by Liz Kocan | Decider
Oh, dang, George Russell has had it with Bertha, finally! I mean, this could possibly just be a little tiff, a plot misdirect to make us wonder if the most cunning couple on The Gilded Age is on the rocks, but it was just one of several truly juicy moments in a comparably dry-ass season where the biggest drama so far has been about a guy and his clock.
I guess this explains why there’s been so much talk of divorce this season, too. It started with Aurora Fane (Kelly O’Hara) being ostracized by Mrs. Astor and the rest of her squad, but now not even Mrs. Astor can escape the stink of divorce-by-association now that her daughter, Charlotte, is headed toward splitsville. Do we really believe that Bertha (Carrie Coon) could be joining this untouchable caste of newly single ladies?
Someone who desperately wishes she was divorced is Bertha’s daughter, Gladys (Taissa Farmiga), who has finally arrived in England after trekking for days and miles across her own property, her new home at Sidmouth Castle. You know it’s bad, though, when the dreary, arduous trip is the highlight of your stay at Sidmouth. As soon as Gladys arrives, the Duke of Buckingham’s sister, Sarah, starts to really make life miserable for Gladys. Sarah, who still shares the home with her brother, is still very much the woman of the house. Is she just domineering, or is it more like… What’s the sister version of an Oedipal complex?
Sarah makes Gladys feel unwelcome by chastising her for the sparkly barrettes in her hair, she leaves her out of any social planning, and inundates her with a list of house rules and expectations. At least Gladys has her lady’s maid, Adelhide, to confide in. Except she doesn’t, because Sarah fires Adelhide. Gladys confronts Sarah about this – Adelhide wasn’t meant to stay permanently, but she was a comfort to Gladys, the only relic of her old life she was allowed to keep – and Sarah coldly justifies her actions, telling her, “Surely even you concede that I know a little more about how things are managed in England.”
Hector, observing this, comes to Gladys’s defense (like, only slightly) by asking Sarah why Gladys can’t just keep her damn maid, adding, “It was you who told me I must save the family with a Yankee heiress.” THERE IT IS. That’s what these noble goons are up to! “I suppose it never occurred to me that you’d have to bring her home,” Sarah deadpans. She’s the worst, but also kinda the best? The situation causes Gladys to fire off a desperate letter to her parents, explaining just how much she hates it here.
Peggy (Denée Benton) can’t seem to catch a break with the men in her life. While Dr. Kirkland is a good match on paper, his mother, Elizabeth (Phylicia Rashad), is an elitist who literally sneers at Peggy’s family… still, Peggy is seeing where things are going with the good doctor. But when she encounters her old crush/editor, T. Thomas Fortune, who is married with kids, but with whom she shared a kiss and immediately regretted it – Peggy is torn. Not because she still has feelings for TTF, but because as much as she wishes to avoid him, he’s offered her the opportunity to go to Philadelphia to interview Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, the Black author and suffragist.
Read the rest of the recap HERE.