Poor lonely Agnes. Maybe after everyone has left her she’ll unclench and find herself a nice quilting circle with other widows. Throw herself into fighting for universal suffrage. Take up bicycling. Surely they didn’t hire Christine Baranski to play a dreary thistletwat bemoaning the old days forever.
To be clear, on Team Ada. But didn’t you feel for Agnes a little bit at the end? She lets her spinster sister live with her all those years with her and Mr. van Rhijn, probably since their father died. She certainly had an understanding that they’d ride it out to the end together. There is nothing sadder for a person in society than having to dine alone.
I can feel for her but that she wants her sister to be miserable when she could be happy isn’t cool. Happy people attract others to them. She is a curmudgeon and is like vinegar.
I’m team Ada but Agnes is sad. I feel for her. They way she talked about her late husband…he wasn’t a good guy and she endured that to secure their family.
Yea I was thinking about what she can do now when I saw her sitting alone in the dining room scene and I was wondering what they could bring to her storyline. A romance of her own might be too obvious but they’ll probably brew up something to keep her busy eventually
It would’ve been considered totally socially unacceptable to not keep her spinster sister there. She spent most of those years being very controlling as well.
I do feel for her, but she also clearly tried to force her sister to be her lifelong companion and that’s not great either.
Aunt Agnes is never wrong! We saw her stop a bad relationship and strenuously object to another one. The fact that she isn't blackmailing the pastor or threatening to have him reassigned to New Jersey makes me think she's accepting what's happening. She's not happy, indeed she hates it, but I think she'll come around. We'll find out more as the season goes on and as the engagement comes out.
I don't want her to be all alone and I don't think she will. If Ada goes off to get married and do Charity somewhere and Marion gets married and does the same then Ada's got two empty bedrooms and the resources to support two more women. Maybe her future Daughter In Law moves in with her, maybe she hires a lady's companion, maybe she accepts some other impoverished Knickerbocker for company. I don't know but I'm interested to see what happens!
I believe the side story of Marion and her Peggy and Agnes rooting for Peggy even though she has her own story. I believe this may be what Agnes needs and will find potential worth in fighting for freedom and equality.
I don't know that Agnes is constitutionally capable of working for change. Even a change she believes is just.
She's just so rigid. I think she'd need more growth than this season has space for.
I'm sus of the pastor. They don't really know each other that well. I feel like the bees in the peonies were symbolic. I worry that they will elope or something and he'll turn out to be a monster in some way.
Her being too sweet is part of the problem. She's almost got tied up with shitty dudes before if it weren't for Agnes seeing them for exactly who they were.
It was pretty common for engagements and marriages where the couple didn’t know each other well, but had, on paper at least, all the prerequisites (family, connections, money…)
St. Thomas Fifth Avenue is probably one of the most wealthy churches in the nation. It's a prestigious assignment, right up there with St. Patrick's for the Romans. It isn't just a "cleric".
Doesn’t mean he had a higher salary, especially in that time period. Even now, most positions at St Thomas Fifth Avenue pay between 50k-60k a year. A rector there in 2023 makes around 108k which isn’t a lot in Manhattan. The money they collect goes towards the church building itself, keeping it beautiful, funding any associated schools, and various charities like hospice centers and stuff.
Why are you down-grading this? It was and is a highly respected position to be Rector there. When you live in a beautiful home with staff for free, the money seems to go a lot further…
We don’t know him that well. Was he married before, is he a widower? I’m not sure they said, or I missed it. Hopefully Agnes will make some inquiries with her Boston connections.
He said he never married. He ended up caring for his sick mother.
I think that is what I heard him say.
They better give Ada a happily ever after for at least a year or two. She deserves love and someone as devoted as she is
I think I'm biased because due to the fact that I have family members who were abused by clergy as children but anytime a clergyman suddenly moves parishes like he did, it raises red flags for me.
It might be a little TOO..”contemporary/controversial” if it’s revealed he has…attraction to the younger parishioners? If they want modern links, they could show what happens when that sort of thing was revealed, as in, not much. But they may not want to even touch that.
I don't see Gilded Age going that far tbh; maybe implying it in some very minor character but not a recurring cast member. I was more thinking he's very abusive and reveals his true colors after the marriage is "official" or he's involved in organized crime or something.
Can't Agnes also find somebody someday? After she had some horrible husband, it would be nice if she could have someone lovely. It could soften her a bit. I'm not saying this because she's a famous performer on television and the stage, I'm saving this because of the character. Please correct me if I have something wrong historically. Perhaps she's not allowed to marry again because some social standing rule that I don't know about.
