Tag: The Gilded Age

The Tragic, Never-Told Love Story of A Gilded Age–Era Romance

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After Teddy’s announcement, Flora spent several nights at Sagamore. That fall, she confided to Quentin’s sister Ethel that “Everything just hurts nearly all of the whole time. There is no one I can talk to who half understands. It is all so lonely.” Her parents knew that she suffered. Yet in the hundreds of condolence letters to Flora from friends and family and other correspondence from this time, there are none between Flora and her parents that mention Quentin or his family. Despite this, one of the more poignant bronzes her mother made at this time is of Flora, seated quietly in an armchair, the curve of her body and downcast expression manifesting her pensive mood.

Flora and Teddy took solace in each other’s company. Teddy wrote to Flora that fall reminding her that “for as long as I live, I shall love you as if you were my own daughter.” During that time, Flora did some work for Teddy, who she called “the Colonel,” taking dictation and typing letters and other documents. In January 1919, Roosevelt died of an embolism. His death plunged Flora further into grief.

After that, Flora lived for a time with Quentin’s half-sister, the fiercely independent Alice Roosevelt Longworth, in Washington, DC, volunteering at the Women’s Republican Committee in the office of former congressman Ruth McCormick. In the summer of 1919, Flora’s parents urged her to go to France with her aunt, Dorothy Whitney, who had lost her husband Willard Straight in the influenza pandemic.

There the women visited Chaméry, where Quentin was buried. Flora’s grief came flooding back. Paris, though, lit up with post-war joie de vivre, was the perfect antidote. The women shopped on the rue de la Paix, heard Tosca at the Tuileries, and walked in the Bois. The days flew by until they sailed home from Southampton a month later. Flora felt a brimming lightness, her sprightly grin restored, a new swing in her step. Theodore Roosevelt was onto something when he wrote to his daughter-in-law Belle the summer before that “there is nothing to comfort Flora at the moment, but she is young. I most earnestly hope that time will be merciful to her and, in a few years, she will keep Quentin as only a memory of her golden youth…and that she will find happiness with another good and fine man.”

Our American Cemetery guide escorts us along a sea of marble headstones to Quentin’s grave. He is buried next to his oldest brother, Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr., who died of a heart attack in France at the end of World War II. Quentin is the only World War I pilot interred there, his remains moved in 1955 at the request of his family. Once we reach the grave, our guide attends to the noble task performed by volunteers for visiting family members and every year on the anniversary of D-Day. With a sponge, she rubs Omaha Beach sand over and into the incised letters on Quentin’s headstone. She carefully wipes off all but the sand impressed into the channels of his name, rank, unit, home state, and date of death, highlighting them. As a gentle fog rolls in from the Channel, bathing the cemetery in a soft haze, she plants two flags—one American, one French—on either side of the grave.

The American Cemetery’s unsettling serenity reminds one that freedom comes with responsibility and at a tremendous cost. Appalled by the barbarity of battle evoked in the sites I visited around Normandy’s beaches, I left awed at the courage of Quentin and Flora, and all those caught up in the war’s unpredictable forces.

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Fiona Donovan

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December 30, 2025
The Gilded Age Heiress Who Helped The Marijuana Movement

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Shows like Downtown Abbey, Palm Royale, and more have showed the big, big rich lives – and a few even touched the marijuana counterculture movement.

It seems we can’t get enough about the lives of the very rich. Shows including Downtown Abbey, Succession, the Gilded Age, and Palm Royale are all over and people are loving it. Ryan Murphy has done well and is just off his latest series Truman Vs.The Swans. All of this highlights the extremely well to do and how they live life. But did you know about the gilded age Heiress who helped the marijuana movement?

RELATED: Beer Sales Flatten Thanks To Marijuana

The Mellon family is in the rare category of being big then and still today. On the East Coast they continue to still have pull and cache like the “new money” Gates, Zuckerberg and Bezos. An old family from Pittsburgh, they made the start of it all in banking, the Mellon in today’s BNY Mellon. The family includes Andrew Mellon, one of the longest serving Treasury Secretaries, along with famous members in the judicial, banking, financial, business, and political professions. Bunny Mellon was one of the great philanthropists and art collectors. A dear friend of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, she designed a number of significant gardens, including the White House Rose Garden

But it was Peggy Mellon Hitchcock, another Mellon heiress who helped the counterculture. Her mother was a Mellon and her father, Thomas Hitchcock Jr., was a leading polo player and a partner at Lehman Brothers. Peggy was a spitfire and was as comfortable in the family’s many homes as in a smokey jazz club with artists. Spirited and fun she was always open to what’s new and what’s next. She had an unlikely relationship with Timothy O’Leary. She persuaded her brothers to let O’Leary have use of their joint family estate Daheim (also known as Millbrook or the Hitchcock estate).

