The Gilded Age Season 3 Final Analysis

 

From the opening moments of The Gilded Age the viewer has been contrasting the two households who live across the street of each other in late 19^th century New York. The Van Rijn household, led by Agnes (Christine Baranski) seemed to represent the older and more conservative bulwark of society while Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) represented the force of change brought on by new money.

Having watched the third season – and particular the brilliant season finale – we are reminded yet again that appearances can be deceiving. At this point in the series it is the Van Rijn household that is very much the more liberal branch of society and Bertha represents symbolic changes that merely change the power structure but put her family at the top rather than the Astors.

This should not be surprising because there have been countless hints, some subtle, some less so of the quiet progressivism that every member of the Van Rijn home represents and that for all of the (hysterical) clucking of Agnes she has always believing in changing the world in subtler ways then the Russell family, by and large, has not.

This has been the most clear with the relationship between Agnes and Peggy Scott (Denee Benton). Considering how often writers Julian Fellowes and Sonia Richardson-Warfield remind us that the Scott family does come from a very different part of the world than Marian, the fact that Agnes has allowed Peggy chose to hire her as a secretary shows a genuine liberalism that most Americans would not have done during the period. And she clearly regards Peggy with a genuine respect: she is one of the only characters in the entire series that she has never degraded or mocked, behind her back or even to her face. Yes Peggy might have to dine in the servants quarters but it doesn't change the fact that she regards her with subtle and not so subtle high regard. She refers to her as 'Miss Scott', which is the kind of phrase she uses to her white societal counterparts and she has encouraged her career in both journalism and writing.

That doesn't mean Agnes isn't prone to certain blind-spots: when her personal physician refuses to treat Peggy in the season premiere it showed that she had no awareness of the world. But when she talked to the Scott parents after Peggy had recovered you saw an awkwardness and a real attempt to talk to them across racial divides as their common bond of parenthood. Even the Scotts would admit that had misjudges her all this time.

By contrast it is only at the end of Season 3 that the Russell's allow a colored person (for the purposes of this article I will use the euphemisms of the time) in their household at all and it was only under the most extreme circumstances – the shooting of George. The fact that her butler told her first that the doctor was colored would seem to imply that the Russell's hold more firmly to the general bigotry of the time. We've seen Bertha show contempt for class structure when it comes to her own family and her own household time and again and by far a higher regard for the normal pecking order. It's only because Dr. Kirkland was at the Van Rijn household in the first place and the white doctor was unavailable until the procedure was over that Bertha allowed it to happen.

To her credit Kirkland would return to the Russell household on more than one occasion and would be renumerated and thanked by the family. But I think it's very telling that the official reward and congratulation came in Newport when no one from New York Society was there – and just as critically, a similar society ball of the upper echelon of African-American society was going on simultaneously. I think George would have been more willing to do it in New York but that Bertha convinced him otherwise. She has always cared far more appearances, after all.

We've also seen, particularly in this season, that both Agnes and Ada care very much for causes that the rest of society doesn't – at least not yet. Ada (Cynthia Nixon) was prominent in the temperance movement earlier in Season 3 and more importantly, almost every female in the Russell household clearly has an interest in woman's suffrage. When Agnes says at the start of the season that this is 'an issue I've held an interest in", it seems like something that goes against much of her personality towards so much of the changes in society. But in the penultimate episode when Ada agrees to hold the meeting for women's suffrage that Marian and Peggy have been working on all season, Agnes is not only present in a way she wasn't in the temperance movement but has a conversation with the prominent African-American suffragist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (Lisa Gay Hamilton). Again she not only talks to Harper as if she were a peer (and with clear respect) but she freely allows women of color to congregate in her household.

By contrast when Bertha mentions the idea of women voting when she is visiting Gladys in London, it seems far less like a genuine interest and a way to have Gladys show her authority over her sister-in-law who is running the household. Bertha may very well care about the right to vote but like so much of her work it's clearly being done as a power move. The fact that she is using a right that should unite women as a tool to divide is also very in keeping with her character.

Similarly when Gladys talks to both McCallister and later Miss Astor (Donna Murphy) about ending the ban of divorced women at Newport, it seems far less like a movement for reform and yet another tool she is using to put herself at the head of the pecking order. She's clearly doing it for the right reason and indeed Astor makes it clear later on how grateful she is to her daughter but you still can't help but think it's something she's doing for her own benefit. (This has already been illustrated subtly in a theme in Season 3. She spent the better part of that season building up the Metropolitan Opera House to make it a force in society and while we've seen many scenes of the Russell children at the Met, we have not seen Bertha there once. Now that she established her power over society there she feels no need to hide the fact she never liked opera in the first place. It was just a means to an end.)

But of course the clearest difference has been Bertha's manipulation of her children, which finally led to the cracks in her family become visible. At the end of Season 2 Bertha essentially arranged  Gladys to marry the Duke behind her husband's – and her daughter's – back  - and spent much of the interim arranging it in the press so that it would come out that way. Worse she made sure it was done while George was out of state on business and had no way to deal with until it was too late.

It was clear all the way up to her daughter's wedding how much Gladys loathed what was coming, something that everyone in the household knew – but that Bertha chose to ignore and more to the point, didn't feel any remorse while it was happening. Larry (Harry Richardson) had never approved of his mother's machinations (she'd already torpedoed one affair he'd been having in Season 2 because it would look bad) and he could barely hide his contempt much of the season. George has been angry ever since she forced him to walk his daughter down the aisle and when he received a letter from Gladys about how miserable she was, it's clear it was the final straw. We saw Bertha genuinely unsettled for the first time all season. "I can fix this," she pleaded with her husband. "That's the thing. I don't believe you can."

