RECAP: ‘The Gilded Age’ Season 4 Episode 2 – “You Won’t Hear Me Beg”

The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 2 has it all: revenge, a new footman, and upper-class people discovering how terrible life is for the lower classes. And perhaps most importantly: new curtains for the Van Rhijn household. It’s tremendously fun to watch but scattered for its vast ensemble, some of whom are not even featured in The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 2 (Kelli O’Hara‘s Aurora Fane, a fan favorite, has yet to appear this season). Only George (Morgan Spector) gets much of an arc.

George tracks down his would-be assassin, revealed to be Will Morris (Will Pullen), avenging his father, who died by suicide in Season 1 after George successfully thwarted Mr. Morris’s plans to financially ruin Russell Industries. George accuses Will’s mother Anne (Katie Finneran) of being in on the plot, but Anne is only guilty of snubbing Bertha (Carrie Coon) when the Russells first entered high society. George has Will forcibly taken to a warehouse across town, undecided what to do about his almost-killer.

Bertha returns to New York and is briefly welcomed by Larry (Harry Richardson), who’s on his way to a business meeting. He runs into Marian (Louisa Jacobson), who scolds him for his lack of shame over their night together. “You are a man…you can break any rule you like,” Marian says, calling herself “disgraced,” as premarital sex was akin to damning an unmarried woman in 1880s New York. Larry suggests sleeping together could be an excuse to finally get married, but Marian hates seeing their hypothetical marriage boiled down to an excuse.

Marian uses work to cope with the aftermath of things in The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 2.

Marian has more important things to do than sort out her relationship with Larry, anyway. She volunteers at a Lower East Side settlement house and is eager to show Ada (Cynthia Nixon) around. Ada’s less than enthusiastic, instead worrying that working in a dangerous neighborhood and volunteering leaves Marian no room to live a real life. Marian says volunteering gives her a look at society that hobnobbing does not.

Ahead of President Cleveland’s visit to her home for a Heritage Society dinner, Agnes (Christine Baranski) reluctantly agrees to be interviewed to build anticipation for the event and awareness for the Society. She’s thrown off enough, as she’s notoriously private, but even more disgruntled by Ada’s acquisition of new curtains and a telephone. Leave it to The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 2 to treat a presidential visit and curtains (and a telephone) with the same dramatic weight.

George and Larry meet with J.D. Rockefeller (Neal Huff), struggling to reach an agreement over business dealings. Larry tries but fails to help the two find middle ground, and George abruptly ends his professional relationship with Rockefeller. Later, George scolds Larry for making the company look weak by searching for compromise, and Larry pleads to be treated as a genuine business peer rather than just an 1880s nepo baby. George continues to pick fights with Larry and with Bertha, too, ignoring her hopes of rekindling their marriage.

George is in a tailspin in The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 2, picking fights everywhere he goes.

Peggy (Denée Benton) and Dorothy (Audra McDonald) reluctantly join Mrs. Kirkland’s (Phylicia Rashad) ladies’ club in Newport. Mrs. Kirkland pointedly tells the club that Peggy is a widow, knowing full well that Peggy’s first marriage ended in an annulment. She privately tells Peggy she was doing her a favor, as Newport society won’t be as welcoming to Peggy’s history as New York has been.

Between Peggy’s annulment and Marian worrying about her reputation after sleeping with Larry, The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 2 illuminates how much women were punished for having anything less than a socially pristine path. For all the elements that make The Gilded Age feel like a lavish soap opera, it succeeds at capturing the very real social norms and stakes of its era.

Back in New York, William worries that one of his patients, Mr. Davis (Thaddeus Daniels), has tuberculosis, and takes him to Bellevue Hospital. On arrival, William is barred from observing Mr. Davis’s examination, as Black doctors are not allowed to practice medicine at Bellevue. He’s not allowed to stay on as a companion, either, as he’s not a relative. William is rightfully upset but assures Mr. Davis he will follow up with him as soon as he can.

A woman’s status is constantly under scrutiny, with Marian and Peggy used as examples in this episode.

Marian proves useful at the settlement house but learns about the harsh realities of lower-class life, including the insidiousness of child labor and how many children, if injured on the job, are expected to return to work immediately after treatment. Marian agrees to work more night shifts, upsetting Agnes, who echoes Ada’s concerns about working in a dangerous neighborhood. “It’s where I’m wanted and needed,” Marian insists, feeling a sense of purpose she’s been seeking.

Across town, the rest of high society is unsurprisingly on-brand, as everyone who’s anyone is at the opera. Enid (Kelley Curran) lets slip to Bertha that the Van Rhijns will be hosting President Cleveland soon, but that Bertha is not invited. The snideness between Bertha and Enid is great fun throughout The Gilded Age, charting their evolution from employer and employee to social peers.

Coon and Curran are masters of eloquently delivering insults with decorum, and delightful to watch. Mrs. Astor correctly deduces that Bertha and George’s marriage is on the rocks, advising Bertha to be careful about how many excuses she makes for George’s absence at events like the opera.

