‘The Gilded Age’ Season 2 Episode 5 Recap: The People Under the Stairs

Everyone needs to have a trustworthy squad looking out for them. This week on The Gilded Age, Bertha Russell’s (Carrie Coon) squad had her back and managed to foil what would have been the scandal of the decade if Mrs. Winterton’s (Kelley Curran) “poisoning a fancy dinner party” plot had been flawlessly executed. While I have some regrets that we didn’t get to see a Triangle Of Sadness-style vomit scene as a result, I got almost the same amount of satisfaction watching Mrs. Winterton’s face when she realized her former colleagues on Team Russell thwarted her plan. And across the street at Casa van Rhijn, Agnes (Christine Baranski) also had a come-to-Jesus moment thanks to her own squad captain, Bannister (Simon Jones), when she realized she was the only member of her family – and actually her entire community – who was trying to prevent Aunt Ada’s wedding from taking place. Sometimes the help knows best! But let me back up…

Newport is bustling with the news that the Russells will be hosting the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb) at their estate for a regal dinner. Bertha is rattling off orders and commands to Church (Jack Gilpin) who is taking the meal as seriously as anything else in this world because he knows he’s pivotal to the Russells desire to inch forward in this social rat race. He, Mrs. Bruce (Celia Keenan-Bolger), Watson (Michael Cerveris) and Chef Josh Borden (Douglass Sills), are the core members of Team Downstairs At The Russells, a.k.a. The People Under The Stairs a.k.a. #TheMusclesBehindTheRussells and I admit I’m pretty invested in everything they do because they are like Ninja Turtles or the Fantastic Four of house staff, each with a handy set of skills. They’re essential to keeping everything moving smoothly, which is good news because even the Russells own flesh and blood is not adept at that. Larry Russell is getting drunk in public these days on account of his old lady Mrs. Blane (Laura Benanti) breaking up with him, and Mrs. Russell banishes him from the house and sends him back to New York so he won’t get in her way during her big party.

Back in New York, Aunt Ada (Cynthia Nixon) finally breaks the news of her engagement to Reverend Forte (Robert Sean Leonard) to Marian (Louisa Jacobson), Oscar (Blake Ritson), and Aunt Agnes. Predictably, Agnes is not happy, but she’s so unhappy that she actually forbids Oscar, Ada’s only male blood relative, from walking Ada down the aisle, and declares that she won’t even attend the wedding. “You’re making terrible mistake,” Agnes tells Ada. “What do you know about marriage?”

She then plunges the knife even deeper and says, “You’re a spinster and you’ve always been a spinster.”

Marian is astonished by the cruelty on display, but Ada takes it in stride, as this is the woman she’s lived with her entire life, and she says, “You’re right, I have a great deal to learn, which I’m looking forward to. Please don’t spoil it for me.” But Agnes does continue to spoil it. When Bannister congratulates Ada on her engagement, Agnes forces him to rescind his congratulations (“My apologies, Miss Ada, but I must cancel my congratulations,” he says in a 19th century version of “You have unsent a text message.” “I quite understand, Bannister,” Ada says serenely.)

This is a very sad turn of events, and one that continues to escalate throughout the episode, and yet the melodrama of it all, and Agnes’s huffy departure from the conversation as she declares, “My head feels like a beating drum,” is some of the best comedy this show has to offer. (I think it would feel much more tense if we didn’t assume that eventually Agnes would come around.) Before she does come around though, Agnes goes to see the Reverend to beg him not to go through with the wedding. She shows her vulnerable side as she cries that Ada is the only family she really has left in this world, as she knows Oscar and Marian will leave her one day, but the Reverend doesn’t soften his stance despite her tears. “God’s command is clear,” he tells Agnes. “Man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh.”

Agnes does not like to be one-upped, least of all by God, so with that, she stands up to leave. “Have you nothing more to say?” he asks. “Not if you’ve given God the last word,” she says.

In Newport, the Russells’ party is going to be so big and important that they need to borrow staff from some of their other friends. Mamie Fish’s footmen, and five chefs from other homes, including one named Schneider from the Wintertons’ kitchen. You can judge Bertha Russell all you want for being a social climber who can be petty to her peers (and those above her), but you have to admire the fact that she is always kind and respectful to her staff, and they extend her the same courtesy. Mrs. Winterton has a similar rapport with her staff, in that they apparently share a delicious evil streak and disdain for order and civility, because she allows her chef, Schneider, to sabotage the big meal that will be served to the Duke and the rest of the guests, with some extra help from the Russells’ butler and Winterton’s old friend, Peter.

