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Damn, George and Bertha really are a united front. I really wanted to like Mrs. Bruce (the Russells’ housekeeper), but now she’s a spy. Gladys is just a tool for Bertha’s ambitions. She deserves better. I’m glad Peggy and Marian made up. Marian is kind of a drip, but I genuinely like her friendship with Peggy and think it is a positive for both characters as they’re each in need of a confidante. Peggy established a hard boundary and Marian seems to want to respect it. I hope it stays that way. As for Marian, I think the drastic change in her wardrobe this episode signals that she’s growing. Who knows yet if it’s for the best or not. Turner can fuck herself, she’s just so damned bitter and unlikeable. I’m a little disappointed that Oscar is paying any attention to her at all. I guess as long as he bests her in the end, I’m OK with it. Poor Armstrong. I wonder if she’ll end up offing her terrible mother out of despair. Fictional Clara Barton is just as cool as the actual Clara Barton! I know Agnes is a doyenne of old New York society, but everyone referring to her as “Aunt Agnes” seems weird.

Yeah, I was thinking Peggy might be a Howard grad as that is/was coed. I don’t know how many female students they had at the time, though. It just seemed odd to me as Peggy doesn’t look like a high schooler.

Peggy being in Doylestown is one of my biggest questions. I thought initially that she was possibly returning home from school, but I don’t think that was the case. The school she attended (that Agnes and Ada knew) was a private black high school. Peggy looks more like a college or grad student. If she didn’t attend college, that surprises me as she from a prominent family.

That’s why I recognized Fortune - he was in the Halston miniseries! He played one of Halston’s early partners. He looked super familiar but I couldn’t place him in the 1880s garb. As others have said I think George didn’t fire Turner because that would have looked much worse than keeping her with a major warning. Besides, didn’t George tell the alderman something along the lines of, “I only give a second chance once,” or something like that? Maybe that’s what we’re seeing here.

I agree completely. Marian’s problem is that she isn’t paying attention, not that she thinks of Peggy as a lesser person. When it comes to Peggy, both Arthur and Marion have a similar problem. They both have good intentions and care for Peggy, but their manner of showing their affection for her is definitely not what Peggy needs. Arthur knows the world for African-American people of the time is difficult and cruel, and he wants Peggy to be comfortable and safe. This he can’t accept or understand why she wants to make it as a writer when she could concentrate on the pharmacy. Marian is supportive of Peggy’s writing career, but (erroneously) believes that as her friend is black she must be poor. She isn’t paying attention to all of the signs that Peggy clearly comes from money, so she embarrasses the whole family and herself when she shows up with the shoes. Both are well-meaning people, but both Marian and Arthur fall very short of giving Peggy what she needs.

Isn’t that more or less Turner’s story?

I think this is the first hint we’ve had that Arthur is a former slave, but yes. He remembered his uncle who was sold away, so Arthur had to have been a slave. It was also confirmed on the accompanying podcast that Arthur was a slave, but Dorothy (Peggy’s mom) was always a free woman.

Who said Marian doesn’t see Peggy as an equal? Her assumption that Peggy was poor was way off base (and yes, it was made based on the color of Peggy’s skin), but I don’t believe Marian sees Peggy as less than. Case in point: their trip to the shop. Marian is all sorts of dense in not realizing that Peggy was getting death stares from the staff, but I think in her mind Marian felt Peggy had just as much right to be there as she did. Marian doesn’t recognize that their worlds are very different which is shockingly naive, but she certainly doesn’t believe Peggy is less of a person. Marian also was also very interested in Peggy’s writing career, consoling Peggy after the white-owned paper treated her badly and celebrating when the black-owned paper hired her. Marian did not know anything about Peggy’s family, but Peggy made it clear from the start that she did not want to discuss her family due to the fight with her father. Marian respected that and didn’t push it. So while Marian is woefully unobservant about certain aspects of Peggy’s life, I don’t think her sense of equality is the problem here. I believe she views Peggy as a genuine friend and has treated her as such, albeit in a sometimes very misguided manner.

I honestly prefer the servants’ domain in the Russell house to the upstairs. The former is clean, simple, and refined while the latter is OMG lOoK aT mE!!!!!

Holy shit, Marian. Did you not pay attention to the fact that Peggy paid your train fare from Pennsylvania and she has very nice clothes? Peggy has money, you dumbass! In Marian’s defense, at least she considers Peggy a friend and has good (if not deeply, deeply misguided) intentions. Turner is not only laughably bad at reading a room, she risked her dignity and job with that stupid stunt in George Russell’s bed. That chick is trouble. Mrs. Chamberlain is a bohemian, albeit a rich one. I hope we see her son before too long.