RELATED: Cannabis Industry Employs The Same As These Companies

For 5 years, O’Leary, thanks to Peggy lived like a king and had guests including Allen Ginsberg, Charles Mingus, and R. D. Laing to the old monied manse. What went on is the stuff of legends with a blend of art, marijuana, money, new ideas, psychedelics, music and love. The The New York Times’ Luc Sante, described it as “a period filled with endless parties, epiphanies and breakdowns, emotional dramas of all sizes, and numerous raids and arrests.” Nina Grabol shared it was “a cross between a country club, a madhouse, a research institute, a monastery, and a Fellini movie set.”

Peggy was responsible for helping the counterculture rest, regroup, and move forward. Who knew this would be the early path to rescheduling?

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Sarah Johns

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May 2, 2024
10 Historical Dramas to Watch Now That We've Binged All of 'The Gilded Age'

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Now that the second season of HBO’s The Gilded Age is over, many fans are searching for the next lavish period drama to whisk us away from reality. The good news is there’s no shortage of historical dramas to choose from, from old favorites to newer offerings.

If you’re looking to fill the Bertha Russell-sized hole in your viewing schedule, why not try one of these?

Downton Abbey

(PBS)

Before there was The Gilded Age, there was Downton Abbey. This British television series was also created and co-written by Julian Fellowes, establishing the showrunner as a go-to person for historically accurate yet soapy dramas. The story follows the wealthy Crawley family and their staff living in an English castle in the country outside London. During its 6-season run, historical moments like the sinking of the Titanic, the Spanish Flu, the First World War, and the Irish War of Independence provided a contextual backdrop for the action. There are also two film adaptations: Downton Abbey (2019) and Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022).

Bridgerton

(Netflix)

From the moment we watched the first episode, it was clear that Bridgerton is no Downton Abbey! This romantic drama was adapted for Netflix from the series of eponymous novels written by Julia Quinn. It’s the first Shondaland scripted show for the streamer, and its record success made it a shoo-in for renewals. Seasons 3 and 4 are already in the works.

Bridgerton focuses on a wealthy British family during Britain’s Regency era who are going through the trials and tribulations of becoming part of polite society. While it shares the same gorgeous scenery and stunning costumes as Downton, the addition of modern music and racy sex scenes equal a totally different viewing experience.

The Underground Railroad

(Amazon Studios)

One thing we love about The Gilded Age is getting a rare glimpse into African American history at a time (and, let’s be honest, in a genre) when their stories are underrepresented. The Underground Railroad is different because it focuses solely on the story of how a network of abolitionists helped enslaved people escape to freedom in the 1800s. Thuso Mbedu plays Cora Randall, an enslaved woman who boards the train to freedom. This miniseries was directed by Barry Jenkins, who directed and co-wrote Moonlight, the independent drama that won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2016.

Outlander

(Starz)

If you like history, romance, and Scottish hunks, this is the show for you! Outlander is a television series based on the novel series by Diana Gabaldon. Gabaldon was a history professor before her books hit it big, and she took great care in maintaining historical accuracy even while utilizing time travel as a literary device. The show reflects this attention to detail, even as the action travels between continents and centuries. The story follows Claire Randall (Caitríona Balfe), a World War II nurse who accidentally time travels from 1945 to 1743, where she meets a sexy Highlander named Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan).

An 8th and final season is coming soon, as is a 10-episode prequel which will focus on Jamie’s parents.

The Crown

(Netflix)

Peter Morgan created this show about Queen Elizabeth II based on his own film, the 2006 critically acclaimed drama The Queen. It follows the story of Queen Elizabeth’s life from the time of her marriage in 1947 to the wedding of her son, Prince Charles, to Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005. This show has won numerous awards for cinematography, writing, and directing, but it’s the standout actors who’ve kept us riveted to the action over six seasons.

