The Gilded Age Season 2 Episode 5 “Close Enough to Touch” ends with one of our favorite characters on the HBO show finally getting her happily ever after.

**Spoilers for The Gilded Age Season 2 Episode 5 “Close Enough to Touch,” now streaming on Max**

Long-time spinster Miss Ada Brook (Cynthia Nixon) gets to marry her sweet and dashing Boston-bred reverend Luke Forte (Robert Sean Leonard) in a modest ceremony, attended by family, friends, staff, and, despite herself, Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski).

Indeed, much of the drama that unfolds in the latest Gilded Age episode has to do with Agnes’s stubborn refusal to accept that her sister, best friend, and long-time companion is leaving her to be Mr. Forte’s bride. The grand lady of 61st Street repeatedly calls her sister’s miraculous true love match a “betrayal,” going so far as to attempt to ban Oscar (Black Ritson) from attending and guilting Ada up until the morning of the big day. It’s only when Agnes’s trusted butler Bannister (Simon Jones) urges her to attend, or else live her life regretting it, that she relents and supports her sister’s marriage.

The Gilded Age executive producer and writer Sonja Warfield explained to Decider how Ada’s engagement became such a sticking point between the two sisters.

“I wanted Ada to have love and then we thought about, ‘Okay, well, how is that going to impact her relationship with her sister?’ Which is a huge dynamic,” Warfield said. “So we wanted to disrupt that and shift the power dynamic in a way, to help Ada get her own voice.

“That character is so good and kind and loving and her sister is this big bully.”

At times, however, Warfield admitted, Ada has benefitted from Agnes’s behavior. Consider the fortune-hunting suitor who attempts to woo Ada in Season 1? Agnes manages to shoo him away, and is right to do so, but the she can’t see that the situation is different with Luke Forte.

“But wouldn’t it be lovely if we could all have that real love?” Warfield opined. “Like the love for who we truly are. [Luke Forte] doesn’t want anything from [Ada Brook].”

“I just, you know, I love Ada’s character and I love how Cynthia plays her and I was so inspired by Cynthia’s performance when I stepped onto the stage that I was like, I want to do something big for her.”

While the life event is major, Ada’s wedding to Luke Forte is decidedly on the smaller scale. The Gilded Age is known for its over-the-top opulence, so Decider asked production designer Bob Shaw if he was purposely holding back in anticipation for an even bigger wedding — say the nuptials of a Miss Gladys Russell to a potential Duke?? — or if the modest ceremony was meant to reflect the character.

“It was for the character. It was because it was happening quickly,” Shaw said. “Weddings that were just over the top elaborate were planned for years. And you know, I was saying that they were like rock stars. I mean, these rich people, and if there was a society wedding of famous important people, regular people mobbed the street.”

That’s, however, not why Ada is getting married. She cares less about being seen and more about being settled.

“[Ada] just wants to get married and do it quickly. And there’s also a whole thing about her age,” Shaw said. “It wasn’t to save the ‘Wow’ for another wedding.”

Nevertheless, we can’t help up imagine that when and if Gladys Russell does ever get married on The Gilded Age, Bob Shaw will be tasked with creating quite the “Wow” wedding. After all, Bertha Russell would settle for nothing less. Ada, on the other hand, would only settle for true love…