‘The Gilded Age’: Is Marian Overreacting About Larry Going to the Haymarket? “I’m Still Not Quite Sure,” Harry Richardson Says

In The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 6 “If You Want to Make an Omelette,” Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson) discovers that her fiancé Larry Russell (Harry Richardson) did not celebrate their engagement with the boys at Delmonico’s, as he told her he did, but instead went to the scandalous Haymarket. The revelation that Larry went to a nightclub that features everything from alcohol to boxing ladies utterly devastates the sheltered Miss Brook, who spends this week convincing herself that their romance is over on the HBO hit.

But is Marian being unreasonable? Or is she within her rights as a proper lady here? On a scale from one to ten, how much is Marian overreacting about this news?

“On a scale of one to ten, he’s in trouble,” Gilded Age star Harry Richardson quipped about his character.

**Spoilers for The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 6 “If You Want to Make an Omelette,” now streaming on HBO MAX**

Hardcore Gilded Age fans have basically been ‘shipping “Larian” ever since the characters met via an adorable meet cute courtesy of Pumpkin the dog all the way back in Season 1. In The Gilded Age Season 3, it seemed the two might finally get their happily ever after. However, Larry might have messed everything up by lying about going to Delmonico’s!

If you watched last week’s episode of The Gilded Age, you’ll know that all Larry does at the Haymarket is drink, joke around, and confront Maud Beaton (Nicole Brydon Bloom). We don’t see him cheat on Marian or even flirt with one of the many sex workers at the club. Nevertheless, when Marian learns that Larry was at a place of “ill repute,” she assumes the worst. Even if both Aunt Ada (Cynthia Nixon) and Peggy (Denée Benton) advise Marian to get Larry’s side of the story, she winds up leaving a letter at the Russells’ house calling their engagement off. She believes that Larry’s indiscretion is so awful, so deviant, and so terrible that she simply cannot marry him!

Okay, but is Marian overreacting? (Again, even Peggy is like, “Is this really a big deal?”)

“I think the very question is why it’s so brilliantly written,” Harry Richardson said. “Like you can really see it and be like, ‘Yeah, he’s evil and he’s messed up and oh my god!‘ Or you can be like, ‘He didn’t do anything!’”

While modern audiences might not see anything wrong in Larry’s behavior, they might still note that he was perhaps wrong to lie about his plans to Marian. That could be the real issue at stake.

“Yes, he lied,” Richardson admitted, “but he was also in this space with her aunts and was like in this short, quick whisk away.”

“Like, it wasn’t premeditated darkness, but also, he didn’t tell the truth. So it’s like…the scale is trouble. On a scale of one to ten, he’s in trouble.”

“I’m still not quite sure,” Richardson said. “Sometimes I find myself being like, ‘What?‘ And then I’m like, ‘Yeah.’”

Ultimately, it might not matter how innocent or guilty the audience thinks Larry is. What matters is that Marian is pissed. He’s in trouble, indeed.