The Gilded Age Cast Breaks Down Biggest Finale Twists, Including Which Couple Is Doomed In Season 4

Just like that, another season of The Gilded Age has come to an end. And it's a darn good thing that the HBO drama has already scored a renewal, because Sunday's episode left us on a heartbreaking cliffhanger.

Picking up immediately where last week's jaw-dropper left off, Dr. Kirkland led a makeshift medical team in scrambling to save George's life. He survived getting shot, but his brush with death left him a changed man — and a man looking to make some changes in his life. (More on that later.)

Elsewhere in the finale, Marian and Larry reconciled their differences and resumed their engagement; Oscar floated the idea of a mutually beneficial marriage to Enid, who agreed to discuss the matter further; a much-needed surprise helped Agnes accept the new power dynamics in the Van Rhijn household; Jack romanced the heck out of Bridget; Gladys revealed that she and the Duke are expecting; the ladies supported Aurora at Mrs. Astor's party, where the hostess also publicly accepted her own daughter; and William defied his mother's wishes by proposing to Peggy — very smoothly, we might add.

The episode left us with a lot to process, so we're happy to report that TVLine spoke with the show's stars for some insight on Sunday's many twists and turns. What is Taissa Farmiga's one regret about Gladys' pregnancy? Did Denée Benton and Jordan Donica have as much fun filming that romantic proposal as we did watching it? And why does Morgan Spector think that George and Bertha's marital crisis might actually be a good thing? All those questions and more are answered below.

Do you think Sunday's episode served as a fitting end to The Gilded Age's boldest season yet? Read on for insights from the cast, then weigh in via our polls and drop a comment with your own thoughts.

One of the many bright spots of the finale came when William surprised Peggy at a Black ball with one of the smoothest TV proposals we've ever seen. And, of course, she said yes!

"We shot that over three 20-hour days, and when [director Salli Richardson-Whitfield] showed me the playback on set, when Peggy turns around in slow motion, I just burst into tears," Denée Benton tells TVLine. "One of the biggest dreams that [co-executive producer Dr. Erica Armstrong Dunbar] and I had was getting there to be a Black ball in the show. We've been talking about it since 2019, so for all of it to culminate in Peggy getting this moment of being chosen in all of her beauty and vulnerability, and the way it was shot it — it's just a feast."

Jordan Donica says that he and Benton knew a lot of the dancers in the scene from their respective Broadway careers, which made the experience even more special. He also knew he was doing something right when the male crew members admitted to getting misty eyed over the romantic sequence.

"They were like, 'That reminded me of when I proposed to my wife,' and all these crew guys were getting emotional," Donica recalls. "It was really sweet, and then I cried watching it back."

What a season it's been for Gladys Russell. First, she suddenly finds herself married to the Duke of Buckingham... and now she's expecting his child! Taissa Farmiga is "excited to see what the emotional journey will be that comes along with that," but she does have one reservation.

"I wish there was a tiny bit more time between Gladys being a maiden who needs a husband, to having freedom, then immediately having a child," Farmiga tells TVLine. "I wish there was a tiny bit of time in between to maybe join a charity or something. But I'm ready to do my duty. It'll be interesting to see how she is as a mother of the next generation in the 1880s, whether she'll push for freedom or push for inherited karma. You never know."

Agnes has had some pretty terrible luck lately, but that began to change in the finale when she was asked to become vice president of the New York Heritage Society, an unexpected honor that left her speechless.

And this good fortune clearly put Agnes in a better mood, because she finally declared — in front of God and Bannister — that Ada is running the household, and should therefore sit at the head of the dinner table, even shooting her sister a cheeky little wink. It was a very sweet moment between the sisters, one Christine Baranski feels was "well-earned."

"It pays off to have all that [animosity between them]," Baranski tells TVLine, "because then when we do have those tender moments — like when Ada comes back devastated from the seance and opens up to her sister, who embraces her — it says so much in such a short amount of time. You see, oh God, there's so much love there."

While things are going swimmingly between Larry and Marian, Peggy and William, and even Gladys and the Duke, another Gilded Age couple is headed for a rough patch. Actually, they're not headed for one — they're already there.

You see, getting shot has caused George to reexamine his life, and as he told Bertha at the end of the finale, he doesn't like everything he sees. Specifically, he can no longer allow Bertha to use their children as unwilling pieces in her endless game of societal chess. "I'm ruthless in business, not with the people I love," he told her before leaving indefinitely. When asked if he was coming back, he coldly replied, "Not until we know what we want." She claims to already know what she wants — for them to remain together — but he's "not so sure."

Big tears. Big music. Big drama. And while no one wants to see the show's central couple part ways, their portrayers are actually excited for what Season 4 might bring for the Russells.

"Because we know how good this couple can be together, it would be really fascinating to see them spend a season figuring out how to get back to each other," Morgan Spector tells TVLine.

Carrie Coon, meanwhile, isn't too worried about Bertha's marriage, promising TVLine that "she's not going to give up."

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