Spoilers for The Gilded Age season 3 ending ahead!
Buckle up Gilded Age fans, we’re unpacking the season three finale, including all the breakups, makeups, and surprising pairings. But first, to answer of the most important question: Does Mr. Russell survive his gunshot wound? Yes! And although the shooter is still on the loose, the family suspects George’s former associate, Richard Clay is responsible.
And the second most important question: Does Bertha and George’s relationship survive? That’s another story entirely…
Keep reading for a full recap of The Gilded Age season 3 ending, and how each of our favorite characters and couples fared.
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George and Bertha Russell
The It Couple of the nineteenth century, Mr. and Mrs. George Russell (Morgan Spector and Carrie Coon), appear perfectly suited during seasons one and two. But tensions began surfacing early on in season three, as Bertha pushed her daughter Gladys into a loveless marriage with the Duke of Buckingham—seemingly all for the clout. Mr. Russell reluctantly went along with his wife’s scheme in the beginning, though once Gladys sends word from England that she’s miserable, he unleashes his true fury on Bertha, calling her selfish and callous.
Part of this uncharacteristic rage is owed to the stress he’s under due the precarious state of his railroad endeavors, as well as his incorrect belief that Bertha must’ve had something to do with Larry’s broken off engagement.
Amidst all of this tension, George is shot in the penultimate episode of season three. The finale opens with George being rushed home in a horse-drawn carriage, where he’s greeted by a frantic Bertha. Thanks to Dr. Kirkland’s quick thinking, however, George survives. While he recovers, Bertha stays by his side, though the two don’t discuss the state of their relationship.
All seems well enough when George shows up for the the end-of-season ball. He even gives Larry some promising advice about his relationship with Marian Brook. “There will always be disagreements,” he says, “but you must weigh those against the value of what brings you together.” That same night, he tells Bertha that the near brush with death has altered his perspective.
But then! In the final moments of the finale, George tells Bertha that he’s leaving Newport for New York, and he doesn’t plan to return to their shared home on 61st street. His appearance at the ball, he adds, was only to “protect the business.”
The shooting “has made me examine my life, and I don’t like everything I see,” he says, leaving Bertha (and the audience) with her jaw on the floor. At this time, George’s killer is still on the loose.
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Should things take a turn for the worse in season four, Bertha has unknowingly woven a safety net for herself in society. As the new hostess of the end-of-season ball, she ended the ban on divorced women. Though she did so to protect allies and friends like Mrs. Aurora Fane and Mrs. Charlotte Astor Drayton, the move may well have saved her, too.
Larry Russell and Marian Brooks
Larry Russell (Harry Richardson), eldest son of George and Bertha, had one of the more infuriating arcs of the third season, at least from a viewer’s perspectives. He and Marian Brooks (Louisa Jacobson) seemed to be on cloud nine after he proposed to her in Central Park, but a convoluted game of telephone (can we call it telephone if the actual telephone was a brand new invention at the time?) threatened to muck up the happy couple’s future.
Through her cousin Oscar, Marian got word that Larry had visited a “house of ill repute” on the night of their engagement. Though the audience knew that nothing untoward happened, Marian called off the engagement while Larry was away in Arizona on business. Despite his pleading for her forgiveness, Marian seemed unwilling to give Larry another chance—that is, until Jack corroborated Larry’s story.
In the finale of season three, Marian assists Dr. Kirkland in saving George Russell’s life, which only solidifies her decision to reconcile. The life-or-death moment has altered her perspective on the whole affair, and she apologizes, saying she was wrong to break off the engagement.
But now Larry is preoccupied with his father’s condition, and also peeved that Marian believed Jack, but not him, when he told her he was a gentleman at the club. Finally (finally!) things appear to be headed in the right direction at the end-of-season ball, after the two have a quiet chat on the terrace. “We won’t solve all our problems in one night,” Larry says, and then the two walk into the ballroom arm-in-arm.
Peggy Scott and Dr. William Kirkland
These two were a perfect match from the start, when Dr. Kirkland cared for Peggy during a nasty bout with the flu. But Peggy’s past—from the loss of her son to her former flame, the married Globe editor Thomas Fortune—and William’s mother, whose colorism marred her impression of Peggy, jeopardized their chances of a happily ever after. No offense to Larry and Marian, but these are real problems.