Marian gets a hard wake-up call as to the brutalities faced by the lower classes of society.

Oscar (Blake Ritson) tells Enid he got the wealthy Frick family to patronize their upcoming artistic salons. Mrs. Astor, worried that her daughter Carrie (Amy Forsyth) isn’t concerned about making a socially advantageous match, advises Carrie to consider Larry as a potential husband. Carrie is shocked by the suggestion, having known Larry for years but having only ever seen him as a friend. 

The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 2 expertly drives a wedge between Marian and Larry through the growing opposition of their worlds. To marry Carrie would unite Larry’s new-money Russell family with the powerful, old-money Astors.

Larry, meanwhile, is talked into investing in a new business venture: American productions of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas, which have been a massive success in their native England. Larry’s talked into the idea by his friend Simon (Lucas Iverson), who says that Gilbert and Sullivan have no international copyright agreements, meaning he and Larry could massively profit from producing Gilbert and Sullivan’s work, like The Pirates of Penzance, in America.

Larry’s new path shows the future of theatre and what will lead to the early days of cinema.

After the opera, Bertha arrives home to find Anne on her doorstep, searching for Will. Bertha is shocked to learn Will is George’s would-be assassin, but declines to help, given that the Morrises tried to short Russell Industries’ stock and snubbed the Russells on their arrival in society. Anne begs Bertha to consider what she would do if their roles were reversed.

This genuinely moves Bertha for a moment, but she bids Anne goodnight without another word. Later, Bertha shows empathy for Anne by reminding George that Anne has already lost her husband and doesn’t need to lose her son, too. “Might you find it in your heart to show mercy?” Bertha asks. George declines, saying Will was merciless when shooting him.

Ada hires talkative, overeager Oliver (Taylor Trensch) as her new footman. Bannister (Simon Jones) questions Ada’s judgment given Oliver’s excitable demeanor and limited experience, but Ada enthusiastically gives him a slot. Oliver’s inexperience tarnishes Agnes’ interview with a journalist (Bonnie Milligan) from The Ladies’ Home Journal, accidentally ruining the tea service by committing the faux pas of preemptively pouring milk in her tea rather than asking if she takes milk in her tea.

Bertha is still struggling in her marriage with George, but still tries to offer guidance where she can.

The journalist, Mrs. Curtis, does not take milk in her tea, as she makes a point of pointing out, and Oliver quickly learns that a servant’s assumptions never take precedence over a guest’s tea preferences. Again, leave it to The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 2 to make the act of accidentally ruining tea time a grave mistake. Ada, on finding out about Oliver’s misstep, realizes she has a tall order keeping her new hire in line.

Peggy returns from Newport and reunites with William, who’s dejected after Edward dies at Bellevue. Peggy consoles William, insisting Bellevue’s exclusionary rules can’t last forever. “I’d like to borrow some of your optimism,” William says. Peggy and William have such a wonderful partnership, with the added tension of Peggy disliking William’s mother so much. The young lovers’ one brief scene is a highlight of The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 2. 

George goes to the warehouse where he’s been keeping Will hostage. He recalls how, after his brush with death, he felt like his life was meaningless. He fires a warning shot with his gun, but ultimately spares Will’s life, ordering Will to leave New York forever.

William faces another harsh reality when he can’t help a patient due to exclusionary rules.

George goes home instead of to the private club where he’s been living. Bertha asks if the situation with Will is over. “I mean for it to be,” George says. Bertha asks him to stay the night, but she can’t help George stop feeling directionless if he refuses to reconnect with her. She draws him close, and George looks the most relieved he has in ages, but Bertha looks more worried than ever. Their relationship, so solid until Season 3 slowly crumbled it, is far from being on stellar terms by the end of The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 2. But it ends on a promising note.

The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 2 resolves George’s angst and rage by giving him a moment to show mercy after seasons of ruthlessly pursuing power at any cost. Bookending the episode with Will’s abduction and then George’s return to Bertha gives George an arc so succinctly contained within one episode.

The rest of The Gilded Age‘s cast doesn’t fare as well, with characters getting not so much arcs as small moments that build out their world. It’s not a serialized show, to be sure, but The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 2 is so determined to give each character a moment that some characters feel lost in the shuffle, like Mrs. Astor and Carrie, who barely appear.

Some characters get lost in The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 2, with the ensemble ever expanding.

Even so, The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 2 demonstrates a clear grasp of the stakes of the world these characters live in, especially Peggy and Marian, whose actions wouldn’t receive any pushback from their peers if they were men. It’s a show that keenly understands its characters; no action feels out of place or out of character. It would have felt just as natural for George to be merciless to Will, even though he ultimately chooses mercy in The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 2. 

When trying to get Larry to invest in operettas, Simon reasons that people need entertainment, not sad stories. The Gilded Age gets to be both, and succeed at both, and The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 2 is proof of that.

The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode 2 is streaming now on HBO Max with new episodes every Sunday. 

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