New York Society is back in session. The Gilded Age returned to HBO on Sunday, November 1, with a fourth season that wastes no time collecting on last season's debts — a marriage in pieces, a baby on the way, and a dinner invitation with the President of the United States at the top of the guest list. Two episodes in, with Episode 3 arriving Sunday, November 15, this is the perfect moment to catch up. Twin Towerz Entertainment has the full episode schedule, the new faces shaking up 1886, and everything the premiere set in motion.
Watch: the official Season 4 trailer (HBO Max, via YouTube).
The Gilded Age Season 4 Episode Schedule: Every Sunday Through December 20
Season 4 runs eight episodes, airing weekly on Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and streaming the same night on HBO Max. HBO is keeping the series in its prestige Sunday-night slot all the way through the holidays — here is the full run:
- Episode 1, "Ring the Bells" — Sunday, November 1
- Episode 2, "You Won't Hear Me Beg" — Sunday, November 8
- Episode 3 — Sunday, November 15
- Episode 4 — Sunday, November 22
- Episode 5 — Sunday, November 29
- Episode 6 — Sunday, December 6
- Episode 7 — Sunday, December 13
- Episode 8 (finale) — Sunday, December 20
If you are just joining, the first two episodes are streaming now on HBO Max, and the first three seasons are there too. The weekly rollout matters for this show: every Sunday brings a new dinner, a new slight, and a new reason the group chat stays busy until Monday.
What Season 4 Is About: Bertha Changed Society at a Cost
HBO's official logline sets the terms: "Bertha Russell changed Society at a cost. Now, her family must reckon with the consequences as Agnes van Rhijn seizes an opportunity to regain her position. Meanwhile, Marian forges a new path for herself, and Peggy works to be accepted by her future in-laws. In this new era, you must be careful what you wish for."
The season opens in 1886, roughly six months after the Season 3 finale. Bertha (Carrie Coon) won her war for Society — and lost her husband in the process. George Russell (Morgan Spector), recovered from the shooting that nearly killed him, has left her, convinced she used their children as pieces in her social game. Across the street, Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) has a comeback plan with the highest possible stakes: a dinner for President Grover Cleveland, with the family's entire reputation riding on it. As Agnes puts it in the teaser, "The entire reputation of this family depends on the success of the president's dinner. This is no time to be pinching pennies." The catch? The pennies now belong to her sister Ada (Cynthia Nixon).
The Premiere, "Ring the Bells": What It Set in Motion
The premiere's official episode description tells you how much ground it covers: Bertha faces her daughter Gladys's difficult childbirth, Peggy achieves a milestone, and Agnes makes plans to host her prestigious dinner. Gladys (Taissa Farmiga), now the Duchess of Buckingham, closed Season 3 by telling her mother she was expecting — and Season 4 opens with Bertha in England at her side, a mother before a social climber for once. Critics who screened the season early say this different Bertha is the premiere's biggest surprise, with Coon as good as she has ever been — while the strain on George, and on the marriage, compounds underneath.
The reviews back the buzz. Decider called the season "TV caviar: decadent, indulgent, and downright delightful," Awards Watch graded it an A- and said the series "has never been better than it is in season four," and Peter Travers scored it 3.5 out of 4. Reviewers single out two supporting players for breakout runs: Oscar van Rhijn (Blake Ritson) and Enid Winterton (Kelley Curran, now a series regular), whose scheme to take over Society on their own terms starts cooking immediately.
A President at the Table: The New Faces of Season 4
For three seasons, new money courted old money. This season, Washington comes courting both. Jim Gaffigan joins the cast as President Grover Cleveland — the 22nd president, in his first term, arriving in New York to curry favor with the elite class and sitting as guest of honor at Agnes's dinner. He does not come alone: Dallas Roberts plays Daniel Manning, Cleveland's Secretary of the Treasury.
The other heavyweight arrival is Neal Huff as John D. Rockefeller, the Standard Oil founder and one of the richest men in the world. Where Cleveland threatens Agnes's standing at the dinner table, Rockefeller threatens George where it hurts — in business. The trailer reads as Rockefeller making George sweat, and that pressure may be what pushes a separated husband back toward the house he walked out of. Add Bill Camp, returning as financier J.P. Morgan, and Season 4's real-life power bench is the deepest the show has fielded.
The rest of the new class widens the map: Dennis Haysbert as Dr. Reginald Harris, mentor to Dr. William Kirkland; Elizabeth Marvel as Virginia Saville, a nurse at the Neighborhood Settlement House, just as Marian (Louisa Jacobson) starts tending to children and asking what her life is meant to be; Phylicia Rashad as Elizabeth Kirkland, whose approval Peggy has to earn; Bonnie Milligan as Ladies' Home Journal editor Mrs. Knapp Curtis; and Adrienne Warren in an undisclosed role.
Where Season 3 Left Everyone: The Two-Minute Refresher
Need the short version before Episode 3? George survived an assassination attempt, then walked out on Bertha over the choices she made for their children — including marrying Gladys to the Duke. Gladys, miserable at first, found her footing in England and ended the season expecting her first child. Peggy Scott (Denée Benton) got the proposal of her dreams from Dr. William Kirkland (Jordan Donica) — now she has to win over his family. Marian and Larry Russell (Harry Richardson) made a soft peace after their broken engagement, and the new season has the engagement back on while Marian forges her own path. Agnes, forced to cede the head of her own table to Ada, found a toehold back into Society through a historical society. And Oscar, ruined financially, ended Season 3 by proposing a mutually beneficial marriage to the widowed Enid Winterton — the former ladies' maid turned wealthy widow the Russell house once knew as Turner. Every one of those threads is live in Season 4.
Who's Not Back This Season
Two familiar faces are confirmed to sit Season 4 out. Patrick Page will not appear as Richard Clay, George's former secretary, who was fired after a failed business deal and went to work for a rival. Sullivan Jones is also absent as T. Thomas Fortune, the newspaper editor who grew close to Peggy. Both characters could return in a future season — but for this year's dinner parties, their seats stay empty.
Why Season 4 Is Landing
Part of the answer is momentum: the show arrives fresh off eight Emmy nominations for Season 3, and creator Julian Fellowes and co-writer Sonja Warfield — with Salli Richardson-Whitfield directing and executive producing — are done wiping the slate clean between seasons. Every triumph and scandal from last year carries consequences this year, which is exactly what makes a period soap feel modern. It is the same engine HBO runs on Sunday nights at its best, and if you want more of that prestige-drama fallout while you wait for Episode 3, revisit our coverage of True Detective S5: Cage & Banderas Lead HBO Cast.
Two episodes in, the season's bet is clear: the Russells won the room, and now we find out what winning costs. Bertha rises again, or the bill finally comes due — what's your Season 4 call? Tell us in the comments.
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