‘The Gilded Age’ Season 3 Episode 7 Recap: “Ex-Communicated”

They can’t kill George Russell… can they?? Just one week after we witnessed the shocking death of John Adams on The Gilded Age, his body decimated by a runaway horse (Sidebar: We haven’t heard a word about that horse being brought to justice!), this week’s episode ends with another shocking attempt on a life, this time a much bigger character on the show… which is why I feel like George can’t be dead, he’s too important… but if Julian Fellowes can kill off Matthew Crawley then anything is possible.

But before we get to the episode’s most shocking event, let’s begin with the scandal that’s become the scourge of New York society, Ward McAllister’s new book, Society As I Have Found It. The actual book, published in 1890, was indeed the real McAllister’s undoing, as we see in the episode, though I don’t know if anyone like Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) existed to show him a small shred of mercy, as she eventually does. Everyone in the city, perhaps even the country, has read it, and those who are part of the upper echelon – Mamie Fish, Mrs. Astor, the van Rhijns – are aware that though they might not be named in the book, there are sordid references to their various family rumors, scandals and downfalls throughout.

“McAllister’s book ridicules society and will wreak havoc for the lot of us!” Mrs. Astor declares at a meeting held between herself, Agnes, Ada, Mamie Fish and Bertha, who is ensconced enough with them now to be a part of this exclusive round table. Once upon a time, Ward McAllister (Nathan Lane) was the only person who could bring these women together, as he helped Bertha gain her footing in Mrs. Astor’s circle, and now it seems he brings them together again, but this time as their common enemy. Mrs. Astor declares that from now on, McAllister will be banned from society events, including the end-of-season ball she holds annually in Newport.

Of course the one person in the Forte/van Rhijn house who has read the book is Miss Armstrong, always looking for a bit of schadenfreude. She explains to the rest of the staff that Agnes’s financial downfall is mentioned in the book, as well as “some things about Mr. Oscar which I don’t understand.” Those things are, of course, allusions to Oscar being gay. Oscar’s long-held secret was not open, but given his intimate relationship with the now departed John Adams, it seems it wasn’t so secret after all. As much as he tries to his his grief, when Oscar learns that Adams has left him a lake house in Livingston Manor, with the hopes that Oscar would be taken care of in the event of Adams’ death, Oscar is truly at a loss for how to properly grieve the man he loved. (Adams’ surviving sister tells Oscar she knows their secret, which she’ll keep safe. Her acceptance of their relationship, and her discretion, shocks Oscar.)

When Oscar returns home, he’s an emotional wreck. Being given John Adams’ home will not bring his great love back to life, and when Agnes, Ada and Marian ask him if he’s okay, he snaps at them. When he tells them that Adams left him this cottage at Livingston Manor, Agnes quips that that area was settled by her mother’s family in 1750, and asks if that’s why Adams left it to Oscar. “I don’t think so,” Oscar says, emotionally exhausted.

“Oscar what is this really all about?” Agnes asks, because she still can’t understand why Oscar is so upset at the loss of his friend. “Do you really want to know, mama?” he cries. Marian steps in to explain that John was quite literally a savior to Oscar, personally and professionally, giving him money, opportunity and friendship when no one else would. “If somebody did all of that for you with no motive other than kindness and then they died, wouldn’t you be upset?” Marian asks. Her speech is true, but it also saves Oscar from having to come out of the closet. But as Oscar sits there crying his eyes out, Agnes finally gets it, seeing her son clearly for the first time ever. Marian also gets it – later when she goes to check on Oscar, she tells him she “understands” what went on between him and John, assuring him that this changes nothing about their relationship, despite the fact that society would cast him out if his truth went public. Marian is always the progressive ally, really doing the work!

