The Gilded Age Recap 'What the Papers Say': Is Bertha Right?

In the second episode of the third season of HBO Max’s The Gilded Age, George Russell returns home to find his household in turmoil.

The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 2 Recap and Review

Stay with me for a few moments, because clearly a young woman, no matter how privileged, being forced to wed against her will is not something that should have happened or ever happen again. What I would like to explore is the interesting choice The Gilded Age made of exploring Gladys’s forced marriage storyline along with the impending Fane divorce, and to try and view them from Bertha's point of view. Look at how powerless Aurora Fane is when her husband decided that he was done with her. Could Bertha be trying to save her daughter from a similar fate? Could Bertha actually be trying to give her daughter power, instead of taking it away from her? 

The Russell marriage is fun to watch because it is a fantasy – two beautiful people who fell in love, who supported each other as they rose, one in business, one in society. Their marriage works in no small part because George Russell is very deeply in love with his wife. I don’t doubt Bertha’s love for her husband, I just don’t think it is anywhere close to the love George has for her. George knows this, too. Remember this conversation back in season one? ‘I know my loving you is not enough.’ ‘It’s almost enough.’

Take away George’s deep, abiding love for Bertha, and what we have is a very wealthy man who had the power to do practically anything he wanted. If his wife happened to disagree with him, there was nothing she could do. Bertha had social cache because she clawed her way towards it, using her smarts and George’s money. But imagine if George did not support that. Who in New York society would listen to a woman from a poor-to-modest background whose only claim to social significance was a wealthy husband? Now imagine if her husband wanted to divorce her. 

We don’t have to, because The Gilded Age is showing us exactly what would happen. Mrs. Astor’s cool question about whether Aurora would spend more time in Newport was a surgical strike at the heart of the social matter. Charles brazenly arrived at the Fane party with his mistress, after Aurora made polite excuses for his absence, and just like that, Mrs. Astor, and the rest of New York, knew.

No matter how well born, no matter how much money her father may have had, a woman of their time was only as good as her marriage. Gladys may fancy herself in love with Billy Carlton – and Billy Carlton may love her back – but love, as everyone who has ever experienced it would know, could and often did fade. 

There was also the issue of George Russell’s enormous wealth. Any match Gladys made in New York, she would enter as the wealthier party. Perhaps there would be men like Oscar van Rhijn who would simply accept their good fortune. But there would be men who would resent being the poorer party. Who’s to say where Billy Carlton, whose great grandfather was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, would fall on the spectrum?

Marriage came with too many uncertainties. A marriage to a Duke carried with it the certainty of two things – a title and, should they have children, blood.

What could a Duchess title give Gladys that being George Russell’s daughter could not? Global attention, for one thing. This was an era before anyone could be an influencer. As Duchess of Buckingham, Gladys’s every move would be documented. Her opinion would hold weight. Each time she spoke, people would listen. A Duchess could not be dismissed the way Bertha was dismissed when she first arrived on 5th Avenue.

If she bore the Duke’s children, her position would be on even more solid ground. As The Gilded Age has shown us time and time again, fortunes could be made and lost. George Russell could wake up one day and find that he no longer possessed the money to move the business world. But a Duchess Gladys who bore children would always be the mother of aristocrats. Even if the Duke divorced her, her blood would already be part of his ancient line. For as long as there were Dukes of Buckingham from their marriage line, there would be Russell blood running through their veins. That was a kind of social permanence that not even the best New York marriage could provide. 

More than the other society doyennes of the time, Bertha knew what it felt like to be powerless. She knew what it felt like to be present and not be seen. Larry and Gladys had lived their adult lives as George Russell’s children. Neither of them had any idea what it was like to claw their way up. Bertha was trying to ensure that Gladys would never know that kind of struggle; when she was arguing her point with George, it almost felt like she was coming from a place of trauma (Side note: I hope we learn more of Bertha’s pre-George life this season). That Gladys’s marriage to the Duke would also represent the pinnacle of her social triumph did not negate the power it would give Gladys, if she would only seize it. 

And that was the problem – Gladys was not really the seizing type, at least, not yet. But now that Billy Carlton had broken her heart, what would she choose to do next?

Gladys had support now; George was home. But the George who came home was not the George who left. This George was already feeling, for the first time in a very long time, that his wealth was not enough to push through his next, very ambitious project, a railroad that would connect the entire country. JP Morgan pointed this out when they had a frank talk at the Russell home. George did JP a solid when he bailed out the Metropolitan National Bank; now George wanted JP’s support for his railroad. JP promised as much support as he could, despite the market being in a troubling phase, but should the project fail, George would be on his own. 

