Miss Turner’s (Kelley Curran) last scene at the Russells’ house was prophetic: “Perhaps we’ll meet again,” she tells George (Morgan Spector). “I doubt it,” he responds to a mysterious, smiling Turner. Was there any doubt that the envious and ambitious maid would return to disturb the lives of her former employers in The Gilded Age? I didn’t have any, but I was surprised at how it turned out. Watch out for spoilers.

If it weren’t for the journalists who had access to the full season and had their tongues wagging, we might have considered Turner’s return, but not in the surprising way she did. When they announced the cast for the return of The Gilded Age, it was made official that the only actor from the first who would not be in the cast would be Thomas Cocquerel, who played Tom Raikes. Thus, I was already warned that Bertha’s former maid would reappear. The disclaimer is to defend the spoiler, which makes sense when we remember what Turner’s time in the series was like and how little we know about it.

I always emphasize that nothing that is said on stage, especially in the first scenes, stops being signs for the story. I still believe that one day Marian will be discovered as a millionaire (after all, her father invested in railroads) and I wasn’t wrong that Tom Raikes wasn’t a good guy (I’m a real-world Agnes-wannabe, I’m not wrong), but I was wrong about the role of Turner’s return. I thought that, out of double revenge for being rejected by George and fired by Bertha (Carrie Coon), she would try to bring them down by exposing the rot in his business. It won’t be like that, apparently.

In the first scene, where we hear a few words from Bertha’s personal housekeeper, we discover that she was hired after having worked for a traditional and wealthy New York family, the Griswolds. At this point, Turner (we haven’t yet learned her first name!) still seems to root for Bertha, although she is harsh in her criticism of what Bertha is “lacking” and what “money can’t buy”. It is Turner who teaches Bertha how to dress, who to invite, and how to act before the millionaire finds another mentor in Ward McAllister (Nathan Lane). Everything conspires to increase the almost inexplicable hurt that she has harbored since the beginning.

When Bertha decides to open the house for an intimate reception of 200 guests, Turner anticipates that “IF” anyone comes, it will be out of curiosity about the house and not the hostess, to which everyone reacts, shocked by the sincerity. “Milady doesn’t understand how these things should be managed,” she says. “She’s not one of them,” Turner continues. The massive absence of guests proves her theory.

And who are “they”? Turner’s former employer, Mrs. Grinwold, is one of them. She lived on 50th Street, and as the chambermaid imagines, “Mrs. Grinwold wouldn’t go anywhere near” the Russells’ house. “Milady [Bertha] is not part of the big game, no matter what she says,” Turner explains tartly. “She doesn’t have the manners of real people and can’t learn. Mrs. Grinwold would see her true nature in no time,” she continues.

And why isn’t she with her perfect boss anymore? Because she died of a heart attack just as she was changing for Mrs. Astor’s (Donna Murphy) ball. “It was very difficult for Mr. Grinwold,” she says dismissively, “Because he wanted to go to the ball.”

Keep those words in mind; they will make sense soon.

We then see that Turner is irritated by all of Bertha’s failures, who has ambitions similar to her own and is even more in a hurry to achieve her goal. “This house is crazy, she built a palace to entertain the kind of people who will never come here”, we hear Turner complain in another episode, although she says she is indifferent to her boss’s success. “Failure is contagious; it catches you if you’re not careful,” she theorizes.

At this moment, we see that Turner’s strategy is to “steal” George from Bertha, becoming the boss’s lover. A strategy that fails because the Russells’ union is genuine in everything: love and ambition. Because Bertha feels dependent on Turner’s tips, George doesn’t reveal anything to his wife, creating a trap that we know will prove problematic. All employees realize that Turner is chasing the boss, but they don’t know if she is successful or not.

If it wasn’t something personal against Bertha, after the rejection, it becomes 100% about destroying her. Turner partners with Oscar Van Rhijn (Blake Ritson) to help him win over Gladys (Taissa Farmiga) and the map she creates for him is perfect: first win over the girl and then please the father. Although Bertha is in charge of the family, George will try to help his daughter be happy. This consultancy is paid, of course, to an increasingly irritated Turner, who is sure she is “wasting her time” with the Russells.

Chance and misunderstanding get in the way of her plans. Turner is seen with Oscar in more intimate gestures than expected between employees and people with money, but not by whom she imagines. The one who sees the two is Mrs. Armstrong, who reports them to Agnes (Christina Baranski), who immediately assumes that her son is having an affair with a servant, therefore demanding that Bertha fire Turner immediately. The one who gives the message, in a truncated way because she disagrees with the interference, is Marian (Louisa Jacobson), who clumsily omits Oscar’s name. Unfortunately for Turner, Bertha then sees her being very “familiar” with Larry (Harry Richardson) and starts to agree to the dismissal (much to the relief of George, who, even so, does not tell the truth).

As expected, Turner has no idea what happened and believes that Bertha is jealous of her, leaving the house not only hurt but wishing the worst for her ex-boss. Ready to see if she’ll make her way back?

This season, Turner returns married to a rich man and – like Bertha – will try to move up in New York society. However, although Bertha defends the thesis that the old guard cannot get away with banning newcomers from circulating, she will experience prejudice when she has to live with the former chambermaid. That’s as far as all the journalists anticipated, but we can theorize further, right?

My bet is that Turner would return as none other than the new Mrs. Grinwold. I know, I know, but the sudden heart attack of her former employer and the widower’s reaction of indifference seemed extremely suspicious to me. Also, the logical deduction due to Turner’s strategy of trying to seduce George was that she had tried it before. But no… she is the new Mrs. Winterton and she’s coming to Bertha’s Newport Ball.

Opposite to Bertha, Turner knows all the “rules” to compensate for her lack of pedigree, in addition to knowing more secrets of the Russells’ house as well, so she can be a nightmare. She knows how to expose Bertha, how to create a headache for George, and still interfere with Gladys. In other words: come back soon, Turner! I can’t wait for this shake-up in The Gilded Age!

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