Viewers were already expecting the second season of The Gilded Age due to the success of the first. Julian Fellowes, the creator and writer of the series, showed how ambitious he was since the first season premiered.
The executive producer Gareth Neame confessed that they had been working on the second season, which shows the rivalry between the old money and the new, long before the success of the first.
Produced by Claire M. Shanley and Holly Rymon, The Gilded Age Season 2 premiered on 23 October 2023 on HBO. This season has eight episodes, and each gets aired every Sunday. Fellowes was inspired by American history and dedicated his time to filming The Gilded Age.
Filming for the second season began in August 2022 in New York State. It is a fictional series, but the events shown in the series really took place during the period mentioned in the series. Besides that, some characters are fully fictional, some are partially fictional, while some really existed during that period (such as Mr. and Mrs. Astor).
The Gilded Age Season 1 Ending Explained
Peggy began a mission to uncover what happened to her and discovered the existence of her supposed dead child. After that, she stopped working for Agnes and learned that her father kept her away from the truth.
Bertha and George finally got the ball they had been hunting for throughout the season. Tom Raikes was a sensible young lawyer who used to work for Marian’s Mother. After their death, Raikes became Marian’s Doylestown lawyer and was attracted to her from the second episode.
However, at the end of the season, Marian tried to get closer to him, but he ditched her to have a luxurious life with Sissy/Cissie Bingham, Henry Flagler’s supposed illegitimate daughter. He realized his job would not fulfill his dreams with Marian. He was morally weak, and leaving Marian was not easy for him.
Heartbroken, Marian attended the ball, where she was comforted by Ada. George rehired Borden, and the ball became a success. The writers, Julian Fellowes and Sonja Warfield, think Denée Benton (who played Peggy Scott) knew that her character must go to the bottom to uncover the truth from the beginning of the first season.
The writer, creator, and executive producer of The Gilded Age, Julian Fellowes, read books about the society hit by consumerism and opulence and was interested in the Gilded Age long before it arrived on television.
It was the period when America came out of the Civil War and was ready to rule the world in every way. Finally, Mrs. Astor, a prominent American socialite, realized she could not keep the new people under control because they were too rich and powerful for that.
The writer, Sonja Warfield, had fun writing Aurora’s dialogues because she caught Raikes with Sissy/Cissie and had to inform Marian about it. Warfield wanted Raikes to have enough courage to confront it with Marian.
The Gilded Age Season 2: What Year Is The Season 2 Set On?
The Gilded Age Season 2 is set in Easter 1883 on the streets of New York during an immense economic change. Some people made tremendous money, while some did not. The second season began with an Easter morning in 1883, which brought bad news regarding the rejection of Bertha Russell’s demand for the box.
The rivalry between the old and the new money is set on East 61st Street, where Bertha and George Russell live opposite Marian Brook, Ada Brook, and Agnes van Rhijn.
The first season depicts Marian Brook’s journey in America’s Gilded Age, and the second shows Bertha challenging Mrs. Astor. Thus, Bertha is the leading actress determined to support changes and newcomers by going against society using her money and power.
Meanwhile, Bertha’s husband and a classic robber baron, George Russell, deal with a union, causing more trouble every day at his steel plant in Pittsburg. George is financially ambitious, and Bertha is socially.
Marian Brook is not gone. She returns in the second season to survive in the world while secretly teaching at a girls’ school. Meanwhile, her friend, Peggy Scott, has her own methods to survive in the Black Elite by working alongside T. Thomas Fortune at the NY Globe. Society has already set boundaries for everyone. Will the leading characters break them?
