Series / The Gilded Age

Bertha Russell: I don't want to come a long way. I want to go all the way.
George Russell: I'd just like you to be happy. And I know my loving you is not enough...

The Gilded Age is an HBO series by Julian Fellowes. It follows the lives of two Gilded Age families in 1880s New York City, the Russells and the van Rhijns/Brooks, living across the street from each other on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Debuting in 2022, the series has aired two seasons and is currently renewed for a third.

When Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson) of Doylestown, Pennsylvania finds herself penniless following the death of her father, General Henry Brook, she has no choice but to move in with her estranged paternal aunts, Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) and Ada Brook (Cynthia Nixon) of New York City. On the journey, she befriends and receives help from Peggy Scott (Denée Benton), a Black aspiring writer, whose kindness is repaid when she is hired to become Agnes's secretary. Marian struggles to live under her Aunt Agnes's strict rules and views on what is suitable for a member of Old New York, and seeks to make her own way in New York society.

Meanwhile, across the street in New New York, the Russells, led by railway tycoon George (Morgan Spector) and his ambitious wife Bertha (Carrie Coon), have recently moved into their newly constructed mansion at the corner of 61st Street and Fifth Avenue. Bertha in particular is optimistic that their opulent new palace will open doors among New York's finest, and secure a bright future for her children Larry (Harry Richardson) and Gladys (Taissa Farmiga), but finds herself snubbed at every turn. Mrs. Russell, much like her robber baron husband, is not one to be denied and will do all she can to be acknowledged by Old New York, by force if necessary.

The series is an original story and not an adaptation of the Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner novel The Gilded Age, which originated the era's name.

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Provides examples of:

• Abusive Parents:
  • Mrs. Armstrong's mother is an old, mean-spirited wretch who feels she is too decrepit to do any sort of cleaning in the house, forcing her daughter to clean it up on her half-day off. Any action is rebuked and criticized, any kindness is tossed away. And the normally strong-willed character just takes it with little push back.
  • Arthur Scott stole his newborn grandson from his daughter as she was recovering from a troubling birth, told her the child was dead, and had the boy adopted by another Black family in Philadelphia. He then pressured her husband into signing a marriage annulment, all to "save" his daughter and grandson from a poorer life. Even worse, the child ends up dying young of a scarlet fever outbreak in Philadelphia, which he may not have been exposed to had he stayed with Peggy. To Arthur's credit, he realizes he was wrong in the wake of Thomas's death.
• Achievements in Ignorance: For much of season 2, Jack is tinkering with his alarm clock, which is going off at wrong times because of the oil for a cog degrades. To fix the issue, he makes a new cog which runs without the need of oil. When the vice-president of the Clockmaker's Guild comes to see his invention, he is shocked at this radical development and compliments Jack on knowing more about clocks than most of the official members. He fast-tracks Jack's membership to the guild so Jack can get a patent on his new device.
• Actually Pretty Funny: When George Russell is buying out every stall at a charity bazaar by paying $100 on the provision they close the store for the remainder of the bazaar, he comes to Marian's stall. As one of the last ones, she knows what is coming and comments she should ask for $500 to make this a momentous moment. George smirks slightly at this suggestion but doesn't offer to increase the amount.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Alderman Morris begs George Russell to show mercy when he turns the tables on his friends' plans to short Russell's stock. It doesn't work. Mrs. Morris tries the same on Bertha, equally unsuccessfully.
• And Starring: The Brook sisters are credited "With Cynthia Nixon and Christine Baranski" in the opening credits.
• Answer Cut: Mrs. Astor wonders what Bertha could have offered the Duke of Buckingham besides money to convince him to attend the Met. The show then cuts to Gladys, sitting right next to the Duke.
• Arranged Marriage: During the season 2 finale, Bertha searches for an angle with which to convince the Duke to come to the Metropolitan Opera's opening but can't offer what Mrs. Astor can: opening New York to him. However, it is heavily implied that during a closed doors meeting she promised him the hand of Gladys Russell, with the financial backing that would entail. As Mrs. Astor and McAllister wonder how she did it, Agnes darkly implies this is the case. For extra ominous overtones, this is revealed during the opera Faust (Gounod).
• Artistic License: When Mrs. Russell plans a small picnic to watch Thomas Edison light up the New York Times building, Church sends two of his footmen to wait on them as postilions to the carriages, and assures one of them they won't get near any of the horses when he expresses a fear of them. In fact the opposite is true, a postilion is a driver that rides the lead horse of a carriage, if he meant they would be standing on the carriages' footboard in the back, they would still be called footmen.
• Artistic License – History:
  • Caroline Schermerhorn Astor is referred at the beginning of the series as Mrs. Astor, but that only became her formal address after the death of her sister-in-law Charlotte Augusta Gibbes, who as the wife of Caroline's husband's elder brother was formally the Mrs. Astor, in 1887. In 1882, she would still be formally known as Mrs. William Astor.
  • Mrs. Morris mentions the New Money meeting at Delmonico's to found the Metropolitan Opera has having happened only last week. In fact, that meeting was held two years prior in 1880, and the opera house would open in 1883, meaning it should already be under construction.
  • In "Charity Has Two Functions", Aunt Agnes asks if the latest arrivals from Ellis Island will be at Aurora Fane's luncheon when she hears that Mrs. Russell will be attending. Ellis Island wouldn't open as a federal immigrant inspection station until 1890; before that the state government of New York used Castle Clinton in Battery Park for much the same purpose.
  • In "Heads Have Rolled For Less," Larry and Gladys attend a doll's tea party at Mamie Fish's house held for her young daughter who seems to be no older than ten, except her only child and daughter at the time was only two years old.
  • In "Irresistible Change", the lighting of the New York Times building is shown to have happened in the late evening, giving the moment an incredible effect for the citizens of New York. In reality, it occurred at 3pm on the same day but was still seen as a momentous moment.
  • The most coveted box at the new Metropolitan Opera is shown to be the center box in the first tier, in actual fact, the most prestigious boxes at the Met were those in the ground floor parterre just above the orchestra floor of the auditorium, which didn't have a center box to make way for the main entrance.
  • For all of season 2, Mrs. Astor is shown to be clearly on the side of the older Academy of Music over the new Metropolitan Opera. In real life, as the self-proclaimed gatekeepers for high society, the Astors acknowledged keeping up with both sides, and they had boxes in both establishments. As for which establishment Mrs. Astor chose to support on the dueling opening nights, she chose neither. Mrs. Astor went to Newport to wait and see how both came out.
• At the Opera Tonight: Bertha's storyline in season 2 centers around the "Opera War" between the established Old Money Academy of Music and the soon-to-open New Money Metropolitan Opera. When refused a box at the Academy, in spite of, or as Bertha suspects, because of Mrs. Astor's influence, she decides to throw her lot, and her money, in with the Metropolitan Opera and outshine the shortsighted Academy in every way. She is adamant that a box at the opera, especially one at the right opera house, is vital for their social standing, as it's one of the best venues for the elite to mix and mingle, see and be seen, and make deals for their and their children's futures.
• Batman Gambit: The con artists who bilk Oscar out of his family fortune do so by having Maude pass herself off as a wealthy bachelorette around New York high society, hoping someone tries to woo her. Then she tells him about her financial confusion, hoping that he will request to get involved. The they show him a business opportunity, hoping he'll invest. Then they offer to buy him out, hoping that he'll refuse and sign over a huge investment to them. It could have failed at any of these points, but it all works.
• Because You Were Nice to Me:
  • As Marian is unaware of her full "scandalous nature", she treats Mrs. Augusta Chamberlain with kindness and friendship. The older woman is touched by her purity and pays back the kindness a few ways over the series, including helping Marian have a place to privately talk with Tom Raikes.
  • Peggy's interactions with Mrs. Bauer and Bridget in the van Rhijn house are cold and professional at first. When Peggy helps Mrs. Bauer deal with a gambling debt she owes, the housekeeper/cook becomes much friendlier towards Peggy and even defends her when Armstrong is pushing to uncover any of Peggy's secrets. Bridget also loses her dislike and fear over Peggy being there to usurp her position.
  • In Season 2, George Russell is dealing with a strike lead by an intelligent, competent union leader named Henderson. George refuses to move on the terms the Union wants, like 8 hour work days, safety conditions improved, and child protection. When Henderson and the men strike at one of George's steel mills the Pennsylvania National Guard are called in to end the strike, firing onto the strikers if needed. George is there personally at the line watching as Henderson, Henderson's son, and others are refusing to move as the guns are readied. Before the firing can happen, George calls off the attack. After this, George agrees to some terms, including a pay raise, though it is only for the skilled workers and for 6 months. Henderson sees the offer as a splitting tactic between the skilled and unskilled workers but agrees to the contract because George didn't fire on the men. He fully intends to keep fighting George for better conditions, which George accepts.