The Great

(Hulu)

First things first: The Great is not historically accurate. Not at all. What this show offers is a fun “alternate” history for Russia’s Empress Catherine the Great (Elle Fanning). Characters exist in a childlike fantasy world that bears little resemblance to reality, yet the show was praised for its humor and irreverence. The story was written by Tony McNamara based on his 2008 play, and it follows Catherine’s rise as the longest-reigning female Russian ruler in history, including her (fictional?) attempts to kill her psychotic husband, Emperor Peter III (Nicholas Hoult). In spite of a growing fan base, The Great was sadly canceled after its third season.

Belgravia

(Carnival Films)

Belgravia is another Fellowes creation, so you know it’s going to be good! This limited series is based on his 2016 novel of the same name, and it’s centered on a single night in June 1815. Just days before the Battle of Waterloo, London’s elite gathered at the Duchess of Richmond’s ball, sparking secrets and intrigue that follow an up-and-coming family for decades. A follow-up series written by Helen Edmundson entitled Belgravia: The Next Chapter will arrive on MGM+ on January 14, 2024.

Call The Midwife

(BBC ONE)

This long-running period drama series has been a staple on British television since 2012. Now entering its 13th season, Call the Midwife is about a group of nurse midwives and nuns caring for the poorest of the poor in London’s East End in the 1950s and 1960s. The series tackles important health topics like abortion, birth defects, religion, prejudice, and poverty with a kindness seldom seen on TV. Historical facts about the Baby Boom that followed the Second World War and other cultural touchstones give the show a realism that truly hits home.

Sanditon

(PBS)

In 1817, Jane Austin passed away before she could finish her latest novel, “Sanditon.” Two short centuries later, Andrew Davies finished the script and produced Sanditon, a British historical drama that centers around a young woman (Rose Williams) arriving at a seaside resort in a socially turbulent time. The first season was told in 8 episodes, and two more 6-episode seasons followed. Sadly, season 3 was Sanditon’s last.

Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story

(Netflix)

Finally, we head back to Shondaland for the follow-up to Bridgerton, Queen Charlotte. This Netflix prequel consists of just 6 hour-long episodes, but it packs a lot of fun into its short run. The show is based on Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, and it follows her marriage to King George III (Hamilton fans will remember him as “the mad king”) and the death of royal heir Princess Charlotte. Action jumps between a young Charlotte (India Amarteifio) and the Bridgerton-era Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) we know and love.

These should keep us busy for a while … at least until they announce a third season of The Gilded Age, anyway. Fingers crossed!

(featured image: HBO)

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Beverly Jenkins

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December 27, 2023
'The Gilded Age' Season 2 Finale: The Rise of Ada?

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Things in the van Rhijn household just got interesting! Season two of the HBO drama The Gilded Age ended with a major plot twist for the recently widowed Ada Forte, née Brook (Cynthia Nixon). This change guarantees a major shift in the power dynamic between Ada and her domineering sister, Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski). In other words, a possible season 3 just got a lot juicier!

Last week, Agnes’s son Oscar (Blake Ritson) confessed that he’d been swindled out of most of the family’s fortune by con artist Maud Beaton (Nicole Brydon Bloom). All seemed lost, and the final episode of the season opened with Agnes assessing the damage with her accountant. In this scene, the usually preternaturally composed matriarch loses her cool for the first time, barking at her son, “What do I care that you’re sorry? You ruin your mother and tip your family into the dirt. You throw away the work of centuries!”

As always, Ada sits silently as her sister berates Oscar, but her expression tells us she doesn’t agree with Agnes’s cruelness. This is a pattern we’ve seen time and again—Ada’s gentle and usually fruitless attempts to soften her sister’s bad temper. This season, when Ada met and married Reverend Luke Forte (Robert Sean Leonard), we finally saw Ada break away from her sister to become a more three dimensional character. It’s as if a light has been lit in her eyes, and everyone can see it except Agnes.

(HBO)

Later in the episode, Agnes gives viewers one more glimpse at the tender heart that beats beneath that stiff bodice. She instructs her entire staff to find other employment, and her nasty lady’s maid Mrs. Armstrong (Debra Monk) bemoans the lack of jobs for people her age to the other downstairs staff. When Miss Scott (Denée Benton) relays Armstrong’s message, Agnes privately offers her maid a place in whatever new household the van Rhijns can afford. Say what you will about her, but Agnes is nothing if not loyal.

Previously, I speculated that it could be Agnes’s investment in footman Jack Treacher’s (Ben Ahlers) clock invention that lifts the family out of their newfound poverty. While that plot line continues to develop with the van Rhijns’ wealthy next door neighbor Larry Russell (Harry Richardson) taking an interest in the project, this wasn’t the twist the showrunners chose. Instead of a serendipitous act of generosity saving the day, it was a surprise inheritance from a man who swore a vow of poverty before ever meeting his wife-to-be.

