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Season 3/Episode 6, "If You Want to Cook an Omelette"

Bertha helps Gladys stand up for herself. George attempts a bold business move. Peggy confides in Dr. Kirkland about her past.

In this Episode…

Mansions FeaturedThe Elms, Chateau-sur-Mer

By Genna Duplisea, Preservation Society of Newport County archivist

The willingness to break something to make something new reverberates through this episode.

Bertha travels to England to visit and encourage Gladys in her power struggle with her new sister-in-law, Lady Sarah. An Atlantic crossing in this period would have taken about a week each way, so this is a significant trip. When the Duke of Buckingham tries to defend his sister as not meaning any harm, Bertha retorts that Lady Sarah nevertheless causes it. It’s an ironic argument, considering the conflict and pain Bertha is willing to cause to orchestrate what she wants.

Queen Victoria’s Jubilee celebrating her 50 years on the throne would have been in 1887, probably a year or two after the setting of this episode – plenty of time to plant the copse of indigenous English trees that Gladys mentions. Gladys’ interest in the estate perhaps foreshadows her having close relationships with the estate and its tenants, mirroring those between Consuelo Vanderbilt and the tenants on her estate as Duchess of Marlborough.

Ben Lamb as the Duke of Buckingham and Hattie Morahan as his sister, Lady Sarah (Photograph by Karolina Wojtasik/HBO)

Gilded Age Season3_Ep6_bill-camp- — Bill Camp as J.P. Morgan (Photograph by Karolina Wojtasik/HBO)

J.P. Morgan pushes the Merrick family of the Illinois Central Railroad to sell shares so that someone owns 51 percent of the company and the industry can move forward. George Russell’s opponent in the competition for control of the railroad is Russell Risley Sage (1816-1906), a real historical figure who was a railroad executive and politician. Sage’s new secretary is Russell’s former employee, Clay, who is just as determined as his new boss to destroy Russell.

Sage comments in the episode that he had fired one office boy paid $3 per week to hire one who would do the work for $2 per week, exhibiting the casual cruelty of employers during this period.

The episode also displays a tension between the role of a woman versus the role of a wife. Mrs. Kirkland voices this conflict when her son expresses admiration for Peggy’s activism; Mrs. Kirkland thinks he may admire her as a woman but would not admire the same qualities in a wife. There is a question throughout the characters’ relationships of what a husband will support his wife doing: Gladys works to make herself indispensable to the Duke and the running of the estate; Dr. Kirkland seems to support his potential wife being an activist and is compassionate when she shares the secret of her past relationship with Mr. Fortune; George Russell loses faith in his wife’s social schemes; his son Larry’s lies to his fiancé Marian Brook come to light.

Both Lady Sarah and Mrs. Kirkland express their opposition to women’s suffrage. It was not unusual for upper-class British women to oppose women’s suffrage, as they had other avenues of power and influence and did not trust lower-class women to make wise political decisions. But as Frances Ellen Watkins Harper points out on the other side of the ocean, widows like her lacked political, economic and social power to affect change without the vote. Harper (1825-1911) was a real historical figure; in addition to being a suffragist, she was an abolitionist, temperance activist and writer.

Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) and her sister, Ada (Cynthia Nixon) in a scene filmed in Chateau-sur-Mer. (Photograph by Karolina Wojtasik/HBO)

Gilded Age Season3_Ep6_claybourne-elder-blake-ritson — Claybourne Elder as John Adams and Blake Ritson as Oscar van Rhijn (Photograph by Karolina Wojtasik/HBO)

Even in his wife’s absence, George stays not at the Russell mansion but at the Union Club. This social club, which still exists today, dates to 1836 and is the oldest private club in New York City. A few years after the setting of this episode, J.P. Morgan founded the Metropolitan Club in protest after several of his friends were denied entry – an echo of Bertha’s efforts with the Metropolitan Opera. The club is also the setting of the final scene of the episode, where Oscar van Rhijn and John Adams briefly find closure and hope as Oscar rebuilds his life with John’s help.

Members of the van Rhijn household staff marvel at the money left to them by their former colleague Jack Trotter for helping to support his clock invention that has made him rich. (Photograph by Karolina Wojtasik/HBO)

Oscar gives former scammer Maud Beaton $100 to start over in Ohio, the equivalent of more than $3,000 in 2025 dollars. Money also changes hands when Jack, leaving his position as footman, repays twentyfold each of his coworkers who invested in his clock patent. Although Jack’s old life and career have ended, he maintains his relationships as he leaves the Van Rhijn household to build his life anew.

Filming locations: The Elms (kitchen), Chateau-sur-Mer (gray bedroom)