‘The Gilded Age’ Director Salli Richardson-Whitfield on Key Character’s Fate Going Into Finale: “No One Saw That Coming”

[This story contains major spoilers from season three, episode seven of The Gilded Age, “Ex-Communicated.”]

The seventh episode of The Gilded Age‘s third season, titled “Ex-Communicated,” literally ended with a bang. Somebody shot George Russell. Or at him. Viewers aren’t sure, as we saw a bullet headed for George and then the screen went black.

The Gilded Age executive producer and director Salli Richardson-Whitfield, who helmed this episode and the finale, is not giving up those goods to The Hollywood Reporter. But she does speak on other pivotal developments, and there are quite a few.

As harrowing as the prospect of losing George (spectacularly portrayed by Morgan Spector) is, a lot happened in this episode. Ward McAllister (Nathan Lane) released a fictional book about New York society that contained thinly veiled details of the lives of Mrs. Astor (Donna Murphy), Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) and more, and thought he could just carry on as before. There is a spy in the Russell household who keeps leaking gossip to the papers and the Russells’ servants — butler Mr. Church (Jack Gilpin), housekeeper Mrs. Bruce (Celia Keenan-Bolger) and chef Borden (Douglas Sills) — are charged with finding the culprit. Oscar (Blake Ritson) is not handling his friend/lover John Adams’ (Claybourne Elder) death well at all, and almost comes out to his mother Agnes (Christine Baranski).

And, as always, matters of the heart continue to rule. While Gladys (Taissa Farmiga) and Hector (Ben Lamb) are getting along much better, Larry (Harry Richardson) is not making much headway with Marian (Louisa Jacobson) to get their engagement back on track. Also Mrs. Kirkland (Phylicia Rashad) meets up with Mrs. Ernestine Brown, portrayed by the legendary Leslie Uggams, and finds out Peggy’s darkest secret, which she’s sure will force her son Dr. Kirkland (Jordan Donica) to end their courtship.

With so many couples in agony by the episode’s end and only Hector and Gladys appearing happy, could Bertha have been right all along? Richardson-Whitfield lets us know what she thinks.

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What happens to George? There was no indication that someone would try to shoot him. So how did we get here?

At Gilded, we really love these explosive openers and endings in episodes. Oscar’s friend just got [killed]. No one saw that coming, and no one sees what happens to George at the end of episode seven.

Literally! But from the very beginning, this episode was explosive with McAllister’s tell-all book about the women and society life he has helped cultivate. Yet he’s shocked when he’s no longer welcomed. Why does he believe he should still have a place at the table? Or at the ball?

In his mind, he thought he was so entrenched with these people that he would be okay, [Because] he doesn’t really give names, he thought that would be enough cover for him. And honestly, I say the same thing: How could he believe that Mrs. Astor would stand for any of this? That particular scene between the two of them when they part ways is very sad and tragic because you can tell that she is truly heartbroken. She doesn’t have really, really good friends, and I feel like she felt that McAllister was actually a good friend and this is a big betrayal. I always thought of that scene as a breakup between two lovers, almost. Even though they’re not lovers, it was tragic like that for both of them.

And how cruelly he spoke of her, throwing her husband’s philandering in her face and then saying “oh, forgive me” the next moment.

It’s like that best friend you find out really, truly has felt jealous and despised you all these years. It felt a little bit Atlanta Housewives to me. You think this is your homie, that we ride or die and at the same time, this is really how you see me and pity me and judge me. I think that’s why people love this show. It can be such elevated drama, but then feel so soapy and catty. That’s the magic of the show. You can sort of have both.

Another really great storyline was the spy in the house. It made the servants more active. Talk about directing that and injecting a little mystery.

It’s not the deepest storyline, but I had so much fun with it because I said, if we’re going to do this, then we are going full on Wes Anderson camp. This is going to be so much fun and almost silly, but it works. Our actors embraced the spy[ing] of it, like the idea of [Chef Borden] looking behind the bread. We were laughing the whole time we were shooting. I hope people understand what I’m doing here, because it seems silly. I think people are going to enjoy the little cat and mouse [of it all]. It’s another one of those things the show does so well; we can do this great drama and then get super fun camp musical theater.

Let’s talk about Oscar. This episode goes into his heartbreak over his “friend” John. How did you capture those tender moments and Oscar’s raw emotions, especially during the heart-wrenching living room scene with his mother Agnes, cousin Marian and aunt Ada when he reveals that John has left him a house?

