We all know by now about Morgan Spector’s status as Train Daddy, and I’m excited to say he’s definitely living up to that reputation this week on The Gilded Age. He’s embodying it in the most fatherly way, rather than as a stylish GQ icon.

When the Duke of Buckingham made his entrance at the Russells’ residence last week, it followed a leaked announcement planted by Bertha (Carrie Coon) about a potential engagement between Gladys (Taissa Farmiga) and the Duke. However, now that the Duke is actually present, along with a lawyer to discuss the marriage’s financial terms, George is enraged. It seems Bertha may have overly assured the Duke, who is a particularly greedy individual looking to cash in from this marriage. As George stands his ground regarding the dowry, the Duke suggests, “I’d hate to let down everyone anticipating this union. Surely you’d be disappointed as well.”

“That’s where you’re mistaken. I’m not bothered in the slightest,” George responds coolly to the Duke. When they revisit negotiations the following day, George offers a more generous proposal, with the stipulation that the extra funds be given to Gladys as her allowance. The Duke retorts, “Given to Gladys? How does that benefit me?” George counters, “Disappointing reply, if I may be frank,” to his potential son-in-law who isn’t appreciative. The Duke sulkily exits the Russell household, leaving Bertha stunned. She’s outraged that George didn’t comply with the Duke’s conditions to potentially elevate Gladys’ status, akin to a modern-day Lauren Sanchez-Bezos. To which George retorts, “This situation is your doing.”

Later, when Bertha, Gladys and Larry head to the opera, they spy the Duke looking flirtatious with another young woman, Martha Delancey. Gossip hound Mamie Fish (Ashlie Atkinson) fills Bertha in on the Delanceys reputation and background, but Bertha feels humiliated to see the Duke with another woman. When she tells George she’s concerned about their status in society, he explains that the Delanceys have a fraction of the Russell’s wealth and would be a step-down for Bertha. This gives her the idea – a newly-invented light bulb seems to go off above her head – which she’ll set in motion shortly.

Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) is still struggling to accept her new role, both in society and in her home, as Ada’s plus one. Now that Agnes doesn’t control the family purse strings, she’s fallen a rung or two down on the social ladder. Ada (Cynthia Nixon) argues that she spent a lifetime as Agnes’s plus one, and somehow she survived. by Agnes explains that the situation is different. See, Ada was always a spinster, while Agnes has experienced a fall from grace because her fortune was erased. It’s just not the same. “Perhaps I will find my place in Newport with Aurora and spend the rest of my days with society’s cast-offs and women of ill-repute. At least they’ll have wine,” she snarks, taking a dig at Ada’s new flirtation with temperance.

In one of the most fun scenes of the season, Ada asks Bannister for a tally of how many members of the staff have signed her temperance pledge. When they learn that Agnes’s ladies maid, Armstrong is the only one, Agnes demands an explanation from Armstrong who explains, “Alcohol…has brought whole families to ruin. Haven’t you ever noticed I don’t drink?” to which Agnes replies, “I’ve noticed you’re no fun!” Oscar, looking in, seems delighted by this entire thing, but Ada is frustrated that her staff is ignoring her wishes for them to sign.

Speaking of flirtation, Larry Russell (Harry Richardson) and Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson) are still getting cozy. Maybe too cozy – after spending time at the Russell home, Larry makes a move on Marian and kisses her in the drawing room, but they’re interrupted by Bertha’s ladies maid, Turner’s Replacement. (I can’t be bothered to remember her name. She’s French. Likes to gossip and do hair.)

Marian is concerned that Turner’s Replacement is going to blab that Marian, a single maiden, was kissing a man she’s not engaged to and sully her reputation and… she’s right. Turner’s Replacement tells Bertha, who seems stunned at the impropriety (but why? Larry had a steamy affair with Mrs. Blane last summer in Newport, she’s familiar with her son’s urges), or maybe by the fact that Marian is so blah? But Bertha also kinda doesn’t care about what Larry’s up to right now because she’s schemin’.

Without George’s knowledge, Bertha invites Mr. Delancey to their home to discuss the Duke. Mr. Delancey immediately realizes that Bertha is up to something (“This is getting odder and odder,” he tells her when she reveals that she knows he’s fallen into money troubles recently). But he assures her that he’s actually got a very diverse portfolio of investments. “I can easily purchase a Duke or two, but you can relax, Mrs. Russell, I don’t want Martha to be a great lady on the far side of the world. I intend to watch my grandchildren grow up right here in New York.” (LOL at the fact that Bertha has no such desires.) As Delancey bids Bertha goodbye, he tells her, “You rather intrigue me, to be honest, Mrs. Russell. I only wish you knew how much more interesting you are than the Duke of Buckingham.”

We are finally seeing the fruits of Jack’s labor, as he and Larry start to take meetings in search of investors in his new clock patent.

While Larry is the one who’s been doing most of the talking, Jack interjects during their last meeting with a curious investor and proves himself a capable salesman, although no one offers to invest, not yet anyway. (Of all people, Armstrong is the one to give Jack a reassuring pep talk to pull him out of his disappointment. Maybe he fashioned her a heart out of a clock, Tin Man style?)

You wanna know how I know that Peggy Scott’s relationship with Dr. William Kirkland (Jordan Donica) is going to lead to some drama? You don’t bring in Phylicia Rashad to play his mom if it’s not.

The Scott Family is spending the summer in Newport and while they’re there, they visit Dr. Kirkland’s family home where his parents live. Peggy’s mother and aunt (played by a delightfully gossipy Jessica Frances Dukes) are initially thrilled at the prospect of Peggy courting Dr. Kirkland, who is educated and refined, but it turns out that the Scotts may not be refined enough for the Kirklands. When Mrs. Kirkland (Rashad) asks about Arthur Scott’s pharmacy, she dismisses him as nothing but a salesman, forcing him to explain that, after he was freed from slavery, he went to school to become a pharmacist. Mr. Kirkland (Brian Stokes Mitchell, barely used, surely he’ll have more to do soon), is Arthur’s old friend, but his wife’s disdain for the Scotts is off-putting to say the least. As Arthur describes life as a slave, her status as a lifelong free woman is evident, as is the colorism she displays when dealing with her lighter-skinned family and the Scotts.

While George Russell believes the Duke to be out of their lives, he gives his man Clay the go-ahead to spend all the money they’ve set aside for Gladys’s dowry on an investment in his new railroad. But unbeknownst to George, Bertha is renegotiating the terms of their offer with the Duke, and telling him that Gladys’s allowance will actually be both of their allowance. So the Duke is back in, and when Gladys learns, she treats it as a fate worse than death. The only thing that salvages the situation is – surprise! – the Duke himself. Good old Hector of Buckingham has a heart-to-heart with Gladys where he assures her that he knows how weird this all is, and he hopes he can offer her some happiness (while also using her father’s money to save his family’s reputation). This helps, slightly, except Gladys doesn’t realize that he’s been promised the money George intended for her. I can’t help but feel like Hector’s nice-guy vibes are performative and Gladys is going to be trapped raising rich brats in a dilapidated castle on some moor.

The engagement is made official just as Gladys’ portrait, painted by John Singer Sargent, is unveiled at the Russell’s home. Sargent unveils the picture and George announces the engagement and Gladys’ wearing a pearl choker, feels ill at ease and pulls at her necklace which falls apart, beads spilling across the marble floors of the home she can no longer call her own.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.