The Gilded Age season three has come to a “heartbreaking” conclusion, as one major power couple’s marriage is left hanging in the balance.
*Warning: this article contains The Gilded Age season three spoilers*
After a tense and dramatic third season, HBO’s hit period drama, which follows New York City’s high society in the 1800s, ended Sunday with railroad tycoon George Russell (Morgan Spector) walking out on his wife, Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon).
Throughout the 10-episode season, George grappled with allowing his headstrong wife to force their only daughter, Gladys (Taissa Farmiga), into a loveless marriage with the Duke of Buckingham, Hector (Ben Lamb).
Despite strong pushback from George and Gladys, Bertha insisted the union would secure her daughter’s future success and power, assuring the romance would come later.
As expected, Gladys initially struggled with the new relationship. Though following a visit from her mother, things were resolved, and Gladys found common ground and respect for Hector.
Still, in the final scenes of the season, George aired his frustrations with Bertha, admitting: “I don’t blame you for being ruthless; I admire it. It’s what we share. But I’m ruthless in business, not with the people I love.”
“And I’m ruthless for the people I love, can you not see that?” Bertha retorted, asking him if his viewpoint shift had to do with his near-fatal shooting.
“Maybe,” he answered. “It’s made me examine my life. And I don’t like everything I see.”
George then revealed he wouldn’t be returning home because he wasn’t sure what he wanted going forward, hinting at a potential ruinous divorce.
Addressing the epic breakdown of their once seemingly stable marriage, Coon told Variety that filming the scene was “very heartbreaking. We were working on the language of it before we shot it. Morgan Spector and I wanted to feel that Bertha and George were fully expressed in that scene. And our hearts were breaking over it as we were doing it.”
“After three years on the show, Morgan and I feel very protective of our characters,” she continued, sharing that “we wanted to make a few adjustments in what they were saying. We were just advocating for our sides of the argument, just to make sure that the audience understood where we were both coming from in that fight.”
From Coon’s perspective, she said she understood that “the experience of marrying off Gladys was deeply unsettling for George. He really feels that he has failed his daughter, and then he has a near-death experience, which is forcing him to have some spiritual confrontation where he is questioning his life choices.”
“And Bertha can’t be fully inside of that experience, and she doesn’t really understand how it has changed him,” she acknowledged. “She thought it was going to bring them closer together. But she understands better than ever what her priorities are, and he’s questioning all of his. That feels very real to me in longterm relationships. One person can go through a very transformative experience that the other person doesn’t have access to, and it takes them a while to find their way back to each other.”
The Gilded Age has been renewed for a fourth season. Season three is available to stream on HBO Max.
