The Gilded Age

2022 - 3 - 23

Post cover — Image courtesy of "TV Insider"

'The Gilded Age': 7 Questions We Need Answered in Season 2 (TV Insider)

The Season 1 finale of the HBO drama aired March 21.

Peggy and her mother, Dorothy ( Audra McDonald), confronted Arthur ( John Douglas Thompson) about the child before setting off to Philadelphia to find him. Aurora Fane ( Kelli O’Hara) informed Marian of Tom’s date at the opera. Marian spent the episode coordinating her secret wedding with the help of Mrs. Chamberlain ( Jeanne Tripplehorn) and Peggy, but it was all in vain.

The Gilded Age Season 1 Ending Explained: What Was Really ... (Cinema Blend)

Upon meeting Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson), lawyer Tom Raikes (Thomas Cocquerel) seems to have a crush on the young woman heading off to New York City.

It all comes to a head when Ms. Scott and her mother Dorothy (Audra McDonald) learn that the son she thought she’d lost in childbirth is alive and well. Through pressure exerted by herself and her husband George (Morgan Spector), all of the movers and shakers of The Gilded Age, including Aunt Agnes and Aunt Ada, show up for a good time. Oscar Van Rhijn is secretly in a relationship with John Adams (Claybourne Elder), the young man that he truly loves. With the clues pointing to the Philadelphia area, Dorothy and Peggy prepare to set out on their own, so that this child may know his mother. Though if you’re ready to venture into uncharted waters, check out the 2022 TV premiere dates to see what new shows are on deck to debut in the winter/spring seasons. Whether you’ve read through this rundown without seeing Season 1, or want to revisit Julian Fellowes’ new society saga from the first episode, all nine episodes are now a part of the best HBO Max shows offered on the platform. Throughout Season 1 of The Gilded Age, one of the major conflicts was the period appropriate battlefield of old money and new money fighting for power and influence. Whether the two will see each other again in the future is unknown, but just as Marian ran into her newly ex-fiancee at the society ball thrown by Mrs. Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon), a new suitor seemed to make himself known: her son, Larry (Harry Richardson). It was all in a bid to avoid scandal, which Mr. Scott still tries to maintain when he refuses to help his wife and daughter reunite their family. That agreement would be cashed in at Marian Brook’s greatest time of need, leading to a night that these young folks, and New York Society, would never forget. Now a cable TV hit, The Gilded Age has made a name for itself, and woven a story that’s had fans guessing to its resolution. Standing up Marian, with whom he arranged to elope, Mr. Raikes admits that he is to marry Cissie Bingham (Katherine Romans), a rich heiress that he’s spotted with in public the night before.

The Gilded Age season 2 potential release date, cast, plot, trailer ... (digitalspy.com)

Can the Russell Family keep their position at the top? Here's everything you need to know about The Gilded Age season 2.

This may be the season Marian really comes into her own. Christine Baranski has already expressed her willingness to return to the role of the formidable Mrs Agnes van Rhijn too, stating (via Town and Country): "We're all hoping that it goes on. As to when the anticipated second season will be with us, it's too early to tell. Well, the Russells of course. Season two has a lot to answer, not just about the Russells but also poor Peggy Scott (Denée Benton), who concluded the first season in search of her abducted child. They've had to endure threats to their reputation and accusations of manslaughter, but worst of all (and we do mean worst), they've been snubbed all over town, even on their very own doorstep.

Denée Benton on <i>The Gilded Age</i> Finale and Lifting Up Black ... (ELLE.com)

Denée Benton talks to ELLE.com about 'The Gilded Age,' Peggy's finale reveal, working with Audra McDonald, and advocating for Black women on and off screen.

