A charity bazaar becomes a battlefront in The Gilded Age
As the Old Money and New Money factions squabble, Carrie Coon's Bertha Russell easily wins New York's best-dressed.
Agnes: I’m going up to change.
Oscar: I doubt it, mama. I’d say you’ll come down again without having changed at all.
The Gilded Age’s second episode, “Money Isn’t Everything,” begins in a dress shop, promising fans more gowns for Marian to sport in further installments. Though I doubt the show is planning to go full Daphne Bridgerton and never show the actress in the same dress twice, this does seem like a promising development. As does the imminent arrival of Mr. Raikes, he of the Pennsylvania law firm and longing glances in Marian’s direction.
Marian may be too innocent to recognize one man about to come a-courting, but she does pick up immediately what Oscar is laying down when he shows up asking questions about Gladys. So does his mother, and Agnes is just about horrified at the very idea of the two families intermarrying. She is at least open to Raikes coming around, but that’s because he waived his fee. Apparently, the proper social bartering payment in such cases is tea.
Raikes isn’t the only one paying a call this afternoon. Oscar interrupts Agnes and Ada exchanging knowing looks over the lawyer’s declaration he’s planning on migrating to New York City with another potential suitor, as Agnes requested. Being Oscar, he made sure to bring the last possible man his mother would want in her living room: Larry Russell. (Agnes’ face is priceless, especially when Marian glides over to “meet” Larry formally.) But Oscar’s friendship with Larry isn’t just to piss off his mother—that’s just a side benefit. He’s working the Gladys angle, aiming to find himself at the head of the suitor pack ahead of her coming out.
But let us now sigh longingly, as Carrie Coon’s Bertha Russell is on screen, clad in a stunningly opulent silk white and gold gown that perfectly matches her stunningly opulent white and gold paneled walls. (There’s no hat, more’s the pity.) It’s a good thing she’s dressed to kill, as George would like her to invite one of the women who socially snubbed her at the end of last week, Mrs. Anne Morris (Katie Finneran).
For those who had trouble following the approximately 1,000 characters introduced in the premiere, this is the other half of Morris and Fane, Charity Chairwomen Esq of the War Widows and Orphans Trust. (Fane was the one with the stones to be seen in the Russell home, Morris was not.) However, George needs to wine and dine city alderman Patrick Morris (Michel Gill) and requests his wife send an invite.
Mrs. Morris would have none of it for fear of being seen as accepting the Russells. Heaven forfend! But Mr. Morris is not interested in her petty social nonsense drama. (He’s also notably concerned about her insistence in cutting Bertha out of the upcoming charity bazaar, pointedly observing this constitutes socially crossing the family of a powerful man.) Bertha may not be able to get New York’s elite to step foot in her home, but the patriarchy is different. George Russell asks you to dinner, you go.
Bertha wins the evening’s dress-off in red velvet with a high gold lace collar that borders on Elizabethan, though her head remains unadorned once again. Mrs. Morris’ black and white dress may not be up to the competition, but at least she accessorized well with feathers and pearls. But the evening wear competition and the barbed commentary over dinner are merely a prelude to Bertha’s real aim, winning Morris over by presenting her (and us) with the series’ first look at the Russells’ grand ballroom. It almost seems like she may have won, too, as Morris contemplates her life choices, realizing that she would love to hold her charity event in this space, all things being equal.
But all things are not equal. When the original space falls through, Morris insists she and Fane spend money to rent a much smaller hotel space rather than risk holding the event someplace Mrs. Astor won’t set foot.
Speaking of, after her shadowy appearance at the very end of the premiere, Mrs. Astor (Donna Murphy) makes her grand debut at the bazaar. So does Mrs. Chamberlain (Jeanne Tripplehorn), who was only glimpsed from afar last week, this time coming up to Marian to engage in conversation. Aunts Ada and Agnes swoop in for the rescue but are cut off by Bertha and George’s arrival, enraging Agnes so much the two disappear. Oscar, personally, is fine with the Russells driving his mother away, as it once again affords him another opportunity to make eyes at Gladys and her fortune.
However, no one else is happy to see these arrivals, and the Russells didn’t come to play. George is indeed not a man to cross. He takes one look at the tiny, cramped hotel and practically explodes at the social insult it represents to his wife. To the shock of the assembled ladies, he closes the entire enterprise down by buying out and shutting down each and every stall for $100 apiece. Only Marian has the spunk and spirit to suggest she should haggle for $500, much to George’s amusement, but she settles for the c-note. As she puts it, it’s not every day one gets to see Sherman’s march to the sea re-enacted live.
Monetarily, it is officially the most successful charity bazaar, bringing in more money than the group has ever seen. Socially, it is an utter disaster as Morris and Fane helplessly watch as Mrs. Astor spearheads society’s exit from their event less than 30 minutes after opening. If last week ended with Old Money winning out, this week’s game goes to New Money and the Russells.
Stray Observations
- I love that Agnes assumes Ada will die first. I imagine she’ll be very cross should Ada fail to obediently pass away on schedule.
- Also, Ada’s bristling at Marian thinking she has no money, when that’s all Agnes ever says about her, is quietly telling. I do love their budding friendship, though, it’s a nice contrast for Nixon, considering the debacle of AJLT.
- Once again, I know I’m supposed to care about the whole New York to Chicago train line plot and the alderman insider trading, but did you see that billiards room?
- For those who don’t know, Mrs. Astor was a real person, and she really was that socially powerful as the head of the Gilded Age Four Hundred.
- Downstairs, the only story worth watching continues to be Peggy Scott, which this week involved saving Mrs. Bauer from a Man In A Bowler Hat with whom she has money troubles and gaining another ally downstairs in the process.
- Peggy also horns in on Raikes’ time in the city, but her secrets will keep for another week; Raikes may be sweet on Marian, but not to the point of breaking attorney-client privilege.
- Monsieur Baudin and Mrs. Bruce flirt, while Turner continues her foolish aim to become the master’s mistress, but once again, Team Russell Downstairs is running a distant fourth.
- The award for Best Dress this week goes to Carrie Coon for the Peacock Ensemble at the Charity Bazaar, in which she finally wore a hat.