At the end of season two, Ada shares amazing news with Agnes and Marian (Louisa Jacobson): Father Luke left her oodles and oodles of money! So much money that “it’s almost too much,” according to Ada. There’s that gleam in her eyes again.

(HBO)

Before you can say, “Bannister!” the power shifts from Agnes’s hands to Ada’s. Agnes’s longtime butler (Simon Jones) immediately makes it clear that from now on, he’ll be taking orders from the new mistress of the house, a.k.a. the one who pays his salary. In an interview with Variety, the actors indicated that this change will make a potential season 3 a lot more fun to play.

“We did have a lot of fun supposing what might happen with Ada in the driver’s seat,” said Nixon. “She would throw open the doors of their mansion and make it a home for unwed mothers or stray cats or Bohemian artists or overseas missionaries.”

Co-writer and co-executive producer Sonja Warfield has a similar idea of how the new power dynamic will alter the entire series, telling Decider, “The servants are going to be looking to Miss Ada for order. It is not Agnes. That’s going to set off a whole new set of fireworks.”

Fingers crossed that we get a season 3! I can’t wait to see what Ada does once she’s in the driver’s seat. In the meantime, all episodes of seasons one and two of The Gilded Age are now streaming on HBO Max.

(featured image: HBO)

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Beverly Jenkins

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December 18, 2023
From Bertha Russell’s Opera Wars Victory to Aunt Ada’s Newfound Fortune, ‘The Gilded Age’ Stars Break Down the Season 2 Finale

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SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from the Season 2 finale of HBO’s “The Gilded Age,” now streaming on Max.

Bertha Russell, who never really cared for opera, can now watch Verdi from the best seat in the house.

Polite society’s battle royale ended with the New Money triumphing over the Old Guard, as “The Gilded Age” wrapped up its second season on Sunday. Mrs. Astor’s attempt to steal Bertha’s thunder by getting the Duke of Buckingham to attend the opening night of the Academy of Music instead of the Metropolitan Opera House ended in disaster. After Bertha made the cash-starved royal an offer he couldn’t refuse, he showed up box-side with her at the Metropolitan, gazing at her daughter Gladys as New York’s elite looked on. That left Mrs. Astor gazing down at row upon row of empty aisles at the Academy.

And that’s not the only big moment from an action-packed finale (well, by “Gilded Age” standards, where everything unfolds in the Julian Fellowes HBO drama at the frenetic pace of a leisurely stroll through a botanical garden). The van Rhijn family was saved from social ruin by an unexpected financial windfall, Peggy Scott was forced to sacrifice her dream job, and Marian Brook called off an ill-considered engagement, only to draw closer to the Russell’s son, Larry. Are wedding bells in their future?

To break it all down, and get some hints at what might come in a third season, Variety convened a roundtable of “The Gilded Age” stars Morgan Spector (George Russell), Carrie Coon (Bertha Russell), Louisa Jacobson (Marian Brook), Denée Benton (Peggy Scott), Cynthia Nixon (Ada Forte) and Christine Baranski (Agnes van Rhijn).

Has Mrs. Astor been deposed at the end of this season? Is Bertha the new queen bee of society because the Metropolitan Opera superseded the Academy of Music in popularity?

Carrie Coon: Yes. The opera war was a fierce battle, but Mrs. Astor always knew that she was going to have to yield at some point because the new money Bertha represents comes with such ungodly wealth. It’s just that Mrs. Astor wanted to yield in her own time, and in her own way. And somebody like Bertha is going to just keep pushing until those doors are thrown wide open for her.

And so I think Bertha recognizes that as long as she keeps this up, she’s going to get everything she wants. And it’s true. If you look at history, the people with the most money did get what they wanted. They still do.

Courtesy of HBO

This season ends in a moment of triumph for Bertha, just as the first one ended with her successfully luring Mrs. Astor to her ball. But this victory feels like it comes with a troubling undercurrent. By promising her daughter to the Duke of Buckingham, has Bertha crossed a moral line?

Coon: Morgan is very upset right now.

Morgan Spector: I just find it very disturbing, because I think in the next season, we’re going to go to war basically over this. I guess I’m hoping that Gladys [Taissa Farmiga] actually likes the duke.

