The Gilded Age (TV series)
The Gilded Age (2022–present) is an American historical drama television series airing on HBO about two families, one old money and one noveau riche, living in 1882 New York City.
Season 1
[edit]Never the New [1.1]
[edit]- Agnes van Rhijn: She thanks you for the letter that you did not show me and for the tickets that you purchased without my knowledge. She means to join us here just as soon as she has closed the house and sold her furniture.
- Ada Brook: What a relief.
- Agnes van Rhijn: A relief? And who is to support her? Exactly. Me. With the Van Rhijn money, which was not achieved at no cost to myself. You were allowed the pure and tranquil life of a spinster. I was not.
- Ada Brook: I'm very grateful.
- Agnes van Rhijn: So you should be.
- Agnes van Rhijn: Now you need to know, we only receive the old people in this house. Not the new. Never the new.
- Marian Brook: What's the difference?
- Agnes van Rhijn: The old have been in charge since before the Revolution. They ruled, justly, until the new people invaded.
- Ada Brook: It's not quite as simple as that.
- Agnes van Rhijn: Yes, it is.
- Marian Brook: Well, I'm new. I've only just arrived.
- Agnes van Rhijn: Marian, never mind that the Brooks have been in Pennsylvania for a century and a half. My mother, your grandmother, was a Livingston of Livingston Manor, and they came to this city in 1674. You belong to old New York, my dear, and don't let anyone tell you different. You are my niece, and you belong to old New York.
- Peggy Scott: I don't need money. I'm fed, I'm paid, and I have a place to stay.
- Dorothy Scott: Well, I brought you something. You take it.
- Peggy Scott: I told you I don't need it.
- Dorothy Scott: Don't be silly, I'm your mother, I'm allowed to give you money.
- George Russell: I may be a bastard, Mr. Thorburn, but you are a fool. And of the two, I think I know which I prefer. Now, good day to you, sir.
- Ada Brook: Well I like her strong views. I like her energy. Don't worry, Agnes. She's clever. She'll learn the rules.
- Agnes van Rhijn: Will she? Revolutions are launched by clever people with strong views and excess energy.
Money Isn't Everything [1.2]
[edit]- Agnes van Rhijn: Who is this Mr. Raikes?
- Ada Brook: The lawyer who settled Henry's estate.
- Agnes van Rhijn: Do we have to receive him?
- Ada Brook: He waived his fee.
- Agnes van Rhijn: Oh, I see. Well, let's make it tea and be quick about it.
- Anne Morris: Money isn't everything.
- Marian Brook: It is when you haven't got it.
- Agnes van Rhijn: New York is a collection of villages, my dear. We know the people who live in our own village.
- Marian Brook: But not the ones who don't.
- Oscar van Rhijn: The Russells live in your village, Mama. I could throw a stone from here and break their windows.
- Agnes van Rhijn: Don't tease me.
- Oscar van Rhijn: I'm not. I'm stating facts.
- Agnes van Rhijn: I'm not concerned with facts. Not if they interfere with my beliefs.
- Anne Morris: This sort of stunt does not impress the people you want to win over.
- Bertha Russell: Mrs. Morris, this sort of stunt impresses everyone.
Face the Music [1.3]
[edit]- Patrick Morris: If you want me to kneel, I'll kneel. If you want me to beg, I am begging now. We've already lost enough to make us poor. But if it goes on for much longer, there are some among us facing ruin. Please. End it.
- George Russell: I won't say I feel no pity, because I do. But you have not only tried to get the better of me. You and Mrs. Morris have snubbed and belittled my wife. How could I allow that to go unpunished? I don't suggest that you men committed every crime that I'm avenging here. But to employ a modern phrase, I'm afraid you must face the music.
A Long Ladder [1.4]
[edit]- Oscar van Rhijn: Why would you want to go to Brooklyn?
- Marian Brook: As a matter of fact, I'm thinking of paying someone a surprise visit. She may need cheering up.
- Agnes van Rhijn: So should I if I lived in Brooklyn.
- Peggy Scott: What are you doing here? And the shoes, what was that? Because we're colored, we must be poor? I loaned you train fare!
- Marian Brook: I made a stupid assumption.
- Peggy Scott: And you just showed up at my parents' home!
- Marian Brook: What's so wrong about that? My aunt lets you live at her house.
- Peggy Scott: Lets me? I work there.
- Marian Brook: I know.
- Peggy Scott: No you don't know anything! About me, about my life, about my situation. I live in a different country from the one you know!
- Marian Brook: Look, I'm sorry.
