Consuelo was engaged to a man named Winthrop Rutherfurd before being forced to marry the duke, and it looks like our version of Winthrop is this Billy Carlton.īertha gets frightened about publicly losing to Mrs. I guess you can quibble with this and say, “Excuse me, Consuelo Vanderbilt married the Duke of Marlborough, so really, how closely are we sticking to history?” To you I raise one imperious eyebrow, cowing you into abashed silence, as which particular duke is hardly the point. We’ve all suspected it, and here it is! Bertha sells her daughter to the Duke of Buckingham so she can one-up Mrs. When it comes to the opera war, we are sticking unfortunately close to the script regarding what’s going to happen to Gladys. Astor in the opera war, the ruin of the Van Rhijn family, the potential closure of the Black (and now also Irish!) schools, and some romance items. In the finale, we’re dealing with Bertha vs. Very few people are emotionally invested in the actual facts. Also, literally like ten people care if you go off-script from 1880s America. I am the History Police, and I say history doesn’t matter when your main characters are “inspired by” historical figures. The History Police are not going to arrest you, JF. (Sometimes.)Īnd now, negating what I just said, here are some notes: Why are we sticking so closely to history? It literally does not matter! If I wanted to watch a documentary on the Gilded Age, I would watch American Experience: The Gilded Age on PBS, which I have! This is basically Julian Fellowes playing with dolls and being that kid who says you have to stick to the story of the movie when you’re playing with them, and you can’t have Belle run off and marry Ariel despite their mutual curiosity and zest for life.

And sometimes that place makes a pretty decent burrito. Could it be better? Sure, but at this point, that’s like complaining about the burrito place down the street with 2.5 stars on Yelp.

It did it! The Gilded Age delivered a pretty solid season finale.

We are who we are episode 8