Coon: Well, of course, the inspiration for Bertha is Alva Vanderbilt, who did this exact same thing to her own daughter Consuelo, marrying her off to this duke who she didn’t love, only to turn around a decade later and become a suffragette. That was infuriating for her daughter, to have her mom suddenly become a feminist.

Now you have to remember, in my eyes, Bertha is no villain. She’s looking out for her daughter in a world that is not built for her daughter. Bertha is going to make sure that her daughter is safely married and ensconced and supported financially. With his social position, her son is fine no matter what he does, but her daughter doesn’t have that freedom.

Christine Baranski: The same thing is true of Agnes in terms of [her obsession] with marrying off Marian. It’s why she’s so insistent that she play by the rules and find the right man or she will slip through the cracks. The stakes were very high for women in that society. If you got into that social circle, you held on for dear life. I mean, read “The House of Mirth.” It’s just a study of a woman’s position, and how it can start slipping away as you get older and you lose those opportunities.

Courtesy of HBO

In the finale, the roles of Agnes and Ada are dramatically reversed — Agnes’s son Oscar has been conned out of the family fortune, just as Ada comes into an unexpected financial windfall following the death of her husband, Rev. Forte. Where do you think their relationship goes from here?

Baranski: That is up to the writers, but it’s just the most delightful twist. That final scene with [the butler] Bannister deferring to Ada as the mistress of the house instead of Agnes. The ramifications of that are so huge.

Cynthia Nixon: We did have a lot of fun supposing what might happen with Ada in the driver’s seat. She would throw open the doors of their mansion and make it a home for unwed mothers or stray cats or Bohemian artists or overseas missionaries.

Baranski: Agnes will never leave her bedroom, and there’s the smell of cats all over the house.

Would Ada have been able to assert herself like she does in the finale if she hadn’t married Rev. Forte? How did that relationship change her?

Nixon: At the age that she is, the idea that she would find a man to love her is really startling to her. His love and belief in her, and his choosing of her out of all the women that were possible for him made her trust herself.

Peggy also has a very dramatic arc this season, where she falls in love with her boss, T. Thomas Fortune, who is a married man. What led her to sacrifice her dream job at the New York Globe?

Denée Benton: Peggy starts the season in such deep grief [over the death of her son], and she’s running away from her pain through her work. But that work forces her to run deeper into the grief of the country. Her time in the South [reporting on Booker T. Washington], it shapes her for the rest of the season. She experiences a life or death moment down there, and that centers her in a way.

So, instead of seeing her as walking away from her dreams at the Globe, I think she’s walking toward them. A lot of her life has been derailed by men — from her dad’s decisions about what to do with her son, to her husband leaving her. And now here’s T. Thomas Fortune, who she has strong feelings for, but who is married and unavailable. Only she’s not going to let her life be derailed by this man. It’s actually a step toward herself, even though it’s a step away from that gig.

Courtesy of HBO

Do you think Peggy was naive about the extent of the problems and violence in the South before she made that trip?

Benton: I think so, but it’s a naivete that came from a passion. You always want to think that your personal power is bigger than the oppression you’re walking into. And I think it was really easy for Peggy to be in New York with her ideas about how to solve things. And it was very humbling to be with Booker T. Washington and be like, no, no, no, these are not the same strategies for survival in your parts.

George obviously embodies this new kind of wealth and this harder-hitting type of businessman. It’s weird because as an audience member, we find ourselves really rooting for this rapacious capitalist. Why is he so seductive?

Nixon: I mean just look at Morgan!

Spector: The show offers a variety of fantasies in which the audience can immerse themselves. One of them is the fantasy of having nearly absolute power. That’s pretty seductive just on its face. When George has a problem, he solves it by dint of his own indomitable cleverness, as well as his seemingly bottomless bank account.

But he’s also honorable. He’s certainly not a leftist or a humanist in any way, but he has a code of ethics. It’s an honor among thieves approach, but that’s better than amoral corporate capitalism.

There’s a pivotal moment when George decides not to have the troops fire on the striking workers. It’s later revealed that there’s also a business strategy behind that decision. But in that moment, was he responding emotionally because he wanted to avert a tragedy, or was he just thinking about it in terms of dollars and cents?

Spector: It’s a little bit of both. He’s more farsighted than some of his business peers. And I think he sees that he’s going to have to come to some sort of sustainable truce with union power. And there’s also that scene where he goes to [the union leader] Henderson’s house, and he sees his family and starts to understand the conditions that his workers are living in. So when he sees the troops start to aim and he’s looking at that little kid who is standing with the strikers, he realizes that killing a child is a step too far.

