‘The Gilded Age’ Ends Season 2 With a Long-Awaited Romantic Triumph

(Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Gilded Age Season 2 finale.)

It might be a universal truth that what comes up must come down, but in The Gilded Age it seems that even nature itself bends to the van Rhijn household’s will. Just one week after the family’s sole male heir squandered the family fortune on a bogus investment—threatening the family with a not-destitute-but-also-not-luxurious existence—it turns out their futures are once again secure, all thanks to the untimely death of spinster Ada’s newfound love. If only Alanis Morissette had been around in the 1800s to see this.

Just when Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) thinks it was time to give up any clothes that require a maid to button, her younger sister Ada (Cynthia Nixon) shares the bittersweet news: Apparently, her dearly departed husband Luke Forte (Robert Sean Leonard) was not only a reverend but also the grandson of a textile magnate, and as such, he left her in charge of a massive sum of money when he died last week from cancer. As relieved as Agnes seems to be that she no longer needs to let go of her staff, she seemed less thrilled when she realized that said staff now reports to her younger sister and not herself. My, my, my how the tables have turned…

This is just one of many major twists this week, as Max’s historical drama closes out its second season. It’s the opening weekend for both the Academy of Music and the new-money upstart Bertha Russell’s (Carrie Coon) pet project, the Metropolitan Opera, and that means that everyone’s breaking out their fluffiest, frilliest dresses as they prepare for battle. Peggy (Denée Benton) is parting ways from Mr. Fortune (Sullivan Jones) after that secret kiss they shared a couple weeks back, and meanwhile, her friend Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson) decides to end her engagement with her not-cousin Dashiell Montgomery (David Furr) and finally plants a smooch on her hot neighbor, Bertha’s son Larry (Harry Richardson).

In other words, the end of this season promises new beginnings for almost everyone—whether they like it or not.

Bertha’s daughter, Gladys (Taissa Farmiga), seems very happy right now, but she might soon be in the “not” camp. She’s got a flirtation going on with her dance party buddy, but her mother appears to have used her as a bargaining chip to make sure the Duke attended her Met opening. What’s been promised remains unclear, but the implications are pretty sinister. Is Gladys ready to get married off to a Duke? She might soon find out—and it’ll be interesting to see how Mr. Russell (Morgan Spector) feels about that, given how staunchly he insisted earlier this season that his daughter marry for love. Did Bertha not get that memo, or… ?

All of that said, we’ve gotta give Bertha this: She’s been an excellent stylist for Gladys all season, and especially during the finale. That lavender dress with the poofy, feathery sleeves would feel right at home at the Met Gala to this day.

History and the Met Gala have already spoiled the outcome of this opera house showdown: The Academy is doomed to obsolescence, as foreshadowed by all those empty seats on its opening night. Bertha’s frenemy Mrs. Astor (Donna Murphy) had hoped to squash her and the Met like bugs under her pricey shoes, but as Mrs. Astor’s ally Ward McAllister (Nathan Lane) put it in his absurdly thick Southern drawl while quoting Ecclesiastes, “For everythang, there is a season”—and now begins the Season of the Met.

Peggy, meanwhile, is on a different kind of mission: She’s determined to stop Manhattan’s School Board from closing a group of Black schools on the grounds that their instructors are “inferior” to white teachers, and even though the institution’s white leaders moved the meeting time, Peggy and her allies manage to show up anyway and save two out of three schools. The triumph does not beget too much celebrating, however, because in spite of their success, Peggy also decides it’s time to break things off with her editor, Mr. Fortune.

The writing has been on the wall ever since these two kissed in a barn during their work trip to Alabama, but this week, Peggy ran into Fortune’s wife and child—which apparently solidified for her that the only path forward is for them to stop working together. “We both have work to do,” she said, “and we need no distractions.” She’s not wrong, but it’s still a massive bummer.

Peggy’s BFF Marian has way better luck this week in the love department, but first, she has to turn down her dud of a fiancé. Dashiell seemed like a good enough suitor at first, but then he said that thing about not warning her to work, and this week, he called her “Harriet” by mistake. (Lest any of us forget, that would be the name of his late wife—eek!) Marian, who is understandably less than eager to become a kept woman living in her dead predecessor’s shadow, tells Dashiell that she wants to “do some good in the world before I settle down,” and that she’s not so eager to become a stopgap.

Good for her! But even more importantly, after that, she and Larry make good on their long-simmering chemistry and finally kiss. It’s brief, and the footman Jack (Ben Ahlers) interrupts them, but of all the plot threads left dangling to tantalize us back for Season 3, this is by far the most promising. Let’s just hope no one’s nosy relatives mess this one up. Looking at you, Agnes.

And speaking of Jack, the patent office finally approved his alarm clock! (Honestly, thank God, because that ongoing tick-tock in the background of this season was getting a little tiresome.) Larry is eager to help Jack take his new product out into the world, but is it wise for these two to start a business relationship just as Larry starts dating Jack’s boss? We’ll see how that goes, but there is that whole saying about mixing business with pleasure…

So, where does this leave us going into next season? Agnes is no doubt relieved to know she won’t need to pack her bags and move to “the Jewish Quarter,” as she groaned with dread at the start of this week, but will she really be able to stomach feeling subordinate to her younger sister now that she controls the family finances? Now that Peggy’s stymied a crooked government initiative, she’s free to tackle her first solo project without Mr. Fortune. While Gladys might finally need to go head-to-head with Mommy Dearest about the future of her love life, Marian and Larry are clearly endgame and will hopefully delight us with their fated love for many episodes to come.

But what will Bertha do, now that she’s won her battle against Mrs. Astor? Something tells me she won’t be retiring to her parlor anytime soon to practice needlepoint, but whatever it is she gets up to, let’s just hope that Turner is still around to torment her about it; their incredible feud has truly been the gift that keeps on giving. Until next time, let us all pack our floral themed hats into their boxes, check in on our own neighborhood gossip, and always remember to double-check the soup at parties.