- Peggy Scott: Don't be sorry! Just stop thinking you're really my friend.
- Tom Raikes: My lady was in a high window, so I realized I needed a long ladder.
Charity Has Two Functions [1.5]
[edit]- Agnes van Rhijn: Charity has two functions in our world, my dear. The first is to raise funds for the less fortunate, which is wholly good. The second is to provide a ladder for people to climb into society who do not belong there.
- Marian Brook: And that is wholly bad?
- Agnes van Rhijn: Not wholly, perhaps, but it should give us pause.
- Marian Brook: So Mr. McAllister's opinion is important?
- Aurora Fane: Is any of it important?
- Clara Barton: Before you think me a simpleton, I am well aware that Mrs. Russell is using the charity ladder to climb into the ballrooms of New York. I can still be grateful she chose my charity to be that ladder.
Heads Have Rolled for Less [1.6]
[edit]- Peggy Scott: If I spent every day fighting with bigots, I'd never get anything done.
Irresistible Change [1.7]
[edit]- T. Thomas Fortune: What are your thoughts on electricity?
- Peggy Scott: Are you talking about Mr. Edison's lights?
- T. Thomas Fortune: Mr. Edison is not solely responsible.
- Peggy Scott: Who else was involved?
- T. Thomas Fortune: Namely, Lewis Latimer, a colored inventor. He created a better carbon filament. That's the thing in the bulb that helps keep the lights on, so to speak.
- Peggy Scott: Well, I'm sure that Mr. Edison will give Mr. Latimer his due credit at the ceremony.
- T. Thomas Fortune: [laughs] I admire your wit, Miss Scott.
- Agnes van Rhijn: Mrs. Russell has fired her maid.
- Marian Brook: I'm amazed. She didn't give a hint of it when I was with her.
- Ada Brook: You must have been more eloquent than you realized.
- Marian Brook: Will you write to her?
- Agnes van Rhijn: Of course I won't write to her! She might write back.
- Ada Brook: You must acknowledge the letter. She's done what you asked.
- Peggy Scott: [entering] Is there anything that you'd like me to do before you get changed?
- Agnes van Rhijn: Please thank Mrs. Russell for this note, but without a trace of warmth.
- Agnes van Rhijn: [to Marian] You're very obedient all of a sudden. What are you planning to spring on me?
Tucked Up in Newport [1.8]
[edit]- Agnes van Rhijn: All our staff seem to have pressing engagements outside this house.
- Marian Brook: Servants must have a life, Aunt Agnes.
- Agnes van Rhijn: Why?
- Mamie Fish: How's your husband doing, Mrs. Russell?
- Bertha Russell: I'm sorry?
- Mamie Fish: Aren't they putting him on trial over that train crash? I thought that was why he stayed in New York.
- Bertha Russell: If it were, I would have stayed with him.
- Mamie Fish: Oh, so he's not in trouble?
- Bertha Russell: Not in the least! But he has too many meetings to be able to join us. He likes to be thorough.
- Mamie Fish: Oh, I see. [leaves]
- Bertha Russell: I haven't bungled it, have I?
- Ward McAllister: Oh, no. She'll like you the more.
- Aurora Fane: Smile, and take it as a compliment.
- Bertha Russell: It is a compliment.
- Agnes van Rhijn: You're an impressive young woman. Not everyone will support your ambitions, to say the least of it. But you are strong enough to manage that.
- Peggy Scott: Thank you. I'll try to be.
Let the Tournament Begin [1.9]
[edit]- Julius Cuyper: You are not a gentleman, sir.
- George Russell: That's a subject for another time.
- Caroline Schermerhorn Astor: I am Mrs. Astor. Perhaps you could ask Mrs. Russell if she could see me for a minute. I'm afraid I'm unexpected.
- Larry Russell: Are you coming to Gladys' ball?
- Marian Brook: I may regret it, but I suppose I am.
- Larry Russell: Then I claim a waltz as my payment.
Season 2
[edit]You Don't Even Like Opera [2.1]
[edit]- Agnes van Rhijn: Don't you ever get tired of that wretched tapestry? You're like Penelope waiting for Odysseus to get home.
- Marian Brook: Aunt Ada likes needlework.
- Agnes van Rhijn: I like ice cream. That doesn't mean I eat it twenty-four hours a day.
- Oscar van Rhijn: Does your presence here mean we're friends again?
- John Adams: Oscar, you and I have known each other far too long and much too well not to be friends.
- Peggy Scott: Have you told your aunts your secret yet?
- Marian Brook: No. But I will.
- Peggy Scott: When?