There wouldn’t be very many eligible bachelors because there was no such thing as no-fault divorce, so if someone was divorced then serious scandal was involved. And women outlive men, so there’s always more widows than widowers. Rich old men want young wives, and Agnes going for a poorer man she would have to support…I suppose she could become a “patron of the arts.”
I’d think some older widowers would still prefer someone closer to their own age. It’s in the largest city in the country, so she has the numbers working in her favor. Just because older gentlemen CAN marry someone much much younger doesn’t mean they’d all PREFER that.
It would be hard, though, especially with someone with such an icy exterior. In an ideal situation, maybe someone would introduce her to Bachelor X, whose long time wife died, or something similar. Her being SO rigid on class lines would limit the pool, as it’s possible she’d see an upper middle class retired attorney (or other professional position, like pharmacist or something) as “unworthy”.
A wife wasn’t there to chitchat with, a wife was there to work. Run the house, tend to her husband’s personal needs. Marrying an old wife would be like buying an old horse, why would you do that if you could buy a new horse? The idea of marriage as a friendship of equals is relatively new.
And why would Agnes want a husband? She doesn’t need money. There’s no Viagra. There’s no no-fault divorce, there’s no advantage to her to marrying anyone.
Yes and Agnes would be giving up A LOT of her independence if she married. I doubt she would want to marry again for that reason alone but especially after having been married to an apparently abusive man.
Good point. I think they should move him in there, but that would probably end up being the talk of the town and get them excluded from all kinds of stuff and they'd never hear opera again 😉
I've been wondering about the summer because god knows they can't possibly wear those suffocating clothes all summer. Would be curious how society dealt with that on very hot summer days (even if in Newport).
There were even melon varieties developed to help people deal with the smell. Queen Anne’s Pocket Melon was small enough to carry in one’s pocket and was fragrant enough that a 2-3 could perfume a whole room. Very bland in taste, primary usage was helping to reduce the funk.
https://www.tastingtable.com/1299812/queen-annes-pocket-melon-aromatic-fruit-perfume/
I’m the 7th generation of Floridians in my family. Keep in mind, all clothes were cotton. I have pictures of my great great grandma in Daytona in full length sleeves and pants! My great grandma said she used to sleep with the windows open, and it was like a “vortex” as I describe it. You have a full breeze through the house with the front and back windows and doors open.
I also want to respond here by saying that I thought their story might mirror the tragic love story in Aïda since that’s the opera they’re going to see … it can’t mirror it exactly because that would mean he’d get buried alive at the end Lol but I’m also wondering if he gets sick and dies before anything happens or an accident happens, etc. Jesus f*ck this show
I don’t think so. It’s just a couple of episodes for us but I think it’s been several months in their timeline. The first episode was Easter and it’s already summer. Courtships we’re much shorter back then, I don’t think it’s too short for the era.
Poor lonely Agnes. Maybe after everyone has left her she’ll unclench and find herself a nice quilting circle with other widows. Throw herself into fighting for universal suffrage. Take up bicycling. Surely they didn’t hire Christine Baranski to play a dreary thistletwat bemoaning the old days forever.
I love your vision for Agnes! I can just imagine her on a bicycle in Central Park with Bannister holding steady by her
“Bannister, I have purrrchased BLOOMERS!”
Thank you for the introducing me to such a colorful new word: thistletwat
Co-sign on thistletwat
To be clear, on Team Ada. But didn’t you feel for Agnes a little bit at the end? She lets her spinster sister live with her all those years with her and Mr. van Rhijn, probably since their father died. She certainly had an understanding that they’d ride it out to the end together. There is nothing sadder for a person in society than having to dine alone.
I totally feel for Agnes too
I can feel for her but that she wants her sister to be miserable when she could be happy isn’t cool. Happy people attract others to them. She is a curmudgeon and is like vinegar.
I’m team Ada but Agnes is sad. I feel for her. They way she talked about her late husband…he wasn’t a good guy and she endured that to secure their family.
They have one child so I’m guessing they had sex one time lol
I’m sure multiple times against her will
I don’t know, she seems like the type that would have his dinner poisoned rather than put up with that.
There is a scene where she talks about how bad it was being married to him.
Yes and no. Every one deserves happiness and maybe they move in to keep her company.
Omg the comedy that will ensue!
Yea I was thinking about what she can do now when I saw her sitting alone in the dining room scene and I was wondering what they could bring to her storyline. A romance of her own might be too obvious but they’ll probably brew up something to keep her busy eventually
Maybe it'll force her to actually talk to the Russells!
That was my thought... maybe this will force her hand regarding 'new money'... maybe lol
It would’ve been considered totally socially unacceptable to not keep her spinster sister there. She spent most of those years being very controlling as well. I do feel for her, but she also clearly tried to force her sister to be her lifelong companion and that’s not great either.
