My, my, my. The times are a-changing!
We’ve reached a time where divorced women are finally getting the chance to attend high society functions without being tarred and feathered by their “happily” married peers. What’s next? Men of the time being held accountable for their actions?
I’m joking, of course. But The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 8 made a case for a societal leap forward, as everyone, even surly Mrs. Astor, saw that the future was upon them and the past is, well, the past.
As far as season finales go, this was perfect.
All the season-long stories that hadn’t been wrapped were touched upon, and they left just the littlest piece of meat on the bone to get us hooked in for the eventual fourth season.
Whenever that may air.
Plus, they had the most gripping first seven or so minutes of a television episode I’ve seen in a very long time.
After the ending of The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 7, George’s fate was what we were all waiting to see. And instead of opening up with George in the hospital recovering, or some time jump that would rob us of seeing the moments after he was shot.
Luckily, they decided instead to give us those harrowing minutes, complete with dramatic music, tears, and looks of disbelief and panic as George’s fate was truly hanging by a thread.
Having Dr. Kirkland be the one to save George was unexpected, but a nice bridge between the two worlds that make up the series. While Peggy is connected to that world through her association with Marion and Agnes, we seldom see any merging of the two worlds for obvious reasons.
And this wasn’t so much a merging but it was a connection, and make no mistake about it, Dr. Kirkland saved George’s life full stop. If he hadn’t been across the street that night, Bertha would have been left mourning her dead husband instead of her dead marriage.
Though I toyed with the idea of The Gilded Age killing George Russell, it never made much sense to me in the larger sense of the program. That George and Bertha dynamic, and their family as a whole, are so integral to everything that it would be weird to dump George at this point in the narrative.
The Russell’s embody the new money and new age that has always been at the center of everything, and it’s much more exciting to see Bertha get everything she wanted in the society sense while seeing her family implode right before her eyes, than to see her become a grieving widow.
It may seem like I don’t appreciate Bertha most of the time, but I get frustrated with her inability to think beyond herself. She masks everything with this belief that she’s doing it for the greater good of her family, and while I think she believes that, it doesn’t necessarily make it true.
Bertha loves her husband, and that’s not something to ever question. But her aspirations to be the new Mrs. Astor have created a divide, and positioning Gladys as a pawn in her game was George’s final straw.
It’s not like that was some big surprise, but I appreciated that George was finally direct and less passive-aggressive when speaking to his wife in the end.
Bertha didn’t force George to do anything, not really, but in the end, she put so many things into motion that he felt powerless to stop. And he’s now stuck in a place where he can’t forgive Bertha for what she did, and more importantly, he can’t forgive himself.
Even if things turn out wonderfully for Hector and Gladys in the long run, he’ll always know that he had a hand in making her do something she never wanted to do that went against what she wanted for her life.
Often, it’s easy to jump on team this or team that, but George and Bertha both had valid points. They’re two sides of the same manipulative coin, but George’s brush with death just gave him greater clarity on his missteps and what he was willing to accept when it came to his children.
I had a feeling we were heading toward a George and Bertha split, but to see it come to fruition was pretty devastating because the two of them do love each other a whole lot.
What’s that saying, though? Sometimes love isn’t enough.
You could also say that for Marion and Larry, who found some common ground but didn’t jump back into a relationship, which was the smartest thing they could have done.
I am an unapologetic Marion and Larry fan, but everything about their relationship during The Gilded Age Season 3 has felt slightly off.
From the jump, it seemed like Larry was a bit more invested than Marion, and that she was still not really ready to fully give her heart over to him, even if it was deep down what she wanted.
The war between Marion’s head and heart was at odds all season, and when Larry proposed, it felt like one of the only times she left herself to follow her heart without question. And their proposal in the park was one of the sweetest things I’ve seen on this show.
But Larry’s lie completely closed Marion’s heart off and had her only able to listen to the voice in her head telling her Larry was like her past loves and only going to bring her pain.
Marion jumping into action to help with George was one of those moments when you remember who Marion truly is, which is a kindhearted, caring, and well-meaning person.
She’s handled the Larry situation horribly, but she’s not a horrible person. She’s someone who made a mistake, and she acknowledged that and took responsibility for what she did.
Larry, too! He did lie, but he was also right in how he felt about Marion immediately assuming the worst, not giving him a chance to explain, and only coming around when she heard the truth from someone else.
Their conversation outside the ball was the realist talk they’ve had the entire season. And perhaps the first time they thoroughly listened and understood one another.
Marion still has some healing to do, and Larry needs patience. If the two of them are ever going to make a relationship last, they need much better communication, and they probably need to slow things down.
They went from hiding their relationship from most people to jumping into an engagement. I recognize things were different back then, but surely they could spend some time together as a couple before rushing into another engagement.
They still love each other, so now it’s more a matter of the two of them working on rebuilding trust and learning to be more open without fear of judgment.