• Big Fancy House:
  • The newly constructed "palace" for the Russells at the corner of 61st Street and Fifth Avenue. Mrs. Russell goes to great pains to make it as grand as possible to draw the rest of New York society in and establish the Russells as a family of consequence. Subverted at first, since the house actually turns the Russells into laughing stocks by the Old Money elites for being too big and for using an unusual architect.
  • Mrs. Augustus Chamberlain's own home is also very avant-garde and ornate, and that's before taking into account her impressive collection of impressionist art.
  • The richest members of the New York elite also maintain massive country manors in Newport. Once Mrs. Russell starts to make headway into high society at the end of season 1 she ends up buying one herself, and leaves Larry, in his new career as an architect, in charge of the renovations in season 2.
• Big Sister Bully: Agnes is an overbearing sister to Ada. She justifies her behavior by the fact that she had to endure a marriage to Arnold van Rhijn to renew the family fortune, saving them both from a life of poverty. Ada frequently finds herself unable to withstand Agnes' withering displeasure.
• Big Sister Instinct:
  • Despite being a Big Sister Bully, Agnes is also very protective of Ada if someone should try to take advantage of her, as Mr. Eckhard found out in episode 3 she will protect her from the perpetrator.
  • In Season 2 the second Agnes gets news of Luke Forte's death, she dashes to Ada's side and pulls her into a hug despite initially opposing the marriage.
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: In the final episode of season one, George Russell uses a banker's need of George's money to shore up his bank by commanding the man to come to the party the Russells are hosting that evening. The loan is conditioned on the banker and his wife coming, and failing to do this won't just mean George will rescind the offer but George will stop the banker from going to any other business for the funds using a list of reasons the bank shouldn't be invested in. The banker calls this illegal and George brushes the matter aside and doesn't care.
• Book Ends:
  • The first and last scenes of the first season are of the van Rhijn footman John sweeping the stoop and sidewalk, as Church and Bannister give each other a respectful nod from their respective houses.
  • The first episode and last episode involve grand parties held at the Russell home. In the former, it is a barely attended function and Marian has to sneak into the party against Agnes' wishes. In the latter, the ball is filled to the brim with the Russells getting Mrs. Astor to attend, and by her social power forces Agnes to attend as well.
• Both Sides Have a Point:
  • Oscar and John break up over their different outlooks on how to live in a society that doesn't accept them. However, each of their points of view is presented as understandable. John refuses to marry a woman and is more comfortable about the rumors surrounding him because he views being what we would call closeted as living a lie. Oscar believes they are living a lie no matter how it's spun and that marrying a woman is in his best interest. He also believes that John has the luxury of living as close to being openly gay as the time would allow because he doesn't have the familial obligations Oscar does; John has brothers who can carry on the family name and easily support any dependant relatives, whereas Oscar is an only child who has the weight of ensuring the next generation of his family resting on his shoulders and could very much use the cash a wealthy bride could provide in a dowry, as he is responsible for providing for Agnes and Ada as they age.
  • Bertha and Larry clash over his affair with Susan Blane, a widow far older than he is. Bertha is worried about Larry's good name being tarnished by such a liaison and that there are other, far more suitable young ladies he could pursue; Larry points out (if in more veiled words) that unlike those ladies he's actually able to have a physical relationship with Mrs. Blane and his only other recourse is visiting sex workers, bluntly asking his mother if that's what she'd prefer.
• The Bus Came Back: Miss Turner, Bertha's ladies' maid who is fired in Season 1 after she tries to seduce George, pops back up at the end of episode 2.2—as Mrs. Winterton. She married a rich guy and is now Bertha's peer as a society wife.
• Call-Forward: In the second-season finale a marketer is trying to get Mr. Scott, a pharmacist, to stock a new medicine called "salicylic acid" which he says is very effective. About 15 years after this time frame Bayer Pharmaceuticals would give salicylic acid the trademark name "aspirin."
• Calling the Old Man Out: In the Season 2 opener Marian and Agnes bellow at each other when Agnes finds out Marian has taken a job as an art teacher at a school for rich family's daughters. Agnes is furious at the deceit and image of the thing, while Marian shoots back that she couldn't stay around doing so little each day.
• Cast Full of Rich People: All of our main characters are either rich or directly related to rich people. Even the black characters are comfortably wealthy.
• Character Witness: Peggy going out of her way to help Marian make it to the van Rhijn house after her purse gets stolen manages to land her a job with room and board as Agnes's secretary.
• Comically Missing the Point: Marian's naive mindset makes her miss the double meanings when Ada tells her why Mrs. Augusta Chamberlain is a social pariah. Marian fails to understand when Ada says "they knew each other before marriage" to mean they were lovers while he was married. It takes Oscar giving a more direct story for Marian to understand.
• Commonality Connection:
  • Gladys and Carrie Astor bond over their difficult and overbearing mothers.
  • When her full past is revealed, Agnes is extremely understanding of Peggy losing her child and her husband, having lost children herself.
  • In season 2, part of what Peggy and Thomas Fortune connect over is the fact that they have lost children.
• Competing with a Corpse: Marian deduces this is the case when Dashiell mentions the name of his late wife instead of her own while discussing marriage. Since she herself was wrestling with not feeling romantic love for Dashiell, the fact he wasn't exactly loving her for her but as a Replacement Goldfish led her to call off the wedding.
• Composite Character: Peggy is based on several real women from the second half of the 19th century including journalist Ida B. Wells, Julia C. Collins who is believed to be the first Black American woman to write a published novel, and Susan McKinney Steward who was the first Black woman physician in New York State.
• Conspicuous Consumption: The Russells are not old blood, so they have to use their fantastic wealth to make an impact on New York society. Their new Beaux-Arts mansion is built of bright limestone walls, elaborate gilding and marble in every room, and furniture from every court in Europe or an exact replica thereof. Even their footmen are dressed in elaborate blue and gold livery^*With a red and gold version for special occasions straight out of Buckingham Palace that stands out everywhere they go.
• Consummate Professional: Bannister is keen on maintaining this level of professional behavior in himself and those he commands. When Mrs. Armstrong, Agnes' lady's maid, privately objects to Peggy being in the house, Bannister reminds her that it isn't their place to have an opinion. When Armstrong ups it to a more vicious bigoted statement, Bannister repeats himself and adds "Especially that one."
• Contrived Coincidence:
  • Agnes and Ada take a shine to Peggy when they discover that she was a student of a school in Pennsylvania that was patronized by their father.
  • Tom Raikes's first entrance into society comes about because he was once a classmate of Jerry Schermerhorn (a distant relative of Mrs. Astor's) at the University of Pennsylvania, and they only reconnect when they literally run into each other skating in Central Park.
  • George's potential trial over the train derailment is resolved because his stenographer Miss Ainsley charged a pair of gloves to the name of Dixon in Bloomingdales, the man in charge of building the faulty engine, only to accidentally leave her purse behind for Marian to find and return to Mr. Russell, and the only reason Marian even recognizes Ainsley as George's stenographer is because Ainsley dropped off some papers at the Russells' not long before that while Marian was seeing Oscar and Larry off to Newport. George even lampshades this.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: George Russell is based on some the infamous robber barons of the 19th century. He uses his vast wealth to bully and overpower smaller enterprises and thereby grow even richer. Much of what he does is legal for his time period but would get outlawed in later decades. In his introduction scene to his business, he plans to increase a buyout offer to a track of rail he wants but plans to make a new track along the coveted one and it will ruin the owner of that track. When George tells the owner of the track that refusing the second deal will now bear the consequence of George ruining the man, this exchange happens.
  Mr. Thorburn: You bastard!
  George: I may be a bastard, Mr. Thorburn, but you are a fool, and of the two I think I know which I prefer.
• Cruel Mercy: When George Russell discovers his stenographer has betrayed him and is in league with the man who embezzled money from the train axles budget, buying used parts instead, George leaves her to the justice system for now. However, he informs her if she ever gets out of jail or is found not guilty, he will have her followed and if she ever tries to attain a position higher than floor washer, he will inform her current employers of these crimes and betrayal, almost guaranteeing her place at one of the lowest levels of Service.
• Crusading Widow: What Anne Morris becomes after her husband's suicide, holding George and Bertha personally responsible and becoming even more opposed to the Russells' entry into society. Of course, her reduced status and wealth following her husband's suicide leaves her few options other than impotently storming out from meetings.
• Daddy's Girl: Gladys Russell is the apple of George's eye and is one of the only points on which he and Bertha are in disagreement.
