Episode 5 of “The Gilded Age,” titled “Charity Has Two Functions,” continues
the interesting intertwining of history and fiction that has become a trademark of the
series.
Bertha (Carrie Coon) agrees to Gladys’ request for a lady’s maid and extends an invitation
to Archie Baldwin, the young man her daughter is interested in, to spend the night at their
house.
Let’s start with Mr. McAllister, who has been invited to a lunch hosted by Aurora Fane.
The real Mcallister was from Savannah, Georgia, which accounts for the Foghorn Leghorniness
of Lane’s drawl and his Colonel Sanders facial hair that hides all manner of secret
herbs and spices and the map to Mrs. Astor’s heart.
Also attending the lunch are Marion, Mr. Raikes, and Bertha Russell.
Mrs. Fane is doing Bertha a solid by introducing her to “Cerberus,” a.k.a.
society’s gatekeeper, and she’s also doing Marion a solid by allowing Mr. Raikes to attend,
since he’s keen on rising through the ranks himself in order to be good enough to win
Aunt Agnes’s approval and marry Marion.
At the luncheon, Bertha seems to charm Ward, and Marion remarks to Mr. Fane, “Mrs. Russell
and Mr. McAllister seem to be getting on well,” to which he replies, “Why wouldn’t then
when they are more or less the same person?”
Social climbers love climbing together!
Thus far, Debra Monk’s portrayal of Miss Armstrong, one of the maids working in the
van Rhijn home, has been purely symbolic.
A seemingly racist woman set in her ways, she belittles Peggy and is offended that she
joins the rest of the house staff for meals.
She is old school, and seems she’s perpetually angry.
This week, she earns some back story.
On her afternoon off, she heads to a tenement building in what I assume is somewhere near
the Five Points neighborhood of Manhattan, an assumption I’m basing entirely on my
having seen Gangs of New York once.
She’s there to care for her ailing, elderly mother, to bring her food and change her bed
sheets, and while the scene is played for tragedy, depicting an ill woman in declining
health, I’m the terrible person who couldn’t help but think this woman might be the great
grandmother of Frank Costanza.
When Miss Armstrong enters, she greets her mother asking, “I’m not late am I?”
to which her mother responds with a thick New York accent, “How should I know?
I just lie in this bed all day!” and from there the comments get more insulting and
ungrateful.
At one point, Armstrong assists her mother into a chair and the old woman snaps, “You’re
pinching me!”
No good deed goes unpunished in Armstrong’s world, and we realize that maybe it’s okay
if she’s grumpy sometimes.
It’s genetic!
Marion, doing her part to support the Red Cross, sets out with Aurora Fane, Peggy and,
Bertha Russell to Dansville, New York, to support Clara Barton’s cause.
The women are unexpectedly greeted by Mr. Raikes, who has coordinated their travel for
them but surprises them by actually coming too.
They’re also greeted unhappily by Mrs. Morris, still dressed in her mourning clothes since
the suicide of her husband, which she blames on Mr. Russell.
She’s appalled when she sees Bertha there, but Bertha has made a handsome donation to
the Red Cross and is to receive a special shout out by Clara at the event.
Mrs. Morris is disgusted, telling Mrs. Fane that Mrs. Russell has defiled her, and even
refers to her as “the murderer’s wife.”
Peggy and Marion have made amends after Marion showed up to Peggy’s parents’ house with
a pair of ratty old shoes as charity (charity they didn’t need), and Peggy told Marion
that she needs to a) cool it with the white savior bullshit, and b) let her have some
space.
That would be grounds for a fight if this was a reality show, but alas, our protagonists
are more genteel than that and Marion acquiesces.
While in Dansville, Peggy also has an ulterior motive, she plans to write about the Red Cross
for her job at the New York Globe.
When she’s introduced to Clara Barton, Clara greets her warmly and is more than happy to
speak with Peggy for an article she’s writing.
The fact that Clara Barton is giving her time to a Black woman further disgusts Mrs. Morris.
When Clara Barton offers to give all the women a tour of the new Red Cross facility, Mrs.
Morris huffs under her breath about Peggy, “She’s not coming in with us,” and Clara,
overhearing it, doubles down by insisting Peggy comes.
It is truly a delight to see all of the non-society people have the upper hand for once on this
show.
At a dinner with Marion and Mrs. Fane, Clara explains that she’s no dummy, she knows
that Mrs. Russell is giving her money away to charity in order to climb the social ladder,
but as the recipient of that money, she’s not about to complain.
She also asks Marion if she might persuade that other pariah, Mrs. Chamberlain to consider
her cause, too.
Dang, Clara, I like how the only big spenders you like are the ones that no one else wants
to be seen with.
After the dinner, Mr. Raikes walks Marion to her room at the hotel in Dansville, and
for a moment it looks like they might rip some bodices, but Peggy interrupts them to
keep Marion pure.
Boo, Peggy!
We need some turn of the century smut!
Let Marion at least show some wrist to Mr. Raikes.
Similar to Marion, Gladys Russell’s love life is also suffering.
Her mother has begrudgingly allowed her to have a lady’s maid, though she has refused
to throw her a coming out party yet.
She also has a very specific idea of who should be courting Gladys, and it’s not Archie
Baldwin, the young man Gladys has been sneaking out of her house to spend time with.
When Bertha and George invite Archie to a dinner at their home though, Gladys sees it
as an opportunity for them to get to know her young suitor, she has no idea that the
invitation is actually a set-up to rid Archie from her life.
Even though Archie’s family is friendly with the Astors and have a home in Newport,
he’s still not good enough for Gladys, the Russells have planned to bribe him out of
Gladys’s life.
Mr. Russell promises Archie a job opportunity working in finance, if he promises to leave
Gladys alone forever.
If he chooses not to, Mr. Russell threatens that Archie will never work in this town again.
When they find out, Gladys and her brother Larry are both shocked and devastated at this
turn of events and the deception of their parents.
(But Miss Turner, meanwhile, who is still making goo-goo eyes at Mr. Russell, proves
she’s up to no good and strikes a deal with Oscar van Rhijn to inform him of Gladys’s
prospects while also promoting Oscar to the Russells as a potential suitor instead.
Will the two families actually unite in holy matrimony?
Miss Turner is spinning a real web here!)
As the strings of Gladys’s love life are being pulled, Mr. Russell’s colleague Mr.
Clay arrives to the Russell home to tell him that there’s been a fatal train accident
in Pennsylvania on one of their tracks.
At least three people are dead and there are unknown injuries.
Mr. Russell instructs Mrs. Russell to get Clara Barton to the scene, and fast.
We’ve all seen how quickly fortunes can be lost on this show, and George Russell knows
this could be a catastrophe for his business.
If they’re not careful, the accident could have not just a human toll, but the fate of
their own fortune could hang in the balance.