‘The Gilded Age’ Season 2, Episode 2 Ends With A Shocking Twist: The Return Of… Mrs. Winterton?

The very end of HBO‘s The Gilded Age Season 2 Episode 2 “Some Kind of Trick” reveals that creator Julian Fellowes is the greatest master of the period drama twist of them all.

**Spoilers for The Gilded Age Season 2 Episode 2 “Some Kind of Trick,” now streaming on Max**

All throughout the episode, Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) is keen to cozy up to a rich Mr. Winterton (Dakin Matthews) and his new young wife. The scuttle is that even though the Wintertons are old money, folks like the Astors want to kick him and his new bride out of their opera box at the Academy on account of her background. In the final seconds of The Gilded Age Season 2 Episode 2, Bertha and the Russell clan finally meet this mysterious Mrs. Winterton…and she turns out to be Turner (Kelley Curran), Bertha’s ambitious, scheming Season 1 maid. You remember Turner, right? Teaming up with Oscar van Rhijn (Blake Ritson) to get in touch with the locked away Gladys Russell (Taissa Farmiga). Not ringing any bells? Well, what if I said Turner was the maid who got bare ass naked on a Julian Fellowes show and climbed into George Russell’s (Morgan Spector) bed in the hopes of seducing him away from Bertha? YEP, MRS. WINTERTON IS TURNER, THE GILDED AGE SEASON 1’S NAKED MAID.

All four members of the Russell clan clearly remember Bertha’s former maid as is evidenced from the look of shock on their faces. While children Gladys and Larry (Harry Richardson) only remember Turner as staff, Bertha and George have a wilder history with her.

So is Bertha going to have to accept her former ladies’ maid as an equal in society? Will Mrs. Winterton hold her history with Mrs. Russell against her in the opera wars? What does this all mean for The Gilded Age Season 2?

The Gilded Age Season 2 Episode 2 Ending Explained: Who is Mrs. Winterton?

As we mentioned above, Bertha Russell is keen to meet Mr. and Mrs. Winterton in Newport because Ward McAllister (Nathan Lane) has suggested the Old Money couple might be good allies for her in the Opera Wars. However nothing could have prepared Bertha for the reveal that the new Mrs. Winterton is none other than her Season 1 maid, Turner.

We met Turner, aka Mrs. Winterton, in The Gilded Age Season 1. She was Bertha Russell’s maid, but she made no bones about the fact that she aspired to greater things than housework. Specifically, Turner was sweet on George Russell and attempted to seduce him away from his beloved Bertha.

When simple flirting didn’t work, Turner took matters into her own hands. She slipped into George’s bed while he was asleep and cuddled up to him, making him believe she was Bertha. As soon as he realized he was fooled, George rejected Turner. And soon, Turner was fired.

It seems that after leaving the Russells, Turner managed to find a different wealthy man to ensnare and marry: Mr. Winterton. The fact that Turner returns triumphantly to The Gilded Age only makes me appreciate the narrative prowess of Oscar- and Emmy-winning writer Julian Fellowes all the more…

How The Gilded Age Season 2 Episode 2 Changes Everything About Season 1’s Most Scandalous Scene:

I’m going to be honest. I originally loathed the Turner/George seduction scene because the sudden inclusion of sex and nudity in the otherwise G-rated Gilded Age made no sense to me. I thought it was Fellowes capitulating to HBO’s saucy reputation. However, I now see it was all part of the plan… At least, as The Gilded Age‘s co-executive producer Sonja Warfield explains, it was always the plan.

Decider asked Warfield if Turner’s sudden ascension in society was an idea the writers came up with for Season 2 or if it was the plan from the very beginning. She said, “Well, Julian always knew, so I don’t take credit for that.” The implication is that, yes, Julian Fellowes created Turner with the grand plan that she would try and fail to seduce George Russell only to come back as a society matron the next season.

Turner’s brazen attempt to seduce George had to be so over-the-top because now it presents an inconvenient wedge in the Russells’ marriage that wouldn’t exist if Turner hadn’t ever returned as Bertha’s equal in society.

“[Turner] has a secret, right? That Bertha doesn’t know,” Warfield said. “Bertha is so busy trying to climb up the ladder in society that she kind of has her eye off of her marriage.”

“Although, listen, what happened was all Turner’s doing and everything, but George has to take responsibility in that as well. And so once again, it was like Bertha has tunnel vision and then all of a sudden something’s happening over here that really throws her off her tracks.”

Bertha doesn’t yet know what happened between George and Turner, but the dramatic tension that she may find out is palpable. And that is what is so delicious about this latest Gilded Age twist.