The Gilded Age Finale: The Russells’ Marriage Hangs in the Balance as the Stars Break Down the Family’s Fate (Exclusive)

Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Gilded Age season 3 finale

That’s a wrap on The Gilded Age season 3. Creator Julian Fellowes’ HBO historical series brought its third drama-filled installment to a close by leaving the Russell family’s fate hanging in the balance. 

In the season 3 finale (“My Mind Is Made Up,” written by Fellowes and Sonja Warfield), things pick up immediately after the penultimate episode’s shocking conclusion: the surprise shooting of railroad baron George Russell (Morgan Spector). But that’s only one of many emotional turn of events faced by Bertha (Carrie Coon) and her children, Larry (Harry Richardson) and Gladys (Taissa Farmiga).

While the family rallies around their wounded patriarch, who ultimately survives the assassination attempt thanks to Dr. William Kirkland (Jordan Donica), the consequences of their various actions play out in unexpected ways.

In particular, Bertha faces the fallout of her actions, which included shrewdly negotiating a financially-costly marriage between Gladys and the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb), fending off swirling rumors about her household that later ended up in Ward McAllister’s (Natan Lane) book, and providing mixed signals about Larry’s engagement (and breakup) with Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson). 

Despite their marriage — as well as their relationships with their kids — being on edge, Bertha still decides to host a grand ball in Newport, R.I. with a healing George in attendance as they try to present a united front for both their family and the railway business. But in the end, it’s not enough as George tells Bertha that he doesn’t like the life they’re living and promptly returns to New York City.  

Elsewhere, Larry — who has risen among the ranks of his father’s business — and Marian have an honest conversation about the state of their relationship, eventually agreeing to figure out where things are headed in the future.

Additionally, a newly confident Gladys, who spent most of the season coming to terms with her marriage and her place in their household, has come to defy Bertha’s expectations as well as her own. And in a happy moment for the family, she reveals that she’s pregnant with her first child.

When it comes to George and Bertha’s relationship, audiences are seeing what happens when life gets in the way.

As Warfield simply tells PEOPLE that “marriages go through a lot of different changes and they evolve and grow and grow together or grow apart.” More specifically, Fellowes says that “we’re just showing that with a marriage even as well suited as George and Bertha, you are, nevertheless, out of the woods because you don’t know what the next chunk of your life is going to produce.”

From Coon’s perspective, the fracture in their marriage extends from Bertha not understanding why her husband was so upset about Gladys’ wedding. “Bertha really believes that everything she’s done this season is for love,” the actress says. “She believes she’s doing well by Gladys. In her mind, it works out for Gladys, so she doesn’t understand why George has such a big problem with it.”

Coon adds, “She’s not really taking the time to think about him feeling like he has compromised his own morals by not defending his daughter in the way that he should have.” Bertha, meanwhile, “feels like the ends justify the means.” 

But in the end, Coon admits that George and Bertha don’t agree on the actions nor the outcome. “They’ve really gotten far from each other in terms of their honesty,” The White Lotus star says of the couple, explaining that in the past, “They’ve really been very honest with each other.”

An example of that is George’s actions in season 1, when Enid Turner (Kelly Curran) tried to seduce him. “She’s like, ‘I didn’t think you were gonna cheat on me. I’m just mad you didn’t tell me about it,’ ” Coon says of Bertha. “And there are so many things he’s not telling her. He’s not telling her how high the stakes are.”

“They could lose everything in this railroad investment. He doesn’t tell her that he’s firing Clay so that he’s keeping information from her,” she explains. “They’re just really not communicating anymore. And when they realize just how far apart they are, it’s too late.” 

The actress says, “George is in the throes of this midlife crisis and running off into the sunset, and Bertha is left in the shock of that moment where she hasn’t really processed it yet. So it was sad. It was sad for us to play through that dissolution.” 

Adding his own take on George, Spector tells PEOPLE, “I’m a person who’s constantly plagued with self-doubt. I don’t think George is that kind of person. I think he goes through the world thinking he knows exactly what to do in most situations. He’s planning ahead. He’s strategizing, he’s always prepared for every meeting, every interaction.” 

“Suddenly, he’s let himself down. He let his daughter down. He’s failed a huge test in the life of his child. And I think he’s really dealing with that kind of gnawing, crippling self-doubt for the first time,” the actor continues, acknowledging the mental fallout of the shooting that now plaques him. 