Such a project would seem such a no brainer to us who are used to an interconnected world, but to be built, the railroad would have to displace people. The trouble with the Arizona miners would not be the last. More than the huge expense would be the human element of it all. 

George Russell became the George Russell because he never ceased looking forward. He and Bertha could live a good life on what they had, or he could risk it all on a legacy-building exercise. His business was stressful enough. Now he needed to deal with whatever it was that Bertha had negotiated with the Duke.

When George spoke to Gladys, he did try to make her see things from her mother’s point of view. Despite George’s promise that Gladys could marry for love, he could not deny that Bertha had a point about the ducal marriage. But, when the conversation was only between husband and wife, George allowed Bertha to see some of his frustration at not having a voice in the decision-making involving their children. He also very clearly told her he knew she was behind the leaks to the press, and asked her if she had told him everything. She said yes.

That was not entirely true. The Duke arrived at the Russell house with his lawyer and declared they had much to discuss. Bertha clearly knew what was up but her husband and children did not. The Russell marriage survived ‘What the Papers Say’ with minimal drama, but as someone who has been wanting more of this show, I look forward to seeing how, exactly, did George intend to handle the latest wrinkle in his wife’s scheming, all whilst carrying the stress of the possibility of losing everything they had with his new railroad dream. 

Larry supported Gladys as much as he could, but there was little the Russell-ettes could do when the prospective groom himself could not fight for the woman he claimed to love. Gladys ran to the Carlton home in the middle of the night. What she hoped to gain by that was not certain, because as soon as Bertha arrived and ordered her into her carriage, she obeyed. Mrs. Carlton tried to sell the inevitability of the marriage to Bertha, even going so far as to pointing out her family’s illustrious history and challenging Bertha’s own, to no avail. Bertha cooly told her that if Billy and Gladys  persisted, they would disinherit Gladys and George would ensure that Billy would not be able to get a job.

Billy’s attempt to speak to George himself was a comical failure. George was intimidating enough, but to see him with other movers of the financial world took away every bit of young Billy’s courage, and he fled before he could say a word. It was to his credit that he at least spoke to Gladys personally and ended their informal engagement. The daughter of parents who were both strong willed, Gladys has yet to find the man who had enough strength to love her. 

What else happened in the second episode of The Gilded Age’s dramatic third season? Here’s a brief rundown.

Larry and Marian, and Jack

Marian’s Aunt Ada now knew of the attachment. Larry fancied himself in love with Marian, but though I liked them as friends, I am being as cautious as Marian here, since it was not too long ago that Larry was in love with and wanted to marry Mrs. Blane. In the meantime, Larry finally saw the wisdom of including Jack to the meetings with investors, and took him to his own tailor to get him a proper suit.

Peggy and the hot doctor

Mr. and Mrs. Scott brought Dr. Kirkland to treat Peggy, and he just happened to be a dashing young doctor who had already listened to her breathing and was interested in her writing. I love this for Peggy. Her mother would take her on a trip to Newport for a speaking engagement with a women’s group, and I hope the hot doctor would be there too. 

The Van Rhijn and Russell Household

With Bannister again trying to find out to whom the staff had to answer, Aurora just made the decision and gave it to Ada. Agnes has her faults, but she would not have asked the staff to sign the temperance pledge. This storyline, of course, has a more serious historical context, but if the show wanted me to care about it, they would include the proper context in the script. For now, I am wholly on Agnes’s side. 

The letter Mr. Borden received was to inform him his wife had died. He has yet to share this news to Mrs. Bruce. Mrs. Bauer and the rest of the Van Rhijn staff were so done with Mrs. Armstrong’s racism 

Aurora and Charles Fane, and their party guests

Seeing Agnes tell Charles that she was no longer his aunt was satisfying, but I really need Charles to become a social outcast now that he has decided to thoroughly embarrass Aurora into filing a divorce by showing up everywhere in town with his mistress Elsa Lipton.

Was that Charlotte Astor Drayton at the Fane party?

John Adams decided to invest with Oscar, which they hoped would encourage others to do so as well.

Mrs. Fish introduced Mrs. Russell to a Mr. Merrick.

Notable Quotes

Bertha: ‘As a rule, I’m the sort of person who gets what she wants.’

Agnes: ‘Please, he’s English. His loyalty is to the queen and to the bottle, not necessarily in that order.’

Rating: B+

You can access Recap Lab’s full coverage of The Gilded Age via this link.

Episode Title: What the Papers  Say

Episode Writers: Julian Fellowes & Sonja Warfield

Episode Director: Deborah Kampmeier

Original Air Date: June 29, 2025

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