The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 2 “What the Papers Say” features two worlds colliding. At long last, after three seasons, Peggy Scott’s (Denée Benton) parents finally drop in on 61st Street.
Fans of the HBO show will remember that Aunt Agnes (Christine Baranski) sent for Arthur (John Douglas Thompson) and Dorothy Scott (Audra McDonald) last week, after Peggy fell ill. What could be a warm introduction soon gets awkward as Mr. Scott confronts Aunt Agnes over her naivety about race relations in 1880s New York.
It’s a fascinating scene because its not only one of the rare times that Aunt Agnes is forced to account for her own shortcomings, but because it actually made Gilded Age star Christine Baranski “nervous.”
**Spoilers for The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 2 “What the Papers Say,” now streaming on MAX**
The Gilded Age Season 3 premiere ended with the progressive Van Rhijn household in something of pickle. Peggy Scott is quite ill and clearly needs medical treatment. Aunt Agnes instinctively calls on her physician to treat her beloved secretary, but he turns out to be a total racist. He bluntly refuses to treat Peggy on account of the fact that she is Black.
The Gilded Age Season 3 Episode 1 “Who Is in Charge Here?” ends with Agnes finally agreeing to send Jack (Ben Ahlers) to Brooklyn to tell Peggy’s parents — one of whom literally is a pharmacist — what’s going on. In this week’s episode, Mr. and Mrs. Scott show up at 61st street with family friend, Dr. William Kirkland (Jordan Donica) in hand, and they are all immediately met with a conundrum.
“Peggy gets ill, the family, the father and mother, do come to visit their daughter and suddenly it’s like, do you go through the back door or the front door? We’re really exploring what that was,” Christine Baranski told DECIDER. “But both Agnes and Ada were raised to respect and be open-minded and we were raised in family that championed Black rights.”
Agnes and Ada (Cynthia Nixon) were raised to be abolitionists, but they still haven’t moved among many Black people, apart from Peggy, it seems. It doesn’t occur to Agnes that she’s living in a deeply racist, incredibly segregated world. Hence why she foolishly assumed her doctor would treat Peggy — a misstep that Peggy’s father is eager to point out to Aunt Agnes.
“Peggy’s father gives me a bit of a hard time, and Agnes, you know, is on unsteady ground,” Baranski said.
“I have to say as an actress, it was a scene that made me nervous to have to play it,” she added. “Just the entire issue of it and playing with these two formidable Black actors.”
“It’s not like Agnes to apologize or to backpedal, but she realized she was speaking of something that was quite a tender issue. So I think it’s a wonderfully written scene.”
Cynthia Nixon, likewise, loved that Aunt Ada also got to meet the Scotts in her ever-exuberant, often naive, Ada way.
“When Ada receives the Scotts for the first time…I love that Ada’s very excited, but she’s also incredibly eager to show off her white ally credentials,” Nixon said, chuckling. “You know, Peggy’s upstairs suffering, her parents are obviously wildly concerned, but Ada pulls out her non-racist resume to show them.”
“The Scotts are trying to be polite, but they really couldn’t care less.”
Christine Baranski also revealed to DECIDER that the whole genesis of these scenes came from none other than Audra McDonald.
“I think I was Audra actually, bless her, who said to [Gilded Age creator] Julian [Fellowes], ‘Can’t I have a scene with Agnes? Can’t those families meet?’” Baranski said.
“I thought it was a fascinating scene to play and I really was very privileged to work with those actors.”
The Gilded Age returns Sunday, July 6 at 9 PM ET on HBO and MAX.
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