Do you have faith in them figuring that out? I do, but I also hope that they continue to be transparent with each other, or they’re never going to make it work.
Two people who did make it work? Peggy and Dr. Kirkland!
First of all, having Peggy all giddy thinking she was about to get engaged and then transitioning to her in tears after she told the good doctor about her past off-screen was CRUEL.
We didn’t necessarily need to hear her retell a story we already heard, but it was so jarring!
Dr. Kirkland taking some time to collect his thoughts was perfectly reasonable, I guess, but the romantic in me wanted him to sweep her up in his arms and tell her that he loved her no matter what and he wasn’t going to let his mother dictate his life.
And sure, we eventually got there, but I wanted it in that moment when Peggy was so vulnerable and had completely let down every single one of her walls.
I believe Peggy would have told him about her past eventually, but I do understand her hesitancy as well. I believe she knew that he would be understanding, but she was also scared.
Can’t we all relate to that?
Peggy has a past, just like everyone else, and at the end of the day, if Dr. Kirkland loved her, then nothing he heard would have stopped him from doing what he intended to do since the moment they met: put a ring on it.
Phylicia Rashad and Audra McDonald going bar for bar at the dress place was a season highlight because I will never tire of a mother fiercely sticking up for their child.
Elizabeth Kirkland loves her son, I’ll give her that, but she has deep-rooted biases based in colorism and class that have her looking at Peggy, a dark-skinned black woman and daughter of a formerly enslaved person, like she’s lesser than.
She’s made every dig possible at Peggy’s expense and done as much as she could without outwardly saying ‘don’t marry her!’
She took Peggy’s “secret” and ran with it all over town in a bid to not only get her son to forget all about Peggy, but also to embarrass her. To assert herself again as being on some moral and societal high ground, and it was incredibly disappointing to see.
I had deep faith that Dr. Kirkland would see the light, and I’m glad that his father also stuck up for Peggy, as well as making it crystal clear to Mrs. Kirkland that her actions were unbecoming and frankly cruel.
A big theme of The Gilded Age is men and women attempting to “protect” their children in their own way, and we see time and time again that their actions are often rooted in selfishness.
And it’s not a malicious selfishness, but more of a belief that they know better, especially as it relates to the rigid societal structure that they’re all forced to co-exist in.
In the end, Dr. Kirkland didn’t succumb to the pressure of his mother, and he followed his heart as a grown ass man. And while we didn’t actually see Peggy accept (rude, again!), it’s pretty obvious that she did, and we should be getting another wedding in The Gilded Age Season 4!
Elsewhere during this jam-packed hour, we got to see a little bit more of Gladys and Hector, and since Bertha came by during The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 6, the married couple has gotten more comfortable with one another.
Gladys has taken Bertha’s advice and run with it, and while I wondered what kind of Gladys would ultimately break through once she came to terms with her new life, it’s safe to say that right now she’s firmly taking the path her mother laid out for her.
Realizing that she can influence Hector has brightened her spirits, and she may not be head over heels for the man, but she’s certainly not the same woman who cried her way down the aisle.
And the two becoming parents? Well, she’s firmly set up her family for life.
Oscar was also looking to set himself up for life by attaching himself to the widowed Mrs. Winterton, and I KNEW this would happen.
With the death of John Adams, I feared that Oscar would retreat into a desperate man seeking to solidify his place in society by latching onto someone with the money or influence to allow him to stuff his portfolio and make the inroads he needed to stay even more relevant than he already is.
The two of them together will make a nasty pair, the likes of which New York’s elites have never seen. And I fear Oscar will never feel more alone than when he finally enters into the marriage of convenience and prominence he’s been searching for.
It’ll be something to behold in the next season, as will so many of the storylines still left hanging, and new ones we don’t even know are set to exist.
I’ll be seated for the next set of adventures for the rich and famous, and everything in between. Hope to see you there in your end-of-season best!
Posh Extras
- How much money do you think George paid Dr. Kirkland? He looked flabbergasted by that check!
- Bertha finally coming around on Marion was annoying because it should not have taken her seeing Marion’s selflessness to realize she’s a great person and worthy of marrying her son. She’s always presented herself that way.
- The little romantic subplot of Jack and Bridget is always cute!
- I guess I’ll have to wait until next season to see Clay get what’s coming to him.
- Mrs. Astor actually showing up for Charlotte was a sweet moment, and it helped humanize her because she can sometimes seem like a robot.
- Agnes finally handing the reigns to Ada, but also getting something for herself was a lovely full circle moment for her. She’s had a rough go of it, but she’s also grown a lot. I really enjoyed this version of Agnes.
This finale truly had a little bit of everything, and it was the perfect coda to what was the best season to date!
I hope you’ve enjoyed my ramblings this season, and as always, I invite you to share your thoughts about this episode and the season at large down below!
Until we meet again, lovelies!
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