Enjoying The Gilded Age. I’m on Season 2, episode 6 right after Ada marries. I’m so happy that Agnes decided last minute to show up at that wedding after being stubborn that she didn’t want to go. I love Peggy’s and Marion’s friendship. This is a great show.
The Gilded Age, Ep. 3x08 – My Mind is Made Up (Spoilers)
So, season finale. Lots of plots to wrap up and quite a few to introduce. I still plan on releasing my thoughts for Peggy’s storyline soon. Probably later this week, once I add a few more things to it.
Many of the storyline I’m going to go through quickly, one (Bertha’s ball) I probably will be dealing with more of that while describing the other storylines.
It looks like they’re going to set up Jack and Bridgette. They’ve been kind of hinting at that maybe something might happen between then at some point.
Agnes has finally admitted she’s no longer in charge of the house; so it’s a good thing that she’s just been made the Vice President of the New York Historical Society.
With all her pleasant charms, Ada can be quite the manipulator.
Gladys is happy in her marriage and apparently is four months pregnant. (Which, huh, I knew a couple of months must have passed, but I wasn’t expecting four).
Not surprisingly there was a reason Ms. Winterton came back and was about to become a widow. Oscar, our little opportunist, has a plan. First, he gets Ms. Winterton invited to Bertha’s ball by promising he will get Marion to the ball as well (more on that later). Bertha agrees (and it seems like, she and Ms. Winterton sort of bury the hatchet in the end?). Then, Oscar has a proposal for Ms. Winterton; a very literal one. He wants to gather their resources by getting married. After all, he knows her past and she…does she know he’s gay? Well, even if she doesn’t the agreement is thus: in the city, they will play the part of the happy married couple; but in the country (where the both just happen to own separate houses) that’s where they can do what they please. They even agree not to go to one another’s country home without sending word first. Honestly, I can’t wait to see what these two do.
Marion and Larry, eh, there still at the crossroads but with a possible happy future. And all the advice from the adults just basically boils down to…young love? I think all of the adults kind of realized that he shouldn’t have lied to Marion and she shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions; but the fight is done now and the truth is out there. So, can the two of them learn from their mistakes and understand that, if they want to get married, they have to…well, Larry needs to learn that he isn't protecting Marion by lying to her and Marion needs to learn to get all the damn facts before jumping to conclusions.
Bertha has decided to include divorcees at the ball. Ms. Astor is against it as it just isn’t done. She won’t even reconsider even if it does benefit her daughter. We all knew she would end up coming. But why did the show runners have to feel like they needed to be that damn dramatic for her reveal at the ball?
Peggy’s storyline is full on drama now. William asks Peggy about what his mother told him. When learning the truth, he decides he needs to take a walk to clear his head because that’s a lot of information to process (which, I get. I don’t like, but I get.) and then, because we need drama, he says something that suggests he and Peggy will have to break up because his mother will never approve (ok, that’s bs. You know your mother was lying, don’t let her stop you). Peggy’s mother comes home to find Peggy crying and tells Peggy that she’s worth loving.
And I’ll be honest, I don't know which I enjoyed more, Dorothy Scott tearing into Ms. Kirkland or the fact that Reverand Kirkland did the same thing. I mean, I really love the fact that the minute he found what his wife has done, especially as it sounds like she spread false rumors about Peggy, he’s just like who the hell do you think you are? And after he dismiss his wife, I like how he then says to William that he’s not going to tell William what to do in this situation, because he knows Williams knows what to do deep down inside.
And then, at the Kirkland’s ball, we see William ask to speak to Arthur alone. What I respect about Arthur is that he doesn’t judge William for having to take a moment to collect his thoughts, but does make it clear that before he agrees to William marrying Peggy, he needs William’s promise that William understands that this marriage cannot be influenced by his mother. And, yes, William understands. So, yeah, Peggy is now engaged. AND THIS ENGAGEMENT WILL LAST, THEY WILL GET MARRIED, AND NOTHING WILL HAPPEN TO WILLIAM BECAUSE PEGGY DESERVERS A HAPPY ENDING. (Screw Larry and Marion, Peggy and William are THE young couple in this story from now on).