“It remains to be seen how he’s gonna resolve that, but I don’t think he leaves just because he’s upset with Bertha, or because their marriage is in a difficult place. I think he leaves because he’s kind of disgusted with himself — and he has to deal with that too,” Spector concludes. 

In the end, Larry and Marian have finally cemented themselves as the Mary and Matthew of Downton Abbey — even if their relationship remains unclear moving forward.

When it comes to Marian’s mistrust of Larry following his night spent out at the gentlemen’s club, Warfield explains, “She has a difficult track record and trust issues. So it took her a while to get there.” She’s also plagued by the societal notion at the time that her “job as a young woman was to get married,” the producer adds. 

She’s also dealing with the nagging feeling of what her life will mean in the end — whether it’s staying unmarried and having success with teaching or promoting women’s suffrage or being someone’s wife and mother. “If you want your life to add up to something, to mean something, to be something, is it enough just to get married and have three children and do what your husband tells you? And for Marian, the answer is no,” Fellowes says. 

Despite all of that, there seems to be a connection between Larry and Marian that’s become the core “will they, won’t they” of the series, which has been renewed for season 4, allowing more time for the characters to figure out their dynamic. 

“There’s definitely some similarities and there’s a very beautiful love there. But there’s obviously some complicated situations for them to navigate both societally and to do with the drama that comes up this season,” Richardson says of the comparisons to Downton Abbey.

Reflecting on their arc as a whole, the actor says, “It was really beautiful to explore that because both of us have lived in these characters for quite a long time. So we also have our connection to how we felt and the subtleties we would play between the two of them.” 

Now that they’ve been “brought into each other’s sphere in a more romantic way,” he continues, “it’s a very beautiful platform to explore this relationship. And what I love about the writing on this show is there is so much room for subtle exploration.”

“Being close made that even easier and more expressive,” Richardson says of his close friendship with Jacobson and what they were able to do with “what sort of dynamic they have as they’re falling in love or figuring out how to be in each other’s lives.”

As for Larry’s story as as whole, which included taking a larger role in George’s business and successfully managing the mines out in Arizona, Richardson says, “Larry ends up in a really interesting place where he’s not quite under the umbrella of his family, and he’s not quite a child in the nest of the Russell house, and he’s not fully out on his own yet. He’s kind of in this emerging stage, learning how to navigate stepping out in the world and trying to stand on his own feet and figure out who he is.”

“I do think that the writing leads to a lot of beautiful cliffhangers and split pathways of which way he’s going to move in society and in love and with his family,” he adds. When asked about season 4, Richardson teased he has some ideas “percolating,” but that he “will keep those” to himself for now. 

Gladys comes out of rock bottom — but will face new challenges as the head of an estate and as a first-time mother.

After spending the first part of the season distraught over potentially being married off to the Duke through a shroud financial deal negotiated by her parents, Gladys finally walked down the aisle. 

Looking back on that messy wedding, Farmiga says, “When Gladys says yes, it’s not really Gladys saying yes. It’s Gladys just being done, like, sick of the weight, of the pressure from society, from her mom, from her friends, from everybody to do the things she’s supposed to do that she thinks is not gonna make her happy.” 

“She really is at rock bottom when she goes through this marriage, which is supposed to be the happiest day of your life,” she continues.

Then, not long after tying the knot, the newlyweds set sail for the Duke’s estate, Sidmouth Castle, in England. There, Gladys had to learn what it means to be a duchess before taking a leadership role over the ins and outs of the estate and giving the Duke’s feisty sister, Lady Sarah Vere (Hattie Morahan), the boot. 

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That moment of telling Lady Sarah to leave was very satisfying for Farmiga. “I’m like, ‘Goddamn, it’s time,’ ” she says. “This is like the moment Gladys feels like she becomes a woman.” 

Reflecting on her character’s journey throughout the season, Farmiga adds, “It’s beautiful that Gladys finally starts to attain a bit of freedom. And in that process of when she attains freedom, it’s thanks to her mother, Bertha, which I know Gladys hates to admit.”

“But really, it’s what brings them closer together. Bertha comes to Sidmouth and takes her hand and says, ‘I know it’s been tough love, but I do love you. And this is my last piece of advice for you,’ ” the actress says. “And she really she sits up Gladys straight and gives her the tool to take her happiness into her own hands.” 

As for the pregnancy, “It’d be interesting to see what kind of parent Gladys turns into,” Farmiga says. “As we found out by the end of season 3, she’s definitely Russell and George Russell’s daughter. So I’m curious how that that seeps into her parenting skills.”

The Gilded Age season 3 is now streaming on HBO Max.