Gather your fans and opera glasses: Julian Fellowes’ lavish period drama is back. “The Gilded Age” Season 4 premiered Sunday, November 1, at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max, kicking off another round of ballroom rivalries, railroad fortunes and very large hats.
Whether you watched last night or are planning to catch up, here is everything you need to know, based on reporting from Deadline and Decider.
How many episodes, and when do they drop?
Season 4 has eight episodes. They arrive weekly, one per Sunday night at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and streaming on HBO Max, with the finale on December 20. That means no binge drop, but it does mean the season runs right up to the holidays.
The Season 4 release schedule
- Episode 1, “Ring the Bells”: Sunday, November 1
- Episode 2, “You Won’t Hear Me Beg”: Sunday, November 8
- Episode 3, “Ain’t That Good News”: Sunday, November 15
- Episode 4, “Good Taste”: Sunday, November 22
- Episode 5: Sunday, November 29
- Episode 6: Sunday, December 6
- Episode 7: Sunday, December 13
- Episode 8 (finale): Sunday, December 20
Episode titles for the second half of the season had not been listed as of the premiere.
Where the story picks up
Season 3 left plenty of loose threads. As Decider recapped, George Russell (Morgan Spector) survived an attempt on his life but has left his wife, Bertha (Carrie Coon). Their daughter Gladys (Taissa Farmiga), married off to the Duke of Buckingham (Ben Lamb) through her mother’s arrangement, is now pregnant. Son Larry (Harry Richardson) has made a kind of peace with his ex-fiancée Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson).
Across the street, the balance of power at the van Rhijn house has flipped. Aunt Ada (Cynthia Nixon), widowed after the death of the Reverend Luke Forte, now rules in place of her sister Agnes (Christine Baranski). Peggy Scott (Denée Benton) is engaged to Dr. William Kirkland (Jordan Donica), and former footman Jack Trotter (Ben Ahlers) is now a man of means after selling his clock invention patent.
The official logline warns viewers to “be careful what you wish for,” as Bertha’s family deals with the consequences of the society she has changed. According to Deadline, Agnes sees an opening to restore her old standing, Marian forges a new path, and Peggy faces an uphill battle to be accepted by her future in-laws.
Who’s back
Most of the core ensemble returns, including Coon, Spector, Baranski, Nixon, Jacobson, Benton, Farmiga, Richardson, Ahlers, Donica, Blake Ritson as Oscar van Rhijn, Kelley Curran as Enid Winterton, Ashlie Atkinson as Mamie Fish and Donna Murphy as Mrs. Astor. Audra McDonald returns as Peggy’s mother, Dorothy.
Deadline reported that two familiar faces will not be in the Season 4 rotation: Patrick Page’s Richard Clay, George Russell’s secretary, and Sullivan Jones’s T. Thomas Fortune, the New York Globe publisher.
Who’s new
The newcomers bring some recognisable names. Jim Gaffigan plays President Grover Cleveland, Dallas Roberts plays Treasury Secretary Daniel Manning, Elizabeth Marvel plays Nurse Virginia Saville, and Andrew Burnap plays Porter, an Ivy League graduate.
Deadline also listed recurring additions including Taylor Trensch, James Scully, Dennis Haysbert, Maggie Kuntz, Neal Huff and Tony winner Bonnie Milligan.
Will there be a Season 5?
HBO has not announced a fifth season as of the premiere. The show is co-run by creator Julian Fellowes and Sonja Warfield, and as Decider pointed out, the real Gilded Age stretched well into the 1890s, so there is plenty of history left to mine.
How to watch
“The Gilded Age” is an HBO original, so you will need HBO through a TV provider or an HBO Max subscription. Earlier seasons are available to stream on HBO Max if you need a refresher before Episode 2 on November 8.
The verdict so far
Season 4 sets up a season of reversals: a broken marriage at the Russell mansion, a new head of the van Rhijn household and a president at the dinner table. With eight weekly episodes running into late December, it’s shaping up to be a cosy Sunday-night habit for the season.
Image: Marble House ballroom wall and ceiling detail by Reddeleon via Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0
