The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 6 Recap and Reactions From My Beach Vacation!
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the pretty passionate podcast. As you can tell from the, sunlit surroundings and the slight change from my usual little sound booth and the wind in my hair that we are not in Kansas anymore. I live in Georgia. We are, however, podcasting from my vacation spot with my family. But I wanted to make sure to still get an episode in because we have so much to talk about, of course.
Dr. Ruth:That said, I want you to bear in mind that I don't have as much control over my sound and surroundings. I tried to find the quietest spot in the house, but it is outside. So there will be some street noise, the occasional birds, seagulls, I think, and, maybe the sound of laughter coming from a pool nearby. When I'm using one of those noise canceling lavalier microphones, so that should help with things. But bear with me.
Dr. Ruth:I'm going for consistency here. Every year, my family and I get together with our husbands and kids and my mom and dad. So that nuclear unit, we make it a point every year to escape to an East Coast location usually. Sometimes we venture out elsewhere, but mostly an East Coast location that's easy for us all to get to by plane, train, or automobile. And we get together for about a week, rent a beach house, and let the kids mingle and have a great time, make noise, stay up late, eat sweet treats, and the whole thing.
Dr. Ruth:So I managed to get a few minutes away because our husbands took the kids to the bigger community pool, and they're not behind the house right now making a bunch of noise in the smaller pool out back. So that said, I'm gonna go ahead and get started. One of the things I wanted to talk to you about today was unplugging on vacation. It's really hard for me. I am a plastic surgeon in my actual employment, and I'm a solo practitioner, meaning I don't have partners.
Dr. Ruth:And at the moment, I don't even have a PA or NP working in my practice alongside me to provide a bunch of extra coverage. When I travel, it's important, that for me, I unplug. I know doing a podcast is about the most plugged in thing you can do while you're on vacation, but once I'm done with this episode, I'm actually going to, like, put it away for the rest of the week after I'm done editing so that I can focus on enjoying my quiet and my downtime with my family. And I think that's so important in this day and age, especially when, you know, algorithms push us toward ever more engagement and more involvement with social media. It is important to have some boundary.
Dr. Ruth:That said, my profession is particularly notorious for being able to unplug. When is a doctor not needed? When is a doctor able to completely walk away from their patients and not be reachable? There are, in my life at least, very rare moments where that's even a thing. Even on maternity leave, I was still available to my patients and available for my practice.
Dr. Ruth:Even though my practice is currently in the hands of my very capable manager and staff, I remain reachable by phone, but to keep that unplugged mindset going for myself rather than in my daily life, I normally have this thing attached to me at the hip, and it is never away from me or never very far from me. There are a couple of gadgets that I rely on to unplug, which is the irony of that is not lost on me. And I rely on these gadgets to unplug. But there's a psychology here for me that I'll share with you. So I use an Apple Watch as you've probably seen in past pods.
Dr. Ruth:What it helps me to do is mentally filter. It helps me to determine if the message that's incoming is of great importance. So I might get a text message from my manager that says, literally, she's great at this too. Obviously, you need people in your life who are gonna support the idea of you actually stepping away, unplugging, and getting rest from your work. But she's really great about sending me a text message that requires an answer from me, but it'll say when you get a chance or when you get a minute.
Dr. Ruth:On your watch, you don't necessarily see the entire message, but I will see a message coming in from my manager, and it'll say when it says when you get a minute, oh, mentally, know that's not something I even need to look at right now. Right? That's something I can look at when I get out of the movie theater or something I can look at when I get back to my phone if I'm at the beach or if I'm in the pool. And I love that freedom. Maybe that's not enough freedom for some, but it's about as much freedom as a solo private practice person is probably going to enjoy realistically.
Dr. Ruth:And that's not a complaint. I love my job, but again, those moments of just unplugging are so necessary for our mental health, especially if you are a working mom, an entrepreneur, a wife like me. There's so many irons in the fire at all times, and sometimes we just need some mental clarity, some mental peace, some quiet to step away. And this is one of the things that I find is very helpful. So if you're not already a smartwatch user, I don't necessarily use all the features, but that's one feature I really enjoy is that it allows me to see who's calling me and who's texting me and get an idea of the nature of the text or call or even voice mail because there's visual voice mail aspect to this that I can move on and okay.
Dr. Ruth:I'll get to that later. It doesn't force me to have to have my phone with me and it certainly doesn't force me to have to answer and interact with every single incoming message. Plus you can place your watch in do not disturb mode for those times that, you know, maybe you need five minutes where you're absolutely not being interrupted for any circumstances whatsoever. Again, not necessarily always possible for a doctor, but I do try. The other gadget I wanted to share with you that I think also helps me unplug.
Dr. Ruth:This is ironic. I get it. But this gadget actually helps me walk away from my phone is what I mean and really not feel that I feel that compulsive urge to check my messages and check my email is the Ray Ban Meta glasses. Not sure if you're familiar. My 2¢ completely uncompensated by Ray Ban or Meta.
Dr. Ruth:I did want to share this with especially my mamas, my listeners who are in a position like me, where you can get this kind of thing to help you focus, stay in the moment, and be part of your surroundings and not stopping your enjoyment to reach for the phone and do the selfie stick and do the things. You know, I was able to take really cute pictures of my kids yesterday at the movies with their cousins without having to reach in my bag, reach in my pocket, or, you know, my phone could have been in the car and it still would that is my 2¢ on how I use gadgets ironically to help me unplug from the main gadget most of us can never seem to escape from when we are on vacation. I decided to keep them on because they lightened up and this because the sun turned away a little bit and the wind that is coming in this direction is rather refreshing against the humidity, but also particles. You know, sometimes my eyes are very sensitive to, like, dust particles, and so we're gonna keep this on. So now we're ready to get into the other part of the podcast, which is my coverage of the Gilded Age.
Dr. Ruth:For those of you who don't know, I'm a Gilded Age obsessive. I won't call myself an aficionado because I don't actually work for HBO, but I am obsessed with this story, the costuming, the writing, the sets, the design, everything that goes into the show is so thoughtful and careful. You could see that it's crafted, and sometimes it'll just be a scene that is one minute of time. And they you can tell they've spent just something crazy just setting up that one scene. You know?
Dr. Ruth:So we are deep into season three, and episode six just aired on Sunday. I did get to watch it even though I'm on vacation. I did get to watch it because this is appointment television for me. So I'm glad to be able to cover it with you now. Last episode, I did transition to more of a by character or character group coverage format to tell you what happens on the show because they have really picked up their switching back and forth.
Dr. Ruth:It used to be that I could just kind of run down the episode what happens in chronological fashion, but this episode and the last episode, they did a lot of switching back and forth between Newport to New York to Arizona, wherever they were going. And so it is easier if I cover it as groups or as individual characters. That said, this is your only spoiler warning. We are recapping season three episode six of the Gilded Age entitled, if you want to cook an omelet. There's a line in the episode where that actual saying is used.