Bit aside, but I wonder how much money George gave William to reward William for saving his life.
George didn’t die. George didn’t die because it just so happened that William had just come over to visit Peggy and that Ada’s butler happened to see George being carried into the house. So, William goes running over and asks Peggy to get his bag. Peggy gets the bag and tells Marion what happened, so that Marion can run the bag over (because Marion is more important to this part of the plot). Bertha’s begging William to save George, who’s currently lying on the dining room table. William thinks he can, but he needs to get the bullet out. And to do that, he’s going to need an assistant. And, damn if Marion doesn’t just hop right up on the table and start helping. Even the Head Housekeeper kind of has this look like, uh, ma’am? This is also the moment that Bertha goes from “not right for Larry,” to “your my daughter-in-law now.” Like Larry can never consider another woman again because the first thing Bertha is going to ask them is if they would be willing to help take a bullet out a man’s chest. In all seriousness, Bertha later tells Marion that this was the first moment she realized how strong Marion actually is (well…). And while Bertha isn’t going to, uh, “Gladys” Larry and Marion, she sure will be trying to nudge them back together (Which is why she made that deal with Oscar in order to get Marion to the ball).
So, George is saved; but the attempted assassination might make him seem weak. Which means people, and that includes the police, cannot know about it. And, yeah, we probably don’t want to know what happened with the body of the dead man in the office. George has Larry hire a few, um gentlemen, to get to the bottom of this. They will not get to the bottom of this by the end of the season.
Meanwhile, George tells Bertha that everything must seem normal, so she must continue with her plans for the ball. And, yeah, the whole way he’s treating this like a business transaction…I knew this would be bad. Meanwhile Bertha, who just about lost her husband, is kind of seeing his being at home, and Gladys being at home and happy, and Larry being…there, that things will be alright in the end. She especially feels that way at the ball because George makes an appearance. To her, it’s a sign that they’re working things out; but that look on his face….
Anyway, the day after the ball, Bertha finds George packing. Turns out he’s going back to the city and probably back to living at the club. Bertha’s confused as she thought everything was okay. But it turns out that George has taken a look at his life and he doesn’t like what he sees. And it comes down to a combination of Glady’s wedding and how he feels Bertha makes him weak. George is a powerful businessman, and he likes being a powerful businessman; but the one thing he won’t do is sacrifice his family for power. Bertha wants to be a powerful in society and, he feels, she’s willing to use her family to get that power; no matter the cost to them. He did not want to force Gladys into a marriage and yet, instead of putting his foot down and saying no, he walked her down that isle. He ignored his own instincts, his own morality, and he did what Bertha wanted him to do. And he’s not sure he wants the lifestyle that, he feels, will force him to use his family again.
And this…I mean, I can get where he might feel like he chose his wife’s happiness over his child’s or the guilt he probably feels because he did break his promise to Gladys (saying he would allow her to have a say in who she’s marries). And I also can understand if he were to have said to Bertha that the thing that happened with Gladys, using family for clout, that’s not something he wants ever to happen again in this family. And if she (Bertha) can’t accept that certain things have to be done differently then their marriage might be in trouble. But he’s just…he walked Gladys down that isle. That was a choice he made. However, instead of owning up to that choice and accepting that he went against his own code, he’s putting all the blame on Bertha. Bertha needs to own up to the fact that she has a tendency to ignore the needs of her family over her own; Bertha does not need to take responsibility for George agree to go through with the wedding. That’s on him.
So, yeah, he leaves and just after he leaves Gladys tells Bertha that she’s pregnant. And that’s how the season end. Will George and Bertha divorce? Eh, the people they based on eventually did. However, this is Julian Fellows. It wouldn’t surprise me if, sometime in season 4, we have a moment between George and Gladys, where Gladys tells him (while she won’t do the same thing to her daughters) she does now understand that Bertha was, in fact, trying to set her daughter up in a situation where she has some power. Just kind of a hey, mom isn't as cold hearted as you think.
