Are we ready to start saying goodbye to The Gilded Age? I’m not. I love the escapism and drama of this series! And let me say more: although season 4 hasn’t been officially announced, the way things are going, it seems like a done deal. Let’s hope they don’t dare end it with Marian and Larry apart! After all, everything suggests their crisis won’t be resolved just yet.

So, I’ll take a stab at guessing what we’ll see on Sunday, the 27th, based on the synopsis. Here we go:

“If You Want to Cook an Omelette”

While Bertha encourages Gladys to stand up for herself and her new husband,

George faces a difficult battle to secure the railway line through Chicago.

Larry obtains information that leads Oscar to a long-awaited confrontation — but it raises questions for Marian.

Later, Peggy confides in Dr. Kirkland about her past,

and Ada has a heartfelt conversation with Jack about his future.

The episode title uses the expression “If you want to cook an omelette,” but stops short of completing it (“you have to break some eggs”), and we already know it’s Bertha who will say it to Gladys as she helps her deal with Lady Sarah.

And that’s precisely the point: when Bertha negotiated the marriage between Gladys and Hector, Lady Sarah wasn’t in the picture. The Duke’s sister only showed up at the church ceremony, oozing snobbery and disdain wherever she went. Worse, if it weren’t for Aunt Monica (Bertha’s sister), no one would even know Lady Sarah lived with her brother and planned to retain control over the castle.

Bertha has been so caught up in her own success that she failed to notice the enormous red flag — more like purple — that this marriage would bring to Gladys. Let’s be honest: Bertha never prepared Gladys for anything. She treated her like a doll up until the moment she shipped her off to England in a costly arranged marriage with no real future. George, who tried to derail the deal but still carries some blame, knew Gladys would suffer. No one’s truly surprised.

For those following the season’s spoilers — the actors have let a lot slip, especially Carrie Coon — we already knew that in this episode, mother and daughter would finally be on the same page. Taissa Farmiga hinted as much. Images show Bertha putting Lady Sarah in her place and teaching Gladys to do the same. And it’s not even that hard: Gladys’s extra inheritance can only be shared if she agrees, which means both Hector and Lady Sarah will have to play by her rules. I’m betting on some satisfying laughs once the show shifts across the Atlantic.

Each season, we’ve seen that George only really deals with high-stakes business, with Clay always taking the brunt of his outbursts. But Clay’s closeness to our “Railroad Daddy” gave him access to privileged information and a deep understanding of his former boss’s temperament and thought process. It was obvious Clay wouldn’t exit the stage without revenge — and we see him in the trailer openly acting against George.

The synopsis hints that Chicago will be George’s biggest headache in this episode, so expect a renewed encounter with the Merricks — most likely through Alfred (a.k.a. Bertha’s #1 fan).

The hint that Larry will bring Oscar more information to confront Maud Beaton seems to belong to the previous episode, but Larians of the world, beware: Marian is going to find out that Larry lied to her (saying he was dining with friends at Delmonico’s, when he was actually at the brothel with them), and things will get awkward. Marian will be furious and feel insecure about what she’s learned.

After T. Thomas Fortune tried to force a professional reunion with Peggy, now it’s her turn to open up to Dr. Kirkland about the more complicated parts of her life: the annulled marriage, the child she lost, and the kisses she shared with a married man. I don’t know — considering the kind of mother Kirkland has and all that emotional baggage being shared in one conversation, it’s pretty clear that the tears we’ve seen Peggy shed in one of the trailers are going to be gut-wrenching.

And Jack — our favorite character — is technically a millionaire but still so sweet and emotionally needy that he’s still working as a footman for the Van Rhijns. But Ada is going to have a heart-to-heart with him. And we saw him in the trailer looking at a new home with Marian. Which forces me to say: if Larry is out of the picture, Marian could give Agnes a heart attack if she ever ends up with Jack. Could it happen? Nah, just kidding. Kind of.

The truth is, in this episode we’ll see a vulnerable Marian, an empowered Gladys, and the sobering realization that happiness can be harder to reach — even in fiction!