Dr. Ruth:You know the saying, if you wanna cook an omelet, you've gotta break some eggs. Well, Bertha gives her daughter that advice and her this is her giving her a pep talk about how to reclaim her power at Sidmouth Castle. But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. As you all recall from episode five, it left us on a stunning bit of a cliffhanger where George Russell and Bertha Russell were having a heated argument over Gladys's fate in England. She had sent an urgent letter through her maid Adonai back to her family to let them know that she was not happy and things were not going well for her.
Dr. Ruth:And of course, that upset George Russell to the point where he actually told Bertha that he's leaving. So we catch up with Bertha Russell having already arrived in England. Remember, she was going to hop on that next ship that was leaving the following morning. Missus Russell arrives at Sidmouth Castle. It's immediately apparent that Lady Sarah is going to impose her will.
Dr. Ruth:She gets all up in Bertha's face and starts kinda let it giving her the lay of the land just like she did with Gladys. Like, welcome to my castle. Gladys clearly in that moment somewhat resigned, you can tell, to just accepting Lady Sarah's doesn't have a lot of fight her. And I think Bertha clocks that immediately, and it's like, oh, hell to the no, not my god. Missus Russell, has learned from her maid that at this point, even the help are up on Lady Sarah's game.
Dr. Ruth:And they know that she is trying to basically train Gladys like some kind of a dog, which is crazy. Given that this house is being sieged by the money that Gladys' family has pumped into their hands. Bertha goes to confront Lady Sarah, like, what are you doing? Letting her know that essentially, what are you doing? This is my daughter's the lady of this house.
Dr. Ruth:And Lady Sarah snaps at her at dinner. She pretty much just kind of cows her at dinner. And I think in that moment is when Bertha decides, okay, she's got the lay of the land. She knows what's going on here. And she is developing her tactic for how she's going to clap back.
Dr. Ruth:And rather than make a scene, is what I might do in that scenario, Bertha is just too smart for that. She didn't fall into the trap. She let Lady Sarah get that lick because she knows she's going to get her lick back. So she kinda sits back, gets the lay of land. She talks to her daughter, kinda lets her know, I'm up on Lady Sarah's game.
Dr. Ruth:This is what she's trying to do, and this is how we need to approach her. There are several dinner scenes at Sidmouth Castle where some of these showdowns take place. At dinner, once again, Bertha is seated, and they're having a political discussion about women's suffrage. Bertha, as it turns out, is a hardcore suffragist, and she doesn't really back down from it. She doesn't wear the label because Lady Sarah tries to throw that on her like, oh, don't tell me you're a suffragette, like putting her down.
Dr. Ruth:And Bertha's like, no. But I do believe that women's rights are, you know, people's rights and that they're essential to the development of a fair society. And wouldn't you want to make sure that even unmarried women have a voice in this world? During that dinner, Bertha definitely backs Lady Sarah into a corner, calling her on her anti feminist views by pointing out that they have a female monarch at the head of England. Now we know that the queen of England does not play a very political role and exercise strong political power in the country, but she's still a very respected figurehead for the country.
Dr. Ruth:And so, especially at that point in history. And so it is important that Bertha points that hypocrisy out to Sarah when she talks about women's inability to make decisions or the the need for women to not bother making decisions because the figurehead, the the leader of your country is a female monarch. You see that Lady Sarah kind of backs out of the conversation real quick and says, oh, I would never presume to comment on the intentions of someone as important as the queen. That's how she kind of sculpts her way out of actually giving a real answer. And I love it.
Dr. Ruth:And you can see Bertha's making eyes with Gladys and that Gladys is making note of this. Like, that actually worked. Then Bertha starts coaching coaching her daughter in earnest. She's telling her, listen, your money is saving this place. You're in a position of power whether you actually know it or not.
Dr. Ruth:And ultimately, the money that you're bringing in to save this place, you should exercise some say in how that's used. You should exercise say in the renovations that are happening. Bertha makes note that the place is rather bleak and does not look nice and it's kind of drab looking, especially, I mean, compared to Earn Diggs. But in general, there's not a lot of paintings, and that's when Gladys lets us know that they actually sold off a lot of the artwork and decor in the house to pay for the upkeep of this castle. Perth is like, uh-huh.
Dr. Ruth:Perfect. Which means exactly that you will be able to influence how this place is redecorated with the money that you're bringing in and what projects you are important to you. She tells her that she has to win Hector's respect and love by showing her interest in their life here and her ability to manage things. She can't just sit in the background and let Lady Sarah count her into nonexistence because that would be an easy way for Hector to keep letting Lady Sarah do the things she's been doing for decades, which is being the woman in his life. Because their parents died pretty young.
Dr. Ruth:They have this bond they explain where Hector lets her be a wife, whatever. Bertha makes note, hello, you are the wife now. You are the duchess. Show him how useful you can be and make him fall in love with you. She's essentially, this is an argument that comes up about Bertha.
Dr. Ruth:Is she a bit of a nineteenth century feminist? I have to say prior to this episode, my answer would have been absolutely the hell not. But now that I've seen how she is once again not trying to make waves and change the way that society is, but she is making sure that at least for her daughter and herself, she's grabbing power as a woman in the ways that society is allowing for her to do and using that power position to influence things. So it's like she's trying to position Gladys to be an influencer of her time, really take that duchess role and run with it. Gladys actually heeds Bertha's advice.
Dr. Ruth:And immediately when she sees Hector, she asks him, he walks in and she goes, hey. I wanna learn more about Sidmouth. Is there a way that you can have the, it looks like their house manager, the groundskeeper, Take her around to their tenants, to the farmers who work on the land that they own and show her more. Give her more of a lay of the land. What are the needs?
Dr. Ruth:What are the needs that are not being met that we can direct these funds my daddy's putting in your pocket towards? Hector is, like, beaming the minute she does this. He's enthusiastic about her wanting to learn more about Sidman as anyone would be. Right? Your new wife wants to actually settle in and learn more about your home.
Dr. Ruth:You could see that it immediately works on him. Lady Sarah rolls up and is in instant hater position because she learns that, okay, Gladys wants to learn more about the estate, which means what? That Gladys is wising up on how she's going to usurp some of her power and control in the house. But Lady Sarah is powerless to stop it as Bertha points out. And the minute Lady Sarah pops up and tries to cow Gladys as she usually does and tell her what she's supposed to do, Hector actually stands up to her for the very first time because we've never seen him actually tell his sister, hey.
Dr. Ruth:Don't talk to her that way or whatever. We've never seen him really reprimand her for the way she's treating Gladys. In that moment, Hector immediately stands up for his wife, and he says, well, she's a duchess basically. Like, she should learn more about the place. I am heartened.
