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Read ‘The Gilded Age’ Season 3 Finale Script “My Mind is Made Up”
Editor’s note: Deadline’s It Starts on the Page features standout drama series scripts in 2026 Emmy contention.
Julian Fellowes‘ Emmy-nominated HBO period drama The Gilded Age took fans on an emotional journey in the Season 3 finale “My Mind is Made Up.” As Fellowes writes, “In many ways, Episode 308 encapsulated our original reasons for writing The Gilded Age.”
Written by The Gilded Age creator, executive producer and co-showrunner Fellowes and executive producer/co-showrunner Sonja Warfield, the episode starts with the heartbreaking reality that Russell family patriarch George (Morgan Spector) could bleed out and die after getting shot at the end of Episode 307.
George’s life was spared, thanks to Dr. William Kirkland (Jordan Donica), who was nearby visiting Peggy Scott (Denée Benton) and was able to rush to George’s aid. It was a risky deed for a Black doctor, who could have faced serious consequences if George would’ve died.
The finale culminated in what Fellowes said he and Warfield had planned from the start of the season, “the dueling balls, Black and White.”
Across the two balls, William shocks his unapproving mother by proposing to Peggy in the middle of the ballroom, a proposal ripped from the pages of a fairytale. Oscar van Rhijn (Blake Ritson) proposes a marriage of his own, albeit one of convenience with Enid Winterton (Kelley Curran), and Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson) and Larry Russell (Harry Richardson) take a step toward reconciliation.
But it wasn’t happy ending for all the couples. Following his bout with death, George is reconsidering his marriage to Bertha. She is stunned and left to ponder whether she may have taken her thirst for power and position in society a little too far.
Here is the script for “My Mind Is Made Up” with Fellowes’ intro, in which he explains how he and Warfield arrived at the premise for Episode 308 and the inspiration for the Black bourgeoisie storylines that took center stage in Season 3.
When faced with the challenge, both Sonja Warfield and I were glad to take it up, and explain our purpose in 308. In many ways, in fact, Episode 308 encapsulated our original reasons for writing The Gilded Age.
It is my belief that the period between the Civil War and the First World War, not much less than half a century, marked the dawn of modern America. Of course the favored year for America’s beginnings is 1776, but Washington and Jefferson and the rest were very steeped in the values of old Europe. Their belief in lineage and tradition was more in keeping with the Royal courts of London or Paris or Vienna. Few of those excellent founding fathers understood that America was not only a new country but that it would find new ways to live life, and build a new Society, formed along different and new lines.
Most of all, I wanted the show to be American, in its look and feel, to demonstrate the dawning of the American way of life. Then I read Black Gotham by Carla Peterson and I realized how I could shape it. The book told of Miss Peterson’s search for her own ancestry and detailed her discovery of the prosperous, Black bourgeoisie, based largely in Brooklyn, that had played a principal role in the New York of the late nineteenth century.
In Europe, most of the Black community had arrived a hundred years later, after the Second World War, when there was a great need for skills and industry to rebuild the battered cities, but in America, where slavery had unfortunately been adopted by the early settlers, the need to rebuild and rethink their world came much earlier, hence the development of Black society by the 1870s and 80s. Happily, Sonja Warfield has pulled from her own family history to add details to characters and create authentic plot lines.
So, when it came to Episode 308, the end of the third series, from the start we knew we were heading for the duelling balls, Black and White, with which to finish the episode and the series. I think we both wanted to show that American Black society was far in advance of anything we could dramatise in the Europe of the same period.
I worried at first that the rival presentation of the two, over-lapping balls, might seem confused but Sonja was more courageous than I, and I certainly underestimated our excellent director, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, who made the parrellel point both vivid and clear. Nor are either of us immune to the emotional demands that such a story makes. It will not surprise many that, when we watched the rushes of William proposing to Peggy, we both felt our eyes fill in a way that I blush to reveal.
The episode also gave us an opportunity to talk about the flexibility of American society, in contrast to Europe, with Enid Winterton’s rise and Jack Trotter’s success with his clock, and I hope we have conveyed some of the excitement of America and the way it offered whatever future you were prepared to fight for. In this, it really was unique in the Western World.
Of course America was not free of all the faults of the nineteenth century. Peggy has to fight to be taken seriously as a writer, being a Black woman, and Oscar van Rhijn must draw a curtain over his true sexual identity if he wants to get on, but even so, compared to the rest of the planet, America offered opportunities to the talented newcomer who was not afraid of hard work, that no other country could hope to equal.
That, I suppose, is what we wanted to illustrate and bring to the public’s notice in a way that would attract their sympathy. Obviously, we needed a first class cast and crew to make any of this happen, and, by some miracle, we attracted the best there is. You, more than I will know whether or not we have been successful in our efforts.
Julian Fellowes
Read the script below.
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Chinese director Niu Niu’s Final Payment scooped the Best Film Award in the Fei Mu Awards of this year’s Pingyao International Film Festival (PYIFF), while Rafiki Fariala’s Congo Boy won Best Film in the festival’s Roberto Rossellini Awards.