• Dances and Balls: One of the ways the rich of New York show off their wealth and increase their social profiles through their elaborate parties and balls. Fittingly, the climax of the first season is the debutante ball of Gladys Russell.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Peggy Scott and her father fell out not just because of her wish to be a writer, but because of some unspecified incident that left Peggy unwilling to even live in the same house as he does. It's revealed in "Tucked Up in Newport" that after eloping with Elias Finn, a stockboy in her father's pharmacy, her father forced them to annul their marriage while they were still reeling from the death of their child.
• Dating What Daddy Hates:
  • Carrie Astor is smitten with Marshall Orme Wilson, whom her mother disapproves of, not just because he's "new money", but his father, a railway investor who was the Commissary-General of the Confederacy during the Civil War, is allegedly a war-profiteer.
  • Archie Baldwin might seem a perfectly suitable suitor for Gladys in George's eyes, but Bertha has much bigger plans for their daughter's future and so convinces her husband to break them up.
  • After meeting Tom Raikes, Agnes pegs the man as a fortune hunter and tries her best to dissuade Marian from any kind of courtship with the man. While Marian and Tom do court in secret, Anges never finds out, nor does she find out she is right on Tom's character as the allure of high society makes him waiver on marrying Marian as it would mean a downgrade to the life he has wormed his way into.
  • Prior to meeting Marian, Peggy dated Elias, a worker from her father's company. However, Mr. Scott felt he was uneducated and had no prospects. Still, Elias and Peggy ran off and got married. However, after losing their child at birth, Mr. Scott forced Elias to sign a fraudulent paper saying he'd been married before so the two could get an annulment and brought Peggy back to New York.
• The Dandy: A few examples:
  • Both Oscar van Rhijn and John Adams IV qualify, though in different ways. Oscar is rather fashion-forward for the 1880s, what with his sunglasses and fairly flamboyantly patterned suits. Meanwhile John sticks to the Beau Brummel classic style of wearing plain but perfectly fitted menswear while being ruggedly handsome. Incidentally, they are both gay and in a relationship with each other, though also seeking wives because it's the 1880s.
  • Tom Raikes gets a massive wardrobe upgrade once he moves from solo legal practice in sleepy Doylestown, Pennsylvania to Manhattan and takes up a job at a law firm there. It's heavily implied this is to support his attempts to enter New York high society.
  • Ward McAllister also pays especial care to his wardrobe, as befits his role as social arbiter of New York high society, generally wearing more finely-tailored and interestingly-colored suits than other men of his station. He gets away with it both because he is a social arbiter and because he is a Southern aristocrat (albeit one with sufficient familial connections to pre-Civil War Northern aristocracy to absolve him of any association with rebellion or slavery).^note Historically, McAllister—born in Savannah, Georgia—was able to separate himself from other Southerners because (1) his mother was a New Englander and (2) he had followed his father to California in the 1850s and thus made his fortune as a lawyer in Gold Rush-era San Francisco rather than as a Southern planter.
  • Probably the most famous historical version of this trope, Oscar Wilde, pops up in season 2 and is portrayed with camp up to his eyeballs.
• Deadpan Snarker: A dry wit is the preferred humor of the van Rhijns.
  • After Agnes explains her intransigence on a topic, she excuses herself to go upstairs to change. Oscar dryly comments he doubts that. She will come back down with the same views.
  • When Agnes refers to the Russell's latest social climbing efforts like cockroaches crawling their way up, Marian asks in response if they should get their footman Jack to get some poison and take it around. Agnes laughs at this comment.
• Defeat Means Friendship: When George saves the Fanes from ruin as a result of the Aldermen's attempts to short him, Aurora is asked to repay the favor by helping Bertha makes inroads into society, and both she and her husband seem to become closer to the Russells as a result.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Both of the era and in the culture of New York high society.
  • Marian Brook is penniless but is forbidden from working by her aunt, because it is below her station. She's also told not to go out in public unattended.
  • Although New York City is in the North, Black people are still second-class citizens. Even white servants object to eating at the same table.
  • Being new or old money is very Serious Business among the New York elite. Even the fantastically rich can get shunned as miscreants by the blue bloods.
  • Peggy gets a job writing for a Black newspaper with a Republican political bent. At the time the show is set, Republicans were in the middle of a half a century’s worth of dominance of the country and had strong support with Black men in states such as New York where they could more easily vote. The modern pattern of Black loyalty to the Democratic Party started in the 1930s—50 years after this series starts.
  • When Alderman Morris is buried, there are mutters about him being in consecrated ground, which technically shouldn't be allowed due to his suicide.
  • Oscar is what we would call gay today and in a relationship with John Adams IV, but they have to keep it secret since they’d be arrested or worse if it got out. He also plans to marry to keep up appearances and for money.
  • In the Season 2 premiere George Russell and his fellow evil robber barons scoff at organized labor and all the things they are demanding, like better pay and workplace safety protections. ("They want an eight-hour workday for God's sake!)
  • Peggy goes to Tuskegee, Alabama with Mr. Fortune to cover the opening of Booker T. Washington's school for Black students. Marian warns Peggy to be very careful about not causing a scandal because she's a woman traveling alone with a married man even though it's for work. Mrs. Scott is terrified for her safety because she believes Peggy who's grown up in comfort that she and her husband fought tooth and nail for her to have in New York is naïve about what happens to black people below the Mason-Dixon lines where she'd be considered subhuman.
  • During season 2, it is remarked on how the Irish immigrants are treated poorly, find getting skilled work hard even when they have it, and schools look down on them.
  • Young ladies of the upper classes are expected to remain chaste until marriage, so any physical relationships with the young gentlemen courting them are out of the question. Young gentlemen deal with their own physical desires by having affairs with widows or visiting sex workers.
  • Agnes notes with contempt that after losing her fortune, she may be forced to live in a Jewish neighborhood.
• Deus ex Machina: After Oscar bungles away the Van Rhijn family fortune in Season 2, it seems the household will have to adopt to a radically lowered standard of living—sell the house, dismiss most of the servants, find humbler lodgings. Then they find out that the late Rev. Forte, Ada's husband, who was living a humble life as a minister, was actually the heir to a vast fortune. The family is rescued, although now the power dynamic has been reversed as Ada is the rich sister and Agnes is the poor one.
• Didn't Think This Through: When Agnes is insulted by Bertha poaching her butler to wait on her guests for the day, she storms across the street to chew her out in her own home, only to realize that she's committed a faux pas by interrupting a luncheon with other members of high society. Further, she would seriously embarrass herself if she admitted to the reason for her visit in the presence of strangers. Luckily, Marian and Aurora give her a pretext to leave without further damaging her reputation. Agnes later lampshades her mistake by noting she let her emotions control her.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: The title theme is used as the tune of the final (on-screen) waltz at Gladys's debutante ball.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Tom Raikes keeps doing favors for Marian and making his interest in her painfully clear. He even moves to New York to pursue her. The trope is ultimately subverted when he dumps her for a richer suitor on the day they were set to elope.
• Dramatic Irony: Maude Beaton is worried that Oscar so recently pursued Gladys Russell before her, but Aurora notes that Maude would not want a man who has never been interested in a woman before. Neither realize that Oscar is a closeted gay man who has, in fact, never romantically desired a woman.
• Driven to Suicide: After being ruined trying to sink George's company by shorting the stock, and humiliated by George in retaliation for his wife's snubbing and belittling of Bertha, Alderman Morris puts a gun to his head at the end of episode 3.
• Due to the Dead:
  • Despite having died by suicide, Alderman Morris is buried on consecrated ground by his widow.
  • Jack, the van Rhijn's footman, lost his mother years prior to the Peshtigo fire in Wisconsin. His father buried his wife's clothes and would come regularly. Now Jack comes every week on the month of her birthday and brings flowers to the grave.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Mr. Watson, George's valet, is recognized by his daughter Flora, now a woman in high society. While she is away on business, her husband conspires to get Watson to leave New York City for California to avoid any scandal of his father-in-law going from a failed banker to a servant. Watson refuses to take action until he hears from Flora herself. When she returns to the city, she learns of her husband's actions, and tells her father she doesn't want him gone from her life again. She tells him they will support him in the city and he can go by his real name Collyer and be a retired banker. Overjoyed at not having to leave his daughter, he accepts and by the end of the season leaves the Russell employment.
• Establishing Character Moment: Mr. Russell is first seen at home being a mild husband and father. His first scene at work, however, has him plan to bankrupt a business associate so that he can intimidate future business associates into accepting his first offer. This is how the Russells built all of that new money.
• Every Man Has His Price:
  • When Bertha Russell is in need of an English butler to impress Ward McAllister, she asks Bannister for assistance. While the man at first refuses, Bertha offers him $100 (approximately $3,000 in 2023) without even blinking. The person is flabbergasted and graciously accepts.