Courtesy of HBO

Marian calls off her engagement to Dashiell. When did she realize he wasn’t the right person for her to marry?

Louisa Jacobson: It wasn’t love at first sight by any means. But after what she went through in Season 1 with Tom Raikes, she’s more open to the possibility of something that just makes sense and that is safer. And I think she tried a little bit to fall for Dashiell, and she got in too deep with his daughter and she didn’t think things through. So she has deep regrets about it when she breaks things off with him. But Dashiell, as she saw over the course of the season, he didn’t take her employment seriously. He didn’t want her to continue teaching watercolors when they are married. And that’s actually a big passion for Marian. It’s not just a flippant thing. So for him to be like, “Oh, it’s not serious,” is frustrating. And it made her realize, OK, I don’t feel good about this.

Why is Marian so drawn to Larry Russell?

Jacobson: She sees a similarity. Larry is also artistically minded, and has this interest in architecture. He wants to pave his own path. He doesn’t just want to follow in a family business. He’s sort of a free spirit. There’s an equality of interests there that’s really attractive to Marian.

Spector: They’re both searchers. They’re both still looking for the thing that’s going to be like their big purpose in life.

Would Marian be welcomed into the Russell family?

Coon: Marian would be a really good fit for the family. She’s ambitious like Bertha. Bertha has always liked Marian, and she’s stylish and modern in her thinking. She’s not afraid of this meritocracy that the Russell family is espousing.

Would Agnes be all right with that union?

Baranski: I can’t imagine how long it would take me to get down that aisle.

Courtesy of HBO

But Agnes seems changed by her experiences this season. In the last episode, she has this revealing monologue about how her social connections will soon vanish now that her money is gone. She’s very aware of the tenuous nature of her power and influence.

Baranski: This season, you begin to see the cracks form in her rigidity. With both her niece and her sister, she comes to understand that she cannot stop the tide of change. And that’s a wonderful thing to play as an actor – to see the emotion coming through, and realize that this woman is not necessarily made of stone. But you have to set up that strong sense of what her history is and what her purpose is and what her worldview is, and then you can let the water to start seeping through the cracks.

Many of your characters are based on historical figures. Does that give you a sense of where your story might end?

Coon: When I was presented with the possibility of doing the show, there was an accompanying document that Julian Fellowes had written up about where Bertha was possibly going. And because she’s very closely tied to Alva Vanderbilt, we know that Alva married her daughter off to a duke. And we also know eventually she became an advocate for voting rights for women and divorced her husband. I hope the writers don’t do that to this amazing marriage we have created with George and Bertha, but I think that’s a really interesting arc for Bertha.

Benton: And sometimes our biggest dreams can be limited by the history. Because originally the writers were really hoping that Peggy and T. Thomas Fortune would have a longer love story. But he was a real person with a wife, so there wasn’t as much runway. That was disappointing.

Baranski: His wife could die.

Spector: People got run over by carriages all the time.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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Varietybrentlang

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December 17, 2023
The Ending of 'The Gilded Age' Season 2 Changed the Game for Everyone

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Max’s The Gilded Age season 2 is officially over. They packed a lot of twists and turns into that finale, so let’s go over what it means for our favorite characters.

We love the glitz and glamour of The Gilded Age. There’s something about women warring over who has the best opera house while wearing over-the-top dresses that is a salve for my soul. Of course, there are other low-stakes dramas to enjoy. Who will everyone sit with during the tennis match in Newport? Will Bertha Russell finally find a maid who knows how to handle a tiara? And what, exactly, did the new Mrs. Winterton do before she married into old money? Although I am not sure how well The Gilded Age handled topics like Peggy going to the South or the union strikes, the show gave us plenty of rich people’s problems to obsess over. It’s time to unpack everything that happened in the last episode and how that will change the wealthy society of New York.

***SPOILERS AHEAD for The Gilded Age season 2 finale***

The Russells and the Opera War

Season 2 of The Gilded Age focused on the ostentatious Opera Wars between the old money Academy of Music and the new Metropolitan Opera. New money queen Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) waged a societal war against old money led by Mrs. Astor (Donna Murphy). It came down to both opera houses opening on the same night. Many undecided wealthy went where they thought they would see the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb). Those with any brains picked the Met because Bertha always wins. The Duke showed up, the Met was full, and the Academy was almost empty. Bertha won and shifted the center of upper-crust society. We knew she could do it.

