[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 6.]
Everything is changing in The Gilded Age, and not just for Gladys Russell (Taissa Farmiga). While the young duchess was visited by mother Bertha (Carrie Coon) in England in The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 6 on Sunday, July 27, on HBO, her old neighbors on 61st Street experienced another seismic shift in the household for both the upstairs and downstairs families. In the video interview above, Ben Ahlers, who plays Jack Trotter, breaks down the episode and what’s next for Jack — and reacts to the shocking way the episode ended for Oscar (Blake Ritson) in this season that keeps ramping up the stakes.
Jack and Larry Russell (Harry Richardson) were wildly successful in the sale of Jack’s clock design. They were each paid $300,000 for the buyout, which in the 1880s equated to millions. Jack is now nearly as rich as Ada Forte (Cynthia Nixon), his employer, and he’s certainly much richer than sister Agnes (Christine Baranski), who used to be the head of the household before her son, Oscar, was scammed out of their entire family fortune in Season 2. The scammer, Maud Beaton (Nicole Brydon Bloom), made another return in this episode, and this time she was confronted by Oscar in a tense scene that revealed she was manipulated into tricking him out of his money. She’s just as broke as him now and has no idea where his money is, which explains why she was working in a house of ill repute, one that Larry visited on the night he and Marian (Louisa Jacobson) got engaged.
Marian learned of this night out in the episode, and Oscar revealed the true nature of the establishment to his cousin. She previously believed that Larry went out to dinner with friends on the night of their engagement, so she was shocked to learn where he actually was. Larry didn’t do anything wrong at the club from what we’ve seen, but Marian feels deceived and hurt to the point where she’s seriously questioning their engagement. In the middle of all of this was Jack, who was at the club with Larry to celebrate the sale of their clock. Above, Ahlers comments on Jack’s evolving relationship with Marian and Larry and how this development makes him feel oddly in the middle of their now-rocky union. Larry is none the wiser; he spent the episode away on business in Arizona for his father, George (Morgan Spector).
The clock struck midnight on Jack’s time in the Forte/Van Rhijn home in the episode after Armstrong (Debra Monk) revealed how much money he made with Larry to Agnes. It led to Ada and Agnes telling Jack it was time to move on and move out, resulting in bittersweet scenes between Jack and the women who hired him at just 14 years old. The hardest goodbye was with Mrs. Bauer (Kristine Nielsen), the cook downstairs who has been like a mother to Jack ever since they met in the Van Rhijn house when he was an orphaned teen.
Oscar’s hopes were looking up at the end of the episode while he connected with his lover, John Adams (Claybourne Elder), after finding Maud Beaton, but things took a shocking turn when they parted ways on the busy Manhattan street. As John turned around to get one last look at Oscar before crossing the road, he was violently struck by a passing carriage before the episode cut to black. It was a shocking end to say the least, one that Ahlers says above was part of a season full of surprises for the entire cast of The Gilded Age.
Dive into The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 6 in the full video interview above.
The Gilded Age, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO