‘The Gilded Age’ Season 3 Episode 4 Recap: Past The Point of No Return

The wedding of the century is finally here on The Gilded Age! But it’s hardly a happy occasion. Honestly, the only person who truly has something good going right now is Jack (Ben Ahlers), that guy just encountered a windfall of cash that will set him up for life (Honestly, $300,000 in 2025 money ain’t so bad, can you imagine what that would be like in 1880s money?).

In the days before Gladys Russell (Taissa Farmiga) is to be married to the Duke of Buckingham, it seems she has taken to her room and refuses to come out. While pretty much everyone recognizes this as a cry for help, her mother Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) refuses to acknowledge that she has stripped her daughter of any autonomy or happiness, instead patting herself on the back for securing a “noble” (not “royal”) life for her child.

It seems like the only person who might truly be able to get under Bertha’s skin is the one person who reminds her of her own humble beginnings, her sister Monica (played by Merritt Wever, I’m not sure who I thought would show up for this cameo, but Wever was an subtle casting choice that left me wishing to see more of this tumultuous dynamic). Bertha certainly did not want her sister – from Albany – to come to the wedding, but she’s here at the invitation of Larry (Harry Richardson) who just loves his Aunt Monica. (Am I the only person who was confused at the announcement that Miss O’Brien had arrived? For a split second I pictured O’Brien from Downton Abbey. Why not give people from your shows different names, Fellowes?) George and Larry are both happy to see Monica, but Bertha can’t hide her… I don’t know pick a negative emotion, she’s all of them. Sensing Bertha’s annoyance, Monica tells George, “I’m not convinced Bertha’s very pleased to see me,” to which George (Morgan Spector) hilariously tells her, “Nonsense! She’s delighted! Nobody loves family more than Bertha!” (George has a lot of dry, witty lines in this episode like later, on Gladys’s wedding day, when he announces, “Today I have to marry my daughter to a man she doesn’t like!”)

Real sister energy here. Photo: HBO

Larry also has a hand in securing Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson) a spot in Gladys’s bridal party – this, too, is against Bertha’s wishes, but after George tells her, “Is it really that important? Bertha, don’t go to the stake for everything,” and so she acquiesces. It’s not like Marian wanted to be in the wedding, but this does help secure her an elevated role in Harry’s family life, ’cause he lurves her.

Merritt Wever isn’t the only guest star to appear this week, I would be remiss if I didn’t address the fact that living legend Andrea Martin appears in, I guess the only role I would ever want her to have on this show, as a medium named Madam Dashkova who’s trying to help Ada Forte (Cynthia Nixon) communicate with her dead husband, Luke. Cynthia Nixon is giving big “Pee-wee Herman visiting the psychic to find his bike” energy in this scene as Madame Dashkova reveals, “I see a man… not young, not old!” and Ada clings to her every word. Their session is interrupted by Agnes (Christine Baranski), home earlier than expected and clearly not meant to see Ada hosting a psychic in their dining room. Agnes forces Madame Dashkova to leave, but as she exits she tells Ada, “We will meet again.” I hope so!

Last week, Jack wasn’t sure if his clock patent would ever find an investor, and now he learns that one of the men Larry set up a meeting with, Mr. Weston, is interested in buying the patent from them. This is one of those comical scenes where the show creators have intentionally tried to play with us viewers because as Larry and Jack negotiate with Mr Weston, bandying around numbers – “Three? Four?” “We were hoping for six.” – and then we find out they mean $600,000. Split evenly, that amount sets Jack up for the rest of his life, and gives Larry a little bit of walking around money next time he goes to Newport. Jack has no idea what this kind of money means for him though, and eventually confides in Mrs. Bauer that he’d rather just keep his job as a butler living at the Forte house rather than move off to live alone, which he’s never done before. Aww. Is Jack the best character on this show?

Photo: HBO

Bertha continues to be embarrassed by her sister Monica and how Monica reflects on her throughout the episode. Monica’s presence is a reminder that Bertha came from humble beginnings, which is an insult to even mention. (Loved watching Larry get in a dig at her by asking, “Are you trying to rewrite your own history until it stands up against Mrs. Astor’s scrutiny?” and then watching George giggle at this.) So when Monica joins the Russells and the Duke of Buckingham for a pre-wedding dinner, she embarrasses Bertha with her plain-ness and how chatty she is, especially with Hector’s prim and regal sister Sarah, a cold fish if ever there was one. (Sarah still lives with Hector, a fact that no one seems to have known till now and which will clearly become an issue for Gladys, even Bertha sees it.)