Maud Beaton is starting to sniff around New York to see what everyone else thinks about Oscar van Rhijn – while she’s fond of him, she’s used to being chased for her money and assumes Oscar is probably doing just that. (During a conversation with Aurora Fane, she also brings up Oscar’s admiration for Gladys Russell, to which Aurora responds, “You surely don’t want a man who’s never been interested in a woman before?”) Oscar’s intentions might be entirely pure, but he does seem to like Maud for more than just her bank account, so he invites her to Ada’s wedding, which he plans to attend despite his mother’s wishes, and he also starts helping her with her business affairs. Maud’s father, who is secretly Jay Gould, though the general public doesn’t know it, has been using her as an intermediary in many of his business deals, and she has asked Oscar, a banker, for help understanding them. The situation is uncomfortable for the men who work with Maud, as both the nature of their business, and Maud’s lineage, are meant to be secret. But Oscar sees it as something of an insider trading opportunity: now privy to the details of some very lucrative deals about the construction of a new railway, Oscar shimmies through the back door to invest in them.

Down in Alabama, Peggy Scott (Deneé Benton) is still traveling alongside T. Thomas Fortune and covering the opening of Booker T. Washington’s new dormitory at the Tuskegee Institute. As she winds down her trip, she accepts the invitation to visit the restaurant owned by the mother of one of the young men she’s been interviewing, and she finally learns what it means to be Black in the post-war South. During their meal, two white men arrive and drunkenly harass the owner of the restaurant. (While they’re there, Peggy makes the uncomfortable realization that this white man and her Black hostess share the same last name, Sturt. Peggy gasps – this is something she doesn’t have to deal with as a Northerner, being violated by a person who used to own you.)

When Fortune, who knows better, having been a slave himself, but has become more defiant after years spent in the North, stands up to them and starts a fight, he and Peggy have to flee for their lives once the men form a mob that chases them. Once they realize they’re safe, Peggy and Fortune, sharing in the adrenaline of the moment, kiss. I’m thrilled for Peggy to have a suitor, but this sits uncomfortably, not just because of the heightened emotion of being chased by a lynch mob, but also, isn’t he married?

The night of the Russells’ dinner finally arrives and the Duke only adds insult to Mrs. Winterton’s injury when he announces to all the guests that he’s sure that “Mrs. Russell’s Newport” will exceed his expectations. “But not our Newport,” Winterton pointedly, loudly says, putting him on the spot, but Bertha distracts the Duke by introducing him to Gladys (Taissa Farmiga), who might just be the whole reason Bertha’s throwing this damn party. Marrying Gladys off to a rich English duke would make a nice splash, that’s for sure, so Bertha seats Gladys next to the Duke at dinner.

Dinner is slightly abbreviated, however, because after Watson spots the guest-chef Schneider stirring something into the sauce for the first course, they realize the food has been tainted so the refuse to send it out. Then, when Watson spies Peter talking to Schneider, he informs Church so that Peter will not serve any of the guests and “accidentally” spill scalding soup on the Duke. Throughout all of these minor changes, Mrs. Winterton’s eyes dart around, eventually realizing her sabotage is not working.

When the meal ends, Mr. Winterton declares, “It was a good dinner, you must admit that,” and Mrs. Winterton, whose chops should really be put to use at Ye Olde Comedy Cellar, dryly states, “I wouldn’t admit it if they tore my fingernails off to make me.”

“We thwarted Miss Turner’s revenge,” Borden says once the night is over and the four servants toast to their success, and really, all I want in life is to celebrate the small successes of the help. Between this and Jack’s deep attachment to his clock-making, I am giddy.

The next day is Ada’s wedding. Marian has enlisted Dashiell to give Ada away, and Agnes descends the staircase of the home to see them off, though she tells them that she hasn’t changed her mind about attending the wedding. It isn’t until her butler Bannister tells Agnes “I’m going to support Miss Ada, and I urge you to do the same, or you may regret it for the rest of your life,” that Agnes realizes she needs to let this one go. The church is filled with friends and family, even Oscar, who tells Ada he wants to give her away. Ada realizes that even without Agnes there, she’s loved by the rest of her community. “You’ve earned this,” her chef, Mrs. Bauer, tells her, and she really starts believing it.

Of course, Agnes finally arrives in dramatic fashion, the church doors banging behind her just as the vows begin. She and Ada share a wordless smile, as Agnes joins Oscar’s pew. Ada’s life is ready to start anew, but now, so is Agnes’s.

Stray Thoughts:

• Now that Larry Russell is single, it sure seems like Marian’s ready to try and shake the dead weight that is her cousin Dashiell and pounce on her hot neighbor!

• It’s also nice that we, by way of Larry, learn a little history lesson about Emily Roebling, the wife of the Brooklyn Bridge’s head engineer Washington Roebling. Washington suffered from the bends as a result of time spent in a tunnel under the bridge (his father John has been the original architect of the bridge and died during its construction) and the younger Roebling was essentially bedridden for much of his life. Emily, who studied bridge construction herself took over in secret because, as she says in the show, “No one must know a woman was the engineer behind the bridge. They might not even want to walk across it.” But yeah, she built the thing.

• Mr. Russell, like his wife, is kind to his staff and offers his advice when Watson reveals the offer he’s been given by the McNeils, who want him to leave New York and lose contact with Flora, Watson’s daughter. With Watson being the main hero at the Duke’s dinner, averting a major crisis, I’m sure the Russells are now incentivized to keep him in New York. Will there be drama with the McNeils!?