But how did Bertha convince the Duke to pick her over the money and society offered by Mrs. Astor? Although it wasn’t explicitly said, many, including Bertha’s husband George (Morgan Spector), suspect Bertha offered her daughter Gladys’ (Taissa Farmiga) hand in marriage to the Duke. It will be an interesting point to play out since Gladys seems to have no romantic interest in the Duke. Earlier in the season, George offered to support Gladys’s choice of a husband since he wanted her to marry for love. Will this pit the two Russell parents against each other? George will also have his hands full with trying to outsmart the unions and appease other robber barons. If anyone can walk that tightrope, it is George.

The future of the Van Rhijn household

Of all the families in The Gilded Age, the Van Rhijn and Brook household may have had the wildest ride this season. Matriarch Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) usually has a tight rein on everything happening in her household. This season, she had to go through her niece Marian working as a teacher and getting engaged. Agnes’s spinster sister Ada (Cynthia Nixon) found love and got married, only for her husband to die.

The biggest drama occurred when Agnes’s son Oscar (Blake Ritson) lost most of the family money after being conned by Maud Beaton. A lawyer informs Agnes she must sell her house and get rid of most of the staff to survive on their limited means. Just as things looked grim for the house, an unexpected twist happened. Ada’s late husband had a vast fortune that he left to her. Now Agnes doesn’t need to sell the house and “nothing has to change.” Except, as Marion pointed out, Ada would now be in charge of the servants since she would be paying their salaries. On the surface, things will look the same in the Van Rhijn household. But Agnes will now technically be number two to her sister, something she’s never had to deal with before.

Some hope for the van Rhijn extended family

Marion had been unsure about her quick engagement to Cousin Dashiell (David Furr). She confirmed her doubts when she realized he was still in love with his deceased wife. So she ended things as cleanly as possible. This will hopefully be a good move for her, so she can figure out what path she wants to take in life. She also ended up kissing her friend Larry Russell (Harry Richardson). Good for you, Marion.

At least John “Jack” Trotter, a footman for the house, may have a bright future ahead of him. Throughout the season, he’s worked on improving how his alarm clock worked. The other staff members, and Agnes, supported Jack in his endeavor. Eventually, he received a patent on his escape wheel design and has plans to go into business with Larry Russell. He might turn into one of those rags-to-riches stories that America loves so much.

We want the best for Peggy Scott

Peggy Scott (Denée Benton) went through an emotional journey this season. Her son, who she thought was dead, ended up being alive. Except he sadly died of an illness before she could meet him. Peggy journeyed to the South with her newspaper boss and returned ready to be an activist. Getting her parents involved with her activism surrounding the Black schools proved to be good for all of them. Their relationships seem to be moving in a positive direction. Although her writing career is going great and she’s making a difference, she quit due to her romantic feelings for her boss. Her job at the van Rhijn house seems secure, but Peggy deserves to be a renowned writer. Maybe her dreams will come true when she finishes her book.

We don’t have confirmation on a season 3 for The Gilded Age, but the season ended in a way that another season would be warranted and welcomed. We need more silly hats!

(featured image: Max)

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D.R. Medlen

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December 17, 2023
Carrie Coon Loves Your Mean 'Gilded Age' Tweets

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Bertha Russell did the damn thing. In The Gilded Age’s second season finale, Carrie Coon’s ruthless robber baroness emerged the victor in the great war between her beloved Metropolitan Opera and The Academy of Music, championed by old-money society queen Lina Astor (played by Donna Murphy). Even those casually acquainted with American history most likely had an inkling as to who would reign supreme—these days, the Met is arguably New York’s grandest cultural institution, while the Academy of Music has gone the way of the dodo. Still, the battle was thrilling all the same.

“The stakes come from not knowing what the cost will be to each individual person,” Coon says over Zoom. “Also, a lot of people in the audience don’t know any of this history. They don’t know there’s a Metropolitan Opera in New York. I mean, that’s stuff that I didn’t know growing up in Ohio. I didn’t know there were mansions in Newport people lived in for six weeks in the summer.” She laughs at the extravagance. “Bananas.”

What’s bananas is Coon’s ferocious performance as Mrs. Russell, loosely based on historical millionaire-wife and Anderson Cooper relative Alva Vanderbilt. In a cast absolutely stacked with theater luminaries —including Murphy, Christine Baranski and Audra McDonald—Coon still stands out, enough to land a spot on Vanity Fair’s list of the best performances of 2023. She credits the love of her character partially to Bertha’s relationship with her husband, Mr. Russell, played by Morgan Spector, which she cheekily calls “#couplegoals.”

