The Gilded Age Season 2 ends in triumph for Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon). After a season spent fighting for the Metropolitan Opera House to be built, opening night isn’t just a success — it’s a total death blow to old society’s beloved and fusty Academy. However the HBO show makes Bertha’s win all the more sweeter by revealing that her husband George Russell (Morgan Spector) exerted his power to get his wife the center box just like she wanted. In order to do this, though, George had to spite the woman who was working her buns off this season to put Bertha in her place: Mrs. Enid Winterton, aka the Russells’ former maid Turner (Kelley Curran). Mrs. Russell and Mrs. Winterton had come to an arrangement where in return for supporting the Met, the Wintertons would have that center box. The last minute switch, orchestrated by George Russell, results in a delighted Bertha and furious Enid.
When Decider chatted with Gilded Age stars Morgan Spector and Kelley Curran earlier this year, we asked them about this fascinating turn of events. After all, in Season 1, Turner pined after George and attempted to seduce him. She used this knowledge to devastate Bertha in Season 2, which caused a brief fissure in the Russells’ otherwise idyllic union. Decider asked Spector if George realized he was killing two birds with one stone, or opera box. He was doting on his wife, while stymying the society wife formerly known as Turner.
“I don’t know how significant Turner really is for George, to be honest. Like, I think giving Bertha a victory is much more what he cares about than [Turner],” Spector said.
“I mean, I remember talking about this back in the first season, but there was, you know, it’s like one option is to just let Turner keep her job. The other option is to just make her disappear. You know what I mean? Like the power disparity there is enormous. Even now that she’s ascended in the world, I just don’t think — you know, she doesn’t matter to him.”
“She’s not a real threat, I don’t think,” he continued. “Especially now that the information that Bertha didn’t have, she has, Turner holds nothing over him. So I think, for him, it’s just about giving Bertha that sense of victory that she wants.”
Interestingly, when Mrs. Winterton learns she has lost her center box to the Russells, she assumes Bertha was behind it. In fact, throughout the season, Mrs. Winterton blames Bertha for every hiccup in her ascent to society. In this case, the audience knows Bertha had nothing to do with the opera box switch. Decider asked Kelley Curran what it would mean to her character if she knew it was George, not Bertha, behind her humiliation.
“I think if she knew it was George, she might be even more devastated. Because I think, as much as it is fueled by Bertha and the resentment there and the envy, George is tied up in so much of that envy,” Curran said. “That Bertha found this marvelous, handsome, powerful, devoted husband who cares for her so much. And I think Turner thinks from living with them all under the same roof, Bertha doesn’t always appreciate that or even see it. And so I think a lot of the envy is also rooted in that.”
“And I think Season 1 of my relationship with George was a humiliation enough for Turner. So to then imagine that he would turn around and do something like that is just sticking the knife. You know what I mean? It’s rough. So, you know, we’ll see if she ever finds out.”
The good news for Turner is that she is now Mrs. Winterton and as we see, Mr. Winterton (Dakin Matthews) is instrumental in not only calming her temper, but coaching her through navigating the public slight to save face. Curran revealed this small interaction is “definitely important.”
“She’s got a bit of an ice block around her heart and I think he does thaw that,” Curran said. “I do think she respects him. I mean, he’s a gentleman. He’s a man of society and he has been for years. And he knows more than she does and she knows that.”
“So meeting someone who can calm her temper and calm her fears, I actually think is a really wonderful thing for Turner and I hope that continues to play out.”
Could we soon be ‘shipping the Wintertons the same way we swoon over the Russells? Eh, probably not, but it still seems like a sweeter marriage than you’d expect at first blush…