[Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for The Gilded Age, Season 1, Episode 5, "Charity Has Two Functions.”]Poor Gladys (Taissa Farmiga) has had a rough go of it on The Gilded Age thus far. From the very start of the show, Gladys has been operating with zero freedom, forced to delay her society debut until her mother, Bertha (Carrie Coon), can use the opportunity to up her own social status by filling their ballroom for the event. It’s a frustrating situation for a young woman eager to seize the long-overdue opportunity to become her own person, but little does Gladys know at the start of Episode 5, "Charity Has Two Functions," it’s about to feel a lot worse.
Early in the episode, much to Gladys' surprise, Bertha insists that they have her love interest, Archie Baldwin (Tom Blyth), over for dinner. On the night, Archie appears to be having a wonderful time while saying all the right things to Bertha and George (Morgan Spector) — or so he thinks. When left alone with George, it’s revealed that the meal was actually a set-up. George offers Archie a job as a broker and, in exchange, he can never see Gladys again. If Archie refuses, George will see that Archie never works in the finance industry again. Archie accepts and reluctantly says his final goodbyes to Gladys.
It’s abundantly clear that Gladys is totally heartbroken, but what makes the situation even more crushing is the conversation she has with her brother after. Larry (Harry Richardson) offers to find out what happened, but Gladys asks him, “And then what?” He’s speechless and she tells him, “Precisely.” Why bother? It's hopeless.
While on an episode of Collider Ladies Night, Farmiga took a moment to break down that particular story beat. Is that a moment of total defeat for Gladys or does she have even a silver of her mother’s fire, suggesting potential to fight back? Farmiga began:
“I think it’s the perspective of realizing what society was like in that time and, truthfully, unless Gladys wants to run away and live on the street, which obviously she wouldn’t even know how to survive a second, you know what I mean? She can’t have any freedom without her mother allowing her to go out in society to find a husband. Even once she debuts, she’s not allowed to really be anybody unless she’s married to a man. It’s the restrictions of that time. Not only is Gladys facing it from society, she’s facing it from her mother, she’s facing it from — I can’t say her dad. I feel like she has a really special relationship with George.”
However, Farmiga did insist that all hope is not lost for Gladys. She teased:
“I think at that moment she is defeated because it feels hopeless. It feels like her only option is probably to run away, but how could she survive? She’s not a street dog. She’s not a street cat. She’s an indoor cat, you know what I mean? She doesn’t know how to live out there. I think she definitely has Bertha’s fire. I think it just takes longer for it — it’s a slower boil before she reaches a point where she can’t take it anymore. I think in that moment she’s very defeated, but I think you’ll see towards the end of the season that she starts to find her voice.”
Looking for more from Farmiga? We’ve got her whole 45-minute Collider Ladies Night interview in podcast form for you below. Farmiga details her journey from her very first feature, Vera Farmiga’s directorial debut Higher Ground, to amassing a slew of horror genre credits to joining the cast of The Gilded Age, and more.