The Gilded Age Opens Season 4 With Gladys’ Childbirth Crisis

The fourth season of HBO’s The Gilded Age opened with Gladys Russell facing a dangerous childbirth in England, a crisis that drives the premiere’s central family conflict. The episode, titled “Ring the Bells,” premiered in the United States on November 1, 2026. Gladys, played by Taissa Farmiga, goes into labour while living in England with her husband, Hector, the Duke of Buckingham. In the episode, doctors find that the baby is in a breech position and ask Hector whom they should prioritize if they cannot save both mother and child. He chooses Gladys. The baby is delivered, but Gladys suffers severe bleeding. A recap reports that doctors perform an emergency hysterectomy to stop the bleeding, leaving Gladys unable to have more children. It also says Bertha Russell, Gladys’s mother, and Hector agree to delay telling her about the operation. The episode ends with Bertha telling Gladys that Hector chose her life over the baby’s. The reported surgery and concealed information come from recaps of the fictional episode. The childbirth storyline places Bertha, played by Carrie Coon, in a family crisis after her ambitions to secure the Russells’ position in society helped send Gladys...