  • Defied by the union boss Henderson in Season 2. He rejects the attempts from George Russell to bribe him to avoid a strike and accept current (unsafe) working conditions and lower raises. Had it not been for George Russell being unwilling to have state guards open fire on them, it might have cost him his life.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Agnes has a few standards she lives by.
    • She has many things she dislikes about Bertha. She does concede, however, Bertha's use of a governess still to help guard and control Bertha's daughter Gladys from any societal harm before her coming out is Bertha's "only virtue."
    • She judges people primarily on their character and actions, over their appearance. As such, while Peggy is Black (or "Colored" in the parlance of the time), she never holds that against her once they properly meet, respects her hard work and drive, and tells Armstrong off for her prejudice towards Peggy, and later is furious at Armstrong reading Peggy's letter and misconstruing the facts to make Peggy sound like a woman who bore a child out of wedlock and gave the child up, rather than a married woman who lost her child in birth. When they part, Agnes even offers her hand for Peggy to shake.
    • While she is eager for Marian to move on with her life, Agnes does permit Tom Raikes to come to tea when he comes to visit New York because the man waived his lawyer's fee when handling the details of her late brother's estate. Such an act needs to be repaid in kind, but doesn't want the relationship to go further.
    • For part of season 2, Agnes is strongly against Ada courting and later marrying Reverend Luke Forte, and has to be shamed into attending their wedding. However, the moment she hears Luke is sick with cancer, a certain death with this time's medicine, she gets changed to travel clothes and rushes to her little sister, hugs her, and when Luke ends up in hospice care at Agnes' house, she sits by his bedside for a time to allow Ada to rest.
  • Ada may seem like a kind, gentle soul, however she can be as steely as her sister. When Marian tells her Armstrong may have opened one of Peggy's letters Ada is quick to reply that wouldn't surprise her. She follows up telling Marian she has never liked Armstrong and tells Marian Peggy should be ready to defend herself if Armstrong plans to make trouble with that information.
  • George Russell
    • He will use his power to bully and blackmail his enemies when more civil tactics fail. That said, he takes pride in the things he makes and pays well for the safety of his trains. He is shocked to learn someone embezzled money from his company to buy used train axles resulting in the deaths of five men and injuries of countless others, and wants to prove to the public that he isn't the villain in this story.
    • When he is faced with men striking for better conditions he is standing at the front line as the National Guard are ready to slaughter the men. George blinks and calls off the attack, one reason he cites is these men have families, to Clay's disgust.
• Expy: Given the immense popularity of Downton Abbey, it's a given that there would be parallels between the two series. Most obvious is that Agnes van Rhijn is one for the Dowager Countess, as the resident Grand Dame Deadpan Snarker; the next most obvious is Miss Turner for Miss O'Brien as the scheming lady’s maid. However, in both cases, the series finds them at an earlier point in their lives, so their roles and techniques are slightly different.
• Expy Coexistence: Season 2 features a meeting of various robber barons to discuss the growing labor movements, including Jay Gould, of whom George Russell is intended to be an expy of. If anything having George and Gould in the same room only highlights how different they are. Where George is confident he can reach an agreement with his striking workers without giving too much away, Gould would rather just crush them underfoot and be done with it.
• Faux Reigner: The first season finale has Monsieur Baudin revealing to the Russells that he's actually a farm boy from Kansas who trained in Paris. He soon learned no one in New York society was interested in a chef from Wichita so remade himself into a "Frenchman." In a funny scene, he keeps talking in the French accent as he's become so used to it. He finally drops it for a perfect Kansas drawl before slipping back into the French accent without even realizing it.
• Fiction 500: The Russells, as one of the many nouveau riche families that made their fortunes in the railroads growing across the country in the years after the Civil War, George has more money at his disposal "than God". It's enough money that he can keep the stock price of his company afloat by himself as he tries to fend off the aldermen's attempt to ruin him.
• Foil: The van Rhijns and the Russells, made more apparent by their being cross-street neighbours. The Russell house is large, spacious and opulent, built in bright white limestone, while the van Rhijns live in a much smaller house of red sandstone and brick.
• Foregone Conclusion: The result of the Opera Wars of Season 2 is a bit of a given, considering the prestige of the Metropolitan Opera in modern day.
• Foreign Queasine: Played with when it comes to asparagus. When Banister, Church, and Borden are discussing appropriate foods for a special luncheon the Russel staff are preparing for, Banister notes that some foods, while cooked in the same way between the French, American, and English styles, the English eat asparagus with their fingers and require an accompanying bowl to wash their fingers in.
• Forgiveness: Bannister spends much of season 2 questioning if he could ever forgive Church for sending the letter in season 1 which almost got him fired. He knows it was an impulsive act by Church but it still nearly cost him his job. When Bannister witnesses Church coming back to the Russell's in a drunken stupor and falls into some boxes, he thinks he has a chance to give some karma payback. However, after he wrote the letter and delivered it, he learns Church was drunk because that night was the anniversary of his wife's death some thirty years ago. Bannister rushes over to stop the letter from being delivered, giving a lie to Church on its contexts so it looked like Bannister could be the one fired for overstepping his bounds, and a few days later tells Church he has come to forgive him for his actions in season 1.
• The Gadfly: Marion Graves Anthon "Mamie" Fish, New York's self proclaimed "fun-maker", likes to get under her guests' skins and set them off-ease with her games and tendency to bring up uncomfortable subjects. It also makes her one of the few Old Money ladies who can afford to go against Mrs. Astor. She is especially entertained when the Russells are able to parry her barbs with equal ease.
• Gaydar: Oscar Wilde sees the drama between Oscar and John for what it really is within seconds of meeting them. He makes what is to the audience a very thinly veiled comment to Aurora about them when she says they're old friends that is completely lost on her. He says she's too well raised to have understood what he really meant.
• The Gilded Age: The series begins in 1882 and takes its name from this era.
• Gold Digger: Par for the course, as marrying for love is a luxury.
  • When Agnes van Rhijn became an Impoverished Patrician, she was forced to marry a man she hated to lift herself and her spinster sister out of poverty. Now a widow, she lives off of his fortune.
  • Oscar van Rhijn, Marian's cousin, is a fortune hunter seeking out an heiress with enough money to support his lifestyle, even though he's a closeted homosexual. Marian is disapproving that he has set his sights on Gladys Russell.
  • Cornelius Eckard III, an old "acquaintance" of Ada's. In their youth, he was refused her hand in marriage by the Brook sisters' father for his lack of prospects. Agnes also reveals that her father refused his suit because he had heard him boasting that he was about to marry a "meal ticket", which is enough to chase him off a second time.
  • Mr. Raikes is revealed to be on in the series one finale, having dropped his previous suitor (Marian) for a much richer one.
  • In season 2, Bertha is introduced to Mr. Joshua Winterton in order to secure his support for the Metropolitan, as well as his new, much younger wife, after such an almost scandalously short courtship that most of society hasn't met her yet. Who else should it be but Turner, her former lady's maid.
• Graceful Loser:
  • Faced with the prospect of losing her daughter's companionship, Mrs. Astor reluctantly swallows her pride and gives in to Bertha's demands to attend Gladys's debutante ball in exchange of allowing Carrie to participate in the planned quadrille.
  • Similarly, after a season of doing her best to ignore the existence of Mrs. Russell, when ordered by Mrs. Astor to attend the ball, Agnes concedes to avoid a quarrel with Mrs. Astor, but reserves the right to quarrel with Bertha later. She even exchanges a pleasant nod with Bertha during the ball.
• Grand Dame:
  • Agnes van Rhijn, Marian's formidable aunt who is a stalwart guardian of the supremacy of Old New York over the New.
  • For New York high society, no one's approval is more sought after than that of Mrs. Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, mother of John Jacob Astor IV,^note Who 32 years later would be the richest passenger on the maiden voyage of RMS Titanic noted for her taste, her wealth, and her pedigree (being of the old-stock Dutch Schermorhorn dynasty by ancestry and the newer but still acceptably old—and impeccably rich—Italian-Swiss-German-British Astor family by marriage).
• Green-Eyed Monster:
  • John Adams gets quite pissy when his secret lover Oscar starts wooing Gladys even though Oscar keeps assuring him that he's only interested in her money. John gets so upset that he starts courting Gladys himself just to piss Oscar off.
  • Bridget decides to follow Jack to what she wrongly suspects is a date with another woman, showing that she does actually have feelings for him in spite of her PTSD making it difficult for her to accept his romantic advances. She's called out for it. It gets worse in season 2 after Jack establishes a friendship with Adelheid, Gladys's lady's maid from across the street.
• Happily Married: George and Bertha Russell have a very affectionate and intimate marriage, with George supporting Bertha's efforts to break into high society out of love for her, and Bertha having full confidence in George's business ventures and troubles.
  Bertha: We made one fortune together and if needs be we'll make and spend another.