Dr. Ruth:I am encouraged by the fact that we are immediately seeing a situation where maybe Gladys won't be so miserable in England after all, and maybe her mother's dream for her becoming this incredible influence in society in British and American society will actually come true. In real life for Consuelo Vanderbilt, the marriage was not when she chose and initially she was miserable. But also in real life, she did go on to live a meaningful life and to live a relatively happy life, especially if you compare her to other women of status of the time. She wrote a biography in which that is very clear. I don't wanna say it could have been worse, but I guess the truth is it could have been worse.
Dr. Ruth:I hope that what the writers are going to do with Gladys is give her more of a happy ending. So this looks like the beginning of that. Maybe I'm jumping the gun, but we're moving on. Later on at dinner, Gladys actually proudly shares her plans to create a new woods on their grounds in this area that appears to have been neglected and dilapidated in celebration of the queen's fiftieth anniversary. That's a big celebration in England.
Dr. Ruth:I believe it is called the Jubilee when they celebrate fifty years of the monarch having ruled fifty years in a row. That is a big deal, and so they have a big celebration about it. And so in honor of that queen's jubilee, Gladys wants to establish a beautiful new garden, a new woods where they're gonna put in all these plants and stuff, and she would obviously need the help of the tenants who are part of the community there. So she's floating this idea immediately. Lady Sarah attempts to shut her down.
Dr. Ruth:She goes, oh, we've already thought about how we're going to celebrate that. So no need for your input, which is crazy. And then she stands up. Lady Sarah's like, ah, alright. Let's go.
Dr. Ruth:We're ready to go through because, you know, the after dinner, the women in of these ranks always go through to the salon and they have tea and they, you know, talk and gossip. And the men go through and they have port and other spirits, separate of the women. So lady Sarah gets up, guess, as she always does every night, and announces that dinner's over and the women are going to go through. Well, our little Gladys, so proud of her. Oh my god.
Dr. Ruth:She's like, ah, tat, tat, tat. She's like, are you well? I fell I literally screamed. I had to pause because Gladys is like, are you okay? Are you okay?
Dr. Ruth:Because you got up from the table before me. That's strange because I'm the duchess around these parks. She did it so calmly in such a classy fashion. You know. It was a clap back heard around the world that she couldn't be accused of rudeness.
Dr. Ruth:It's simply strict British tradition that the highest ranking member of society of the aristocracy at the table is the only person who can be like dinner is over. When they get up, everybody else gets up and follows suit. Right? So she's the duchess of the table. Lady Sarah ranks below her, so she's not able to announce the end of dinner except that she's being a rude jerk to Gladys and has been doing this.
Dr. Ruth:So Gladys calls her out on it, and her seat neighbor is like, well done, girlfriend. Leans over and tells her like, you were right to do that because she's been getting away with that, and it's extremely rude in their society. And isn't Lady Sarah, miss Manners always trying to tell Gladys what she's doing wrong and how she's not fitting in and she's not able to adapt to the norms of British society? But, yeah, here she is busting through those norms, being rude, and she was rightfully put in her place. I would love a good clap back.
Dr. Ruth:The neighbors are playing music. I'm sorry if you can hear that beyond my voice, but hopefully, the mic is also canceling a little bit of it and picking up on what I'm saying very well. Unfortunately, it is time for missus Russell's trip to end. And before she leaves, she gives Hector a really meaningful pep talk where she talks to him and encourages him that, like, look, Gladys is showing interest, and she's someone who she can be a strong ally to you, and she can help you take Sidmouth into that next level, into the next generation, and you guys can have a beautiful life together. You gotta treat her right, and you have to protect her from lady Sarah.
Dr. Ruth:And I just, once again, love that Bertha was standing up for her daughter and not in a way that was disrespectful, like she's gonna come in here and lay down the law because you guys are living off her money, but in a way that would be very palatable to any person in Hector's position. Right? This is my mother-in-law giving me caring advice on how I can cultivate a beautiful life with her daughter I just married. Anyone would welcome that in any time, including modern times. Lady Sarah tries to get one last dig in, trying to tell Gladys how she's going to say goodbye to her mother.
Dr. Ruth:Like, oh, well, where will the crying take place? Here rather than taking her to the train station or some such nonsense that was just incredibly rude and her sad little attempt to get one last dig at missus Russell. But let me tell you, our girl Gladys is in her power. And Hector, having witnessed, I guess, everything he had witnessed about how Gladys is going to be a promising duchess and a real leader. And having just had that talk with Bertha, immediately steps in and shuts lady Sarah down.
Dr. Ruth:And it's like, excuse me. The duchess can determine how she's gonna say goodbye to her mom. Period. Zip it, thy lips. And I love that for her.
Dr. Ruth:It's clear that Gladys is left in a much better position upon Bertha's departure. Even though you can see that Bertha's sad to leave her. I mean, who wouldn't be? I think she feels like mission accomplished and she's put her daughter in a much, much better position. But she's got some bad news to arrive back at the house to learn.
Dr. Ruth:When she gets back to New York, she will learn that those gossip rags that she was so determined to find out the source of the leak are absolutely still at work here. And they're absolutely talking about her split, potential split from George because they're onto the fact that George is not staying at the house. They're onto the fact that she's in England trying to patch things up. They're they're onto too much. And it becomes clear to missus Bruce and mister Borden who the leak is.
Dr. Ruth:By the end of the episode, they let us know that they're pretty much believed that the leak is Andre, Bertha Russell's maid. And doesn't it make perfect sense? Duh. How did we not see this before? Okay.
Dr. Ruth:Like, obviously, she's the one who is in the room, in the back, probably being ignored like the help usually was back then. Right? And Bertha's spilling all of her secrets in front of her. She has gained her trust. She's been her lady's maid for quite some time now.
Dr. Ruth:Bertha doesn't have a real reason to mistrust her. She's also there when all of this intimate details are being discussed. A lot of the household staff, they have their bits and pieces that they're privy to. But there's only one staff member who knows everything, who knows all of Bertha's intimate details and is around probably when she's discussing all of her plans, including things like Gladyssen's embroidered underwear when they go to visit the couturier and, you know, get all those things, the dress details, the underwear details, the seating charts. All that stuff is happening within Andre's hearing.
Dr. Ruth:So miss French Maid is about to have some trouble when they get back to New York, I think. Onto George Russell, railroad daddy as he's also known as. I came across TikTok calling him that, and now every time I think of him, I'm like, yeah. Railroad daddy. So George Russell, who we're not sure if he's single, I'm not embracing that.
