‘The Gilded Age’ Episode 6 Recap: “Heads Have Rolled For Less”

This train wreck is a real… you know. When we left off in The Gilded Age Episode 5, George Russell had just received word that one of his trains had derailed in Pennsylvania, killing five people, and this week he’s on the scene with Bertha and Clara Barton to assess the damage. Turns out, someone on the assembly line installed a used, damaged axle that wore down causing the crash, and George is going to make certain that heads will roll for that. In the meantime, as damage control, he hands Clara yet another hefty check, and Bertha plans to attend the next board meeting of the Red Cross to show her support.

At that meeting, all the society ladies are in attendance. The widow Morris is triggered when she hears that Bertha Russell will be attending, asking “Why? She is the wife of a murderer who has even more blood on his hands now than when he killed my husband!” Aurora Fane asks for a show of hands from everyone in the room to allow Mrs. Russell onto the board, and Clara Barton reminds the room that the Russells have donated more money than all these society fools combined, so slowly everyone’s hands rise up. Mrs. Morris scoffs at them all, saying “Good luck with your new member and your new set of values, I do not share your admiration for either!” and out she walks in a blur of black. Hilariously, Clara Barton loves to see society women squirm, so even after all the hubbub with Mrs. Morris, she approaches Marion to see if she could get scandalous old Mrs. Chamberlain to throw some money at the cause. For the 112th time this season, Aurora Fane gasps in shock at the name “Chamberlain,” but Marion is happy to oblige. Anything for the cause!

Marion continues to get an education in racism on this show when she and Peggy attempt to hail a cab after the Red Cross meeting and their driver won’t take Peggy since she’s Black. Marion goes full Olsen twin with a “How rude!” and Peggy rolls her eyes and tells Marion “You’ve just discovered injustice, I’ve lived with it my whole life.” As much fun as it is watching Peggy school Marion, I did just watch an entire season of And Just Like That and that alone exhausted my quota for white ladies sitting with their ignorance on HBO for the time being.

Last week we got a glimpse of Miss Armstrong’s backstory; she cares for a sick elderly mother that lives in squalor and breathes fiery insults like a dragon. Agnes van Rhijn’s perpetually angry and definitely racist maid gets her sour demeanor from her mama, and channels it entirely toward Peggy Scott. When Peggy offers to run any errands for the cook, Mrs. Bauer, and Miss Armstrong, Armstrong takes it as an affront that Peggy is insinuating she’s incompetent. And when Peggy’s writing grows more popular and successful causing subscriptions to The Globe to rise, Armstrong takes it on herself to warn Agnes that it might become a nuisance for the van Rhijns. Agnes, who has an affinity for Peggy, is having none of this, and says, “If you continue to try to make trouble for Miss Scott, I will be angry. You are warned… Learn some charity in the future.”

Bertha’s star is on the rise when she learns that Ward McAllister wants an invitation to her house. One thing though: Ward McAllister follows the ENGLISH style of lunch service, not the French style used at the Russell’s home. Last week when the van Rhijn’s butler, Bannister, popped up at the Russell to gather Pumpkin the dog, he commented on the food they served and their table settings, and really, who knew this would come back to be such a significant plot point? Desperate to please McAllister, Bertha tells her butler, Church, to enlist Bannister (she’ll pay him! $100!) to oversee the lunch and make sure the English service is perfect. Church is irritated, and even though it’s an exciting diversion for Bannister, it’s a comedy of errors when the day finally comes. In order to go to the Russell’s, he needs to find a reason to step away from the van Rhijns, and so he tells Agnes he has family legal business to attend to with a lawyer whose only hours are kept at lunch time. She doesn’t trust him, as she knows of no such fasting, monastic lawyers who keep such unusual hours.

This week marks the first time we’ve seen any friction between Bertha and George Russell and, while Miss Turner didn’t show up in George’s bed in this episode, it certainly seems like he’s warming to the thought, since Bertha is just getting to be a little too controlling and society-obsessed. He’s clearly concerned about the train accident, for both the lives lost and its effects on his business, but when Bertha wonders if it will affect Ward McAllister’s opinion of them, George goes off on her, telling her his issues are more important than a lunch with Ward McAllister. And when Bertha shows George a letter she intercepted for their daughter Gladys from her former suitor Archie Baldwin, George seems disgusted, asking “You still open Gladys’s letters?” Up to this point, George and Bertha seemed to want the same things, but Bertha’s quest for status and control over every aspect of everything around her is starting to wear on him. “Please don’t be soft,” Bertha warns George. “No one could accuse you of that,” George snips back.

When George brings the letter to Gladys, he tries to have a tender moment with his daughter, who begs him to explain why Archie wasn’t suitable for her. “Your mother thinks it best,” George explains, to which Gladys offers a verbal castration, saying, “You’re one of the most successful men in the country, with real estate and steel and copper and coal and oil and railroads and the envy of the world, and you can’t stand up to your wife?”

George seems to take this to heart, and when his son Larry says that Mamie Fish is hosting a party and has invited him and Gladys to attend, Bertha forbids Gladys from attending. George, Gladys and Larry all insist she go. Bertha relents. Upon arriving to Ms. Fish’s party, Gladys, played by Taissa Farmiga, realizes she should probably call her big sister Vera, who knows a thing or two about how to deal with terrifying dolls of the Annabelle persuasion, for this party is a doll tea party that is unsettling at best and fully haunted at worst. Turns out, Gladys doesn’t need to worry about evil spirits, she finds herself a kindred spirit instead, in the form of Carrie Astor, as pleasing a best friend you could conjure if you’re looking for a shortcut into society. Together, Gladys and Carrie discuss their awful mothers and bond, and when Bertha learns of their friendship, she finally starts to let Gladys socialize.

The day of the Russell’s luncheon with Ward McAllister finally arrives, with the Fanes, Marion, Mr. Raikes, and Mr. McAllister all in attendance, and Bannister overseeing the service. Everyone marvels at the Russell’s mansion, and they’re all delighted to receive decadent gifts hidden in their napkins. It’s a decadent affair, which is in stark contrast to the lunch being served at Aunt Agnes’s. With Bannister at the Russell’s, the younger butler, John, has taken over lunch duty, and he struggles to serve them with a steady hand. He’s saved when a letter from an unknown sender arrives though for Agnes, revealing Bannister’s whereabouts. “This is too much!” Agnes screams, before storming off to the Russell’s. She barges in on their lunch and everyone does their best to make Agnes seem not like the crazy barging in on a fancy luncheon person that she is, inviting her to join them and offering excuses for why she angrily burst forth, unannounced. She realizes her impulsive actions are unbecoming and excuses herself, whispering to Bannister as she leaves, “Heads have rolled for less.” It is pure comedy.

Agnes is angry enough learning of Bannister’s betrayal, but that’s small potatoes compared to what she learns about her son, Oscar. Miss Armstrong tells Agnes she saw Oscar speaking intimately with Miss Turner, the Russell’s maid. Oscar is paying Turner for information she gathers at the Russell home, but Armstrong doesn’t know that, and she whispers what she thinks she saw between them to Agnes, who goes ballistic.

This show always seems to follow the pattern of “society stuff, society stuff, and then something bad happens with George Russell’s business in the last 30 seconds,” and this week is no different. As Bertha rides high off the success of her lunch with McAllister, she enters George’s study while he’s emoting into his brandy snifter. He’s received word that the man who built the shoddy train engine has been discovered, but that he was only using old train parts on George’s orders, and he has proof. Meaning that it wasn’t actually some mid-level manager’s fault, this one goes straight to the top, it’s all on George. And what will Mr. McAllister think of them now?