• Hard Truth Aesop: George Russell is absolutely devoted to his wife and children, but he's perfectly willing to take advantage of his associates, brutally crush unions and benefit from the exploitation of his workers. Ruthless businessmen or industrialists aren't (usually) cackling villains that can easily be written off as monsters; they're human and they can dote upon their families and be charming and friendly with their peers, while also being indifferent at best and downright horrendous at worst towards the people who generate their immense wealth.
• Hates Being Touched: Bridget violently resists being touched in any romantic way due to trauma over being molested.
• Haughty Help: Mrs. Russell's lady's maid Miss Turner is not optimistic of her mistress's efforts of breaking into high society and compares her unfavourably to her last employer, who was Old Money (which was why Mrs. Russell hired Turner). She also clearly has designs on George.
• The Hecate Sisters: The three women of the Brook/van Rhijn family. Agnes is the crone, the eldest sister and an embittered widow from an unhappy marriage, who is hardened to the ways of the world. Ada is the mother, though ironically she is an unmarried spinster, while Agnes actually is a mother. Nevertheless, she's warmer, more naive, and more supportive of Marian. Marian is the maiden, the newest woman in New York and a Spoiled Sweet innocent.
• High-Class Glass: Whenever Ada is shown reading in the van Rhijn house, she uses a lorgnette rather than a pair of glasses.
• High-Class Gloves: It IS the Gilded Age. They are standard, required dress for the period.
• Historical Character's Fictional Relative: John Adams IV, Oscar's lover is stated to be the great-grandson of President John Quincy Adams, and consequently the great-great-grandson of President and Revolutionary John Adams. This is actually moderately realistic; while the character is fictional, the Adamses were historically quite prolific, and prominently so,^note Adamses were prominent in the federal government into the 1920s and in industry into the 1960s and the existence of a New York branch of the family in the 1880s is plausible.
• Historical Domain Character:
  • Several of New York's vaunted Four Hundred have representation in the series, Mrs. Astor, her daughters Carrie and Helen, son-in-law James Roosevelt "Rosy" Roosevelt, and social arbiter Ward McAllister chief among them.
  • Clara Barton, the Florence Nightingale of America, appears in the third episode canvassing support for an American Red Cross.
  • The Russell House was designed and built by society architect Stanford White before he became "fashionable", and who was just as infamous for the circumstances of his death as he was for his buildings.
  • Peggy first finds success when T. Thomas Fortune publishes her story in his New York Globe. Fortune becomes a recurring character, mentoring Peggy's career as a writer/reporter. In episode 2.4 two historical domain characters come together when Peggy, and Fortune, travel to Alabama to meet Booker T. Washington.
  • "Irresistable Change" features Thomas Edison show off the potential of his new electric power plant by lighting up the offices of the New York Times.
  • The Season 2 premiere has George Russell commiserating with Jay Gould about the need to crush organized labor, while George's wife Bertha brings Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan and Christina Nilsson (a very famous opera diva) to her dinner advertising the new Metropolitan Opera.
  • Oscar Wilde appears in the third episode of season 2 when Aurora organizes a viewing of one of his plays during his tour of the US for her social circle. The play they watch, Vera; or, The Nihilists, was written during a creative slump of his and folded after only a week due to poor reception. None of the characters in the show care for the play.
  • Washington and Emily Warren Roebling, the forces behind the Brooklyn Bridge, appear in the second half of Season 2, with Mrs. Roebling's accomplishments taking over for her injured husband and essentially completing the bridge herself highlighted in a way it wasn't at the time.
  • Sarah J. Garnet appears in Peggy's storyline in season 2. Her job as a principal of one of the few All-Black public schools and the fight against the school board's intention to close them is accurate as well.
• Hollywood Costuming: Although the costumes are by and large quite accurate, certain liberties are taken to underscore character beats.
  • Bertha's original dresses often have anachronistic, almost modern touches that wouldn't look out of place on a ballgown today, to show that she is still Nouveau Riche and her tastes are more avant-garde than those of the much more historically accurate Ada and Agnes. The ones she wears that are direct replicas of existing dresses are often from later on in the 1880s and even into the 1890s to cement her as someone ahead of the fashion curve as newly rich women of her day often were.
  • Gladys wears her hair down, even though a debut was not a requirement to start pinning up one's hair, to demonstrate how she's being held back from adulthood.
  • Oscar often wears sunglasses when he's attending fancy galas or strolling about town, making him look like the edgy bad boy he is. He even attends a fancy party with a suit color-coordinated to them. Sunglasses were extremely rare at this point in history and were more considered safety or medical apparatuses. They did not start to become fashion accessories until several decades later.
• Hollywood Old: Either this or Dawson Casting must be in play in the romance between Larry Russell and Susan Blane, as Larry's mother Bertha claims that Susan is old enough to be his mother and that Larry is half Susan's age. In reality, Harry Richardson was 30 and Laura Benanti 44 when Season 2 aired. Bertha also claims that Susan cannot give Larry an heir, when she does not seem old enough for that to be a fair assumption.invoked
• Idle Rich: Being rich in New York City means spending all of your time jockeying for clout by throwing parties, attending social engagements, arranging marriages, going on vacations in Newport, and gossiping. While some men do maintain professions, such as in politics or banking, it's just to grant them an air of respectability. Although the van Rhijns are only among the rank-and-file of New York's elites, it says something that when Oscar loses "almost all" of their wealth, they will still have enough to move into a middle-class neighborhood and keep a few servants without needing to get jobs.
• Impoverished Patrician:
  • The Brook sisters, Ada and Agnes, fell out with their brother, Marian's father, for having squandered their family's fortune, leaving them with nothing, and Marian is shocked to discover that not only were her father's investments worthless, he left her nothing more than the $30 dollars (a little over $800 in today's money) in his bank account after his death.
  • In season 2, it's revealed that Watson, George's valet, is one. He was once a wealthy banker with servants of his own until a stock market crash ruined him and destroyed his career. He changed his name and became a valet because he knew how to be waited on.
  • Agnes and Oscar become examples at the end of Season 2 after Oscar is duped by con artists into losing their fortune. They are now at the mercy of Ada, who unexpectedly married into money.
  • It becomes known in season two that the Duke of Buckingham is in sore need of cash to maintain a lifestyle that befits nobility.
• Incompatible Orientation: Agnes introduces Marian to Oscar's friend, John Adams, in hopes they will hit it off, and they might work to an inevitable marriage to take Marian off her hands. Unfortunately, Mr. Adams is already Oscar's lover.
• I Never Got Any Letters: In episode 2.1 Oscar finds out why his romance with Gladys Russell—or rather his hopes of making Gladys The Beard—has stalled. Bertha has been intercepting Oscar's letters to her daughter.
• Interclass Friendship:
  • Marian and Peggy share a friendship in spite of their vastly different social classes. However, the trope is occasionally deconstructed. At one point, Peggy starts to doubt the legitimacy of their friendship due to the class divide. It's also ironic that Marian is an Impoverished Patrician, while Peggy is Secretly Wealthy, so their actual wealth is an inversion of their social standing.
  • Carrie Astor is the daughter of the leading matriarch of New York's Old Money, while Gladys is the daughter of the upstart Nouveau Riche Russells. Carrie befriends Gladys even while her mother staunchly refuses to acknowledge the Russells.
  • Marian quickly befriends Agnes’s other niece Aurora who’s married to a wealthy businessman.
• It Will Never Catch On:
  • Mmes. Morris and Fane laugh off the New Money's attempts at building a new opera house in the city since they can't get boxes at the Old Money's Academy of Music like it was a child's tantrum. The new opera house would become the Metropolitan Opera, now one of the largest opera companies in the world, while the Academy of Music would hold its last opera season in 1886.
  • In season 2, the growing labor movements put Robber Barons like George on edge, especially with their "unreasonable" demands for better pay, safer working conditions, and an eight-hour work day. The last is taken as standard today, while the former two...are better now than they were then, but still remain an ongoing point of contention.
• It's Personal: George Russell says he's not without pity for the aldermen he has at his mercy, but because they and their wives repeatedly insulted his wife, he will be merciless with them.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Agnes's embarrassment in "Heads Have Rolled for Less" stems from actions she set in motion some episodes prior. Her move to block Bertha entry into the van Rhijn house is to have Bannister retrieve Ada's lost dog, Pumpkin. This allows Bannister to be offered a tour of the house by Mr. Church, where Bannister looks down on nearly all aspects of Church's American-style of setting a table. When Bertha later needs to impress Mr. McAllister with an English-style luncheon, her housekeeper brings to her attention Bannister's ability, which brings him back into the house to at first educate Church on the setting, and when Bertha offers him $100, he agrees to run the luncheon. Angered at this disrespect, Church responds with sending a letter to Agnes at the time of the luncheon, knowing it would infuriate her and get Bannister in hot water. Agnes lets her emotions control her and she lashes out by storming across the street, but in the process nearly embarrasses herself with her actions in front of Mr. McAllister.
