Morgan Spector says George Russell’s near-death and recovery could define “The Gilded Age” S4 — a moral reckoning of power, marriage and redemption.
SPOILER ALERT — contains Season 3 finale details.
Morgan Spector says George Russell’s narrow escape from an assassination attempt will likely drive The Gilded Age when it returns.
In the penultimate episode the hulking railroad magnate is left for dead after a delivery man opens fire in his office — but George survives, saved by Dr. William Kirkland — and Spector tells Deadline (and other outlets) that the aftermath is fertile ground for Season 4.
“I think the story of George’s bounce back from the assassination attempt would be the story, at least for me, of Season 4,” Spector said, musing that the near-death moment could push George toward philanthropy or gentler treatment of his workers — or, just as plausibly, harden him further.
He also framed the arc as a moral reckoning: George is haunted by his role in daughter Gladys’s marriage and must decide whether to forgive himself and change, or revert to his old ruthless self.
That crisis plays out against domestic strain. George makes a public appearance at Bertha’s Newport ball — apparently to support her social ambitions — only to return home the next day, a move that leaves Carrie Coon’s Bertha frustrated and underscores the couple’s simmering tensions. Spector and showrunners leave open whether ambition or conscience will define George moving forward.
HBO has already greenlit a fourth season, so viewers won’t have to wait long for answers about the Russells’ marriage and George’s future.
Expect the new season to pick up the emotional fallout: questions of identity, class responsibility, and whether a near-death shock can actually change a man who built his life on power and profit.
Spector’s tease is a neat narrative promise — the show has long balanced social spectacle with intimate moral knots — and George’s recovery gives the writers a clear, dramatic hook: redemption, revenge, or relapse.
Whichever way the story leans, fans can bank on one thing: the fallout will be personal, public, and very, very dramatic.
