by Liz Kocan | Decider
By now we’re all aware of Morgan Spector‘s reputation as Train Daddy and I’m thrilled to report that he’s really living up to the name this week on The Gilded Age. In the most paternal sense, not in the GQ photo spread sense.
When the Duke of Buckingham arrived at the Russells’ home last week, it was in the wake of a leaked announcement that Bertha (Carrie Coon) had planted in the news that Gladys (Taissa Farmiga) and the Duke would be getting engaged. But now that the Duke is here, and he’s brought a lawyer with him to negotiate the business terms of the marriage, George is furious. It seems that Bertha may have over-promised the Duke, and the Duke is one greedy guy who sees this marriage as an opportunity to make some bank. When George holds firm on the dowry he’s offering, the Duke tells George, “I’d hate to disappoint everyone who’s looking forward to this union. I’m sure you’d be disappointed, too.”
“That is where you’re wrong. I couldn’t care less,” George tells the Duke coolly. When they go back to the negotiating table the next day, George proposes an even more generous offer, with the caveat that the additional money be given to Gladys as an allowance. “Paid to Gladys? But what use is that to me?” the Duke asks. “A disappointing response, if I may say so,” George tells his ungrateful would-be son-in-law. The Duke grumpily takes his leave of the Russell home, which is a shock to Bertha. She’s furious that George wouldn’t give in to the Duke’s demands so that Gladys could become, I don’t know, the Lauren Sanchez-Bezos of her day, and George tells her, “This mess is of your making.”
Later, when Bertha, Gladys, and Larry head to the opera, they spy the Duke looking flirtatious with another young woman, Martha Delancey. Gossip hound Mamie Fish (Ashlie Atkinson) fills Bertha in on the Delanceys reputation and background, but Bertha feels humiliated to see the Duke with another woman. When she tells George she’s concerned about their status in society, he explains that the Delanceys have a fraction of the Russell’s wealth and would be a step-down for Bertha. This gives her the idea – a newly-invented light bulb seems to go off above her head – which she’ll set in motion shortly.
Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) is still struggling to accept her new role, both in society and in her home, as Ada’s plus one. Now that Agnes doesn’t control the family purse strings, she’s fallen a rung or two down on the social ladder. Ada (Cynthia Nixon) argues that she spent a lifetime as Agnes’s plus one, and somehow she survived. Agnes explains that the situation is different. See, Ada was always a spinster, while Agnes has experienced a fall from grace because her fortune was erased. It’s just not the same. “Perhaps I will find my place in Newport with Aurora and spend the rest of my days with society’s cast-offs and women of ill-repute. At least they’ll have wine,” she snarks, taking a dig at Ada’s new flirtation with temperance.
Read the rest of the recap HERE.