Dr. Ruth:I refuse. George Russell arrives having been summoned urgently to JPMorgan's house. JPMorgan, if you recall last episode or two episodes ago actually, backed out completely from his business dealings with George and let him know that he was stretched too thin, that the market was too volatile, and this railroad project was going to be the end of him. If you will also recall from last episode, George Russell was trying to consolidate control of the Chicago rail lines by convincing the Merrick family to sell him their shares so that he can have a controlling percentage of shares of that rail line so that he can continue his transcontinental railroad development across The United States. He's also still working on land deals in Morenci, Arizona.
Dr. Ruth:And he, if you recall last episode, dispatched Larry to handle those details for him. So we'll get to that in a minute. Bigwigs arrive at JPMorgan's house. They've all been summoned here because he is basically like, I'm gonna act as an intermediary here. So he summons the the Merrick brother who actually is the controlling partner in the family.
Dr. Ruth:He's the one who really represents the family and will be the one who have a say on who any shares are sold to, if at all. Unlike the brother who appeared last episode, he was just known to the Russells, but wasn't a decision maker in his family. He arrives in the company of a mister Sage. Mister Sage was mentioned briefly in the last episode as someone who is kind of a vulture capitalist. He will acquire a company and kinda sell it off for spare parts.
Dr. Ruth:He's not someone who's gonna carry on the legacy of a company or of a business venture that a family might sell to him. And that was George Russell's main selling point to the Merrick family that this is your legacy. You don't want it sold off bit by bit to the highest bidder, and that's what mister Sage is going to do with your company. Trust me with it. But they don't have that established trust with George Russell yet.
Dr. Ruth:Everybody's at JPMorgan's house. JPMorgan lays it out clear like, yo, no horses are parking here. There are no main roads. Y'all are not leaving here until somebody owns 51% of the Illinois Central Line, which is that railroad situation we discussed. Someone has to have a majority stake in the railroad line in order to determine what's going to happen with the transcontinental railroad.
Dr. Ruth:At this point, JPMorgan is exercising his big dog influence in the financial world to let them know that this deal needs to happen, period. We need to move forward with this so we can all get look. Let's get past this little nonsense so we could all go ahead and get rich is his point. And I agree with him. And I appreciate this action because I thought that he had completely abandoned George to his project, and he would just show up later when it was profitable.
Dr. Ruth:When they get down to business, it's clear that mister Morgan does still side with George Russell and he believes that the Marricks would do better to sell their shares and controlling shares to George Russell. Because he knows mister Sage's reputation, their family's business would not be safe in his hands, but would rather be skeletonized and sold off to the highest bidder. At long last, mister Merrick agrees with mister Morgan and decides that he's going to sell. They're not in New York City. So that leaves a space of time for the other character who showed up to this meeting that I did not mention, which is Clay.
Dr. Ruth:If you recall, Gage, George's former business manager who he fired because Clay did not agree with George Russell's direction that he was taking. He was saying he was over leveraged and that he was never gonna make his railroad dream come true and he needed to abandon ship while they still had a company to speak of, while they still had a fortune to work with. And if you recall, George Russell felt like Clay was spending a lot of his money getting a lot of nothing done, so that's why he got rid of him. Clay has now aligned himself with mister Sage. So you know where this is going.
Dr. Ruth:In the carriage ride, this was something that appeared in the preview last episode. Clay is smoking a cigar, he's got all the confidence in the world of somebody who has a plan. And he lets mister Sage know that George's jugular is exposed. He's going to lose his shirt. He tells mister Sage that as far as George Russell's concerned, he knows where all the bodies are buried.
Dr. Ruth:And I I mean, you know, my sister and I gave a collective, uh-oh. Before the episode is over, they plant those seeds. And you think this is something that's gonna come up later? No. Before the episode is even over, we learn that mister Sage has already poisoned the well.
Dr. Ruth:He is going to the media and calling George Russell broke, which is causing a bit of panic in markets. I know people like to intellectualize the stock market a lot, and there is that aspect of what's a smart buy, when's a smart time to sell, etcetera. But a lot of it is sensitive consumer sentiment and all that goes into it. So if there are rumors about a company going around, that is going to affect that company's stock price. That is gonna affect that company's shareholders and possibly cause just a massive sell of the shares where everyone wants to offload them while they're still worth something, which will precipitate the failure of a business.
Dr. Ruth:It's like a self fulfilling prophecy. The minute that shareholders hear any kind of trouble, they might trigger a massive sell off of their shares, which will, in effect, create the problem that the rumor started. George is standing in his office when he learns about the papers and the leaks and that Russell industry is about to bomb it. And then he learns that Merrick has actually pulled out of the deal. Understandable.
Dr. Ruth:So George is talking to his business manager about stabilizing Russell Industries by infusing some kind of cash. He's like, I'm gonna get some money. I'm gonna get some money. He's like, uh-oh, please don't do no villainous stuff to get this money, George. But later, we find out that he actually was trying to get loans from different banks.
Dr. Ruth:So he spent the day on the phone with banks, I guess, trying to get a loan, trying to get some infusion or some kind of investment, and he is rather defeated pretty quickly because no one is willing to give him any money. But his stance is he's not selling to Sage ever. If he can't get the money to bail his company out and bridge them to the point where they can get this railroad thing done, he'd rather watch the whole thing burn. That's a tough decision to make as business owner, but it is hard to watch something that you've built with your blood, sweat, and tears be sold off to a conniving, lying person who is plotting your demise. That's what's going on with mama and papa Russ, Oscar and Mary Anne.
Dr. Ruth:We catch up with them at the Van Rhine Estate and they are having a discussion, a hushed discussion in the hallway. For some reason, because Mary Anne saw Larry run over to say goodbye to Oscar and she doesn't know what the substance of that conversation was, she goes and follows up with Oscar and is like, hey. Hey. What were you guys talking about before Larry left? A little nosy.
Dr. Ruth:I don't know. I just I felt it was a little bit, like, awkwardly nosy, but Oscar tells her that Larry was telling her he saw him on beat and Marion's pressing like, oh, waiter. Trouble. Oscar is actually, like, getting ready to head over to the Haymarket so he can confront Maude Beaton as that was something he planned to do last episode. And she's like, where where did where did Larry run into Maude Beaton?
Dr. Ruth:You can tell she suspects something. All these questions are not coming out of nowhere. Oscar manages to get out of this interaction without telling her that Larry saw Maude Beaton at the Haymarket, which I actually commend him for because y'all know I don't really fool Oscar like that. He's a little slimy and untrustworthy for me, and it's gonna take a lot for him to win my trust back. But he at least has Larry's back on not completely diming him out.
Dr. Ruth:And he even tries to convince Marion that it's not important. But, anyway, he actually heads over to the Haymarket. He gets there, and he spots Dolly Trent, Maude Beaton. She tries to avoid him. But instead, what he does is engages the pimp to say, I'm gonna buy some of her time.
