Welcome back to HBO‘s The Gilded Age, the show and actual era that relished excess and social stature, when ambitious men attempted to monopolize industry and ambitious women fought about dukes and opera boxes.
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women → welcome → dukes
I have missed this so much.
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I → miss → this
**Spoilers for The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 1 “Ring the Bells,” now streaming on HBO Max**
When season three left off, it seemed that for every new beginning (Peggy’s engagement to Dr. William Kirkland, Mrs. Winterton and Oscar van Rhijn’s engagement, footman Jack’s newfound wealth from his clock invention) there was also some kind of end (George and Bertha Russell’s marriage, Marian and Larry’s broken engagement, Ward McAllister’s role in society).
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it → ring → society
And when Season 4 picks up, it’s a few months later but the needle really hasn’t moved much on any of those fronts.
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needle → pick → fronts
Except now, some people have phones!
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people → have → phones
The juxtaposition of new and old, campy melodrama and dire urgency are the weave and weft of this show, and it’s how season four begins.
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season → ’ → show
The very first scene of the episode features Gladys Russell (Taissa Farmiga), now Gladys the Duchess of Buckingham, screaming in agony as she attempts to deliver her child in her English manor.
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she → feature → manor
A doctor has been called, and Gladys’s mother Bertha (Carrie Coon) seems concerned, so you know this situation is dangerous.
And yet, just to keep things light, these shots that contemplate maternal and infant mortality are interspersed with the breezy (and very rainy) nuptials of Oscar van Rhijn (Blake Ritson) and Enid Winterton (Kelley Curran).
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that → call → Rhijn
As Oscar takes his bride’s hand and smirks, “This is going to be such fun!” we cut away to a sweaty Gladys whose perineum is about to rip open as if it were a bag of Big League Chew entrusted to an 8-year-old.
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it → take → old
Bertha, along with Hector, the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb) and his terrible/incredible sister Sarah (Hattie Morahan) are briefed on the situation and asked, if it comes to it, whose life should be saved, Gladys’s or the baby’s.
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life → brief → it
Immediately, Sarah (who, you’ll recall from last season, helped orchestrate Gladys’s marriage to the Duke and its accompanying dowry so that her family’s manor and name would not fall into disrepair) (…and if you also recall is the meanest person I’ve ever wanted to be friends with), tells the doctor, “The child, surely.
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I → recall → child
If it’s a boy then he is your future.
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he → ’ → ?
We must save him at all costs.”
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We → save → costs
Hector, who has come to love Gladys, takes a more measured approach, telling the doctor to save them both, and if that’s not possible, to save Gladys.
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that → come → Gladys
Fortunately it doesn’t have to come to this.
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it → have → this
Gladys delivers Hector, Jr., Marquis of Sidmouth, but during delivery, she hemorrhages and the doctor removes her uterus without informing her, or anyone else.
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doctor → deliver → her
She will not be able to have more children, he explains to Hector and Bertha.
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he → have → Hector
“That is for you to tell her,” he says to them, and then he peaces right on out of there.
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he → tell → them
Meanwhile, back in New York, Gladys’s father, who is all of our Train Daddy, George Russell (Morgan Spector) looks terrible.
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who → look → Daddy
I feel bad saying it because sure, he is still recovering from an assassination attempt where he was nearly shot to death, but the toll his work is taking has aged him well beyond these past few months.
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work → feel → months
He’s currently at odds with John D. Rockefeller, whose Standard Oil company is George’s biggest client.
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company → ’ → Rockefeller
As Rockefeller tries to lowball George on oil transportation rates so he can get richer and monopolize the oil industry, that means George will have a harder time making all the money so he can monopolize the railroad industry.
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he → try → industry
George and J.D. Rockefeller do have one common adversary though; newly-elected President Grover Cleveland – who is famously into regulation and anti-monopolization, who will be visiting New York soon.
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who → have → York
Cleveland will actually be visiting the home of Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) and Ada Forte (Cynthia Nixon), now that Agnes is the vice president of the Heritage Society.
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Agnes → visit → Society
The honor of hosting the President might be Agnes’s, but the duty to pay for it all is Ada’s since she’s the rich one now.
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she → host → it
Ada is not thrilled to have to shell out so much dough to make their house cute for the President, especially when she learns from Peggy that Grover Cleveland was less of an emancipator and more a friend of the Confederacy.
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Cleveland → have → Confederacy
Agnes is furious that Ada is withdrawing her support, and at the perfectly wrong moment, that’s when her ladies maid Armstrong (Debra Monk) casually brings up the fact that Agnes’s new daughter-in-law, Enid, used to be Mrs. Russell’s maid.
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daughter → withdraw → law
Agnes is angry that she didn’t know this information and summons Enid to her house to ask about it.
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she → know → it
“Yes, I was her maid,” Enid admits when asked if she worked for Bertha.
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she → admit → Bertha
Agnes grills Enid, asking if Oscar is aware of these facts, to which Enid coolly responds, “We have both entered this marriage with open eyes.”
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We → grill → eyes
And then Enid does the one thing Agnes needs most in that moment; she offers to contribute money toward Agnes’s plans to host the President.
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she → do → President
She may just be the mother-in-law, but Agnes, too, is benefiting from this marriage of convenience.
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Agnes → benefit → convenience
Oscar and Enid aren’t the only couple whose marriage features a judgey in-law.
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marriage → feature → law
Peggy is about to become the wife of Dr. William Kirkland (Jordan Donica), and though his mother makes generous gestures to buy Peggy and her mother dresses, and gift her with a fine lace veil, it’s all just to keep up her own appearances since she looks down on the Scotts’ middle class-ness and roots as slaves.
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she → become → slaves
She also hates that Peggy is a published author, a huge honor for any women, but especially a Black woman, in this era, ignoring the joyful news that Peggy’s book in in print.
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book → hat → print
For the first time in this show’s history, Marian Brook has let her hair down (literally and figuratively).
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Brook → let → hair
After Oscar and Enid’s stodgy wedding reception on Fifth Avenue, they invite Marian downtown to an afterparty that Agnes would surely disapprove of.
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Agnes → invite → that
The emphasis on “downtown” cannot be understated.
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emphasis → understate → downtown
Marian is not a downtown type and in fact downtown — the Haymarket, to be precise — is the whole reason she and Larry Russell broke off their engagement.
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she → break → engagement
He was cavorting in a house of ill-repute downtown and Marian’s goody-two shoes couldn’t take it.
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shoes → cavort → it
…and 26 more, not listed.
The Aporia