And when she chose to openly show contempt for her son's engagement to Marian Brooke (Louisa Jacobson) while his father showed nothing but approval, it makes us wonder for the first time what kind of parent Bertha has truly been. Indeed, this brings up another contrast between the two households: while Agnes and Ada clearly have friends or at least people they are friendly with and clearly demonstrate compassion for their loved ones, Bertha has never been seen with any people in a friendly manner and always seems detached from her own children. George has always treated her ambition with respect but it's now clear he was fine with it as long as it didn't hurt his children.

This was made the most clear in the lead-up to Gladys's wedding when Bertha's sister made an appearance. Until this point we've known nothing about Bertha's side of the family until Monica O'Brien (Meritt Weyer) showed up at Larry's invitation and not Bertha's. There were only a few scenes of the two together (here's hoping we see more of Weyer in Season 4) but it was clear that Monica sees through the image that Bertha has spent her whole life building up as so much pretension and ego. It was amusing to see Bertha genuinely panicked at the arrival of Monica, who she clearly didn't see as fitting in with the people she's spent so much time winning over and was absolutely desperate to keep her from to talking to Astor and McCallister at the wedding, who were understandably curious to know about a woman who plays every card close to the vest. This is the woman she should be closer to then anyone in the world – and she practically wanted to stuff a handkerchief in her mouth.

In the penultimate episode of the season when Larry is still suffering over his breakup with Marian, he turns on his mother in a way he just hasn't in three seasons, making it very clear he thinks she's responsible. When Bertha asks how he could think that, for the first time George doesn't instantly defend his wife in front of his children. "Because he knows what you're capable of."  This clearly cuts Bertha and she truly seems defensive. "I only want what's best for you," she all but pleads. "You want what's best for you." Larry says bluntly. And in that sentence he accurately sums up everything Bertha has done over the last three seasons.

By contrast for all the clucking that Agnes has done about her niece's working as a schoolteacher as unseemly it's always been clear this is just for show. In her backhanded way she cares for her daughter's wellbeing, perhaps because she's seen so much over her life. She wants Marian to be happy, even though she has no idea how to show it – and as a conversation between Agnes and Ada late in the season finale reveals, she may never have known it in her own marriage.

Perhaps the nicest thing Agnes has ever said to Marian came when she suggested that Mrs. Russell was going out of her way to support a role for her in the future. Marian dismissed the idea that she thought her good enough. "She would be lucky to be have you," she told her niece. It's the clearest indication she's given since the series began that she respect and admires her daughter's free-thinking and independence – things rarely seen in the Russell household.

The final minutes of the Season are to this point the most shocking in the show's history – though in hindsight they shouldn't be. George and Larry had made it clear before his shooting that they had no interest in renewing ties with Bertha based on her actions. The shooting of her husband reunited the Russell family but in the scenes with George and Bertha while he was recuperating you could see that there was a certain detachment in George's attitude and all of the compassion was coming from Bertha. Perhaps because of everything that happened Bertha thought the experience was going to make George realize he was wrong. Even in their final argument it's clear that Bertha truly believes she hasn't done anything wrong with Gladys.

I am unaware if Bertha knows of the term 'the ends justify the means' but I suppose she thinks now that Gladys is happy with the Duke – and about to have his child -  that it doesn't matter how it came about. This is an approach that you can utilize in business when you don't see the wreckage. George can see it here – and it appalls him.

By contrast we see a different changing of the guard in the Van Rijn household. Much of the conflict has been about whether Agnes, the former mistress or Ada, who know controls the wealth is running the home. When Agnes tells her sister that it is time she take her seat at the head of the table, it is a profoundly moving moment – and one that shows the kind of growth that Agnes has been capable of – and that's it not clear Bertha is.

Season 3 of The Gilded Age has been more about action and change in a way that has been harder to parse during the first two seasons. And now that the show has received a renewal for Season 4, the question is what comes next?

At this point one can see more hope for the Van Rijn household than the Russell one at this point, though given how the season ended interactions between the two will likely become for frequent. Ada has managed to find a way forward and its clear Agnes has as well. Oscar is beginning to find a way that he can realize his greatest hopes (I'll remain vague on that) and Marian and Larry do seem to finally have found each other. This may lead to him coming to the Van Rijn home more often – and increasingly leaving his mother to herself.

Will George leave Bertha? The showrunners have been vague on the subject, even now. We've already seen that divorce plays far better for men then women in this society and the fact that Bertha has ended the ban on divorced women is an indication that she might not be banned from society. But there is a critical difference from participation and being allowed to lead it as she is very familiar with. For all of the ambition and strength Bertha shows in society, she is still bound by the rules of her era as she knows better than anyone. She also knows the only reason she's gotten that far is because of her husband's wealth and name. With even the threat of it disappearing can she maintain it?

With the third season done The Gilded Age officially cements its position as one of the first unquestionable classic dramas of this decade. Carrie Coon is certain to cement her third consecutive Emmy nomination for her work in this series (and there's an excellent it will cement a win for The White Lotus this September) and Baranski and Cynthia Nixon will likely be among the frontrunners for Outstanding Supporting Actress. It's ratings this year are the highest it has been so far and it may very rank among such HBO classics in recent years such as The White Lotus and The Last of Us. And while it may not be nearly as grim as so many of the great dramas of the 21^st century have been, it is just as brilliant. There is nothing gilded about this show – it's pure gold.