Last night's season finale of The Gilded Age left viewers with plenty of cliffhangers: Will Larry and Marian finally put aside the miscommunication that derailed their engagement? Will Peggy and William be able to enjoy their engagement without his mother ruining their love? Is Oscar about to enter into a lavender marriage with Bertha's sworn enemy? Will Clock Twink (Jack/John) and Bridget finally get together? There's so much to parse through, but the biggest remaining question is... are Bertha and George headed for a divorce of their own? The two have been off all season, and in the finale, George shows up for Bertha only to leave again afterward. She watches him drive away from their Newport mansion in tears.
Carrie Coon, who plays Bertha, spoke to Cosmopolitan about where the couple went wrong this season and how Bertha's experience of the shooting differs from George's.
"When George has this near death experience, she realizes how much she loves him and how they belong together," Carrie said. "But he has a real crisis of faith in his own decision making and his own values, and whether their values are aligned. They just end up in wildly different places. And Bertha really doesn't understand how that has impacted him psychologically. It's a little bit under-examined. It comes out of left field for Bertha, even though nothing really comes out of left field, if you really think about it."
To recap, they still don't technically know who shot George, and because they don't want to involve the police, the shooter is presumably still at large and whoever hired him still wants George dead. George made many sloppy mistakes this season, and in my opinion, leaving Bertha in this moment will end up being another one of them. We'll have to wait for season 4 (which is confirmed) to see how this plays out.
Elsewhere in the finale...
Aunt Ada finally gets her moment in the sun when Agnes allows her to sit at the head of the table at dinner. After all, she is paying for it!
Aunt Agnes learns that the woman from the historical society wasn't trying to shake her down for money, but actually wants to make her a vice president of the foundation. She's incredibly flattered.
Peggy accepts William Kirkland's proposal! But her father only gave his blessing with a warning about how marriage only exists between a man and his wife, not a man and his wife and his parents. William's dad, meanwhile, is working on putting Mrs. Kirkland in her place. Good luck to this newly engaged couple.
Oscar proposes a kind of lavender marriage to Mrs. Winterton, who you'll remember as the woman who tried to sleep with George. The proposal is simple: they live separate lives when they're not in New York, and when they're in New York, they play at being a power couple. He gets access to her money, and she gets access to his connections. Other than the whole love aspect (who needs it!?), it's a win-win!
Gladys is pregnant! So it turns out moms can be right sometimes. She and the Duke seem to be happy, and his sister Sarah has been kicked to the curb.
Larry and Marian seem to come to a resolution, but they never discuss whether their engagement is technically back on or not. They do share a dance at Bertha's ball, which feels like a makeup. We'll see!
Aurora Fane and Charlotte Astor both appear at Bertha's end of season ball. This is a huge deal because both of them are likely getting divorced, and Bertha made an exception to Mrs. Astor's own rule. Mrs. Astor, in an even more shocking move, showed up at the ball anyways.
Jack (or as I like to call him, Clock Twink) has moved into his new house, and when he comes back to have tea with the gang downstairs at the van Rhijn home, Bridget seems to realize how much she misses him and gets a bit jealous of the young women working in his home. She brings him a stew at his new place, and they share a very adorable meal together. He reminds her that in his house, she's not a servant, she's an equal. Raise your hand if you were chanting “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” during this scene, because I definitely was.
