Memory Ngulube joined Screen Rant in April 2024 as part of the Movies and TV team. Since then, she has written for the Perennials and Streaming team, covering a wide range of topics from new releases to old movies and TV shows. Memory is currently a Classic TV writer.
Before joining Screen Rant, Memory was a freelance copywriter who specialized in email marketing and social media management. While she enjoyed her job, her true passion was always movies and TV.
When she isn’t writing for Screen Rant, Memory can be found reading, baking (which is one of her passions), or watching her favorite K-drama.
The Gilded Age season 4’s debut episode returned with the promise of more drama, glamor, and incredible displays of wealth. The previous season of the show left a lot for audiences to think about.
Bertha Russell was finally at the top of the social pyramid, Oscar Van Rihjn entered into a contract relationship with Mrs. Winterton, while Marian and Larry’s romance seemed to have reached the end of the road. Though all these developments were exciting, the one question yet to be answered concerns the identity of the person who ordered the shooting of George Russell, one of the most powerful businesspeople in America.
The Gilded Age season 4 is already receiving rave reviews and boasts a 94% Rotten Tomatoes score from critics. Several reasons account for the show’s massive success. The drama is engaging, the characters have enough depth to keep viewers invested, but most of all, each season of the show simply outdoes the previous one and ensures that its audience has no moment of boredom.
The new installment of The Gilded Age includes familiar faces viewers love, and also love to hate. However, there are also new characters that have been added to the all-time great HBO original show, including the Pinkertons, a detective organization George Russell hires to help him discover who wanted him dead.
The Real-Life Pinkerton Detectives Explained
The Pinkerton National Detective Agency became one of the most influential private investigative forces in 19th-century America. Its agents were hired by railroad companies, industrialists, and other wealthy individuals who needed protection or wanted to uncover information that ordinary law enforcement might struggle to obtain.
Founded in 1850 by Scottish immigrant Allan Pinkerton, the agency initially specialized in investigating railway thefts, counterfeiters, and other criminal activities. However, its influence quickly expanded, and the Pinkertons eventually became involved in everything from presidential security to undercover intelligence operations. Their reputation was so formidable that the agency’s motto, “We Never Sleep,” and its unblinking-eye logo helped inspire the term “private eye.”
One of the agency’s most significant early achievements came in 1861, when Pinkerton operatives helped uncover an alleged assassination plot against President-elect Abraham Lincoln during his journey to Washington. However, the Pinkertons’ history was far from heroic (via Library of Congress). As America’s industrial economy expanded, wealthy business owners hired the agency to investigate workers, infiltrate labor unions, and undermine strikes. This made the organization particularly controversial among working-class Americans.
Why George Russell Hired The Pinkertons In The Gilded Age Season 4
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Image via HBO</figure>
In the penultimate episode of The Gilded Age season 3, George was shot by an unknown assailant. Fortunately, the business tycoon survived, but that doesn’t mean he was willing to let go of finding out who was behind the brutal attack. When season 4 of the HBO series rolled around, George and Bertha were still living apart, and he seemed to be fighting demons he couldn’t yet identify. Most likely, his behavior change is linked to the shooting that nearly left him for dead.
By the time The Gilded Age season 4’s first episode comes to a close, it is revealed that George hired the Pinkertons to find out who his would-be murderer is. When the detectives show him pictures of a young man and woman, he seems to recognize the latter. So far, the series has yet to reveal the mastermind behind what happened to him, because his shooter doesn’t seem to be working alone.
A ruthless businessman like George has accumulated many enemies as he grew his empire. Clay, whom he disgraced, is the likely suspect, but others would benefit from the tycoon being wiped out from the face of the Earth. Given that George has no clue as to who would want him dead, it makes sense that he hired people whose profession is finding criminals. They are on the trail of the perpetrator, and it is only a matter of time before the detectives crack the case in The Gilded Age season 4.
The Gilded Age
The Creator of Downton Abbey returns to the small screen with The Gilded Age, a period drama set in the late 1800s in the United States. When Marian Brook’s father passes away, she leaves to move in with her two aunts, two well-to-do women at the center of New York City’s social system. However, the old-money socialites find their world disrupted when a young and wealthy couple moves to New York, showing Marian there may be more to life than the rigid societal traditions of old.
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