The Gilded Age Recap: How to Buy a Duke
Things are coming to a head with Hector the Duke. He, George, and Hector’s lawyer (I want to say Steve? Phil? Philbert?) are negotiating the potential marriage settlement. George is very “shut up and take my money,” but Hector wants more money, more! Bertha implied there would be A Lot of It, and now the duke is grumpy that he’s only receiving immense riches and not fantastically immense riches. He walks out! Could Gladys be free of this ducal millstone around her neck? If you believe that, I have a bridge I can sell you. Not that I would; that’s very mean.
Bertha is nothing if not single-minded (and into tiaras, am I right?), and if step one was being accepted into high society and step two was beating Mrs. Astor at opera, step three is making the Duke of Buckingham marry her daughter. I’d say step four is profit, but they are in fact losing quite a bit of money with this offer, so. What if step four were “kill the president,” and we found out Bertha Russell was, in fact, behind the assassination of William McKinley? When asked why, she would say, “Because I could,” and then laugh maniacally, as society’s suppression of her ruthless ambition has led to a breakdown. Where else is she supposed to funnel it besides balls and cotillions and weddings and dastardly engineered political upheavals?
What I’m saying is that Bertha is going to make this marriage happen. I don’t know where Gladys’s optimism about her future even comes from here. Really? You think your mother has been stopped? Have you met her? Have you seen literally anything she’s accomplished in the last two years?
Other people who cross Bertha include Larry and Marian, who are seen smooching by Bertha’s lady’s maid. Marian panics, as she should, and tells Ada what happened. Ada is like, whoa, I thought you were going to be cautious, which is not helpful, Ada. But then she tells Marian that maybe this will help Marian decide whether she wants to move forward with Larry or not. Look, if I’d been engaged as many times as Marian, I would also feel cautious; but then don’t go smoochin’ in parlors outside your own home! This is clearly also Larry’s fault, but he’s not worried, because he’s not a woman, and his reputation is tied to how his handkerchief is worn in his front pocket. I don’t know, whatever he said in his queer-coded little conversation with Jack during the suit fitting.
Speaking of Ada, however, she and Agnes are still grappling with feelings about who holds power in the house now. Agnes is pretty sure it’s still her, despite the new answer to “who pays for everything,” and Ada is getting increasingly annoyed. Agnes’s name was left off a charity list, and Ada’s, like, well, you’re implied. I’m sorry, Ada, but you gave them money; you are fully about to write them a note and add Agnes’s name to the list. If Ada doesn’t want to go, that’s another thing. Agnes goes off on a verbal flight of fancy, saying she will have to live in Newport with society’s castoffs and women of ill repute. “At least they’ll have wine,” she says in a Baranskiesque tone.
Ada is also upset that, in the entire household, only Miss Armstrong signed the temperance pledge. Agnes is furious and summons Armstrong, who says, “Alcohol has destroyed many lives and brought whole families to ruin. You’ve never noticed I don’t drink?” To which Agnes retorts, “I’ve noticed you’re no fun.” Again, pot shots! Identity theft is not a joke, Jim! Are we really, in the year 2025, still making jokes about people who don’t drink? To that I say, “Mmm. Interesting.”
Is anyone really interested in Clock Boy’s storyline? He tries to sell his clock and he’s sad it doesn’t immediately sell, and then Miss Armstrong has a stirring moment of humanity towards him and we all feel a little nice.
Meanwhile, Peggy is in Newport, staying with her parents at her mother’s cousin’s house. This cousin is delightfully named “Athena Trumbo,” which the show makes literally zero hay of. Okay, guys. I would constantly have my characters being like, “Why yes, Mrs. Trumbo.” “Oh, Athena Trumbo, you shouldn’t have.” “I said to them, I said, you will make this happen or my name isn’t Mrs. Athena Adelaide Trumbo III.” And so on.