Dr. Ruth:They get in a room together. First, he appears to be a little bit threatening. Like, Maude is like, oh oh, you know, is that a weapon that he's brandishing? What's going on? As he's approaching her, he's asking her what happened to the money.
Dr. Ruth:She claims that she was working for a man named Crowther who was a part of that circle. He was the person that Oscar actually handed the check over to as a part of the scam. She says that Crowther has been using her to get money from greedy men who have access to capital. So, basically, she spotted Oscar a mile away as a man who, yes, he has access to capital, but he's also greedy, but he doesn't have the balls to steal money himself. That's Crowther's avatar, so to speak.
Dr. Ruth:That is Crowther's ideal client, ideal victim, is exactly someone like Oscar Van Rhine. Let that sink in a little bit, Oscar. And I think in that moment, it actually does sink in for him. Those words actually sink in. And he's like, okay.
Dr. Ruth:I see why I was the perfect mark. Yes. She's wrong to do what she did. But, yes, I was being greedy and could not just live well enough alone and enjoy the massive wealth that I had for my family and I, and I tried to get rich quick. And he paid for it.
Dr. Ruth:So you could see something click for Oscar in that moment. As his demeanor softens, she softens. And she confides in him that like, you don't need to worry about me, man. She said my father sold me when I was 12 in a card game. So you don't have to worry about me.
Dr. Ruth:I've been on my own ever since. That comment softens Oscar even further because he's like, woah. Like, what a life this young woman has had to live for now, constantly being taken advantage of by men. And remember that John Adams actually triggered his conscience last episode telling him, you don't exactly have a right to feel like you were completely scammed by mob because you were gonna scam her too. You are a closeted gay man who was going to marry her not for love, but because you thought she had money that you could grow and continue to grow your fortune with.
Dr. Ruth:That is the hard truth. And so you can't sit completely in the position of victim is what John told him. And you can see all of these thoughts coalescing in Oscar's mind and his facial expression in real time. And that's actually a credit to the actor that we can see that all playing on his face. He physically has empathy for her in that situation after she told him about her childhood.
Dr. Ruth:Maude also tells him about a sister she has who she hasn't seen in a very long time who lives in Sandusky. Later on, Oscar actually summons Maude to a train station where he meets up with her. He hands her an envelope that contains a train ticket one way to Sandusky key and $100. She is completely shocked because she knows she's done absolutely nothing to deserve this kindness from him, nothing to deserve any favors from him. She's kind of like, why?
Dr. Ruth:He's like, I'm setting you free. She had told him that she was indebted to the people running the Haymarket, so there was no way for her to get out. And that stuck with him. It landed with him. And he decided that he was going to set her free, tell her to go away to Sandusky, Ohio, never look back, and definitely not come back to New York.
Dr. Ruth:Because at the time, truly, she would just disappear to these people. It's not like they would be able to easily apprehend her in any way. Criminals looking for criminals who owe them money were kinda out of luck if the person skipped town. So that's a really sweet turn for a character I've not been too fond of. Maybe there is more in store for Oscar Van Rijn, and he will have a redeeming arc.
Dr. Ruth:I love to see a character actually develop, grow, change right before our eyes in a good way or in a bad way, but in a way that makes them interesting. Right? So we're gonna head back to the Van Rhine house where Lannister is bringing Ada and Agnes, their man. They are pressing him. Well, really Agnes is pressing him to learn how much money Jack got in this deal because it came up again in earlier conversation, and it's making her uncomfortable that she doesn't know this information.
Dr. Ruth:Jack actually runs into Marion at that point. Marion is pressing him to learn more about the night he went out with Larry. She didn't get the information she was looking for from Oscar, if you recall. So now she's pressing Jack for the information, which I thought was a little unfair because at the end of the day, Jack is an employee, and you're putting him in a tough spot to make him rat out your fiance. Why don't you just talk to your fiance if you have a question?
Dr. Ruth:Is what I would say to Marion if I were her friend. Like, stop skulking around trying to find out information and talk to him directly. You'd be surprised that he might actually tell you the truth. Remember that he didn't initially tell her the truth. He did tell her that he was headed out with a friend for a bachelor party, but he told her they were going to Damonecos.
Dr. Ruth:Is it atypical for men to do that kind of thing? It isn't in this day and age, but I suppose in the late eighteen hundred, this was still very sublatious behavior for high society and for high minded folks. It's very hypocritical dual existence these people had. Because on the one hand, it was very common for men like Larry to do these kinds of things. No one cared.
Dr. Ruth:No one batted an eyelash, and everyone in that establishment expected men of means to be there. But for Marion, you know, she's expected to be this clean, chaste, pure as the driven snow bride. So I guess there is some expectation from her that Larry will comport himself in a similar manner prior to them getting married, but it's a little naive of her. She did think he was at Delmonico's. Learning that he wasn't at Delmonico's from Jack is shocking to her, and it stokes her interest even more in this topic.
Dr. Ruth:She doesn't give it up. But Jack, being smart is not gonna be the one to break the news to her. She he's like, I I gotta get back to work. Bye. I gotta serve this food.
Dr. Ruth:And he runs away without telling her exactly where they went. She's on the warpath now. They're at dinner. She's with Oscar, and she presses him again. And that's when Oscar just breaks down, and he has to admit that spotting of Maude Beaton happened at the hay market.
Dr. Ruth:He can't hold it back from Marion any longer. Marion has a near complete meltdown about this when she finally gets confirmation that that's where Larry went. It is, again, hyperbolic in my opinion, but I'm living in a twenty first century world. Everyone knew these places existed. I guess it was just a known unknown, something people just didn't talk about.
Dr. Ruth:So for her, this is shocking news, and she is ready to end her engagement with Larry over this, which I found to be over the top. I mean, her reaction was one thing, but being willing to end the engagement is another. Mind you, the stakes for Marion are extremely high. Her engagement has already hit the press. People are already talking about them as a couple.
Dr. Ruth:So for her to end the engagement to him now is like, girl, you knew you did not have room to have a third failed relationship. In my opinion, it was too much. In my opinion, I did not support Marion's decision here, especially for her to do so without talking to Larry first, without at least getting his side of the story, not at least getting some more perspective. So I'm a little annoyed with our girl, Marian, at this point because I think she's ignoring the advice of people who care about her overreacting, and she goes immediately to tell her aunts. And, of course, Agnes, who did not want the Russells to be a part of her prestigious old money family, Immediately jumps on the bandwagon too and is like, oh, there's nothing else to do except break up with him.
Dr. Ruth:Great. So later we see Marion march her little self across the street, hand a letter to Church breaking up with Larry. Because as you remember, Larry is in Morenci. Why not wait till he comes back to town to talk to him? Even Church is telling her, are you sure this is news you don't want to deliver to mister Russell himself when he returns?
