Diksha Sundriyal
In the third season of HBO’s ‘The Gilded Age,’ Bertha Russell sets her heart on marrying off her daughter, Gladys, to the Duke of Buckingham. This is despite Gladys’ wish and George’s skepticism about his wife’s plans for their daughter. Despite all the hurdles in her path, Bertha manages to land the Duke, forcing Gladys to agree to the engagement. But it’s one thing to agree to marry someone and another entirely to go through with it. As the wedding day nears and Gladys makes herself scarce, the only question in everyone’s mind is whether Gladys will walk down the aisle or run away. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Unwanted Rumors and an Unexpected Arrival Shake up Gladys’ Big Day
The episode begins with Bertha telling her staff to work as a team for the big day, while Gladys still refuses to come out of her room. When one of the bridesmaids suddenly goes out of the picture, Larry suggests that his mother ask Marian to step in. Knowing that her son has been getting close to the bachelorette next door, Bertha is hesitant to do anything that would give her hopes about being part of the Russell family. However, she gives in to her son’s and husband’s words and agrees to send a letter to Marian. Meanwhile, the noise around the wedding increases with the chatter of rumours, particularly focused on Gladys’ clothes, saying how even her undergarments will be monogrammed to fit her new status as the Duchess.
While Bertha tries to control every aspect of the wedding day, Larry throws a minor wrench in her plans when he invites her sister, Monica, to the wedding. So far, Bertha has managed to keep her past and her origins a secret from the New York society, where she is basically at the top now. It seems that she is ashamed of her sister, or at least, she is ashamed of her sister’s dresses. Unlike Bertha, Monica doesn’t seem too invested in dressing up and playing the games that society demands of her sister. The difference between them is apparent not just in their looks, but also in their thought process. While Bertha is single-minded about marrying Gladys to the Duke, Monica, like Larry and George, wonders whether she is too blinded by her own ambition to see that her daughter is not happy about it.
When Bertha asks to get new dresses made for Monica, her sister insists that the dress she will wear for the dinner later that evening with the Duke and his sister, Lady Sarah, is the same she plans to wear at the wedding. At first, Bertha agrees to let her wear whatever she wants, but when coffee is served, Monica’s cup breaks, leading her to spill the coffee on her dress. This gives Bertha the chance to offer a different dress for the wedding, and it turns out that she had planned the whole coffee spilling thing for the same purpose.
A Major Development Puts Jack in a Dilemma
At the Van Rhijn, or rather, the Forte household, the question of money continues to cause conflict between Agnes and Ada. For every penny that Agnes spends, Ada closely scrutinises the nature of expenditure, and she is quick to point out that Agnes used to do the same thing when Ada was her dependent. When Agnes leaves the house for a few hours, Ada invites a woman on Mrs. Bauer’s advice in the hopes of talking to her husband, Luke. While the seance is still in session, Agnes comes back and is shocked to discover that her sister has invited a charlatan into their house and is indulging in the practices that can be labelled shady, at the least. Despite her sister’s disapproval, it seems that Ada has made up her mind to find a connection with Luke, no matter what it takes.
Meanwhile, Jack finally receives word about his clock. It seems that the last investor they talked to wants them to come back to his office. Jack is not sure whether this is a good or bad thing, especially when it is pointed out by Mrs. Armstrong that patents can be overturned, and perhaps the investor has stolen Jack’s idea and left him hanging dry. A day before Gladys’ wedding, he and Larry walk back into the investor’s office, where it is revealed that the party in question is ready to buy out the clock, patent, and all. After a brief negotiation, Larry gets the sum hiked up to $600,000, which means that Jack is now almost as rich as Mrs. Forte and certainly richer than Mrs. Van Rhijn.
The sudden turn of events takes Jack by surprise because even when he’d thought of selling his clock, he never thought he’d get so much money. Now he feels conflicted because he doesn’t want to leave his job, but at the same time, he doesn’t know how his employers will feel when they discover how rich he is now. The only person he shares this secret with is Mrs. Bauer, and she agrees to keep his newfound wealth a secret until he chooses to reveal it to everyone.
Meanwhile, in Newport, Peggy finds herself under the scrutiny of Mrs. Kirkland. She does not hold back in telling Peggy that she doesn’t care for Peggy’s, or rather, women’s involvement in politics. However, on her son’s insistence, she attends her lecture. Even when she compliments Peggy about her oration, it is backhanded, to say the least. Things get awkward when she tries to undermine Peggy’s father’s accomplishments by referring to his past as an enslaved person. Peggy’s mother speaks out for her husband, while Mr. Kirkland tries to rein in his wife’s impoliteness. Another thing of note is that Aurora, too, attends the lecture, which means that she has been sidelined by the New York society and is now resigned to her life in Newport.
Gladys Makes a Life-Changing Decision
With the wedding day upon her, Gladys’ continued refusal to leave her room starts to worry Bertha. She asks Marian to talk to her daughter. Marian tries to make Gladys accept the reality of her situation, that her new position can actually help her do great things. However, it does nothing to shake off the bride’s nerves. She is terrified by the move to the other side of the pond, especially since she is going to be all alone there because even her maid, Adelheid, has been ordered to train a new maid in England and then return to America.
While Gladys makes up her mind about whether or not to go forward with the wedding, George receives a visit from J.P. Morgan, who reveals that the banking crisis has turned the investors skeptical about George’s railroad plans, and they are going to pull back. This means that whatever risk he takes now shall be his own to bear. Meanwhile, the news of Charlotte Drayton’s husband and alleged lover indulging in a duel breaks out, which becomes the talk of the town. This leads Mrs. Astor to go to the wedding by herself, after she tells her daughter that there will be no divorce for her, as it would be too shameful to show their faces in society.
We also meet Mrs. Winterton again, who reveals that her husband is on his deathbed. She also shows considerable interest when Monica is introduced as Bertha’s sister, remarking that this might be the way to find out where Bertha comes from. At the Russell house, Mr. Borden asks Mrs. Bruce for her hand in marriage, but she rejects him because she is already married. It turns out that her husband suffers from severe bouts of melancholia and has been in an asylum for many years. He is rich enough to maintain the payments for his treatment, but this means that she has been left to the pasture. While it has been ten years since their separation, they cannot get divorced because there is no adultery in question.
All this talk of divorce on Gladys’ wedding day feels like a clever foreshadowing, since she finally decides to show her face. After a heart-to-heart with her father, where he confesses that he feels like he has failed her, it becomes clear to Gladys that things have gone too far for her to step back now. Just when her father is ready to call it off, she comes out of her room. Cheered by the house’s staff, she gets in the carriage, reaches the church, and walks down the aisle. But this does nothing to hide the sadness in her face. While she says “I do,” it is clear that her feelings about the Duke remain unchanged. This makes things even more awkward when she is on the ship, which is ready to sail away from New York, and her husband reveals that he plans to consummate their wedding because he likes to get “awkward things done and settled,” which somehow does not bode too well for Gladys.
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