Diksha Sundriyal
The third season of HBO’s ‘The Gilded Age’ focuses on an increasing upheaval in the Russell household. With Gladys’ marriage to the Duke and George’s struggle to keep his business stable in the face of strong financial turmoil, the Russells have a lot to deal with at once. In the midst of this, intimate details about them start to come out in the form of newspaper headlines. It starts around the time of Gladys’ wedding, but even after the heiress is married off, the rumour mill keeps working, and the leak continues to peddle information about the Russells. The sixth episode finally gives us a clear answer to this mystery. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Leak Had Been Hiding in Plain Sight
When Bertha Russell entrusted Mr. Church to find the leak, he turned towards Bannister to figure out a way to get to the bottom of the mystery. He suggested that in such cases, it is often the newest hire who delivers information to the outsiders for some extra cash. While this would have been an easy way to identify the leak, Church points out that due to the extra work of the wedding, dozens of new hires have been brought into the house, which will make it difficult, if not impossible, to track down the leak.
What the Church fails to see is that none of the dozens of hires are permanent in the Russell household. The responsibilities entrusted to them do not allow them to be in close vicinity of the Russell family, especially not during their discussions. Considering the kind of information that has gone out of the house, it is clear that this is the work of someone who has eyes and ears on all sides, and they are able to pull off this deception so well because they can hide in plain sight. Their presence is so normal around the house that even the Russells don’t notice them when they discuss important issues with each other.
Had Church taken this road of investigation, he would have realised that Miss Andre was the last person to be hired in a role that puts her incredibly close to Mrs. Russell. Perhaps he did consider this possibility, but brushed it aside because by the time Gladys’ wedding rolls around, Andre has already spent a lot of time in the house, which, technically, does not make her a “new hire.” Moreover, since she hadn’t spied on the Russells so far, the sudden turn towards selling info to the newspapers seems kind of weird. Nonetheless, she remains the only person who fits the bill perfectly.
The Leak was Most Likely Paid for by Bertha Russell’s Enemy
All evidence points towards Miss Andre as the leak. In the downstairs of the Russell household, Mrs. Bruce figures out this mystery after she pays close attention to all the details printed by the newspaper that only a lady’s maid could have known. At the same time, Bertha, too, starts to have her own suspicions. While visiting Gladys on the other side of the pond, she notices that her maid has her ears to the ground. At first, it seems like a good thing because Bertha is focused on helping her daughter as much as possible. But then, when she is about to leave and is trying to have a chat with Hector, she notices Andre lingering, which strikes her as odd, and she doesn’t speak to her son-in-law until the maid is gone.
Now that it is all but confirmed that the maid has been selling information, the question is why, and more importantly, why now? Since we know next to nothing about Andre so far, it is possible that something about her past will factor into the story and explain her choice to betray her employers. There is a good chance that someone within the society, like Turner or even Mrs. Astor, paid Andre to tell on Mrs. Russell. Turner’s enmity with Bertha goes back to Season 1, and Mrs. Astor has been experiencing some difficulty in maintaining herself at the top of the social circle since the news of her daughter’s affair and subsequent duel broke out.
Considering that Turner hates Bertha’s guts and had vowed revenge on her, there is a very good chance that she singled out Andre and made her, either by money or by blackmail, do her bidding. Her desire would have been to ruin Bertha’s plans, or at least, to cause major inconvenience and distress to her. On the other hand, seeing Bertha’s sudden rise, especially after her daughter’s wedding to the Duke, would make Mrs. Astor pretty jealous, especially after her own daughter is on the brink of divorce. Perhaps, she wants to bring Bertha down a notch or two. In the same vein, there could be any other number of people who have it out for Bertha. One thing is clear, this person has been hiding in plain sight just as Andre had been for so long.
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