'The Gilded Age' Just Pulled Off Its Best Twist Yet in 1 Episode

Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for The Gilded Age Season 4 premiere.

The Gilded Age thrives on constant drama as the period show explores high society in New York City, with the Russells’ social rise, the many romances, and risky business dealings. But after Season 3‘s shocking conclusion, the HBO series’ newest installment could be its most eventful installment — and the premiere doesn’t disappoint in that regard. The Season 4 premiere delivers plenty of surprises, from Oscar’s (Blake Ritson) wedding to the life-threatening birth of Gladys’ (Taissa Farmiga) son. However, the episode’s biggest twist hits Marian (Louisa Jacobson) and Larry (Harry Richardson) amid their rocky romance.

Over the course of the series so far, these two neighbors have developed a slow-burn romance that takes two full seasons to really begin. Yet, after their engagement fell apart in Season 3, The Gilded Age needed to deliver a new twist for the pair. Season 4 wastes no time confirming that, despite calling off their engagement, Marian and Larry aren’t over each other as they impulsively spend the night together. As The Gilded Age continues, this one moment is set to change everything for the pair, adding a new social threat to their future.

‘The Gilded Age’ Season 4 Reunites Marian and Larry in an Unexpected Way

Marian and Larry’s relationship has been a rollercoaster throughout The Gilded Age, yet Season 4 makes it more dramatic than ever. While both characters have had different love interests, Season 2’s finale officially brings them together. Yet, their relationship isn’t smooth even at its best. First, Marian is reluctant to tell her family about their romance. Then, Larry’s lie about his whereabouts and Marian’s extreme caution lead to a falling out, which leaves their status unclear by the end of Season 3. Of course, Season 4 quickly proves they still have feelings for each other; their dance alone proves there is something between them, yet their reunion goes much further.

Following their evening out at Oscar and Enid’s (Kelley Curran) wedding celebration, Larry and Marian are caught in a storm, and a mishap with the carriage wheel forces them to stay in a hotel. Though the detour is unplanned, they initially attempt to behave as respectfully as possible, but their emotions get the better of them. In a shocking twist, Larry and Marian sleep together, restructuring their dynamic in one passionate night. While the choice lacks Marian’s usual caution, it propels their relationship forward more than anything else could. It’s also a huge jump for them, going from denying their feelings to crossing boundaries they didn’t test during their original courtship, and this one decision will change everything for Marian and Larry as Season 4 continues.

Marian and Larry Take a Huge Risk in ‘The Gilded Age’ Season 4

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While The Gilded Age Season 4 premiere provides an exciting development in Marian and Larry’s relationship for those fans who have been waiting for them to work it out, it isn’t without risk. Given the show’s setting, this twist is especially dramatic because of the inherent risk it poses for Marian if anyone discovers the truth. The Gilded Age has constantly depicted the dangers of social ruin through characters like Mrs. Chamberlain (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and Ward McAllister (Nathan Lane), and Marian’s situation could be just as bad. For now, no one suspects them, and even Marian’s aunt Agnes (Christine Baranski) accepts her lie of omission about what happened; however, it seems inevitable that Marian and Larry’s choice will have consequences in some way.

Four love stories, four completely different ideas of what it means to
be somebody’s person. This is the one that matches how you actually fall, and what it would ask of
you.

You do not fall for strangers. You fall for the person you have
already been talking to for years, which is the slowest and by some distance the most
durable way anybody has found to do this.

• When Harry Met Sally made the case that the best romance is an argument you enjoy,
  conducted over a decade, by two people refusing to admit what is happening.
• You want to be known rather than swept away. Somebody who remembers your worst story is
  doing better work than anybody arriving with flowers.
• The film is unusually honest about timing. These two are wrong for each other repeatedly
  until suddenly they are not, and neither of them engineered it.
• You would still be talking about everything at eighty. That is the entire promise.

You want a partner, not an audience. Somebody who wants their own
life as badly as you want yours, and who would never ask you to be smaller to make the
relationship easier.

• This is the rare romance where both people have a real career and the film takes both of
  them equally seriously.
• You would rather be pushed than protected. The right person for you is also a bit of a
  rival, and that never entirely goes away.
• It understands the actual problem in ambitious relationships. Not whether you love each
  other, but whose turn it is this year.
• You would still be competing at forty. That is how you would know it was working.

The intensity was never the problem. The secrecy is. You are
drawn to a love that lives entirely in private, and to the particular ache of wanting
somebody you are not supposed to want.

• Heated Rivalry runs on the oldest engine in romance: two people on opposite sides,
  meeting in secret, getting far more attached than either of them planned.
• You keep your private life genuinely private, and something in you finds hidden things
  more real than public ones.
• The tension is not only between the two of them. It is between what they have and what
  it would cost either one to say it out loud.
• Years of this, and the whole story is really about whether either of them will finally
  stop hiding.

You do not do this cautiously. When it happens for you it is
immediate and total and it rearranges everything, and you would not accept a smaller version
of it.

• Titanic gave us the biggest romance in film history and then made it last about five
  days, which is precisely the point of it.
• You measure love by intensity rather than duration. A few days of the real thing beats
  decades of something merely comfortable.
• The film is not only about the romance. It is about a woman who went on to live an
  enormous life afterwards because of it.
• You would still be telling this story at a hundred years old, and telling it exactly the
  same way.

The Season 4 premiere may bring Larry and Marian together, but the same choice could tear them farther apart than the Season 3 finale. In the morning, Marian realizes the gravity of what they’ve done, and clearly regrets it. Her hasty exit hurts Larry, and the way the morning unfolds could create more obstacles between them. Although the night leads to a major revelation about their enduring feelings, the two never fully address how to handle the potential fallout. Luckily, The Gilded Age has an entire season to build on this storyline, with upcoming episodes certain to explore more of Marian and Larry’s complicated romance.

The Gilded Age Season 4 is streaming on HBO Max with new episodes on Sundays.