Things appear to fall apart after William’s nosy mother Elizabeth tells him of Peggy’s past, which she learns of through a friend who lives in Philadelphia. Thankfully, William stands up to his mother (with a bit of support from his father), and makes his decision to marry Peggy. At his family’s ball in Newport, William wastes no time, first asking Mr. Scott for his daughter’s hand, and then proposing to Peggy in the middle of the dance floor. Truly a Cinderella moment.
The actor opens up to Glamour about why filming the season-three finale was so meaningful, and what she hopes to see happen in season four.
Jack Trotter
The former footman for the Van Rhijn household has undergone the most dramatic transformation of any character in The Gilded Age universe. With the help of Larry Russell, he sells the patent for his clock for the handsome sum of $600,000, which he splits with Larry. Though he’s apprehensive to leave his job and the only real home he’s ever known, when Agnes and Ada discover their footman is worth more than they are, they delicately push him out of the nest. He buys his own house, with his own staff, but doesn’t forget where he’s come from. In episode eight, he returns to the Forte/Van Rhijn manor to visit with his old coworkers, though it’s clear that Bridget hopes he has, ahem, other motivations for dropping in. Picking up on her unsubtle crush, Mrs. Bauer later sends Bridget to Jack’s house with a home cooked meal, and he invites her to stay as his guest. It’s all very innocent and sweet.
Gladys and The Duke of Buckingham, a.k.a Hector
Crying at the altar? Yikes. These two were touch-and-go from the start of their marriage, since it seemed clear to everyone—including the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb)—that Gladys (Taissa Farmiga) wanted nothing to do with her betrothed or the life she would be taking on as the Duchess of Buckingham.
It really didn’t seem like things were going to last once Gladys finally settled at Sidmouth, Hector’s estate. The duke lets Gladys be steamrolled by his condescending and controlling sister, Lady Sarah, who drives Gladys to tears again and again. That is, until Bertha shows up and tells her daughter to, in so many words, grow a pair and stand up for herself. It’s then that Hector proves himself to be a worthy husband, supporting Gladys as she asserts herself as the true lady of the house. Eventually, he suggests to his sister that she move out of Sidmouth permanently, to Gladys’s delight.
Then, in the last 30 seconds of the finale, Gladys tells her mother that she’s pregnant—and she seems thrilled! Could this be the beginning of her and Hector’s love story? And also the saving grace of George and Bertha’s?
Mrs. Agnes Van Rhijn and Mrs. Ada Forte
The Upper East Side’s favorite sisters, Agnes and Ada, had quieter storylines in season three than in seasons’ past. After Reverend Forte’s fortune is discovered, and Ada grabs hold of the house’s purse strings, Agnes becomes characteristically dour about her diminished rank. Ada, on the other hand, gets caught up in a medium’s scam, her grief getting the better of her until she realizes that Madame Dashkova has been trawling the obituaries for details about her beloved, not communing with the spirit realm.
By the finale, however, Ada has perked up a bit, embracing her new position in society (and at the head of the table) and its attendant responsibilities. Agnes, meanwhile, finally gives in to Mrs. Foster, the woman from the New York Historical Society who has been chasing her all over town, at Ada’s behest. It turns out Mrs. Foster wasn’t seeking a donation, but rather wishes to appoint Mrs. Van Rhijn as a vice president of the Historical Society. Agnes is thrilled.
Oscar Van Rhijn
Another tragedy befalls Oscar Van Rhijn, Agnes’s only child, in season three. In season two, he lost his mother’s fortune to a scheming fraudster named Maud Beaton, whom he had intended to marry. Right as he’s getting back on his feet in season three, his true love, John Adams, is run over and killed right in front of Oscar’s eyes.
Oscar reaches his breaking point after John’s death, as he’s unsure how to mourn his “friend” publicly without giving away the true nature of their relationship. Following the funeral, John’s sister meets with Oscar and tells him that John has bequeathed his manor upstate to him. This news, as well as his intense grief, compels Oscar to kind of, sort of, come out to his family. Marian, of course, is the only one who handles his confession with any grace.
In the finale, Oscar approaches Mrs. Winterton—a.k.a. Turner, Bertha’s former lady’s maid—following her husband’s death. It’s unclear at first what to make of this burgeoning alliance, but Oscar seems bent on forging it, going so far as to trade favors with Mrs. Russell in order to secure her an invite to the end-of-season ball. Finally, at the ball, Oscar makes his proposal: He suggests that they should marry, but live separate lives upstate in their respective homes. While in the city, they could attend society events as a couple. “With your money and my connections, we’d have the whole world at our feet,” he tells her.
The post The Gilded Age Season 3 Ending, Explained appeared first on Glamour.
