‘The Gilded Age’ Season 3 Episode 3 review: “Love is Never Easy”

Move over, Materialists: The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 3 would like a word about marriage and men who check all your boxes!

Or rather…Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) would like a word. She’s still hellbent on getting her daughter Gladys (Taissa Farmiga) married off to the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb). He has a title and an estate in England—can any other young woman in New York society say that of her husband?

Gladys is determined to marry for love. After all, her parents married for love, and it’s what her father George (Morgan Spector) wants for her. But Bertha sees the Duke as opportunity for Gladys. As a duchess, she would have more social currency and power than anyone else in town. Doesn’t that give Gladys more freedom than she already has now, as a privileged but timid socialite?

Life imitates art here; for the series’ run, the Russells’ lives have paralleled the real-life Vanderbilts; Consuelo Vanderbilt’s shrewd mother orchestrated a marriage between Consuelo and the Duke of Marlborough. (If this sounds familiar to Downton Abbey fans, this also happened with Cora and Robert—The Gilded Age was initially developed as a prequel about their courtship).

A Pedro Pascal-less Materialists

That The Gilded Age releases on the heels of Materialists is fascinating. (They both have Louisa Jacobson, for one!) Materialists investigated modern dating and the idea of “checking the boxes.” Is the man six feet tall, is the woman well-educated? The Gilded Age looks for social power rather than individual power gained from a marriage.

Unconcerned with social power is Gladys’ brother Larry (Harry Richardson), in love with neighbor Marian (Louisa Jacobson). Their sweet romance has been building up since the pilot, but Marian seems oddly apprehensive about their relationship. Some of this can be attributed to Marian’s failed engagements in previous seasons, but it feels disjointed. Is writer Julian Fellowes drumming up drama for the sake of filling airtime?

Fellowes does revisit some of his classic Downton plots here. In non-spoilery terms, if avid Downton watchers remember the great Bates/Anna/Mrs. Bates debacle of season two, Borden (Douglas Sills) and Mrs. Bruce (Celia Keenan-Bolger) seem caught up in an oddly similar plotline, or at least the beginnings of it. (If I had a dollar for every time Fellowes wrote about a servant whose estranged wife is dead…) It doesn’t seem to have sinister implications like on Downton, but anything can happen in the FellowesVerse.

A new-to-Gilded side of Newport

The Gilded Age has brought real figures and history to its shiny, corseted world before: John Singer Sargent (Bobby Steggert) appears here again. Previous seasons had Oscar Wilde and Brooklyn Bridge engineer Emily Warren Roebling. “Love is Not Easy” introduces a fascinating historical world with the Black elite of Newport. Peggy’s (Denee Benton) attraction to Dr. Kirkland (Jordan Donica) begins to bloom in bougie Newport, where Dr. Kirkland’s established mother (Phylicia Rashad) disapproves of Peggy’s humble upbringing and her father’s status as an emancipated man. The Kirklands are old money and have been free in America since the Revolutionary War—Peggy’s father’s first-generation-owned pharmacy is nothing to the storied Kirklands. That doesn’t seem to matter much to Peggy, Dr. Kirkland, or his father (Brian Stokes Mitchell), but when you put up a fight against the icon that is Phylicia Rashad, who do you expect to win?

Peggy’s family encourages the romance with Dr. Kirkland for its social currency. Dr. Kirkland is educated, smart, and handsome—what more could Peggy want, according to her family? No class, demographic, or town is safe from the analytical eyes of the older generation, eagerly evaluating young people’s marketability. “I’d like to find out for myself,” Jack (Ben Ahlers) says when Agnes (Christine Baranski) warns him of the likely failure of his business venture. The same can be said for the eligible young women of East 61^st Street. They want to try love matches and find out about their success for themselves. Will the generations before them let them give love a chance? “Love is Not Easy” has an answer in the title, so you tell me.

The Gilded Age feels as tight as it’s ever been this week. A pointed question is made (can you marry for love in a world that wants you to marry for status?), and a solid pacing established. Other plot lines are touched on, but not at the expense of Gladys or Peggy’s ability to shine this week. It’s The Gilded Age at its best: high drama, real history, and a darn good time.

The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 3 is out now on HBO.

Images courtesy of HBO.