‘The Gilded Age’ Stars Tease Trouble Ahead for Bertha and George After Episode 2 Ambush

Note: This story contains spoilers from “The Gilded Age” Season 3, Episode 5.

“The Gilded Age” is putting its most beloved couple through the ringer in Season 3, as the ambitious spirits that drove them to one another start to test them when their priorities seem to no longer align as perfectly.

Of course we’re talking about power couple Bertha (Carrie Coon) and George Russell (Morgan Spector), who fans have fallen in love with across two seasons of watching them work together to climb through the ranks of New York society. In Season 3 their bond is tested, when Bertha’s plan to secure a marriage between their daughter Gladys (Taissa Farmiga) and Hector, the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb), conflicts with George’s prior promise that she’d get to choose her own love connection to marry.

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Cracks begin to appear on the Russells’ united front in Episode 2, titled “What the Papers Say,” when George returns from the West to find his wife and kids at odds over Bertha’s moves — leaking information about Gladys’ potential engagement with the Duke to hinder her growing love for Billy Carlton (Matt Walker). Bertha and George have an initial argument, but Bertha manages to appease his fears. That goes out the door by the episode’s final moments when Hector arrives to the Russell home with a lawyer, ready to negotiate terms for the marriage, a surprise for George that felt like an ambush.

“The rift that develops between [Bertha and George] is not a minor one,” Spector said during a press conference for Season 3 ahead of the show’s release. “They see the situation of Gladys’ marriage in a very different way, so they’re pulling with all of their might in opposite directions. It’s hard.”

For Coon, the disconnect comes from George failing to understand the stakes for women to maintain their standing in that era. As Bertha and other characters have noted, Gladys’ marriage to Hector would solidify her as one of the most influential women in the world — “she wants her daughter to be safe,” she told The Wrap.

On the other hand, Spector explained part of George’s resistance comes from feeling like Bertha’s insistence on the union means Gladys won’t survive simply on his accomplishments and how far he’s elevated the family himself.

Taissa Farmiga and Morgan Spector in “The Gilded Age.” (HBO)

“In Bertha’s mind, everything she’s doing is for the love of her family, the ends justify the means,” Coon added. Her decisions nevertheless lead to some distance between Bertha and George as Season 3 unfolds. But fans will notice the actors’ chemistry remains intact.

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“We were always striving to connect, even though the language was telling us otherwise, because we miss it too. It’s fun to play those scenes where they’re working things out or really into each other, so it was hard to play disconnection,” she added.

“The Gilded Age” airs Sundays on HBO and Max.

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