True, and it doesn’t make her at all likeable to a current audience. But her contemporaries would not have found Bertha’s treatment of the servants objectionable. Nor would she have been unusual in behaving that way.

As dehumanizing as it may be, it was the prevailing attitude of the time. It has been discussed a couple of times on the HBO podcast. Julian Fellows stated that the literature of the time hardly mentioned servants at all. He includes them as characters in his work because they are people with feelings, thoughts, and interesting lives of their own. His audience recognizes them as such, but their employers often did not. Morgan Spector said it was one of the biggest adjustments he had to make playing George - he’d be chatting with the other actors one minute, and the next he had to treat them like furniture. We abhor treating people like anything other than individuals, when that mindset was anything but to the Russells, van Rhijns, etc.

The colors, styles, and prints each of the women wore were chosen carefully. Marian’s color scheme is (unsurprisingly) pastels to convey her innocence and newness to the city. I’ve never been a big fan of pastels (give me deep jewel tones any day), but I think they suit Marian.

People looking to further discredit the Russells might be interested, especially if there was some sort of scandal attached.

Are you saying Turner is a courtesan? Maybe in her dreams. She’s not that charming or educated. Affairs among the upper classes with their peers was very common in that time.

She’s a dingus who seems to think George Russell wants her when he clearly does not. I imagine she’d be stupid enough to believe she could blackmail him with a pregnancy thinking it would further prevent the family from breaking into the top tier of society. We know Turner looks down on them for it. Besides, men like George wouldn’t choose a servant as a mistress, he’d choose someone in his own social class. If Turner thinks George will shower gifts on her then she’s even stupider than she looks. That’s one hell of a pipe dream.

I think most of the characters on this show are fun to watch, but I’d loathe to know most of them personally.

Agreed. Agnes said before that she doesn’t like Raikes, and that she’s “never wrong.” I tend to believe her. Regarding Jack’s treatment of Bridget (the footman and maid), he was very pushy on their “date,” but I don’t think he was trying to hurt, control, or deceive her. I think he’s just very young, clumsy, and really inexperienced. I hope he learned his lesson and doesn’t keep it up.

This isn’t exactly a costuming question, but rather a hair question. My mom and I disagree on George’s beard. She thinks it’s fake. I think it’s real, but dyed black. Thoughts? If it is dyed black, was that something men of the time would have done? If not, I’m surprised that production did it. Morgan Spector is 41, so I imagine he has at least some grey hair. I think George is supposed to be a few years old than Spector as well, given that Larry is 22-23. Why would George still have black hair at that age unless dyeing was a vanity craze at the time?

I think we’re seeing the beginnings of a scheme. We saw in this episode that the bald valet has an interest in the maid. She has her sights set on George, who I think is amused but uninterested in her. I think George will rebuff her, she’ll seduce the valet, become pregnant, and try to pin it on George. I could see her possibly drugging George and climbing into bed with him to make him think they slept together. The maid is a truly odious character and I doubt she has any scruples whatsoever.

Peggy’s father said she should submit her writing to The New York Globe. There was a paper by that name, but it was not founded until 1904. However, I think in this world it is supposed to be a black-owned paper of the time. Peggy said she sent her stories there but never heard back from them. I’m curious as to what Peggy’s father does and why she’s so opposed to working for him. They’re clearly a wealthy family, and I get the feeling that Peggy’s refusal to work for him goes beyond simply wanting to forge her own path.

I was surprised that John Adams seemed so put out by Oscar’s intentions to marry Gladys. It can’t have been rare for wealthy gay/bi men to marry for money/status/a beard back in those days. Even if John didn’t wish to do it himself or didn’t like Oscar’s plans I thought he’d at least understand it. But he seemed genuinely shocked and bewildered when Oscar told him.

Right? He seems to see right through her and find her interest in him amusing. I wonder what the social fallout for the Russells will be now that the alderman killed himself. While George made it clear he’s not to be messed with, I can’t imagine the “old” money is itching to welcome them with such scandal attached to the situation.

I know the Victor storyline was not terribly popular, but I liked it. It wasn't well-connected to the bigger story, but I did see a lot of parallels between Victor and Walt. Both were trying their hardest to fix absolutely hopeless situations on two very different sides of the drug trade. Victor faced the ultimate defeat, but I can't say Walt fared much better in the end.

It’s all good!