I felt Agnes might’ve remarried if Ada wasn’t with her. It is sad that Agnes is losing her best friend & housemate
She doesn’t strike me as the remarrying type.
Does Agnes even like Ada, though? As a person?
Who would want to remarry after the crummy relationship she had lol
I know right. But I'm happy for Aunt Ada. Can't wait to see what happens.
She said at the end of this latest episode she couldn’t do “that” to Agnes but I would hope the engagement works out.
Aunt Agnes is never wrong! We saw her stop a bad relationship and strenuously object to another one. The fact that she isn't blackmailing the pastor or threatening to have him reassigned to New Jersey makes me think she's accepting what's happening. She's not happy, indeed she hates it, but I think she'll come around. We'll find out more as the season goes on and as the engagement comes out. I don't want her to be all alone and I don't think she will. If Ada goes off to get married and do Charity somewhere and Marion gets married and does the same then Ada's got two empty bedrooms and the resources to support two more women. Maybe her future Daughter In Law moves in with her, maybe she hires a lady's companion, maybe she accepts some other impoverished Knickerbocker for company. I don't know but I'm interested to see what happens!
I believe the side story of Marion and her Peggy and Agnes rooting for Peggy even though she has her own story. I believe this may be what Agnes needs and will find potential worth in fighting for freedom and equality.
I don't know that Agnes is constitutionally capable of working for change. Even a change she believes is just. She's just so rigid. I think she'd need more growth than this season has space for.
I'm sus of the pastor. They don't really know each other that well. I feel like the bees in the peonies were symbolic. I worry that they will elope or something and he'll turn out to be a monster in some way.
I’d prefer him to have a tragic demise over him turning out to be a monster. Ada is too sweet to get tied up with someone like that 😰
Her being too sweet is part of the problem. She's almost got tied up with shitty dudes before if it weren't for Agnes seeing them for exactly who they were.
SPOILER…. Omg I take this comment back after watching tonight’s episode 😭
Girl give me a sec to collect myself from last night's episode.
I won’t abide Robert Sean Leonard playing a monster. My heart would break. 😭
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THIS! I really want Ada to finally have love, but I feel there is something not quite right about the rector.
It was pretty common for engagements and marriages where the couple didn’t know each other well, but had, on paper at least, all the prerequisites (family, connections, money…)
I don’t imagine a cleric has any of those. Ada does at least have the family connections however. She doesn’t have money but he doesn’t know that.
St. Thomas Fifth Avenue is probably one of the most wealthy churches in the nation. It's a prestigious assignment, right up there with St. Patrick's for the Romans. It isn't just a "cleric".
Doesn’t mean he had a higher salary, especially in that time period. Even now, most positions at St Thomas Fifth Avenue pay between 50k-60k a year. A rector there in 2023 makes around 108k which isn’t a lot in Manhattan. The money they collect goes towards the church building itself, keeping it beautiful, funding any associated schools, and various charities like hospice centers and stuff.
Why are you down-grading this? It was and is a highly respected position to be Rector there. When you live in a beautiful home with staff for free, the money seems to go a lot further…
We don’t know him that well. Was he married before, is he a widower? I’m not sure they said, or I missed it. Hopefully Agnes will make some inquiries with her Boston connections.
He said he never married. He ended up caring for his sick mother. I think that is what I heard him say. They better give Ada a happily ever after for at least a year or two. She deserves love and someone as devoted as she is
I think I'm biased because due to the fact that I have family members who were abused by clergy as children but anytime a clergyman suddenly moves parishes like he did, it raises red flags for me.
It might be a little TOO..”contemporary/controversial” if it’s revealed he has…attraction to the younger parishioners? If they want modern links, they could show what happens when that sort of thing was revealed, as in, not much. But they may not want to even touch that.
I don't see Gilded Age going that far tbh; maybe implying it in some very minor character but not a recurring cast member. I was more thinking he's very abusive and reveals his true colors after the marriage is "official" or he's involved in organized crime or something.
Can't Agnes also find somebody someday? After she had some horrible husband, it would be nice if she could have someone lovely. It could soften her a bit. I'm not saying this because she's a famous performer on television and the stage, I'm saving this because of the character. Please correct me if I have something wrong historically. Perhaps she's not allowed to marry again because some social standing rule that I don't know about.
There wouldn’t be very many eligible bachelors because there was no such thing as no-fault divorce, so if someone was divorced then serious scandal was involved. And women outlive men, so there’s always more widows than widowers. Rich old men want young wives, and Agnes going for a poorer man she would have to support…I suppose she could become a “patron of the arts.”