Blake, who plays Oscar, and I played with different levels when we were shooting. He’s a really talented actor. So we we’re like, “Let’s play this way this time, let’s do it with a little more anger at Agnes, with a little more despair, and this time [can] we have a little more shame?” So we could really craft the performance and decide where we wanted to go. But the main thing we thought is that Oscar is usually so reserved, all people are during this time, and this was a time to be real. We could see him have raw emotion and not hold back, and not think about etiquette and what people are going to think about him in this house. And in that moment, you think he might actually tell her that he was in love with that man. I love how Marian was like “Uh, no, no, no, no, you can’t go back from here,” because even though Marian’s an innocent, she has some suspicions, and she knows that he cannot come back from that with Agnes. If he were to have really told Agnes, she’d probably would have never spoken to him again.

And then Ada senses something and comes to Oscar’s aid as well.

I don’t know how much Ada knows, but she knows that this is odd, and we probably shouldn’t talk about this. During that time period, it was just better not to speak of it.

We have to backtrack and talk about that moment when Oscar and John’s sister Mrs. Bell (Kate Baldwin) meet and she gives him the house by the lake. When she tells Oscar that John left money to pay for the house for five years, he responds, “He thought of everything,” and she says, “He thought of you.”

Isn’t it a beautiful, beautiful scene! What I love is that you’ve now found these two women, Marian and the sister who do know the nature of the relationship and can give him some grace and love for it, and he doesn’t feel so much out there on an island. I was a beautiful moment for our show and acceptance of people and their sexuality during that time period. I always say that Gilded somehow mirrors the world we’re living in now. I don’t know how Julian does it every year. Obviously, they’ve written these scripts a while ago by the time the show comes out, but it really mirrors everything still going on in our culture.

In this episode, we also see Gladys and Hector getting even closer after her epic takedown of Lady Sarah at the dinner table in the previous episode. Talk about filming those scenes of Hector and Gladys slowly falling in love with each other.

Hey, Bertha was right. Mom was right. … She didn’t set Gladys up with a monster. She set her up with the life she knows that in the future, [Gladys is] going to thank her for. I decided I’m going to be Bertha. I’m going make sure my daughter’s life is good. No, no, I’m just joking. But I think it’s all about that Bertha was actually right. There are many times Bertha goes about things the wrong way but she was right. They are suited for each other, and he’s a kind man. He just needs a good wife to show him who he is. I love that it’s grown into something real, especially after you’ve seen her at the altar, in tears and then the scene of them in the cabin, and you’re like, “What did we put them into?” I think it’s one of our best storylines this season.

You got to direct Leslie Uggams with Phylicia Rashad!

I made sure I had a picture with the two of them because I grew up watching these women. They’re two living legends. I feel like I’ve started to accomplish things in my career as a director, but to sit there and get to direct these two women, and they trust me? It’ll definitely be a memory that I take with me for the rest of my life. They are still so present and still so good and, again, a delight to work with. There’s nothing better than when you meet your idols and they turn out to be good people, too.

And it’s a pivotal moment that has the potential to change everything for Peggy and her dashing Dr. Kirkland.

Everything. Yeah [Mrs. Kirkland] is a troublemaker, and I love her. I love the fact that she’s sort of a mixture of Bertha and Agnes in our Black elite world.

Unfortunately, we don’t see Larry and Marian come back together. And, in a way, Marian breaking up with Larry seems trivial. Could Larry have really told her? Also, during that time, men didn’t tell women much about their comings and goings.

Yeah, but I think Marian has always wanted something more. She wants more of a modern marriage. She wants to be a partner. I think that’s why she and Peggy have become close friends. Both of them want to grow as women too, not just as a wife. Both of them expect more from the people that they’re in love with. They expect to be in love and not to be forced into a marriage like Gladys. Marian and Larry, if they’re going to come back together, need to find a way to have more of a modern take on what it means to be in love and to be married. So hopefully Larry can figure out what Marian really needs and what he really wants in a marriage. I think it’s great to see both sides like we see. And, maybe, again, Bertha was right. Maybe we need more arranged marriages. Maybe our parents do know more. But I think it’s nice to see both sides of the coin. You see these two modern women, and then you see someone like Gladys.

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The Gilded Age’s third season finale will stream on HBO Max Sunday, Aug. 10.