Overview

• In Episode 5, Larry Russell formally proposes to Marian Brook and she accepts, elevating their relationship to an engagement.
• George Russell endorses the match driven by lingering bitterness over Gladys’s fate and a resolve to protect Larry’s freedom.
• Bertha Russell learns of the engagement only after Marian’s acceptance and though she admires Marian, she hesitates because of strict society norms.
• Larry previously insisted on Marian serving as a last-minute bridesmaid in Gladys’s wedding to assert his commitment and challenge convention.
• The development highlights Season 3’s themes of shifting parental authority and the tension between strategic alliances and genuine affection in 1880s New York society.