Overview

• Gladys Russell is wed to Hector, Duke of Buckingham, and swiftly sails to his English estate in a marriage she never chose.
• Bertha Russell engineers the match as a calculated move to elevate her family’s standing, overriding her daughter’s objections.
• Monica O’Brien makes her debut as Bertha’s sister, shedding new light on the family’s concealed motivations and class anxieties.
• Creator Julian Fellowes hinted that The Gilded Age and Downton Abbey timelines could overlap, leaving room for a future crossover.
• Taissa Farmiga called the wedding ‘rock bottom’ for Gladys’s character, describing the filming of the tearful aisle scene as emotionally intense.