The Gilded Age Season 2 finale saw the opening of the Metropolitan Opera House, the surprising restoration of the Van Rhijn/Brook fortune, and a business proposal for Jack Trotter (Ben Ahlers) and his alarm clock. However, what viewers might be swooning the most over — after Bertha Russell’s (Carrie Coon) opera cloak — is the kiss we’ve been waiting years for. Larry Russell (Harry Richardson) and Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson) finally kissed on HBO‘s The Gilded Age! This means that Marian might finally have set her sights on a decent man, guys! (Of course, I’m already worried what complications Julian Fellowes has plotted for this adorable couple in a potential Gilded Age Season 3…)
Marian Brook and Larry Russell first met via classic meet cute all the way back in The Gilded Age series premiere, “Never the New.” Larry was arriving home to his parents’ mansion on 61st street when he caught a glimpse of a pretty blonde walking a cocker spaniel named Pumpkin. When Pumpkin — Ada Brook’s (Cynthia Nixon) beloved canine companion — pulled his ornate leash from the distracted Marian’s grasp, the poor animal charged straight into the path of an oncoming carriage. Larry sprung into action, saving the dog. After a flirtatious introduction, we learn that Larry had heard about Marian from her cousin Oscar van Rhijn (Blake Ritson), only she is not at all as Oscar had described. (The implication is Oscar sold her as a poor, dowdy cousin from the country and not a beauty.)
Well, rather than embark on a classic romance, the two fostered a friendship. Besides, Marian was besotted with Tom Raikes (Thomas Cocquerel) in The Gilded Age Season 1 and Larry was hooking up with the beautiful widow Mrs. Susan Blane (Laura Benanti) at the start of Season 2. Marian then found herself engaged to Cousin Dashiell (David Furr), a situation she only found a way out of mid-finale.
Still, through it all, Larry and Marian were steady friends. According to The Gilded Age‘s co-writer and co-executive producer, it’s Marian and Larry’s friendship that makes their potential romance so delicious.
“What’s really beautiful is that this is a real friendship,” Warfield said. “So it’s sort of like, well, we were looking in all these different directions and we weren’t looking at each other.”
“It’s almost When Harry Met Sally-ish. You know, we’re friends. What happens when friends take that next step into romance? So the friendship is really in jeopardy. Are they going to risk that for maybe something that’s not gonna work out? We’ll see.”
We’ve seen in the past few weeks how Larry and Marian have leaned on each other in trying times. Upon returning from Newport, Larry confides his heartache to Marian and they walk to the park, and in last week’s episode, he returns the favor by stewarding her on a similar stroll to clear her head after her uncle’s death. In The Gilded Age Season 2 Episode 10 “In Terms of Winning and Losing,” the two share a few victories before they even kiss. Together, they help Jack Trotter figure out a way to move forward with his patented alarm clock, tip Bertha off about Ward McAllister’s (Nathan Lane) subterfuge, and manage to make the Metropolitan Opera opening together.
After the opera and the opera’s after-party, Larry escorts Marian across the street back to the van Rhijn house. Because they both believe she’ll have to move soon, thanks to Oscar’s mistake falling for a con artist’s trap, they assert their friendship will last forever. That’s when Larry moves in for a kiss and Marian happily kisses back.
“I think he’s adorable. She’s lovely and he has this sort of ‘devil may care’ attitude, right? Because he can,” Warfield said. “And she has lived maybe a more cautious life. Her mother died when she was younger. They bring out the youth in each other and the sweetness and the kindness.”
Of course, that doesn’t mean that Marian and Larry will live happily ever after in Season 3. Besides Warfield’s own warning that their friendship could be put in turmoil, we have Aunt Agnes’s (Christine Baranski) ominous warning that Marian has two strikes against her now. She can’t afford a third.
Then there is a certain loose thread that Julian Fellowes and Sonja Warfield have left untied. We haven’t seen Larry’s lover, Mrs. Blane since The Gilded Age Season 2 Episode 4 “Close Enough to Touch,” but could it be possible — literally physically possible — for her to pop up with a surprise down the line? I’m not saying Julian Fellowes is planning on Mrs. Blane returning pregnant…but it’s as juicy a twist as Turner reappearing as Mrs. Winterton…