Last week, Bertha and George Russell (Morgan Spector) were thousands of miles apart as Bertha traveled to England to help coach Gladys on how to stand up for herself to Lady Sarah. This week, they’re both back in New York, but George has been living at the Union Club, still furious at all of Bertha’s recent schemes at the expense of their children’s happiness. George has shut Bertha out, but it becomes clear that his anger and frustration isn’t completely the result of her actions, he’s also potentially about to lose his entire fortune on this railroad gamble. After last week, when his former colleague Clay planted a story about Russell Industries taking a nosedive, business really did take a turn for the worse. The always-confident George is not confident anymore that he’ll be able to find the money to invest in his railroad, or even to save what investments he still has left. “What’s happening? Are we headed for the poorhouse? Why did you not tell me this sooner?” Bertha asks when she finally is filled in on the situation. Here she is, blathering on about how they should try to attend the Newport ball together to quell any rumors of their own marital unhappiness, but George is too stressed, too furious for this conversation.

“I suggest you let me get back to saving our family from ruin,” he yells at her. (Quick question –– isn’t Larry sitting on a pile of $300,000 himself after helping Jack with the clock? Couldn’t that money help save the Russells?) One of the byproducts of the Russells’ financial situation is that George is unable to pay Gladys’s monthly allowance, which Hector and his sister Sarah have been expecting. For Sarah, it’s obvious that having Gladys in the house is the price they have to pay to have their lifestyle maintained by the Russells. When Hector tells her this month’s payment is delayed, she replies, “If there’s to be no money, you must find a way to send Gladys back!” This lady! “Suppose I don’t want to send her back,” Hector replies because, aww, you guys, he’s starting to actually get a crush on his wife!

Gladys is also starting to crush on her husband, and she says that she only wished he would stand up to Sarah, telling him, “What I think is that you don’t allow yourself to be the man you really are inside… If you could only learn to tryst your instincts, you’d do wonderful things around here.” The way this is phrased is a clever trick, because it allows Gladys to compliment Hector, hinting to him that she sees him for the good man that he really is, while also affirming that Sarah is terrible, without having to say that part out loud. Bertha’s cleaver manipulations really did rub off on her on that last visit. But the thing is, Gladys also believes what she’s saying.

I have to admit that, while I appreciate the scheming that Church, Borden and Mrs. Bruce get up to in order to trap Miss Andre and prove she’s the source of all the gossip leaks, I was really hoping that there would be more of a twist to this tale. Instead, after the three of them plant a story and see if Andre sells it, they confront her and she readily admits that it was her. “Money is money,” she shrugs as she heads out to pack her bags. Okee doke! Another season, another anecdote about how it’s hard to find good help.

What’s all this business with Agnes and one Mrs. Foster of the New York Heritage Society? The woman has been writing Agnes for what seems like months asking for money, and Agnes finally meets her in person at the suffrage meeting Ada hosts in their home. Agnes is unable to brush off Mrs. Foster, getting an unwanted history lesson about Livingston Manor, the very spot where Oscar’s new home is located. Agnes loses Mrs. Foster eventually, but the woman suspiciously keeps lurking and looking at Agnes, motives unknown.

Mrs. Astor has been dealing with her daughter Charlotte’s impending divorce all season, and that, coupled with the McAllister book, has made it difficult for her to host the Newport ball herself, lest she become a target of even more rumors and scrutiny. Plus, according to the rules of society, Astor wouldn’t be allowed to invite divorced women like Charlotte or Aurora Fane to the event. (At what point did we as a society decide divorced women were, you know, not terrible human beings?) So, feeling that she has no other alternative, Astor hands hosting duties over to Bertha.

So much other stuff has happened this week that I almost forgot that Marian (Louisa Jacobson) and Larry (Harry Richardson) were having (one-sided) troubles in their relationship. Having returned from Arizona, Larry receives the letter from Marian breaking off their engagement. He goes to see her and learns it was because he lied to her, telling her he was going to Delmonico’s, when really he went to a “disorderly house.” Marian doesn’t believe Larry, and he seems broken-hearted at the turn of events, going so far as to accuse Bertha of being responsible for sowing discord somehow. Ever since Gladys’s wedding, George and Larry have turned on Bertha, and Larry accuses Bertha of never thinking anyone is good enough for her kids. To Bertha’s dismay, George agrees with Larry. “Your ambition is out of control,” George tells her. “We’re both ambitious,” she retorts. “True, but when was the last time you asked any of us what we wanted? You should be surrounded by your family right now, look around,” George says as he walks out on her, leaving her all alone.