I want to see Peggy's dad's pharmacy, I want to see Peggy in love, I want to see Peggy make mistakes. Meeting Audra, it was like a lifting of that veil like, welcome, here you are, and here we all are, and here we've always been. What I learn the more that I'm in this industry and educate myself is there have been Peggys all along, there have been Audras all along, there have been Diahann Carrolls all along and there have been Dr. Erica Dunbars all along. I think the whole driving force of Peggy is that she does think that her child is alive, at least that's the way I played it. The more I get to meet and work with my idols, I get to learn about the Black women that are in their corner and the Black women that they got support from to get to this point. They have this connection of knowing what it means to be dealt a hand that you have to finesse and make work for you. I really wanted her to make Black women feel proud and feel seen in the dynamic nature of her interiority. I am always of the mind that the more you tell the truth, the more we actually get to see humanity which is one of reasons I really loved the shoe scene and the way Louisa [Jacobson, who plays Marian] and I advocated to let Marian let the egg be on her face. I connected to Peggy so immediately off the page that I felt a sort of voracious protectiveness of her. The intention of Peggy was always there but some major changes occurred like my costumes, and how much we got to see my parents, and even the T. Thomas Fortune storyline being added in. We have this idea that the progressive, liberal-minded, modern woman is something that is new but people have always been attempting to be arbiters of their own freedom. It was a really collaborative process between me and Dr. Erica Dunbar, who is one of our co-executive producers and at the time was a historical consultant on the show.

'The Gilded Age' Finale Proved That Tom Raikes is a Loser (Decider)

'The Gilded Age' Season 1 finale revealed that Tom Raikes (Thomas Cocquerel) is a bad guy who just wants to marry money. I hate Mr. Raikes.

Twice? And he decides to uproot his whole world to live and work in the big city? I was tired of playing along with Julian Fellowes, humoring the writer’s rose-tinted view of Mr. Raikes. I couldn’t take another stolen stroll where we were supposed to be happy that Marion was turning her back on her own social opportunities to fawn over a middle class creep. In the first episode of The Gilded Age, Marion Brook is stunned to discover that her father has left her nothing but debt in his will. I was increasingly creeped out by the way Raikes just quits everything in his life and moves to New York City to chase Marion. They spoke, what? Like, read the room, Raikes. Marion is at her most vulnerable and you’re flirting with her? While it’s tragic that Marion was naive enough not to see it — or listen to Aunt Agnes ( Christine Baranski)!!! — I, for one, am so relieved that The Gilded Age doubled down on this storyline.

Brace Yourself for The Gilded Age Finale's Most Intense Moments (Vulture)

Rating the most intense moments of 'The Gilded Age' season-one finale, 'Let the Tournament Begin', from the French chef turning out to be a fraud to Mrs.

In a scheme ripped directly from the real-life interactions of Alva Vanderbilt and Caroline Schmerhorn Astor, Mrs. Russell uses Mrs. Astor’s daughter’s desire to dance at her big party against Mrs. Astor. First Mrs. Russell decides to go over to Mrs. Astor’s house to invite her, but Mrs. Astor doesn’t see her despite having time for another visitor. (Brutal!) So Mrs. Astor has go call on Mrs. Russell. At the end of it all, Mrs. Astor, with some egging on by Nathan Lane’s Ward McAllister, relents. Excitement-o-meter: Benton and McDonald are great together, but it’s wild to cram this much of soap-opera plot into the corner of this episode. Which is to say that at that moment, I, too, worried that the podium would be too small. The Gilded Age can barely manage to give the scene gravitas before getting back to matters it considers more important. Her mother, the great Audra McDonald, supports her after this discovery, and the two decide to head off to find the child over Peggy’s father’s objections. He shows up in front of Ada and Agnes, but Marian intercepts him and awkwardly shoos him away while Agnes grumbles that she feels like she watched something in a foreign language and Ada coos that she’s happy the kids are having fun. The child that her father told her died when she gave birth is in fact alive after all. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the grand finale of the show’s first season, in which a bunch of things happen at once and yet hardly anything happens at all. All season, Mrs. Russell liked to brag to everyone that she has a fancy French chef named Monsieur Baudin, played by Douglas Sills with an exaggerated French accent, which thankfully turns out to have been exaggerated on purpose. Marian arranges a secret meet-up at the house of her disgraced yet Degas-owning friend Mrs. Chamberlain, but as she’s plotting all this, Tony Award–Winning Actress Kelli O’Hara (her character’s name is Aurora Fane, but that’s not important) sees Raikes at the opera getting hot and heavy with another woman. Ceci n’est pas un chef français! He’s some guy named Josh Gordon from Kansas who was a merchant seaman, ended up in France, learned how to cook there, and just got addicted to the bit.