  • Had Bannister shown more humility in educating Mr. Church in the English serving system to help his fellow butler and not taken the job of serving the luncheon for $100, Church wouldn't have struck back by sending a note to Agnes at the time of the luncheon. This results in Agnes storming into the house and catching Bannister outright.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In "Charity Has Two Functions", John Adams says that "the vengeful lady's maid" sounds like a character in a melodrama after Oscar tells him about scheming with Turner. Also possibly a Shout-Out to Downton Abbey and the character of O'Brien.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Knowing Agnes would never forgive her hand being forced on a matter, Marian and Ada leave Agnes completely unaware of Marian's near-elopement with Tom Raikes. But by the end of season 2, Agnes has learned of it and mentions the almost-marriage when Marian turns down Dashel.
• The Lost Lenore:
  • Mr. Church lost his wife thirty years ago during a cholera outbreak in the 1850s. He still remembers her fondly and on the anniversary of his wife's death, went out and got completely drunk.
  • Dashiel Montgomery lost his wife a few years ago and has not gotten over it. He keeps a large portrait of her on his wall and often talks about her. Marian ultimately breaks of their engagement because she realizes that he only wants her to replace his late wife.
• Maiden Aunt: Ada Brook, who lives by her sister Agnes's charity.

  Agnes: You were allowed the pure and tranquil life of a spinster. I was not.

• Marriage of Convenience: After having been left destitute by their brother, Agnes felt she had no choice but to marry her late husband, Arnold van Rhijn, to support herself and Ada. By all accounts it was not a happy marriage.
• Meaningful Look: Mr. and Mrs. Fane attend the opera with Marian and Bertha Russell. During the event, they meet Tom Raikes, who managed to get into the box seat adjacent to theirs. When Marian notes that Tom has made impressive strides as a few weeks prior he just moved to New York City and now is in one of the premier places, the Fanes give a worried look. They can tell from Marian's words she might be infatuated with the man but also that Raikes is likely a social climber and may cause problems for Marian.
• Meaningful Name: Mr. Raikes is revealed to be quite the rake.
• Meet Cute: Marian Brook and Larry Russell meet when Pumpkin, Ada's dog, breaks his leash and is rescued by Larry from being run over by a passing carriage.
• My Beloved Smother: Bertha to Gladys. She's at an age where she should have already had her debut, but Mrs. Russell keeps delaying until she can be sure to fill the ballroom with New York's finest. Whenever Gladys seeks to express herself, her mother is always quick to talk over her with the excuse that she is not out yet.
• Naïve Newcomer:
  • Marian, having grown up in rural Pennsylvania, has two points of naivete.
    • She is not familiar or aware of all the rules and expectations on New York society, and seems to believe the best of everyone. As a result, she is more direct in her words at certain social issues and lacks the shock towards allegedly scandalous people, such as Mrs. Augusta Chamberlain.
    • She has also never encountered racism and bigotry first hand or realizes her own prejudices. She is shocked and affronted when cab refuses to take her and Peggy because the later isn't white. She also insults Peggy by assuming the woman comes from lesser means and brings to Peggy's family home worn shoes, despite the fact Peggy was able to loan her money for a train and other transportation to the van Rhijn's.
  • Bertha is also this for the first episode, naively believing that all of New York society will be eager and willing to enter her home on curiosity alone, but the failure of the at-home disabuses her of this notion.
• Neutral No Longer: Dorothy Scott spends much of season 1 trying to be peacemaker between her husband Arthur and daughter Peggy. She is encouraging her daughter to help make their family whole once more. However, learning Arthur not only lied about Peggy's son dying at birth but stole him away from his daughter like what slave owners did for centuries and his refusal to apologize for his actions push her to be fully on her daughter's side and help her in Peggy's mission to find her son.
• Never My Fault: Anne Morris believes the Russells are wholly to blame for her husband's suicide and her losing all her money. She repeatedly calls George a murderer. She ignores the fact that George offered her husband a means of amassing a greater fortune, and only when her husband betrayed that trust in an effort to ruin the Russells and sunk more than he could afford into the stock scheme, did George return fire to defend himself and his actions caused the Morris' bankruptcy, driving her husband to suicide.
• New York Is Only Manhattan: Justified, as the City of New York had only just expanded off Manhattan some eight years prior with the annexation of the West Bronx in 1874, and would not gain the East Bronx until 1895, and the remaining modern boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island in 1898.
• Nice to the Waiter:
  • When Ada learns of Mrs. Bauer's gambling debt, she doesn't fire the woman. She gives her money to cover the $50 and asks to be paid back $1 a week. And even that seems conditional if Mrs. Bauer has the money to spare that week or not.
  • When Bannister unexpectedly won't be there to serve luncheon and has John take over the duties, Agnes is still vexed at this fact. However, she and Ada promise to tell Bannister John did a superb job, omitting some hiccups, both as thanks for the footman's work and tweak Bannister a little.
  • In season 2, when Jack is needing money to file the paperwork on securing a patent for a new alarm clock design, Agnes happily gives him some money to cover the fee. She even says she likes the idea of supporting an inventor.
  • In the season 2 finale, Bertha has been talking with Mrs. Bruce, Bertha's housekeeper, about the latter's growing interest in music and opera. When two tickets are returned to the box office before opening night, Bertha has them given to Mrs. Bruce as a gift so Mrs. Bruce and a friend can see the opera.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed:
  • Julian Fellowes has said that the character of George Russell is based, in part, on railway magnate Jay Gould, who, according to his research, was ruthless in the boardroom, but a doting father at home. Gould is himself name-dropped in the show.
  • Bertha Russell is also an expy of Alva Vanderbilt, who had her own struggles to be acknowledged by Mrs. Astor. The intrigue surrounding getting Mrs. Astor to attend Gladys's ball is loosely based on what Alva did for the housewarming ball at her new house on Fifth Avenue—the "Petit Chateau" at 52nd and Fifth that was completed around the same time the series begins in 1882.
  • With her past, the rumours that surround her, and her impressive art collection Sylvia Chamberlain is one for Arabella Huntington, who was also the second wife of her husband who was rumoured to have been his longtime mistress before their marriage. Like Mrs. Chamberlain's son, Arabella's son Archer was also adopted by her husband but was suspected of being his biological child as well.
  • Archie Morris is an amalgamation of several unnamed aldermen from the same era who tried to bring down Cornelius Vanderbilt in a similar tactic that Morris uses on George Russell, but in the end fails and lose the bulk of their wealth. And like Morris, several of them killed themselves in shame.
  • George Russel's secretary and right-hand man Mr. Clay is likely based in part on Henery Clay Frick, the right-hand man of George Carnegie during the Homestead Strike of 1892 and like Clay's loathing of the Unions and being fine with firing upon them, Frick would order the strikers be shot.
  • Mr. Gilbert, who heads up the management of the Metropolitan Opera in season 2, seems to be a stand-in for Henry Eugene Abbey, the impresario who was hired to manage the Met's inaugural season. For the first few years of its life, the Metropolitan Opera did not have a permanent management for its performances, other firms would be hired on to create a program for the season.
  • Hector, the fictional Duke of Buckingham^note In 1883, there was a real Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, who is about 20 years older than Hector is a stand in for Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough, as the impoverished aristocrat who seeks to marry into American money, to Gladys Russell's Consuelo Vanderbilt.
• Nobility Marries Money: At the end of season 2, it's revealed that the Duke of Buckingham has this design on Gladys Russell, at Bertha's encouragement after she learns that he's short on money.
• Non-Idle Rich:
  • In contrast to Old Money patriarchs, George Russell is actively managing a financial empire, and a sizeable subplot of the series follows his business dealings.
  • Marian is constantly butting up against Old Money sensibilities by seeking work. This is what ultimately makes her break her engagement to Dashiel Montgomery. The fact that he wants a life of leisure for her shows that he doesn't really understand her.
• Nouveau Riche:
  • The Russells, who, although among the richest families in New York, are looked down upon by high society, despite the old guard also being desperate for their money.
  • Mrs. Augustus Chamberlain, who cuts a lonesome figure among the ladies of the charity Marian takes part in. Agnes calls her money "tainted", hinting there is more to her fortune other than having acquired it recently. It's revealed in episode four that Mrs. Chamberlain was her husband's mistress before their marriage, and their son, who is his by adoption and hers by a previous marriage publicly, was a product of that affair.
• "Not So Different" Remark: When Larry remarks that he is not as eager to force change as his mother, Marian responds that she and Bertha have more in common than she and Larry.