Dr. Ruth:And she's like, no. It's all explained in the letter. Church is no dummy. He knows what's going on here. So she walks right back across the street, and that's the end of it for her.
Dr. Ruth:Meanwhile, back at the Van Rhine house, Armstrong is talking to Agnes, helping her get ready, giving her breakfast in the morning, and completely dimes out Jack on the amount of money he's made. She talks about how his presence there somehow insults the dignity of the remaining working people in the household who actually still have to work for a living. On the one hand, I guess I could understand, like, how it might be kind of tough knowing that this guy is an exceptionally wealthy person working as a footman. It almost feels like he's play acting for now. But on the other hand, it feels a little bit cruel that missus Armstrong doesn't understand that becoming this wealthy overnight is something he has to adjust to psychologically.
Dr. Ruth:I'm sure she knows that this is the first home he's ever really known, and this is the most stability he's ever enjoyed in his life. So it feels very jealous, hate raid, typical missus Armstrong that she is pushing so hard to get him put out of the house. But unfortunately, Agnes agrees with her, and she summons Ada urgently to the room to tell her that he made $300,000 in the clock deal, and Ada is, like, blown away. This is, again, the equivalent of about $10,000,000 in today's money. Agnes presses Ada to fire him, to show him the door because it's a mockery apparently to have him there.
Dr. Ruth:Ada doesn't completely agree. You can tell that she's torn because she really doesn't like Jack. She turns to Madame Dash Daschhova to get advice from Luke. She arrives and ready to get down to this seancing of speaking to Luke through this meeting. In the course of her session, madam Daschhova decidedly reveals herself to be a disdainly charlatan because she says something in Italian.
Dr. Ruth:She says in Italian as if she's speaking for Luke. Ada clocks this immediately like the rest of us, and she's like, he said that? She goes, yeah, he said it. And Madame Daskeva's certainty is puzzling to me in this moment. So I'm like, wait, what?
Dr. Ruth:I don't remember Luke being any kind of specific ethnicity. Ada is immediately as confused as we are. Madame Daskeva is like, well, you know, Luca Forte, of course. He has his Italian roots. He would say things like, exactamento.
Dr. Ruth:And then Ada's face is filled with understanding. I love the acting on this show. It dawns on her. She's like, oh, there it is. You're a liar.
Dr. Ruth:Because there was a misprint in the papers at some point with Luke's death announcement. It was presented as Luca Fortin, which she had retracted later on and corrected. But if you're someone who's just learning about Ada by doing research and reading papers, they are society people and people who know, then you will be saying the erroneous name. Right? You'll be saying Luca Forte, a misprint rather than knowing if you're talking to Luke Forte that he has nothing to do with Italian heritage.
Dr. Ruth:So Ada finally her eyes are open and she realizes that she's been scamming her because that's how she found out all this information, all these intimate details about her is reading the papers. She even tells her, and then I provided you the rest because she was very forthcoming with details that further cemented Madame Dasco visibility to pretend like she's getting all this information directly from Luke fourteen. So she tells her off in a very classy way, storms out of there, heads back to her house, and back at the Van Rine house, Agnes receives her. She's clearly distraught. She doesn't tell Agnes why, just that she's lonely, she misses Luke, and she begins to sob in in Agnes' arms.
Dr. Ruth:And being big sister, Agnes comforts her. She doesn't know why she looks up, but she does comfort her in that moment. The next day the next day, the three main members of the Van Rhine household, Oscar, Anna, and Agnes discussed whether or not they should continue to keep Jack on as an employee there. Agnes is being a jerk, and I don't necessarily agree with her standpoint. But in this moment, she delivers one of the funnier lines of the episode when she calls when she calls Jack a Rockefeller in livery, which was hilarious.
Dr. Ruth:Livery is the the uniform that people service people wear when they are working in these formal households, that service tuxedo that Jack is always wearing his foot in. And basically, she's saying that he's disguising himself in service wear and he's in Roc Rockefeller, which is crazy if you think about the perspective. She's saying he has as much money as the Rockefellers in this time, which is just I don't know how true that is, but what a comparison. Right? So they make the decision.
Dr. Ruth:Ada meets with Jack and gently tells him lovingly that it's time for him to move on. Did like her delivery in this moment. I felt like she was firm and very clear that her decision was final. And also, she was empathetic to Jack's reluctance to move on and his reasons for kind of hesitating. But it also felt like Ada was not doing this to be cool.
Dr. Ruth:It genuinely felt like Ada's purpose in firing him was setting him free and forcing him to enter this new chapter of his life and helping him realize that now he's one of them. He's one of their peers. He is not somebody who a live continue to live in her household as a servant. It is it is a dose of necessary medicine for Jack, I think. He does need to move forward.
Dr. Ruth:He does need to accept that he is now a wealthy man. But I know it's hard for him. And I I felt so bad for him. And watching him bid farewell to the staff and cry in missus Bauer's arms, you know that it's hard for him. And you know that he is pretty rudderless as to where do I start?
Dr. Ruth:Where do I even do? Where do I even go? Everyone wishes him well, bids him a warm farewell, and even missus Armstrong's cold hate himself does wish him all the best, which was surprising. So I'll give her her credit for that. He also hands Bridget an envelope for every staff member and the members of the Van Rhine household who contributed to remember, he had asked them to donate to him to be able to afford his.
Dr. Ruth:He is giving envelopes that contain a return on the investment they've made. He asks her to distribute the envelope after he's left, and he sadly leaves. He's probably going to stay at a hotel somewhere nearby, and they give him some recommendations. Well, when they go to open their envelopes, everyone is stunned at his generosity. Fuck you.
Dr. Ruth:Missus Bauer lets us know that this is 20 times the investment that she made, which is beyond generous for any investment that anyone made. All the staff members who contributed and missus Armstrong's sour self also has an envelope. So that just goes to show you at heart what a good person Jack is that he didn't leave her out. And you can see that her face is a little bit guilt stricken over the fact that she got him kicked out and he was still so kind to her. So I don't know what's going on with miss Armstrong as a character, but I feel like she has made zero evolution from when we first met her.
Dr. Ruth:Being racist, a hater, staunch member at the bottom of a food chain protecting the old guard for what reason? Other than she doesn't see herself rising to the top of society like Jack, so she wants to prevent anyone like her from doing so. Or if that person has managed to do so, she doesn't wanna see it. I don't know what's up with missus Armstrong, but she's literally my least favorite character on the show and I hate all the screen time she gets. But I guess that makes her a very effective character and very effective actor if she's able to elicit those emotions.
