I'm so excited for The Gilded Age season 4 that I just can't stop talking about it since the season 3 finale, which I'm still not over. Big changes are on the horizon for Bertha (Carrie Coon) with George (Morgan Spector) potentially leaving her for good, while Gladys (Taissa Farmiga) is pregnant after marrying the Duke of Buckingham.
So far, we've been focused on what the recent past means for Bertha's future. After George's brief dance with death, he admits that he no longer knows if he's in love with his wife, dramatically leaving before she has a chance to collect her thoughts. Together with Gladys' pregnancy, she's essentially got her dream, old money life without a soul in the world to share if with.
But what if the ongoing old money vs new money battle is the wrong thing to focus on? Two separate rivals are on track to stoke the fire between Bertha and the life she wants, but I think it's the life the could accidentally land that needs the most attention (spoiler: it involves feminism).
Carrie Coon thinks Bertha could have a 'feminist awakening' in The Gilded Age season 4, and I agree
Speaking to Deadline, Coon explained: "One of the things that happens as Bertha and Gladys get to come together at the end of the season is [Bertha]’s gonna have to reflect back on what she’s done, even though it’s successful, it’s not without complication. It wasn’t without cost.
"That sort of nascent feminist awakening would be a really interesting pursuit for her, whether or not the marriage lasts. [...] I think she’s not quite far down the path of that exploration to understand exactly what happened. We catch her in the middle of trying to process that moment."
Inadvertently, I think she's hit the nail on the head here. Previous seasons of the HBO Max show have prided themselves on not being similar to the last, and seeing Bertha slip into full sister suffragette mode would be such a shrewdly subtle way to bring about change and personal redemption.
Timing wise, we're about right too. Women's suffrage in the US took hold through the late 19th and early 20th century, with the demand for such garnering interest as early as the 1840s. The first official movements came together in 1869, and we're only a few years out from that.
With the magic of TV, The Gilded Age season 4 could easily return with a time jump, or perhaps Bertha immerses herself in the grassroots beginnings of women's suffrage to get away from her own problems.
Personally, I think the narrative switch-up would make not only us, but those around her more empathetic to the life she's really living (well, everyone except Christine Baranski's Agnes). Bertha's never been perfect, but she's not a doormat either, and that makes her a perfect Emmeline Pankhurst type. Take down the husband, and take down the patriarchy too.
Do I think Bertha will go the way of Winnifred Banks in Mary Poppins? No. But season 4 is going to need to move with the times after the season 3 finale almost sewed up every existing narrative thread, and what better way to do that than with a spot of forward-thinking progress?
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