• Not So Stoic: Bannister is almost always giving a calm and controlled persona. He makes some dry remarks, but maintains himself in a right and proper manner, until he is paid $100 by Bertha to moonlight as their butler for an important luncheon and then he is nearly skipping across the street in glee.
• Not What It Looks Like:
  • The note which implicates George in the train derailment actually refers to him looking for a decorator to renovate his office after the firm which also did his new mansion asks for too much money.
  • Armstrong witnesses Oscar and Miss Turner being friendly and her touching his arm at a distance, and presumes they are having an affair, and so reports it to Oscar's mother. In truth, Oscar is paying Turner for information on the Russells.
• Old Money: The van Rhijns and the Brooks, with the van Rhijns being an old Dutch-American family in New York, and the Brooks being from Pennsylvania with links to the Livingstons, another old New York family. However, both families are merely part of the rank and file of the social elite. Other figures, such as Mamie Fish, Ward McAllister and Mrs. Astor, are of the oldest and wealthiest stock.
• One-Steve Limit: There are two Caroline Schermerhorn Astors, the redoubtable Mrs. Astor (also known to her friends as Lina), and her daughter Carrie.
• Only One Name: Bertha Russell's lady's maid, Turner, is referred to only by her surname throughout the first season. Even when in Season 2 she returns married to Joshua Winterton, other characters only say things like "Turner is now Mrs Winterton" and "Joshua Winterton's new wife is Turner" until the very end of the third episode she appears in, where we finally learn her first name is Enid when her husband calls her by name.
• Out-Gambitted:
  • When Pumpkin, Ada's beloved lap dog, got off his collar, he finds his way to the Russell home. They give him a bath and Bertha plans to return the dog later that day after sending a note saying the dog is found and safe. Sensing this ploy as a way for Bertha to be granted entry into her house, Agnes orders Bannister to retrieve the dog immediately, blocking that attempt.
  • In season 2, Mrs. Astor discovers how much she underestimated the people working to support the Metropolitan Opera House. At a dinner at the Russell's where Bertha has gathered many people supporting the Met, Mrs. Astor learns not only is Christina Nilsson, who usually opens the Academy's season, doing an opera at the Met, the Met is willing to operate at a loss for the first several years, and so be able to sell tickets at a much lower price than the Academy, and lastly Bertha arranged for Nilsson to make a surprise performance at the party, enthralling all there. She even lampshades that second point by asking "Is that fair?"
• Papa Wolf: George is very protective of his family and is quick to defend them from any who mean them ill.
• Parental Incest: Bridget is revealed to have been a victim of this.
• Passive-Aggressive Kombat:
  • The contempt in which the old money ladies hold the nouveau riche is carefully hidden behind faint praises and forced smiles.
  • The attitude even continues downstairs, when the van Rhijns' butler Bannister is given a tour of the Russell house by their butler Church, he politely notes all the ways their operation falls short of the British system he's familiar with. When invited to make suggestions for an upcoming luncheon at the Russells, he takes obvious delight in lording his specialized knowledge over Church, to the point that Church is humiliated.
• Pet the Dog: Agnes is extremely conservative in her views about society, particularly about new versus old money. However, she also supports the Black community, donating to a Black college and employing Peggy as a secretary, which raises eyebrows even among her own staff. When she learns that her personal maid is being rude to Peggy, Agnes sides with Peggy and threatens to fire her maid unless she cuts it out. She also sympathizes with Peggy about the loss of her child and the forced annulment of her marriage, having lost children of her own and suffered through an unhappy marriage.
• Phenotype Stereotype: Bridget, the Irish chambermaid with the thick lilting accent, sports bright red hair.
• Pimped-Out Dress: There is hardly a time, formal or informal, that any of New York's high society ladies aren't completely dressed to the nines. This is particularly true of the Nouveau Riche women, who use their fashion as part of their Conspicuous Consumption. On Easter, the women all wear pimped-out hats to church as well.
• Playing Both Sides: Ward McAllister is a friend to both Mrs. Astor and Bertha Russell. He plays both sides and freely admits as much when pressed to pick a side.
• Plot-Triggering Death: Marian goes to New York to live with her aunts after her father (their brother) dies, and she discovers that she is penniless.
• Production Throwback: The opening scene of the pilot is very similar to the opening scene of Downton Abbey: a letter about the death of a relative arrives at the house and the footman wanders through the servant's quarters to deliver it for the butler to take upstairs.
• Professional Butt-Kisser: Ward McAllister is a consummate socialite and does everything in his power to remain on Mrs. Astor's good side throughout season 1 and 2, where he serves as Mrs. Astor's confidant at gatekeeping the New York social elite— while helping Bertha Russel behind the scenes on the chance she breaks in successfully. Ultimately though apologetic to Bertha, he chooses to back Mrs. Astor and the Academy of Music.
• Railroad Baron: George Russell is a classic robber baron representing "new money".
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Bertha hits Mrs. Morris with a coldly polite one in Episode 3, when Mrs. Morris asks her to tell her husband to take mercy on the aldermen. She pointedly asks what exact aspect of Mrs. Morris's conduct towards her (such as the dramatic bazaar snub in Episode 2) makes her believe she could reasonably ask Bertha for anything.
  Bertha: You come into my house, you make this strange request, and I'm trying to establish why. Do you feel I owe a debt of gratitude? Have you granted me a favor that merits return?...Mrs. Morris, I hesitate to teach the basics, but life is like a bank account. You cannot write a check without first making a deposit.
  • Marian gives one to Tom Raikes, when he pulls out of their plans to elope at the last minute because he can't give up the New York social life he has been exposed to in his pursuit of her.
• Rebellious Princess: As the series progresses, there are hints of this emerging in Gladys Russell's character as she chafes under her mother's control. As she tells Oscar van Rhijn at her debutante ball:
  I'm out now Mr. van Rhijn, and I've had enough of being told what to do.
• Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: The first season presents Marian with two possible suitors, Larry Russell, the son of the wealthy family across the street, and Tom Raikes, a country lawyer from Doylestown, Pennsylvania who handled her late father's estate. By the first season finale, Raikes dumps her for his own rich suitor Cissie Bingham, and Russell is still just a friend, until the end of season two that is.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: When Agnes believes that her son Oscar is having an affair with Miss Turner, lady's maid to Mrs. Russell, she wants Turner sacked for this inappropriate action and sends Marian to be her messenger claiming that Miss Turner acted inappropriately towards a person above her station. While Mrs. Russell suspects that Agnes and Marian are talking about Oscar she doesn't intend to do anything until she sees Turner interacting with her son in a seemingly flirtatious manner and it unsettles her enough that she changes her mind. The truth of the matter is while Oscar and she weren't lovers, she is betraying the Russell family by telling Oscar intimate details in his plot to win Gladys' hand and previously tried to seduce George Russell but was turned down hard when she offered herself to him. So her firing is completely justifiable, just not on the evidence Agnes and Mrs. Russell have.
• Role Swap Plot: Season 1 reveals that Agnes married a very wealthy man who is implied to have been very abusive to her, in order to secure her family's fortunes as they were destitute. Though she is kind, she holds this sacrifice over her "spinster" sister Ada's head. In Season 2, Agnes's only son, Oscar, loses their fortune. Ada is put in the position of rescuing their family from destitution due to her short-lived marriage to Reverend Forte, who comes from an enormous fortune and has since died.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: The Russells are not shy about putting their vast fortune to work on any problem they encounter, from legal troubles to social disputes, no matter how unscrupulous their tactics might be.
• Seduction-Proof Marriage: George is completely unmoved when he discovers a naked Miss Turner in his bed, commanding her return to her room, and making it abundantly clear that the only reason she isn't being fired on the spot is because Bertha holds her in regard and he doesn't want her to know Turner betrayed her.
• Secretly Wealthy:
  • Peggy Scott hides her upper-middle class background from her aristocratic employer. Her father owns a pharmacy and maintains a very nice brownstone with a servant of his own. Ironically, this means she has a larger inheritance coming to her than her white, Impoverished Patrician friend Marian, who embarrasses herself when she shows up unannounced to gift her some old shoes. Peggy's wealth was hinted at before this: Her wardrobe is always subdued but quality. She hits if off with Agnes and Ada when they find out she went to a school their father patronized called The Institute for Colored Youth (now called Cheney University) which is the first historically black college in the US. She had no problem paying for Marian's train fare when Marian lost hers. Her mother implies that the restaurant where they first meet is below her standards. During Peggy's first meeting with her father, he wears a flashy suit and mentions that he could employ her himself.
  • After Ada's short-lived husband Reverend Luke Forte dies in Season 2, she learns via his will that his father was a very successful textile merchant. When Luke joined the clergy, he chose to live modestly, but kept the business operational so that its many employees wouldn't lose their jobs. As a result, Ada has now inherited control of a great deal of money.