Bertha sabotages the meal (and Monica’s outfit) when she secretly gives Monica a broken teacup to drink out of. When the handle breaks off, coffee is spilled down Monica’s dress, the only one she’s brought with her, but it’s all part of Bertha’s plan because the dress wasn’t to her taste, so now Monica can’t be seen in it at the wedding. (“How could I let her appear before the whole of New York looking like a cook on her day off? It would be unkind!”) As plans go, it’s only the second-most diabolical one that Bertha has cooked up for the wedding day, the first being the wedding itself, of course.

Photo: HBO

The real issue with the wedding is, of course, just how much Gladys doesn’t want to be in it. But it’s tender and nice to see George and Larry care for Gladys’s own happiness, appealing to Bertha to no avail. “I wish I was convinced that what you want is right for Gladys,” George tells Bertha the night before the wedding, to which she responds, “Ugh, go to bed, George, and wake up sensible.”

After making the entire staff and her whole family wait to see whether she’s even going to venture out of her room on her wedding day, Gladys does emerge (thanks in part to a pep talk from Marian and some coercion from her father who tells her her reputation will be ruined if she backs out, although he’s certainly sad for her). The tone of the wedding is anything but celebratory – there’s a discomfort throughout the church, first when Gladys is delayed, and then when she actually shows up. I’m shocked they didn’t insert someone’s dry cough when the priest asked if anyone objected to the marriage.

Fortunately for Gladys, enough people are preoccupied with the gossip around Charlotte Drayton – Mrs. Astor’s daughter, whose marriage is in shambles – that it deflects some of the attention away from the literal tears streaming down Gladys’s face as she walks down the aisle. It’s always delicious to see Mrs. Winterton (Kelley Curran) who not only relishes the gossip about Charlotte, butshe seems to be the one person who finds Monica O’Brien’s existence fascinating, a way to expose or maybe just torment Bertha’s humble beginnings. I sense a more prominent role for her in episodes to come, at least I hope so.

Photo: HBO

For much of the episode, it seems like the biggest impediment in Gladys’s marriage to Hector would be his sister, Lady Sarah, who does whatever she can to be unlikable and a little too attached to her brother. But on her wedding night, Gladys is forced into an even more upsetting situation when Hector reminds her of her marital duties as they set sail for England on their ship. A virgin, she is timid and apprehensive, but because Hector is her husband she feels obligated. She is the picture of unenthusiastic consent, her mouth saying yes when every fiber of her being says no. The scene makes painfully clear the fact that Bertha has not just sold away Gladys’s happiness, but her body and spirit, too.

The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 4 – Stray Thoughts:

• Are we ever going to find out who’s been planting dirt about Gladys in the papers? I really don’t want this to end in anti-climactic fashion with the dressmaker we’ve never seen being the culprit, make it juicy, Julian Fellowes!
• Mrs. Elizabeth Kirkland (Phylicia Rashad) continues to be a menace this week! I really hope Peggy doesn’t continue this dalliance with William Kirkland, Peggy deserves better than this bad mother-in-law energy.
• J.P. Morgan also proves something of a menace this week when he pulls all of his support for George’s railroad because of the banking crisis in New York. On the wedding day, of all days! “If you refuse to change course, your own money will be lost with all the rest,” Morgan warns George, but George isn’t worried. “There’s always money if you know where to find it.” Spoken like someone with money!
• Of course the marital troubles of Charlotte Drayton (nee Astor) and her husband J. Coleman Drayton were real. In 1892, Charlotte befriended Hallett Alsop Borrowe, whom her husband challenged to a duel. Nothing came of the duel, but the Draytons divorced in 1896 and Charlotte remarried that same year to another man, George Ogilvy Haig, and spent the rest of her life living in London.
• Mrs. Bruce can’t marry Chef Josh Borden because she’s already married and her husband has been hospitalized for depression. If this sounds familiar it’s because it closely mirrors Lady Edith’s relationship with Mr. Gregson on Downton Abbey who couldn’t divorce his own institutionalized wife to be with Edith. Is there really nothing else that could get in the way of their relationship than this recycled plot?

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.