“I think people have found themselves rooting for robber barons in spite of themselves on the show, partly because Julian [Fellowes] has written such a solid, cohesive, sexy marriage,” says Coon. “Even as they are ruthless in the world of business and in their social climbing, they are ultimately looking out for their children. Bertha can’t be a senator. She can’t be a CEO. She’s not the president of anything. This is her purview.”

Below, Coon goes deep on filming season two’s grand finale, Gilded Age: The Musical, and potentially saying goodbye to the series for good.

The season finale seemed to strongly imply that Bertha offered up her daughter, Gladys (Taissa Farmiga), as a sacrificial lamb to get the Duke in his seat. Did she promise Gladys’s hand in marriage just to get him to come to the Met?

It’s not explicit, but we know how George feels about it. And we’ve seen many, many times that Bertha has done something in spite of George’s counsel. I think we can absolutely assume Bertha would, in a heartbeat, trade Gladys for that status.

Now, Bertha doesn’t see herself as any kind of villain. Bertha is gifting the city of New York a brand new opera house with the best singers in the world, and an entertaining evening with a Duke. And they were all anglophiles. Everyone was obsessed with British status. It’s the reason Mrs. Astor had the families of the 400—all the rules were social constructs designed to catch people out so they wouldn’t get entree into this society. You had to really learn those rules before you could play the game.

Bertha is a quick study, and she’s also willing to call bullshit when she sees it. She believes that people should be able to earn their way in. She believes she’s earned her way in, and she believes that she’s living in a meritocracy. For her, that’s true. For people of color and the immigrants being crushed under the capitalist machine, that was not true—but she really in her heart believes that. I think that’s why the rise of Turner (Kelley Curran) is so interesting, because, given the same circumstances, I think Bertha is not sure she could have accomplished what Turner has accomplished. I think that’s very intimidating for her.

It was exciting to see the Russells fight about Mrs. Turner’s indiscretions earlier in the season. During their fight, we saw a rare crack in Mrs. Russell’s emotional armor.

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Chris Murphy

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December 17, 2023
Being A Couch Potato Changes Your Personality

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While it is fun and mentally needed at times…but real couch potato personalities change and not necessarily for the better.

According to WHO, a sedentary lifestyle increases the risk of chronic conditions including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity, hypertension and more. It can also affect your mental health and increase the risk of depression and anxiety. Being isolated from regular people interesting can not only make your more boring, being couch potato changes your personality.

RELATED: Science Says Medical Marijuana Improves Quality Of Life

A French study, the largest of its kind, reveals something that will likely send shivers down the lazy spines of every inactive person. Researchers, using data on over 9,000 volunteers over two decades, found sedentary people in their experiment showed marked changes in character.

A team led by psychologist Yannick Stephan of the University of Montpellier studied participants across the United States and according to Scientific American:

Stephan and his team found that subjects who reported being less active had greater reductions on average in conscientiousness, openness, agreeableness and extroversion—four of the so-called Big Five personality traits—even after accounting for differences in baseline personality and health. No link was found with the fifth trait, neuroticism. The changes in traits were small, but the link with exercise was relatively strong. Physical activity predicted personality change better than disease burden did, for example.

“Personality is, in part, what [behaviors] we repeatedly do, and changes in habits can consolidate into changes in personality,” epidemiologist Markus Jokela of the University of Helsinki told SA.

Related: Cannabis Users Exercise Much More Than You Think

These findings support earlier evidence of adopting a sedentary lifestyle will make you less prone to new experiences and less conscientious in general.

As SA explains, “Additional factors, such as genetics or earlier life events, might be affecting both exercise levels and personality,” but it does support the notion personality is linked to health.

Not being couch potato doesn’t mean running the Tough Mudder annually, but it does mean getting out, doing things and meeting new people. And exposing your mind to new ideas, concepts and flavors….outsde of what you see on a screen.

So while exercise may not always seem like the most fun option in your day, it’s necessary if you want to be the kind of person who works hard and accomplishes life goals. Also, let’s acknowledge there’s a difference between being a couch potato and someone who’s enjoying a little R&R at the end of the day. Being on the couch streaming The Gilded Age, The Expanse, or another favorite show is perfectly ok, as long you don’t do it for weeks at a time.

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Amy Hansen

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December 6, 2023