Jordan Donica with Denée Benton in the season three finale of 'The Gilded Age.' HBO Max Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text [This story contains major spoilers from the season three Gilded Age finale.] The Gilded Age's season three finale may have ended with Bertha (Carrie Coon) and George Russell (Morgan Spector) at odds in their marriage, but it also opened the doors for new love stories. And that of Peggy Scott and Dr. Kirkland is one of the most engaging. After being hopeful and then heartbroken throughout most of the finale, titled "My Mind Is Made Up," Peggy, unlike Bertha, ended season three on cloud nine. Dr. Kirkland's epic proposal giving Peggy her well-deserved Cinderella moment sent euphoric waves throughout social media. Days before the finale aired, Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival attendees cheered throughout their advanced screening of the finale. And director Salli Richardson-Whitfield admitted to taking special care with Peggy and Dr. Kirkland to The Hollywood Reporter. Related Stories TV 'The Gilded Age' Finale: Carrie Coon on the Huge Price Bertha Pays for Being Right TV 'The Gilded Age' Star Harry Richardson Delves Into Larry Russell's Relationship With Marian Brook Heading Into Finale "Getting to the ball sequence, I wanted that to feel like every girl's fantasy - and I know maybe this isn't every girl's fantasy," she explained, "but to capture that fairytale fantasy Cinderella moment when you're a little girl of how you're going to be asked to get married. I wanted to honor that ball, the moment and the history of it, all wrapped up in this beautiful moment. When we see her face, when we push in on her in slow motion, she looks like this beautiful angel full of joy. Every time I see it, I cry." Jordan Donica who plays Dr. William Kirkland shares how he felt the joy of that moment. "To get the opportunity to do that in a ball setting was so beautiful," he said. "I've never proposed to anyone in my real life, and I wondered what that would feel like and kept imagining that for myself." For Denée Benton, whose pivotal character Peggy Scott was introduced early in the series' first episode as a savior to Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson) who, in turn, also saved her, this season of The Gilded Age has been a heck of a ride, with the proposal serving as the cherry on top. Benton spoke with THR about the season finale as well as the season overall, touching upon other key moments in Peggy and Dr. Kirkland's relationship, her clash with Mrs. Kirkland and working opposite Phylicia Rashad, as well as some of her ideas on how Peggy's wedding to Dr. Kirkland could play out in the already renewed fourth season. Read that chat, below. *** What were the emotions around the magical moment at the Kirkland Ball when Dr. Kirkland, after not really speaking with her, cuts in on Peggy and another man for a dance and then spins her around at the ball and is waiting on one knee when she turns around with a ring? That day after we filmed it, me, Sonja, Salli and Erica [Armstrong] Dunbar, just burst into tears. They fussed at me for ruining my makeup, because we've been dreaming up a moment like that for Peggy since 2019 before they had really carved out the space for the Black elite that we've gotten to take up on The Gilded Age. It felt like this moment of like victory and arrival. The crew guys were crying while we filmed it. Jordan really put his sauce on that moment where we just get to see Peggy get chosen and, in her fullness, which I think is what we all deserve. What draws Peggy to Dr. Kirkland? What really makes her heart smile and go aflutter for him? Honestly, I think it's that first moment she meets him at her weakest point, right? Like she's ill, She's in her little nightgown, her little Miss Celie plaits, she's so vulnerable, and he asks her for her work. I think even now, in 2025, feeling like you're valued for your creativity and your intellect is rare. But in 1883, we can't underestimate what it was like to have this man see her and have that be what was attractive to him first. I think that just lit her up after her already seeing how fine he was [and] him already helping her life. But I think that at each moment, he is so thrilled by the parts of her that are cutting edge, by the parts of her that push limits instead of a lot of the feedback she gets in her life for being a little too much, or having to convince people of her vision, and he just is down for her vision from the moment he reads her writing. I think it was intoxicating. Talk about being able to represent the truth of Black women's involvement in the suffrage movement, which many don't know is rooted in the anti-slavery movement here in this country, and being able to bring the layers to it this season, especially since a lot of t