For Bertha, hosting a party that Mrs. Astor holds a claim to might seem like the pinnacle of her social acceptance – at least, it would have felt that way in the past. And while I’m sure Bertha is deep down a little smug that she gets to slap her name on this party, she’s also using her powers for good, by opening up the invite list to divorced women like Charlotte and Aurora. Bertha may be manipulative and power-hungry, but to her credit, she can be a force for positive change when she wants to be. Even on her trip to England, she didn’t simply coddle or try to appease Gladys into being a dutiful wife, she was training her daughter on how to be a strong woman with the power to shift the norms. Unfortunately, Bertha’s hands are tied when it comes to inviting Ward McAllister to the party – while divorced women did nothing to deserve their reputations, McAllister’s book was downright treason, a betrayal of all who know him. After being completely excommunicated by Mrs. Astor, McAllister visits Bertha. “You can save me,” he tells her. By heading up the Newport ball, she could salvage his reputation by letting him come, but she tells him, “I can’t. I haven’t the power. And nothing’s more perilous than to overestimate your own power.” Seems like George’s words have struck a nerve and she’s finally realizing that maybe all that absolute power was starting to corrupt her, and she’s scaling back for now.

When Larry came back from Arizona, he revealed to George that he’s discovered that the land around the mines that he had surveyed contain millions of dollars worth of copper. Clay had that same land surveyed and concluded that the land was worthless. George uses this information as leverage to buy out his railroad baron foe Risley Sage, with whom Clay now works. George tells Clay that the mines that Clay deemed worthless are actually quite valuable, and that this turn of events has allowed him to partner with J.P. Morgan and the Merricks on the Illinois Central line. This effectively cuts Sage and Clay out of any stake in the continental railroad. Sage fires Clay in front of George, and then George further emasculates him, telling him, “How could you believe you’d win?… You’re finished in New York. Of course you could always try for a job at one of my Pittsburgh mills, the one with the workers you wanted me to shoot.” Clay declares that he’s like a cockroach and he’ll never die… an ominous threat indeed.

Poor Peggy Scott. Just when she assumes Dr. Kirkland might propose to her, it turns out he’s got something very different to discuss. It seems that his mother Elizabeth (Phylicia Rashad) has heard rumors out of Philadelphia that Peggy was once married and gave her baby up for adoption. Of course, we know the truth, that Peggy’s father put the child up for adoption and told Peggy the baby died in childbirth, a tragic story that we learned about in season one. Making things even more tragic, the boy later died of scarlet fever.

Elizabeth Kirkland is told bits and pieces of this story and attempts to fill in the blanks with her own imagination, telling her son that Peggy is not only keeping secrets from him, but she’s a “tainted” woman to boot. (“I knew she wasn’t right for my William,” Elizabeth seethes.) When William learns this information from his mother, he rushes to the van Rhijns to speak with Peggy, but we’ don’t get a chance to see their conversation because, well, George Russell is about to get shot.

While George had been closing the books on another day at the office, a delivery man arrives, though he’s not a real delivery man but an assassin. He guns down George’s assistant and his associate Brinkley before taking aim at George himself, and in the final frame of the episode, he fires. And with that, Train Daddy’s entire life hangs in the balance.

Stray Thoughts from The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 7:

• I’m very much looking forward to the look on everyone’s faces when the see Gladys and Hector step off the boat from England and seem to actually be in love! I’m also very excited for Lady Sarah to get kicked out of the castle.
• Jack’s new mansion! I was sad for him last week but it turns out, being a $300-thousandaire is not a bad life.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.