fellows, also created Downton Abbey. And if you recall in Downton Abbey, there's a brief mention, but it's an important part of the story, where the main character family, right, they are nobility, and the mother, the matriarch of that family, is an American who married into this British family who has this abode that needs a lot of work, a lot of maintenance, and a lot of money poured into it. And she comes from an untitled American family, obviously, and marries into that family, and it's her father's fortune that saves Downton Abbey in the first place. So that's how she earns her title as the lady. Right?
Dr. Ruth:So it's interesting that Lord Fellows is kind of recreating a similar situation, but now we're getting to see it on this side of the Atlantic, how these kind of broke English aristocracy come across the pond, find themselves in this time period, a rich American princess, obviously in money only but with no title, and marry her and get some of her family money to save their family's legacy. Interesting dynamic. And I have to say, although I understand Bertha's point of view, as a modern mom, I can't envision ever selling my daughter off to someone just so she could have a title if she's completely uninterested in him. And unlike with the opera battle for the first time, I find myself not rooting for Ubirtha. Like, what's up with that?
Dr. Ruth:So all of this conflict going on for poor Gladys, and she's just so in love with Billy. She doesn't understand her mother's perspective. At the end of the episode, what we see is Gladys wearing a fabulous runaway outfit, packing up her little sad bag, and running away. We have no idea where she's run off to, but we know that she's leaving. I'm guessing at that time that she's going to meet Billy, and we'll see.
Dr. Ruth:So for us as the viewer, obviously, this gets really tricky. And we don't know if we should be rooting for Gladys, if we should be terrified for her, because keep in mind, a young woman could get really badly ruined in this kind of scenario, especially because I don't know Billy Carlson that well. I want to be optimistic about what his actual intentions are, but keep in mind Gladys Russell is filthy rich. She is a catch. She's a robber baron's daughter, and ultimately that means that everyone who presents themselves as a friend or love interest may not genuinely be that.
Dr. Ruth:So I'm worried about Gladys. I know Bertha is going to lose it. I'm keeping my eye on this situation with Marion and Larry. Looking forward to seeing what happens with Jack and his invention and hoping that Larry doesn't let him down in some mean, you know, businessman ruse. Of course, we're eager to see what unfolds with Ada and Agnes.
Dr. Ruth:We know that that's not the end of their heads bumping with this new dynamic of Ada being the one in charge. But most importantly, my eye is on Peggy and making sure that they do not kill her off. I don't know why I'm getting these vibes at this point. Like, it's really it shouldn't be this scary for me, but she's, like, the only black character, really main character on there. So, obviously, I have fear for her well-being if the history of horror movies is in any way indicative of what's going to happen here.
Dr. Ruth:But when you consider the roster of executive coproducers, something tells me there's something else up their sleeve, but I just hope that Peggy gets her shot at a fully developed, fully realized storyline and isn't just clipped at the wings before she can take off. Okay. That's our episode one wrapped up in a nutshell. Stay tuned for episode two coverage. I'm going to be doing these in rapid succession to catch up to where we are so that we can prepare for the next airing on HBO Max.
Dr. Ruth:Thanks for listening. If you have any questions, please drop them in the comments or send us an email at prettyprescription17@gmail.com. That's spelled out prettyprescription17@gmail.com, and I will do my best to answer them hopefully at the end of each episode if we don't have too many. And if we have a lot, which is a good problem to have, then I will do a feedback episode to kinda go over all the feedback at once. Very excited to continue this amazing show.
Dr. Ruth:Until then, stay passionate. Bye.