Dr. Ruth:Moving on to our favorite, my girl Peggy. Peggy returns from Philly, and she fills Marion in on everything. She lets her know about what happened at the train station prior to her departure between doctor Kirkland and mister Fortune from the globe, and she also fills her in about her time with the suffragist whose story she's covered. Marion is shocked to learn all of this, but pretty much agrees with her that it was a great opportunity. And she's also thrilled to learn that suffragist is coming to Brooklyn to give a talk to the ladies there.
Dr. Ruth:And that she likes to do small engagements where she can really, engage with women and let them know about her cause, about her suffragist movement in an environment that is more conducive to open and very in-depth discussion. Marion filled her in on everything she's missed, including the fact that she's ending her engagement to Larry because he went to a house of ill repute. Like everyone else in the universe, Peggy's urging Marion to exercise some caution and not move so quickly and not be so rash. But Marion is still visibly shaken by the news and sticks to her guns that this relationship is over. Back in her house in Brooklyn, Peggy receives a visit from doctor Kirk.
Dr. Ruth:She lets him know that Francis Watkins is actually coming to town to hold a tea just like she told Marion. And all of a sudden, he insisted on her inviting his mother to this tea. And in my head, like, why, sir? You know your mother doesn't like her? But I guess he wants them to have more opportunities to get to know each other.
Dr. Ruth:I'm sure his intentions are good. So she says that she's going to invite his wretched mother to this team. And then she goes on to explain to him her detail with Mr. Fortune. She doesn't go into a lot of detail.
Dr. Ruth:And one of my social media friends reminded that it wasn't just a kiss that happened between Peggy and Mr. Fortune. There was that incident after they escaped those people who were trying to lynch them at that restaurant where I think the tensions were so high and they were hiding in a barn and a little more than a kiss happened between them. She just went with it because emotions were so high and it's no excuse. But later she comes to her senses that he's a married man and she cannot carry on with him.
Dr. Ruth:So what? He accepts her explanation almost unconditionally, And she insists that she doesn't plan to work with mister Fortune anymore or do any more pieces for the globe because she doesn't wanna put them in a compromising position. And he still reassures her like, I'll fight if I must. I'm down for a fight if I must. And it was a little more spice than I was expecting from the good doctor Kirkland.
Dr. Ruth:So I enjoyed him standing up for her in that way once again. But he does a little dark foreshadowing in this moment because he tells her he doesn't care about the past. The past is past, but we remember. Remember that Peggy does have more past than she's told him here. So the issue is that, of course, we know there is more past on Peggy's end to be discovered by Doctor Kirkland.
Dr. Ruth:Remember in season one, we learned that Peggy had been married before. We learned that she was married to a man named Elias that her father did not approve of and her father had the marriage annulled, but there was also a baby. A baby that was born and she was told was a stillbirth. Her father then sent the baby off to be adopted into a loving family. However, where he was living, there was an outbreak of scarlet fever and the baby died.
Dr. Ruth:And Peggy learned about his existence only after his death, which was really damaging to her and damaging to her relationship with her father. They get over this in season two. They work it out. Right? But this is still a skeleton in Pendy's closet that we know if Elizabeth Kirkland got her hands on this juicy bit of tea, she would exploit to try and get Peggy out of her son's life.
Dr. Ruth:We move on to Frances Watkins. She's now at the tea. She's holding court with the ladies and having a discussion about women's rights. Missus Watkins actually gets into it with missus Kirkland who can't seem to be in a room without sharing her very unwelcome and stupid opinions. She tells missus Watkins that she believes a woman's place is basically homesteading, taking her in the home, taking care of her husband.
Dr. Ruth:Well, missus Watkins, is a widow, lets her know, well, what about those of us who aren't married? Those of us whose husbands died, should we not have a voice? Should spinsters not have a voice? Should women's voice only be dependent on whether they are attached to a man as their custodian? And missus Kirkland is kind of shut up by that, and she's rude, and she doesn't agree with it.
Dr. Ruth:But she kinda lets it go at that point. The meeting comes to a conclusion, and Peggy and William Kirkland, doctor Kirkland, they have a bit of a tense discussion in the hallway about Peggy being like, why did you send your mother here? You know she doesn't like me. You know she does not care for women's rights. It's clear that she feels like she was a little bit blindsided because doctor Kirkland did not warn his mother that he she was coming to a women's rights team.
Dr. Ruth:His point is that if she knew that, she wouldn't have come and he's more interested in them spending time together, I guess, than he is in avoiding conflict. I don't necessarily agree with that. If the woman is known to be anti women's rights, why would you send her to a tee where your would be girlfriend is going to be knee deep discussing women's rights? On their way home, Elizabeth and William Kirkland are in a carriage together, and she tries to drop nuggets and let him know that she does not approve of Peggy as a choice. She lets him know that a woman who is ambitious, a woman who is career oriented, a writer and author, a suffragist is a woman that he should admire from afar.
Dr. Ruth:He should respect from afar, but he should not make that woman as white. And I'm not sure if that quite lands with him, but he doesn't refute it as strongly as I might hope. And a simultaneous discussion is happening between Peggy, her mother, and Dorothy is letting Peggy understand that it's not William that's the problem here. I see. That having a mother-in-law like Dorothy will prove problematic for Peggy if William is not strong enough to stand up to his mother.
Dr. Ruth:And after that carriage scene, I don't know that that's the truth. I never took him to be an extremely strong personality except when he had his confrontation with Mincere Fortune, I thought, okay, maybe there is a side of him that can be activated. Time and time again, when he is in situations with his mother, he doesn't put her in her place. So, like, for example, we see Hector doing with Lady Sarah. And it's interesting that across the pond, have this parallel happening in this upper crust black community.
Dr. Ruth:Humans are humans no matter how much money. Right? Because across the pond, you have this overbearing mother figure who is making Gladys' life a living hell. And here in New York amongst these upper crust black community, you have a similar situation happening with a man who is still somewhat attached to his mother's skirts taking her opinion. And she's just doing too much and directing his life in such a way that it is turning Peggy off and rightfully so.
Dr. Ruth:Onto Larry. He arrives in Morenci. You can always tell that we're in Morenci because they give us, like, wagon wheels and, like, almost like tumbleweeds and dustiness that we know is not New York City. So Larry arrives in Morenci at night, and he meets up with a gentleman who tells him, like, let's get down to business. I know you're here to try to close a deal for your dad, but I need you to hear something.
Dr. Ruth:So he summons him into a room. He has something to show him. This man who is representing the miners in a business deal tells him that the mines are actually not worthless. He shows him some new, I guess, geological studies in which they've learned that they were looking for the copper in all the wrong places. And they have actually found a copper rich deposit that he believes will yield a profitable amount of copper for about a hundred years.