• Serious Business: The intricacies of social etiquette are extremely important in New York's high society. Choosing who you talk to, who you're seen with, and who you allow into your home can all send shockwaves through the social circle and have serious ramifications on both your standing and theirs. The "Opera War" of season 2 is a prominent example, presented as an inane, posturing feud between idle, easily vexed and rich individuals.
  George Russell: You don't even like the opera.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Peggy's story in season 2 picks up from where it ended in season 1, by revealing that her son was Happily Adopted, but died of scarlet fever before they could reunite, and she spends that Easter Sunday with her son's adopted family who equally loved him and share their grief with the Scotts over his loss.
• Shown Their Work:
  • The Russell house derives much of it details to the surviving mansions of the Vanderbilt family, the most extravagant of the Gilded Age nouveau riche, which were extensively researched. The production team even commissioned the original manufacturers to recreate some period textiles.
  • The second episode ends on a large portrait Mrs. Astor keeps above the main staircase of her home, alluding to a famous 1890 portrait that Mrs. Astor stood under when she would greet guests.
  • Oscar Wilde was Irish, but in the show he speaks with an English accent. In real life, Wilde consciously abandoned his Irish accent while attending Oxford.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: The Brook sisters, Agnes van Rhijn and Ada Brook. As their niece describes them: "Ada is kind, but not clever, and Agnes is clever, but not kind." The assessment proves to be surface-level on both fronts, but the differences are still there.
• Sincerity Mode: Bertha Russell makes it clear at her first luncheon with Ward McAllister she is trying to rise up in society's ranks and needs his help. She doesn't use any coy phrases or winks and nudge, instead openly and directly asking him. Her candor impresses Ward, plus the prospect of seeing her house, to being friendly with her and helping her out.
• Smarter Than You Look:
  • Aunt Ada, despite first impressions and assumptions that she's a dowdy spinster living on her sister's charity, is far more intuitive and observant than people give her credit for, including her own family.
  • Clara Barton, the founder of the US branch of the Red Cross, isn't a naive woman who sees only the best in people. She is aware of people using her charity to rise up the social ranks, and when Bertha Russell chooses the Red Cross and makes serious donations, Clara happily takes the check as it lets her open three branches from it alone.
• Smoking Is Not Cool: Zig-Zagged. For the most part, the lower class, such as the street sweeper, are seen smoking cigarettes. The only exception to this is Oscar van Rhijn and John Adams, and even then only in situations where they won't be noticed—at home or in lower-class bars. Truth in Television for the time: In 1880s America, cigarettes were associated with two groups: the poor, and Europhile aesthetes (which isn't to say homosexuals, but...). Real well-off men were supposed to smoke cigars and pipes. Of course, with the advance of time, the aesthetes' love of cigarettes became increasingly mainstream, but the series hasn't gotten there yet.
• Social Climber:
  • Bertha Russell in spades, not just for herself but also to give her children the best possible prospects in New York society. She has even delayed her daughter Gladys's debut until she is sure she can fill their ballroom. She is therefore understandably upset when her at-home party turns out to be such a bust with very low attendance.
  • Tom Raikes is thoroughly dedicated to climbing the social ladder in New York so that he can earn the approval of Marian's aunt and thus win her hand. By the end of the first season, he decides he's more interested in the social ladder than in her and dumps her so he can pursue a richer suitor.
  • Mrs. Turner seeks in season 1 to become George Russell's mistress as a step up from being a lady's maid. When she is fired from the Russell's, she sets her sights on marrying a Mr. Winterton, an elderly widower, and in a little over six months does so and is now Bertha's equal in society.
• Southern Gentleman: Social arbiter and taste-maker Ward McAllister was born in Savannah, Georgia, and aids Mrs. Astor in gatekeeping New York society from those they consider "unsuitable".
• Spanner in the Works: During the later half of season 2, the Scott family are working together to save the all-black schools from being closed by the Brooklyn school board. After a fierce publicity campaign, which includes articles in The Globe, a meeting is called. The board then moves the meeting back one day and doesn't inform the Black families. However, when one white board member who is also one of Arthur Scott's suppliers for medicine tells him of the change is to that day and not tomorrow, it allows the collation to get to the meeting in time with their presentation and facts.
• Spoiled Sweet:
  • Gladys Russell is a young girl from a fantastically wealthy family, but she has a very sweet and innocent disposition, partly because of how sheltered her upbringing has been. Oscar van Rhijn believes that her combination of extreme wealth and pleasant personality would make her the perfect wife.
  • Carrie Astor might be the daughter of the de facto queen of New York, but she's a very friendly and sweet girl who has no issue at all befriending Gladys Russell, who is considered beneath her station. Bertha sincerely apologizes to Mrs. Astor that Carrie got caught up in their feud in season 1, calling her a delightful girl and a great friend to Gladys who would never be unwelcome in their home on her own account.
• Status Quo Is God: Over the course of Season 2, Ada gets married and moves out, Marian gets engaged, and Agnes and Oscar lose all their money. However, by the end of the season, Ada is widowed and inherits money, and Marian breaks off the engagement, so everyone who has been living and working at the van Rhijn house remains there for season 3.
• Stealth Insult:
  • The van Rhijn's butler Bannister peppers the Russell staff with these while touring the mansion. When taking in the dining room, Bannister comments, "I have been transported to Versailles," insinuating that the opulence is overdone. When he spots colored glasses on the dining table, he remarks, "How festive," suggesting that they're gaudy.
  • For most of the first season, Agnes does all she can to ignore the presence, if not the existence of, the Russells across the street. Even when she has stormed into their dining room because her butler is moonlighting with them for an important luncheon, she addresses the room generally rather than responding to anything George or Bertha says directly. To her credit, Bertha knows exactly the game Agnes is playing.
  Bertha: I'm tired of being cut on my own doorstep.
• Stunned Silence:
  • When Agnes barges into the Russell's luncheon with Ward McAllister to rake Bannister over the coals for agreeing to help at the luncheon the room is stunned with shock at her sudden appearance and Agnes herself is stunned, realizing the mistake she just made.
  • When Church announces the arrival of Mrs. Astor to Gladys's debutante ball, the entire room is shocked into an immediate silence that Bertha has achieved such a coup.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: Downplayed. While Oscar is at first furious at the claim he is having an affair with Miss Turner, and storms out of Agnes' house, he later realizes his mother's intransigence will mean she won't move away from that without him revealing the full truth that he was paying Turner to spy on the Russell house for his own agenda, which would be much worse for him. So when he returns, he concedes she is right and lets the lie stand.
• Tell Him I'm Not Speaking to Him: After discovering Bannister was temporarily serving as Mrs. Russell's butler for her luncheon with Ward McAllister, Agnes stops speaking with him directly for a time as punishment, using Ada or one of the other servants as a medium.
• Theme Tune Cameo: The opening theme is used as a waltz in the season 1 finale.
• Unexpected Inheritance: The Van Rhijn household is rescued, after Oscar's idiocy cost them their fortune, when it turns out that Ada inherited a huge sum of money that she didn't even know about from her late husband Rev. Forte.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Arthur Scott, Peggy's father, believes he knows what is best for his daughter and will try to push her to the course of action he has deemed best. This includes his actions before the series began when he destroys Peggy by first having the midwife tell her the child she bore in her marriage died at birth while in truth Arthur sent the child away, and then later makes Peggy's husband make a false claim in court so Peggy's marriage can be annulled, leaving her without the stigma of divorce, and allow her to marry someone better.
• Wham Line: Agnes's relief at Ada's sudden inheritance saving the house is somewhat dampened by Bannister suddenly deferring to Ada, who, as Marian points out, will be the one now paying their wages.
• Worthy Opponent: In the second episode, George Russell closes down a charity bazaar because the women running it snubbed his wife's offer to use their ballroom at no cost, instead taking it to a hotel and paying for rent. He does this by going to each stall and offering to buy everything for $100, when most vendors hoped to make $30, on the condition it is to be delivered to the Russell mansion in one hour and the shop is closed. Within 10 minutes of the bazaar opening, it closes, netting the charity over $2,000. Mrs. Astor witnesses this entire affair and recognizes how soundly George bested the organizers. She later confides to her daughter a day before she wouldn't have thought much of George Russell but now considers him "formidable." She also relishes the free morning this has given her.
• Wrong-Name Outburst: in the second-season finale, when speaking of the upcoming wedding, Dashiell calls Marian "Harriet", that being the name of his dead wife. That's the signal that he hasn't gotten past Harriet's death, and Marian breaks off the engagement soon after.
• You Remind Me of X: Agnes and Ada can't help but notice how much Marian is like their late brother Henry.

  Agnes: She speaks and I hear Henry's voice, challenging everything just as he did.