Saturday, February 26, 2022

What I’m Watching: The Gilded Age

The Gilded Age: Season 1, Episode 5 “Charity Has Its Own Functions” (B+)

I had expected that Peggy might be angry at Marian for a much longer time, but they seem to have patched things up, even after Dorothy came and spoke to Marian about how Peggy really should be at home. It was great to see Peggy in action when she went for it and asked Clara questions for her article, horrifying Anne, who somehow associated the undesirable Bertha with a woman who had just met her. Clara did have a legitimate opinion about both Bertha and Mrs. Chamberlain, that it didn’t matter to her what someone’s background or social standing was if they had money that they wanted to use to support her cause. We only got to see him for a moment, but Nathan Lane made a grand entrance with quite the accent as Mr. McAllister, and I hope that we’ll see him again. Peggy stepped in as Tom and Marian were kissing in the hallway, acting partially as Agnes’ spy and also as a friend to make sure that Tom didn’t take advantage of Marian before she decided what she wanted. Gladys was much more certain of her feelings, but that didn’t stop her parents from conspiring to send her poor suitor away with a job offer that he had to take or find his future irreversibly destroyed as punishment. Oscar hiring a spy to keep him informed about the Russell household is a productive development for multiple parties, though, as we saw when George woke up in bed to find Turner next to him, the Russells are very perceptive and not forgiving when they find out that people have been conspiring against them. They’ll be busy dealing with the aftermath of this deadly train crash, something with the potential to completely ruin their endeavors.

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