- Marian Brook: When I can't keep it secret any longer.
- Oscar van Rhijn: I know there are men out there who are younger and richer than I am. But we would live well. You would choose your own friends, run your own house, manage your own life! Isn't that what you want?
- Gladys Russell: Very much so.
- Oscar van Rhijn: And I'm not a bully. I would never force you to echo my opinions, parrot all my views. I am happy to be henpecked, as long as you're doing the pecking. We'd have fun, Gladys. I know we would! I want us to be happy. Very happy. And I believe we could be. Don't answer now. Just know that I love and admire you more than I can say. More than I've ever felt for any other woman.
Some Sort of Trick [2.2]
[edit]- Gladys Russell: My father wants me to wait until I fall in love.
- Marian Brook: How heartening! I never thought of Mr. Russell as a romantic.
- Larry Russell: It's very early for you to be up.
- Bertha Russell: It's very late for you to get home.
- Maude Beaton: Paris is wonderful, apart from the Parisians.
Head to Head [2.3]
[edit]- Agnes van Rhijn: Your newfound piety may be put to good use after all.
- Henderson: Unions are stronger now, they will grow stronger still, and you will have to deal with them.
- George Russell: I am a man of business. And I have jobs to offer in my mills, in my factories, and on my railroads, and I pay the going rate. If your men don't want to work for me, then I suggest they step aside and make way for the many who do.
- Bertha Russell: Betrayal is not like a case of influenza.
- George Russell: No, it feels more like a death sentence.
- Mr. Forte: Mr. Dawson had a low opinion of how we give out communion.
- Ada Brook: What part of it was he criticizing?
- Mr. Forte: The part where I offer communion to those he deems undeserving.
- Ada Brook: What you must have to put up with.
- Mr. Forte: Let's just say some of God's children can be very tiresome.
- Oscar Wilde: I hope you enjoyed the play, Miss Russell.
- Gladys Russell: Is "enjoy" the right word when a tsar is murdered, and the evening ends with the heroine stabbing herself?
- Oscar Wilde: So young, and already a critic.
His Grace the Duke [2.4]
[edit]- Oscar van Rhijn: Miss Beaton is keen to help spread the Christian word.
- Marian Brook: And how does that sit with you?
- Oscar van Rhijn: I gladly support good causes from the comfort of Fifth Avenue.
- Rev. Forte: Those flowers are for you, Ada Brook. No one else.
- George Russell: Why must I be the villain in every story?!
- Bertha Russell: It doesn't take much to make a duke likeable.
- Bertha Russell: Should I care about the feelings of a former lady's maid who attempted to seduce my husband?
- George Russell: May I find hope in your use of the word 'attempted'?
- Bertha Russell: It was never her claim that hurt me, but your silence.
- George Russell: Will you forgive me now?
- Bertha Russell: If I do, enjoy it. There will be no more forgiveness if you hide any such thing from me again.
- George Russell: I've missed you, my darling. You can't know how much.
- Mr. Church: We'd better get our skates on, Mr. Borden, if we're to host the Duke of Buckingham!
Close Enough to Touch [2.5]
[edit]Warning Shots [2.6]
[edit]- Gladys Russell: Are you and Mrs. Astor friends or rivals?
- Bertha Russell: The two are not exclusive.
Wonders Never Cease [2.7]
[edit]In Terms of Winning and Losing [2.8]
[edit]- Peggy Scott: Bad timing shapes our lives.
Season 3
[edit]Who Is In Charge Here? [3.1]
[edit]- Ada Forte: I've tried mourning in silence and it nearly killed me.
- Marian Brook: Are we supposed to applaud our eternal damnation if we have wine with dinner?
- Agnes Van Rhijn: My applause was in gratitude that she's finally finished.
What the Papers Say [3.2]
[edit]Love Is Never Easy [3.3]
[edit]- Gladys Russell: You only want to marry me to save your position in society.
- Hector, Duke of Buckingham: I'd prefer to say it's about maintaining our family's position in the history of my country. But you're right of course.
Marriage Is a Gamble [3.4]
[edit]- Aurora Fane: I don't think I understood the damage these new laws were doing.
- Peggy Scott: You're not alone in that, I'm afraid.
A Different World [3.5]
[edit]If You Want to Cook an Omelette [3.6]
[edit]- Bertha Russell: If you want to cook an omelet, you have to learn to break a few eggs.
- Gladys Russell Vere: Says the woman who hasn't cooked an omelet in twenty years.
- Bertha Russell: I may not have made an omelet, but I have made a future. And I'm here to help you do the same.