Browsing Reddit is a festival of spoilers, but also full of interesting discussions. The divide among The Gilded Age fans over how Bertha will deal with Marian and Larry is clear: viewers refuse to believe that the ambitious socialite will oppose what we’ve all wanted since season one. There has to be drama, right? But all of this leads to another thought — today, I want to analyze the revelations from the synopses of episodes 3 through 5. Let’s go?

Episode 3 – Love Is Never Easy

As negotiations begin to unravel, George confronts Bertha about her plans for Gladys – and the inadvertent impact they’re having on his business.
Meanwhile, the Scotts meet the Kirklands in Newport, Ada encourages the staff to sign a temperance pledge, Agnes laments her slow exclusion from society, and Larry invites Jack to a meeting with a potential investor.

If Bertha thinks seducing George and lying to her husband will help her, she’s mistaken. Without anyone’s knowledge or approval, she made a dowry deal with the Duke of Buckingham, and meddling in the Russells’ finances without prior agreement can only go badly.

George is a rational man — we’ve never seen him make decisions based on emotion. Every time he has to step into the fights between Bertha and Gladys, he’s tactful with both, but Bertha considers herself smarter than her husband. He may understand the ambition and prestige of having a daughter with a noble title, but he sees the price in business terms: if it’s a good deal, fine — but with a broke Duke, the profitable terms involve more than showing up at the opera and gaining access to the Russell fortune through marriage. That standoff puts him in a better position not to go against either Gladys or Bertha: he just wants a deal that makes sense — and the one Bertha arranged doesn’t.

Ironically, Bertha is planting deeper issues in her own marriage than she realizes. She calls Gladys immature, but aside from her social savvy, she’s been acting like a spoiled and foolish girl herself. Her obsession with adulation and fame might distance her from George, who only plays the game if it pays off.

The synopsis doesn’t mention it, but from the trailer, we know that Marian and Gladys will talk again about arranged marriages and social expectations.

The two are friends, but Gladys’ best friend is Carrie Astor, which doesn’t make Marian her confidante. Still, last season — back in the pre-Duke days — Gladys was considering marrying for love.

Of course, the first option (Archie) was dismissed because he left (and she didn’t find it odd that it happened right after speaking to George), then she almost married Oscar Van Rhijn just to escape Bertha’s control. Then came Billy, and she deluded herself into thinking she’d be happy — so much so that she pitied Marian when they crossed paths in Newport, fleeing a drunk suitor and accepting attention from Dashiel Montgomery, whom she got engaged to “out of politeness,” because she wanted to do what was expected. A few months later, everything flipped.

Gladys is all emotion and impulse — she’ll surely pressure Marian about Larry, but Marian is maturing. She may be irritated with Agnes, but she’s trying to align herself with her aunt’s guidance, who “is never wrong.” It was Agnes who saw through Tom Raikes as inappropriate and explained that marriage to Dashiel was the closest thing to a happy ending she could have, given her social condition. Still, she didn’t want her miserable in a union where the ghost of his ex-wife would loom large. The issue now is that, having gone through all that publicly, Marian can’t afford to make another mistake. Larry is the right man — but is the timing right? More importantly, what will his family think? We know…

In the Van Rhijn household, the effects of economic changes have been strong. Ada, dazzled by her leadership role, reveals herself to be immature and passive-aggressive. She spent years criticizing her sister for being controlling — now she’s doing the same, only with a veneer of gentleness. And once she realizes not everyone follows her lead, she’ll be disappointed.

As for Agnes, it doesn’t quite make sense that she’d feel excluded — after all, Oscar’s financial scandal didn’t isolate her at Aurora Fane’s party. Unless Marian’s divorce affects the Fortes, Brooks, and Van Rhijns. Could it?

Leaving Manhattan, we’ll be in Newport, this time following Peggy Scott, who will spend the summer by the sea to recover her health and stay close to Dr. Kirkland. Unfortunately, his family may not be quick to approve of her.

And Larry and Jack are making business moves! I laughed at Larry channeling his father while buying a suit for his friend — even though online chatter has screamed “flirtation.” Larry, all-knowing and business-savvy, didn’t quite convince me, but it was fun to see this side of him. At one point, I even thought he might scam Jack.

I have the synopses for the upcoming episodes and will upload them gradually. Here are my scattered thoughts on how things are unfolding:

• Bertha and George will clash because she meddles with the Russell fortune. He tolerates when she manipulates the children, but money? Nope.
  We cannot romanticize this couple at all…
  
• Gladys: following Consuelo Vanderbilt’s story, her future isn’t promising. Maybe if it turned into Jennie Jerome’s path — but neither was happy with titles or husbands.
  
• According to actress Taissa Farmiga, Gladys and Bertha will fight until episode 6, when Bertha “changes” and helps her daughter. How? Why? We’ll have to wait and see — but there will be a wedding with the Duke, and that will shift the dynamic.
  
• Marian and Larry will face challenges. Agnes may not approve of “new money,” but she knows her niece is romantic and has limited options. Her voice, even in disapproval, holds little weight. Especially now that Ada knows and approves.

No, the drama comes from the Russell side. Bertha likes/tolerates Marian, but never saw her as a friend or daughter-in-law. Even knowing that Tom Raikes was Marian’s “boyfriend,” she invited him to an event where he met his future wife — simply to pair up the numbers — and left Marian out of the group. If she didn’t consider Marian even then, why would she now think her worthy of her children? At no point has Bertha pretended she wants a princess or millionaire for Larry.

To make matters worse, Bertha knows about Raikes and Marian’s engagement to Dashiel. Given that engagement was a metaphor for the promise of sex, a “formerly engaged” woman was considered “used,” and if she didn’t marry, she lost value. For Larry to marry Marian, he’ll have to fight for her.

The business venture with Jack is vital for our favorite couple: once Larry has his own fortune, no material threat from Bertha can touch him, and Marian has never cared about material things. We need to root for Jack, folks!