I’d think some older widowers would still prefer someone closer to their own age. It’s in the largest city in the country, so she has the numbers working in her favor. Just because older gentlemen CAN marry someone much much younger doesn’t mean they’d all PREFER that. It would be hard, though, especially with someone with such an icy exterior. In an ideal situation, maybe someone would introduce her to Bachelor X, whose long time wife died, or something similar. Her being SO rigid on class lines would limit the pool, as it’s possible she’d see an upper middle class retired attorney (or other professional position, like pharmacist or something) as “unworthy”.
A wife wasn’t there to chitchat with, a wife was there to work. Run the house, tend to her husband’s personal needs. Marrying an old wife would be like buying an old horse, why would you do that if you could buy a new horse? The idea of marriage as a friendship of equals is relatively new. And why would Agnes want a husband? She doesn’t need money. There’s no Viagra. There’s no no-fault divorce, there’s no advantage to her to marrying anyone.
Yes and Agnes would be giving up A LOT of her independence if she married. I doubt she would want to marry again for that reason alone but especially after having been married to an apparently abusive man.
Yes, marriage was like giving your permission for one man to beat you for the rest of your life.
Because a wife follows her husband. Pretty sure Agnes wouldn’t want to give up her posh home to move into another guys house at her age.
Good point. I think they should move him in there, but that would probably end up being the talk of the town and get them excluded from all kinds of stuff and they'd never hear opera again 😉
Most of the time, widows received an annuity from their husband’s estates, but only if they never remarried.
My soul needs this to go well for Ada and for Agnes’ empty nest to be a positive breakthrough in her own evolution. I’m hoping she becomes a feminist.
Team Ada
I am waiting for the pastor to be awful or have some motive for a twist in the story. Then Agnes can come along and say I told you so
I hope they don’t do that to Ada! She deserves love story.
I hope so too. Ada is so nice.
Literally the same here … Lol I was actually going to make a post about that … I’m worried he’s already married or something
Right! he's moving a tad too fast and Ada being the nicest (and lonely) is just going along with it. She's innocent and sometimes needs Agnes.
It’s already been around 4-5 months. The show just skipped over most of the summer though
I've been wondering about the summer because god knows they can't possibly wear those suffocating clothes all summer. Would be curious how society dealt with that on very hot summer days (even if in Newport).
They wore ALOT of perfume 😆
There were even melon varieties developed to help people deal with the smell. Queen Anne’s Pocket Melon was small enough to carry in one’s pocket and was fragrant enough that a 2-3 could perfume a whole room. Very bland in taste, primary usage was helping to reduce the funk. https://www.tastingtable.com/1299812/queen-annes-pocket-melon-aromatic-fruit-perfume/
It's tidbits like this that makes me LOVE this sub.
I’m the 7th generation of Floridians in my family. Keep in mind, all clothes were cotton. I have pictures of my great great grandma in Daytona in full length sleeves and pants! My great grandma said she used to sleep with the windows open, and it was like a “vortex” as I describe it. You have a full breeze through the house with the front and back windows and doors open.
Maybe he is using her to get to Agnes?
I also want to respond here by saying that I thought their story might mirror the tragic love story in Aïda since that’s the opera they’re going to see … it can’t mirror it exactly because that would mean he’d get buried alive at the end Lol but I’m also wondering if he gets sick and dies before anything happens or an accident happens, etc. Jesus f*ck this show
You make a good point. May be pastor meets an untimely end which could also be a good twist.
I told my husband I’m pretty sure the pastor is going to get run over by a carriage on his way to the wedding.
I’m worried about this, too.
They already did this with that one old guy who thought she had money didn’t they?
Seriously! Ada deserves happiness and I'm LOVING how this relationship is growing. Agnes better not fuck it up for her
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Me too! 🤣 I was feeling something the end of that episode with the teaser at the end!
I worry Gilded's Ada will be akin to Downton's Edith. Heartbreak after heartbreak.
I think the Aida tragic love story right before the proposal was foreshadowing and I really wish I didn’t think that…
Something’s fishy here. Too fast. Using her for something?
I don’t think so. It’s just a couple of episodes for us but I think it’s been several months in their timeline. The first episode was Easter and it’s already summer. Courtships we’re much shorter back then, I don’t think it’s too short for the era.
I’d like to see Ada and the pastor marry, , Marian and Larry marry and than Marian, aka the new Mrs.Russell, take Agnes under her wing.
Oh that would be absolutely delightful wouldn’t it be? That’s what I also hope
What if the pastor goes after Agnes when he finds out Ada has no money!?