RECAP: ‘The Gilded Age’ Season 4 Episode 1 – “Ring the Bells

The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 1 opens with drama, from life-or-death stakes to a montage on proper soup-eating manners to, bafflingly, cameos from David Letterman and Matt Damon.

Bertha (Carrie Coon) is in England to support Gladys (Taissa Farmiga), who’s in the middle of a difficult labor with her first child. The baby is breech, and the doctor (Matthew Floyd Miller) asks Bertha and Gladys’ husband, Hector (Ben Lamb), whether Gladys’ life or the baby’s should be saved if it comes down to having to choose. Hector’s sister, Sarah (Hattie Morahan), wants the baby saved in case it’s a boy who would one day inherit Hector’s title as Duke of Buckingham. Bertha and Hector both agree to prioritize Gladys’ life instead.

Across the pond, Oscar (Blake Ritson) and Enid (Kelley Curran) marry in a lavish celebration in New York. Marian (Louisa Jacobson) and Larry (Harry Richardson) lock eyes during the wedding and smile, clearly willing to be friendly after ending their engagement. Oscar and Enid are a deliciously fun pairing to watch, having been thick as thieves since Season 1, when Enid was still Bertha’s lady’s maid and getting Oscar the scoop on Gladys as a potential bride.

Now Gladys is a duchess, and Enid is a wealthy widow. With Oscar in the closet but in need of a wife to fend off suspicions about his sexuality, and Enid in need of a way to continue climbing the social ladder, they’ve got a mutually agreed-upon lavender marriage. “This is going to be such fun,” Oscar smiles as Enid arrives at the altar.

The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 1 sets the tone with an impromptu marriage. 

At the reception at the Van Rhijn family home, Agnes (Christine Baranski) celebrates her son’s marriage. Still, she turns her attention to her new project: hosting President Grover Cleveland as part of his upcoming visit to New York. She wants to hire more servants and roll out the red carpet for the president, but is put in her place by Ada (Cynthia Nixon), who will be footing the bill for the party and wants Agnes to stop plotting so much lavishness without running it by her first.

There’s drama going on across the street at the Russells’ mansion, but not before there’s a blink-and-you-miss-it cameo from David Letterman and Matt Damon, who silently walk across the screen as society gentlemen, top hats and all. Inside the Russells’ mansion, George (Morgan Spector) continues searching for his would-be assassins, and his railroad monopoly is threatened by J.D. Rockefeller, a necessary business collaborator, trying to expand his own oil monopoly. 

Across town, Peggy (Denée Benton) plans her wedding, with her pushy future mother-in-law Mrs. Kirkland (Phylicia Rashad) slowly domineering the plans. She invites Peggy to join her ladies’ club, centered on charitable efforts for Black communities, in Newport. The club’s goals are in line with Peggy’s efforts to enact positive change for Black people in America, but balks at the idea of spending more time with Mrs. Kirkland, and looks forward to Mrs. Kirkland’s eventual return to Newport.

Beyond the cameos, there’s familial drama and political tension.

Back at the reception, Enid and Oscar invite Marian to “head downtown for a real party” after the reception ends. The “real party” turns out to be a lively dance hall, where Larry is also hanging out. After he and Marian catch up, clearly friendly but still with an undercurrent of chemistry from their longtime friendship-turned-failed-romance,  they dance, their connection strong as ever.

It’s pouring rain as they leave, and Larry offers to take Marian home, but when a wheel from his carriage breaks, they’re stranded at a hotel for the night and end up in bed together. It’s perhaps the tamest sex scene ever aired on HBO, but their tryst is scandalous for the world of The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 1, where even the smallest social misstep can damage a reputation for a lifetime.

Enid and Oscar head home, plotting to open a salon for artists and creatives who are tired of stuffy upper-crust society. As they head up to their separate bedrooms, Enid makes enough of a suggestion towards consummating the marriage to indicate she may not be fully on board with the terms of their marriage after all. “I thought we understood each other,” Oscar says. “Perfectly,” Enid replies.

Oscar and Enid make for a fun duo in “Ring the Bells.”

In the morning, Marian is visibly distressed by her night with Larry and tells him she’s ashamed of it before leaving. Larry dejectedly returns home to find George manic and weary. Larry learns his parents are still living apart, and begs George to patch things up with Bertha, but George won’t have it. In England, Gladys safely delivers a son, but the doctor performs an emergency hysterectomy without her knowledge. Bertha and Hector resolve to keep the hysterectomy a secret for now.