So they’re at Athena’s house, and Peggy receives a note from Dr. William Kirkland, the nice doctor who helped her recover at Ada and Agnes’s house. He is also in Newport and would like to visit. This scene is a delight, and I love Dorothy and Athena together. Also, William is played by Jordan Donica, another musical theatre luminary. He was nominated for a Tony for playing Lancelot in Camelot. The same production where Phillipa Soo played Guenevere! And who played Natasha in Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 after Phillipa Soo when the show went to Broadway? Yes, it was Denée Benton, a.k.a. Peggy. Connections!!
Peggy and William go for a walk on the rocky shore, where Jordan Donica tries a speaking cadence that I can only describe as “chortling gentleman.” He invites Peggy and her family to a party at his family’s home. At this party, we discover that William’s family is condescending and guilty of colorism. But it’s complicated as a viewer because his parents are PHYLICIA RASHAD AND BRIAN STOKES MITCHELL? They meet Peggy’s parents, so Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell, the breakout stars of 1998’s Ragtime, are in a scene together. Stokes and McD! Back together again. This is a big moment for us. But also, can you imagine Phylicia Rashad standing in front of you? I would pass right the fuck out.
The main “I’m terrible” culprit is Mrs. Kirkland, who immediately talks about her family living in Newport for five generations, talks down to Peggy’s father for being formerly enslaved and building an entire life and business for himself, and then scolds the governess for taking her grandchildren outside without an umbrella, because “the last thing they need is more sun.” OH, NO. When the Scotts get home, they talk about how much Mrs. Kirkland sucks. Arthur expresses his concern that William’s family won’t accept Peggy. Complicated relationship situations abound!
And we’re back to Gladys and Hector. George offers Hector more money, but the extra is to give Gladys an income. Hector is like, but then money not mine? George is disappointed that Hector does not seem to give one single fig about Gladys and doesn’t change his offer. The next morning, Hector declares he’s off to stay elsewhere, and Bertha is so mad that she tells everyone she will have her coffee in the drawing room, away from the breakfast room with everyone and their “driving away dukes” antics.
This isn’t helped by Bertha’s lady’s maid snitching about Larry kissing Marian, so now Bertha is on the lookout for any shenanigans. But who can look out for shenanigans when they have tiaras to wear to the opera? Bertha and Gladys go to the opera, which seems to be French and therefore is probably by Meyerbeer? (Yes, he’s German; opera’s weird, don’t worry about it.) Hector is there, flirting with Martha Delancey, whose father is big in banking and shipping. Later that night, Bertha sits in bed, staring blankly into the void until George comes in. He’s annoyed about the whole duke marriage business, but Bertha says that winning in business and winning in society are linked. She tries to get him to bang, but George says he’s tired and leaves. Cracks! Cracks in the facade! (The gilded facade?)
Bertha invites Mr. Delancey over in George’s name, and then implies she’ll ruin him if Martha marries the duke. He says he doesn’t want his daughter to be an ocean away from him, and Bertha (likely laughing scornfully on the inside) is delighted. She asks for his card and mentions that Larry danced with Martha once. Trouble ahead for the Larry/Marian shippers! Do those exist? They must. People love young people doing things.
George and Bertha and the duke (together and separately) have conversations about money and Gladys’s future, and Bertha tells the duke that he can take Gladys’s allowance, because, as my wife frequently reminds me, “What’s yours is mine, babyyyyyy.” The duke agrees to the marriage settlement. Gladys is thunderstruck. She and Hector sit down to talk and he says he genuinely wants her to be happy. I, personally, am extremely gullible, and despite everything else that has happened in this episode, am like, “Hey, maybe this’ll work out!”
John Singer Sargent unveils Gladys’s portrait. “Mahvelous,” says the duke. George announces the engagement. Everybody golf claps. Bertha says she intends to make it the wedding of the century, and Gladys anxiously fidgets with her pearl choker and it breaks. A subtle metaphor from our subtle show!
Gossip Items for Mrs. Astor’s Next Ball
• Ada Forte’s cook is introducing her to a medium soon and I could die of excitement.
• Why can’t the course of “I just met this person and now I love them” ever run smoothly?
• Will Gladys confound history and have a stellar marriage, one day falling at her mother’s feet and thanking her for her intense control of Gladys’s life, as Bertha was right all along? I mean, probably not, but perhaps!!