No One Should Be Surprised The Gilded Age Season 3 Ends With Bertha’s Biggest Mistake

Powerful families rise and fall with the tides of change in historical dramas, but the one thing that can keep them strong is their ability to be a point of progress in history. Although heavily resisted, this ambition to change, and the finances to front it, keep these power couples and legacy families stronger together. Aside from petty squabbles or the odd complaint, often nothing is as confrontational as their rivals. As seen in The Gilded Age, the new-money Russell family has been through the wringer, especially in this third season. Betrayals of trust, broken promises, and selfish goals have ripped through their inner circle as the corporate vultures wait hungrily to pick at what remains.

Fortunately, despite his own dramas, Larry has taken it upon himself to find further interest and enterprise in his father’s faltering railroad business after finding success as an entrepreneur. With his savvy taking stride and George being given some breathing room from the fiasco, it would seem things may finally have space to repair the horrible divide between him and his wife, Bertha. Throughout the series, Bertha has been a force to be reckoned with, from within the Russell family and without. Typically, George puts his full confidence in her on society matters and supports her fully, which has served them very well to this point. Unfortunately, in checking on the individual needs of her children, Bertha’s well-meaning ambitions have shown her efforts to be forceful and selfish, making sure the future aspirations and benefits of her children fit into her vision. Despite all the good Bertha brings to society in The Gilded Age, her overreaching methods are finally reaping what they sowed.

The Russell Power Couple Always Had Challenges

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One big aspect of George and Bertha’s relationship has kept them intense throughout the seasons of The Gilded Age; their mutual understanding of each other’s ambitions and where they can lead. George Russell often holds and lifts Bertha up when she takes the wheel on matters of marriage for their children and how they should move and trend-set within New York society. Bertha largely keeps her focus on her societal matters and lets George Russell manage their corporate enterprises and the source of their wealth.

With her gumption and wit and his cunning and business tact, they have been each other’s rock through many a trial and tribulation. They have stayed honest and loyal to one another’s interests for the better part of three seasons, but as soon as Bertha’s forceful hand waves George’s reservations about Gladys’ betrothal away, the pressure builds and intensifies. In her head, Bertha is on a crash-course to becoming royalty if she can just get Gladys to go with her idea of marrying the Duke of Buckingham. To marry into foreign royalty, especially British royalty, would societally put the Russell family leaps ahead of all their friends in New York, and make them world-renowned.

With her son, Larry, she is lighter-handed with his pursuit of Marian Brook, but still has reservations about him linking up with someone of such a lower financial status. A marriage to their old-money neighbors could serve as a strengthening point in the great divide between social powers, but Bertha is always looking at marrying up her children. Luckily, as a man in this period, Larry is able to rebel a little easier against her, and with Gladys being of a gentler disposition, focuses her potential status rise on her instead.

Gladys’ Marriage Was A Mortal Wound To George

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The start of season three spelled certain doom for Bertha’s relationship with George as her relentless push to get Gladys married to the Duke was done quickly and behind George’s back as he was struggling to keep the family’s business ventures afloat in an uncertain market. Even though he promised to allow Gladys to marry whomever she wished and would support her in her decision, Bertha cornered any opportunity for him to do so and by the time he could return, promises and deals were made that created an impossible social and financial situation for George to navigate.

This was the ultimate wound. The one time George had a stake in the matters of marriage of their children, Bertha completely invalidated them and pushed into his arena of making deals to make sure he and the Duke came to an agreement on their financial dealings. George Russell is a scrupulous businessman with a penchant for high-risk, high-reward dealings, but one thing he will not forgive from his associates is interference in how he conducts business.

He has a method to his madness, and when George asks for trust in his decisions, he relies on those he asks to follow-through. With Bertha going over his head, and forcing him to publicly support her decision to marry the Duke, George feels betrayed. By proxy, Larry feels equally betrayed, since he is all too familiar with his mother’s meddling and cares deeply for his sister’s happiness. Once Gladys is married off and sends word of her troubles in Britain back home, George is guilt-ridden and it inflames his anger and resentment towards Bertha’s actions.

It Will Take More Than A Ball And Child To Fix Bertha and George’s Marriage

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Season 3 of The Gilded Age was full of unexpected drama. From off-screen duels to carriage accidents to an attempted assassination of George Russell, there was plenty to clutch one’s pearls at. After George’s assassination attempt leaves him bedridden for some time, it seems like Bertha’s intense worry could gravitate her ambitions towards some self-reflection. With George voicing that their fortunes may be at risk, and throwing daggers at Bertha’s social victories whenever they were in the same room, there was a ray of hope in that violent and horrible time that could have been mended.

Instead, her concern and worry became quickly replaced with relief as George could stand, and felt it allowed her to rest from worry. Despite Bertha’s positive influence on society by inviting divorced women to her ball and excluding a major male society member, George’s positive disposition and presence at the event was not some “It’s all coming back together” moment for the couple. George put all his focus on pain management and saving face socially for his business. George was there solely to show the strength of the Russell name, when, secretly, their bond couldn’t be weaker.

The newfound copper mines have bonded Larry and George together in newfound commonality, but have also created a front of hatred for Bertha. Now removed from her family home and a lady of her own royal house, Gladys Russell has become thankful and happy for her new circumstances since her mother intervened at her behest to help build her confidence as a lady. The road to Bertha’s redemption with Gladys became one unseen by Larry and George.

As they distance themselves and frequent the club, most of Bertha’s growth and desperation to make the best of her selfish ambition and reunite the family through Gladys’ happiness goes all but unnoticed. In a tragic set of circumstances, George Russell, after all the disappointment and betrayal and near-death experience, leaves the morning after Bertha’s ball with the same resentment he wore before, too soon to hear Gladys’ great and happy-to-share news of her pregnancy.

The Gilded Age ends this season with Bertha watching the tail of George’s carriage disappear around the corner as she cries on her balcony, and as sad as this moment is, it is all too deserved that Bertha’s potential redemption arc needs to be one that grows quietly, away from her very public ego that keeps her strong. If she is to truly win back her children and husband’s affection, it’ll take something more subtle and less public than a ball and royal child, and she had better hurry before some other fate befalls George as he becomes a bigger target for his rivals.