Dr. Ruth:And not only that, if they found it in that location, then it's in probably many other locations around them. So that area of worthless compromise just suddenly got a lot less worthless. So he tells Larry straight up, close this deal and close it quickly because he's the only one privy to this information. But if this gets out and all the other miners he's representing get wind of it, then they're gonna be far, far less likely to sell this land to George Russell, and his railroad dreams are kaput without the land in Morenci. So he tells him, make a generous offer and make it quickly.
Dr. Ruth:Larry looks really pleased to learn this information, so we know that he's going to be advising his father to close this deal and do so quickly. Or perhaps, since we know that they have been paid out the $600,000 they wanted to clock the deal, is it possible that Larry's going to deal in and get these minds for himself? I like where that might lead as far as future goes for Larry and business. On to the final scene of the episode. Earlier, talked about how Oscar has had this change of heart with Maude Beaton, Dolly Trent slash I'm not sure what her real name is.
Dr. Ruth:Puts her on a train to Sandusky, one way ticket tells her to start her life over. He recounts all of this to John Adams. They meet up for lunch and John Adams, you see, he's like he's like proud of Oscar and his evolution, almost like a father son. I mean, they were lovers, but, you know, John is happy in his position. I am.
Dr. Ruth:And you can tell that he's happy to see Oscar evolving in this way. I apologize. The neighbors are having a ton of fun in their and I can't hate on that. We're on vacation, and we're almost to a close. Please bear with me.
Dr. Ruth:You can see that John is actually proud of his little baby duckling, Oscar, and proud of the decision he made to actually do something nice for Maude, set her free. $100 is not a life changing amount of money for Oscar even in this position, and so it was a very nice thing that he did. Because you can tell he sees this positive evolution in Oscar, John actually rewards this good behavior by telling him about a very profitable client he's going to connect to. And he says, get prepared. I'm going to be funneling more clients your way.
Dr. Ruth:I'm going be making sure that this Oscar two point o is here to stay, and you don't have to worry about money moving forward. That's really heartwarming because we know what the history is between those two. It breaks our hearts that they just can't be together. It breaks our hearts that they have to both in this time frame in order to live happily and some level of happiness, live a life that is based in a lie. But John is making the most of his situation, and you can see that he's gonna turn around and help his former lover in this way.
Dr. Ruth:And he's happy to do so because he can see that Oscar has become a better man. And he's not afraid to invest in the man that Oscar is becoming. They head out. They have a warm goodbye and still appropriate for public, but a warm goodbye. And John thanks him emphatically and tells him, you're my savior.
Dr. Ruth:Because the truth is Oscar would still be broke, skulking around his mother's house that Ada saved with no future and no one to trust him and no way to build a business back in his investment business if it were not for John's initial investment and him bringing further clients his way. So he tells John with all the sincerity in his face, he's like, you are my savior. He thanks him. They part ways. John goes to hail a cab, I presume.
Dr. Ruth:What other reason would he have to do this? John goes to hail a cab, steps out, steps off the curb onto the busy New York Street and is immediately run over by a carriage. I I don't know if it's a runaway carriage. I don't know what the situation is, if this carriage comes out of nowhere. But it's clear that he is thrown back onto the ground and John does not look alive y'all.
Dr. Ruth:Mm-mm. It's clear that he died in this incident and my heart is like pounding. I am shredded in this moment because there we saw it. Oscar was pinning his future, his hopes on his relationship with John. He was looking into the future.
Dr. Ruth:It was looking bright. Even if he can't have John as his lover, as his life partner, he could still have John's friendship and enjoy his support in a way that always his life, that keeps him afloat. And they can still have this very warm friendship where they meet up and keep in touch with each other. And maybe that would have been enough for Oscar to be happy, you know. Maybe he's got his shot at happiness.
Dr. Ruth:And just like that, it's taken away from him. Completely gutted. I couldn't believe it. I was so upset. So then they immediately roll credits while all of us are still picking our jobs up off the floor and they go into the preview for what's going to happen next week.
Dr. Ruth:First things first, they confirm what we thought. John is very much not alive, and we start the preview with Oscar mourning John. In her typical brash and unfeeling fashion, Ada, who of course doesn't know the true nature of the relationship between John and Oscar, just brushes off Oscar's extreme sadness as, oh, he's fine. Men don't mourn the way they don't grieve the way that women do. Like, they don't have feelings or something, which is so problematic.
Dr. Ruth:But anyway, this is what she says about her son that he's going to be fine and no one needs worry about him when Marion expresses some concern about how sad and depressed Oscar is. Of course, Larry is back from Morenci and he is opening his letter from Marion. The ring that he gave her, the engagement ring he gave her is in that letter. And he's instantly suspicious of his mother, which I can't blame him for. But I did feel bad for Bertha who's trying to do right by her children it seems.
Dr. Ruth:And she did not actually do this. She did not actually interfere. We saw the architecture of how this happened, how Marion arrived at this conclusion that she was gonna break up with Larry. So I hope that this can be cleared up because if Larry is led to believe that his mother is the sole reason why he's no longer with Marion, that's going to cause an irreparable fracture in their relationship. And I don't wanna see that for her.
Dr. Ruth:She's already struggling with everything going on with George. And George believes it too. This is gonna spell nothing but trouble. Nothing but trouble for Bertha. She has enough trouble.
Dr. Ruth:We don't know what's gonna happen with her and George. We have no clue. They didn't show them together at all this episode. I don't even know if we're gonna see them together next episode because the focus of the preview doesn't show any of that. It shows all the women in town are worked up into a lather over a book.
Dr. Ruth:A book that is released by mister McAllister who is played by Nathan Lane. If you don't remember who he is, he's the guy who is friends with all the ladies. He remains neutral in all of their conflicts. He was neutral in the opera battle, and he was neutral with this wedding stuff. He's always there, hearing everybody's gossip.
Dr. Ruth:So, you know, he like, he's almost like the staff in that way. He knows where the body's buried. He's overheard all the crap talking that I'm sure they all do about each other. Right? So he writes some kind of seemingly a tell all book and it seems like it contains a lot of salacious details about all of the society of women.
Dr. Ruth:So they are all united against this book and it seems like they're going to put a front together to put a stop to this book coming out and exposing all of their secrets. It looks like Bertha Russell will be the one leading the charge in this. So it's exciting and I can't wait to see how it all turns out. My kids just got back from the community pool. So this is perfect timing for me to end this episode and let you know that I appreciate you listening and that we will be back next week covering season three episode seven of the Gilded Age.
Dr. Ruth:Thank you so much for listening to the Pretty Passionate podcast. Please be sure to like and subscribe to the YouTube channel. Also, follow the podcast on whatever podcast streaming platform you use, and share our podcast with any friends or family who you know might enjoy our discussions here. I always have fun chatting with you guys. Please be sure to drop any comments in the comment section below.
Dr. Ruth:I'm a go enjoy my vacation. Okay. Love y'all. Bye.
