The Gilded Age Episode 5: Taissa Farmiga on Gladys’ Heartbreak

[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Gilded Age, Season 1, Episode 5, “Charity Has Two Functions.”] Poor Gladys (Taissa Farmiga) has had a rough go of it on The Gilded Age thus far. From the very start of the show, Gladys has been operating with zero freedom, forced to delay her society debut until her mother, Bertha (Carrie Coon), can use the opportunity to up her own social status by filling their ballroom for the event. It’s a frustrating situation for a young woman eager to seize the long-overdue opportunity to become her own person, but little does Gladys know at the start of Episode 5, “Charity Has Two Functions,“ it’s about to feel a lot worse. Early in the episode, much to Gladys’ surprise, Bertha insists that they have her love interest, Archie Baldwin (Tom Blyth), over for dinner. On the night, Archie appears to be having a wonderful time while saying all the right things to Bertha and George (Morgan Spector) — or so he thinks. When left alone