Dr. Kirkland (Jordan Donica) tells Peggy how much the ladies’ club means to Mrs. Kirkland, hoping it might help his mother and Peggy bond. Peggy is still not keen on the idea, and Dr. Kirkland tries to distract her by talking about the future they’ll share, including the children he hopes they’ll have. “We’ll just have to wait and see,” Peggy says, but the reality of life as a Kirkland starts to loom large in The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 1, despite their adorable courtship in Season 3.

Jack (Ben Ahlers) starts meeting with investors for his latest invention, an electric mixer, but has a disastrous luncheon where his working-class origins are nearly exposed when he can’t keep up with the knowledge or cultural intellect of his would-be investors, who are all Ivy League graduates. Still feeling out of place as a new-money man, Jack visits his old friends in the Van Rhijns’ servants’ quarters, lamenting that it’s the only place where “it all makes sense” to him.

From Marian and Larry to Jack and Bridget, romances are in limbo. 

Bannister (Simon Jones), Mrs. Bauer (Kristine Nielsen), and Bridget (Taylor Richardson) give him etiquette lessons. The montage of Jack learning how to fit in with high society, from dancing to eating soup while maintaining proper posture, is a highlight of The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 1. Later, Bridget, who has long pined after Jack, worries that his new money and social circles will make him not want to pursue her, but Mrs. Bauer suggests that if Bridget continues being Jack’s friend, his true feelings for her will come through eventually.

If planning a wedding wasn’t keeping her busy enough, Peggy publishes a book. She brings it to the Van Rhijns’ house, where Ada and Agnes congratulate her, but sheends up consoling Marian, still shaken from her tryst with Larry. Peggy tells Marian that her history of broken relationships doesn’t define her and that she deserves to be loved.

It’s nice, but poor Peggy endures all of The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 1 , catering to other people’s feelings even when she should be having her own moments of joy. When she returns home, she finds that Mrs. Kirkland has extended her stay in New York and has scheduled appointments that clash with speaking engagements promoting Peggy’s book.

Peggy hears about President Cleveland’s visit and expresses her concerns that President Cleveland has been too passive in addressing injustices against Black people in the American South. Peggy tells Ada she’s written on the subject, and Ada asks to read Peggy’s articles. Later, Ada expresses concerns over the president’s political views and tells Agnes to find a new way to fund additional costs for the dinner.

Characters are forced into difficult decisions. 

It’s a huge shock to Agnes, and Armstrong (Debra Monk) chooses this moment to drop another bombshell in Agnes’ life: that Enid, her new daughter-in-law, is Bertha’s former lady’s maid. With Enid and Oscar already married, Agnes can’t get past the idea of her son marrying a former servant. “The only thing worse than my son marrying a servant would be my son getting a divorce from one,” Agnes says. 

As Gladys recovers, the local church rings its bells in honor of the baby’s birth, as the boy will grow up to one day be Duke of Buckingham. Gladys asks if subsequent children will also have bells rung in their honor. Bertha and Hector share a worried glance, wondering if now is the right time to tell her about the hysterectomy, but decide against it. Hector tells Gladys that yes, future children will have bells rung for them.

Agnes invites Enid over, and Enid insists her work history won’t get in the way of doing great things with Oscar. She offers to help Agnes with funding the presidential dinner. It’s exactly the good luck Agnes was looking for at the end of The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 1, and George’s luck changes, too. His private investigators present sketches of the would-be assassin and a female accomplice. George says they both look familiar, but that he can’t place them, and their identities are a mystery to the audience as The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 1 comes to a close.

The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 1 ends on a mysterious note. 

The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 1 proves it’s as serious as drama as it is soapy. Cutting back and forth between Gladys’ life hanging in the balance during a difficult labor while Enid and Oscar wryly assess their wedding guests is a grippingly fun way to return to this show’s ever-expanding ensemble.

The show picks up from Season 3 without feeling lost in its long-running storylines, like Peggy’s concerns about marrying into the Kirkland family or Ada supporting Agnes’ finances. It’s a welcome return to a show that gets better with each season. And if Marian’s intense reaction to the threat of scandal is anything to go by, the drama’s just getting started.

The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 1 is streaming now on HBO Max with new episodes every Sunday.