I’m still catching my breath from the most emotional and tense episode of all seasons of The Gilded Age, lamenting that we’ll only have one more before hoping for more in 2025. I was right – AGAIN – and Maud Beaton (Nicole Brydon Bloom) fooled everyone, even more so Oscar Van Rhijn (Blake Ritson), changing the entire game of the series.

A bridge unites Manhattan and Brooklyn, but society remains separate

We have to do a quick recap before focusing on where it deserves to be highlighted: the Van Rhijn house. Peggy Scott (Denée Scott), every day showing more and more signs of being in love with her married boss, is now leading the campaign to prevent schools run by blacks from being closed by the school board. Her relationship with her parents is getting better every day; the visits are more frequent, as are the parties. Lucky for her because by the end of the episode, her job with Agnes (Christine Baranski) was compromised.

Bertha (Carrie Coon) continues the war against Mrs. Astor (Donna Murphy), who tries to buy her by offering the box at the Academy of Music, but when that fails, she buys the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb), destabilizing the ambitious socialite. The world may be ending outside, with George (Morgan Spector) being threatened by businessmen and workers, but she doesn’t even notice. The competition only got fiercer!

Broken Hearts: truly and metaphorically

Marian (Louisa Jacobson) opens the episode unable to decide which dress to wear to the engagement lunch because it is obvious that she is anything but excited about the idea of marrying Dashiel (David Furr). Agnes signals that she is in a hurry, and Luke (Robert Sean Leonard), who has deteriorated at an unbelievable speed, is chosen to carry out the ceremony, but even so, they will have to hurry. In fact, they won’t have time. At the end of lunch, Luke becomes ill and never leaves his room at the Van Rhijn house again. Within hours, the doctors give u,p and he says goodbye to Ada (Cynthia Nixon), who stays by her husband’s side until her death. It was sad, even if it was as rushed as everything involving the reverend, one of the most touching moments in the series.

At the same time, we were tense as Oscar gradually discovered that he had been scammed, and worse, that he had used the entire Van Rhijn fortune in the schemes. That’s right, after despising the Russells’ fortune for being “new”, now Agnes is the one who has nothing: neither new nor old. No one knows the news, but they are still dizzy about Ada’s sudden widowhood. Luke’s funeral promises to be more tense and emotional than the Metropolitan premiere!

And the relationship we want most – Marian and Larry – is taking shape in the plot. Dashiell goes home, leaving an exhausted and tearful bride crying for the aunt she loves most, allowing Larry to cross the street, comfort her, and say everything the groom couldn’t. Simple things like ‘Are you okay?’, ‘Do you want to walk a little to breathe? ’ I don’t like it when Marian calls him “friend”, but every day the architect looks at the young teacher with more interest. Wake up, Marian! From the trailer for the final episode, we see that she accompanies him to the Metropolitan premiere… where is Dashiell?

And now? Theories multiply

Finally, Agnes gained the leading role I had asked for so much. Who cares about opera and dukes? The drama now is how the Van Rhijns will survive now that Oscar has lost everything. There are two widows and a single woman, several unemployed people, and many possibilities!

• Marian marries Dashiell to “save” her aunts. If it was already difficult for Marian, without a dowry, to find a good husband, she is now back to square one with Agnes’ bankruptcy. This makes Dashiell perhaps the only man who “accepts” the union because he seems to like her and is rich enough to keep her and help his aunts. To do so, Marian would have to sacrifice her dreams and her love life and live a marriage of convenience.
  
• Ada inherits a fortune from Luke. Because he is a reverend and had a simple life, we assume that Luke Forte was unable to do so, but the reading of the will could reverse the situation until then: Ada starts to support Agnes and the sister will have to swallow all the times she threw it in Ada’s face that “she” paid for everything and sacrificed herself to have money.
  
• Marian discovers that her father’s investment in the railways makes her a millionaire. It would be wonderful, but it looks more like General Brooks fell for a scam similar to Oscar’s. But it would be nice if she could have enough money to “escape” the marriage and still change the rules in the Van Rhijn household.
  
• Larry proposes to Marian. Dashiell may give up on Marian when he learns of the Van Rhijns’ shame, paving the way for a (now) impetuous Larry. So Marian would be happy in love, but she would have a mother-in-law angry with her son for choosing someone without money, and we would have Agnes having to accept help from the Russells’ fortune. Obviously, it is the theory that I like most.
  
  What is yours?

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