Final Payment, which also won Best Actor for Niu Jianrong’s performance, revolves around a homeowner clashing with a contractor over the final payment following a set of renovations on his home. PYIFF’s competition jury stated: “Tearing through a very small rip, the film leads us into a reality and emotional landscape so expansive, where we sigh, lament, and reflect. The director’s approach is concise, unpretentious, and masterful, earning the wholehearted recognition of the entire jury.”
The Best Film award came with a cash prize of $150,000 (RMB1m) with half given to the director for the development of their next film, and half given to the distributor in China. Niu Niu previously directed Mr Junjun, which was awarded with the Jury Award and Youth Jury Award at PYIFF in 2023.
Also in the Fei Mu Awards, Xu Zao won Best Director for Light Pillar, while Best Actress went to Sun Yi for Wang Xiaozhen’s A Joke. The Jury Award was presented to Dong Jie’s Zoom In, Zoom Out, which had its world premiere in Venice Critics Week, while a special mention went to Cai Chengjie’s Suzhou Quartet.
The Fei Mu awards are focused on the festival’s Hidden Dragons section, which selects first, second and third films from emerging directors making Chinese-language films, while the Roberto Rossellini Awards focus on the Crouching Tigers section for emerging international directors.
Congo Boy, which took Best Film in the Roberto Rossellini Awards, also won Best Actor when it premiered in Un Certain Regard at this year’s Cannes film festival. The PYIFF award came with a cash prize of $20,000, with half given to the director for the development of their next film, and half given to the distributor in China.
The PYIFF jury stated: “The Jury unanimously has been moved by this autobiographical story, told in a simple style that echoes the great tradition of neorealism. For a film focusing on a character that confronts his world with optimism despite dark times and takes on his shoulders the destiny of his entire family.”
Also in this section, the Philippines’ Rafael Manuel won Best Director for Filipiñana, while the Jury Award went to Ben’imana, directed by Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo, which won the Camera d’Or at this year’s Cannes. The jury also awarded Rakan Mayasi’s Yesterday The Eye Didn’t Sleep a Special Mention.
Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui received the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon East-West Award, shortly before she receives the Camellia Award at Busan International Film Festival next week.
Pingyao’s International Contribution To Chinese Cinema Award went to Marco Müller, who founded the festival with Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke and currently serves as Artistic Director of the Film Art Research Centre at Shanghai University, and veteran producer, director and former chairman of China Film Group Han Sanping. Hello Group chairman Tang Yan was presented with a 10th Anniversary Award.
This year’s PYIFF opened on September 24 with a screening of the 4K restoration of Fei Mu’s Spring In A Small Town; closed with Good Trip, co-directed by Hong Kong filmmakers Norris Wong and Hoi Wong, and also screened Jia’s short film Torino Shadow, which premiered at this year’s Cannes.
PINGYAO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2026 AWARDS:
FEI MU AWARDS:
Best Film: Final Payment, dir: Niu Niu
Best Director: Xu Zao, Light Pillar
Best Actress: Sun Yi, A Joke, dir: Wang Xiaozhen
Best Actor: Niu Jianrong, Final Payment, dir: Niu Niu
Jury Award: Zoom In, Zoom Out, dir: Dong Jie
Special Mention: Suzhou Quartet, dir: Cai Chengjie
ROBERTO ROSSELLINI AWARDS:
Best Film: Congo Boy, dir: Rafiki Fariala
Best Director: Filipiñana, dir: Rafael Manuel
Jury Award: Ben’imana, dir: Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo
Special Mention: Yesterday The Eye Didn’t Sleep, dir: Rakan Mayasi
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SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from Tuesday night’s episode of Dancing with the Stars.
It’s another exciting night in the ballroom as 13 contestants are still eyeing the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy during Week 3 of Dancing with the Stars.
Last week, the judges reinforced just how tough they are going to be this season, once again declining to score anyone above a 7. Still, three couples — Jenna and Val, Ezra and Daniella, and Amber and Pasha — walked away tied for the top of the leaderboard with 21 points. We also said goodbye to Alan Bersten and chef Giada De Laurentiis.
Week 3 is Yacht Rock night, so the remaining couples are performing to hits from artists including Fleetwood Mac, The Doobie Brothers, and Luther Vandross.
Here is how the night went.
Olympian Amber Glenn with Pasha Pashkov danced a Foxtrot to “Hold the Line” by Toto. SCORE: 24
Actress Julia Stiles with Ezra Sosa danced a salsa to “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)” by Daryl Hall & John Oates. SCORE: 19
Late-night sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez with Whitney Carson danced a Foxtrot to “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes. SCORE: 15
Actress Tatyana Ali with Jan Ravnik performed a Quickstep to “Maneater” by Daryl Hall & John Oates. SCORE: 21
Actor Harry Shum Jr. with Jenna Johnson performed a jive to “You Make My Dreams Come True” by Daryl Hall & John Oates. SCORE: 24
Musician Taylor Hanson with Britt Stewart danced a Foxtrot to “What a Fool Believes” by The Doobie Brothers. SCORE: 18
Reality star Maura Higgins with Mark Ballas danced a Quickstep to “Turn Your Love Around” by George Benson. SCORE: 22
Reality star Ciara Miller with Brandon Armstrong performed a Cha Cha to “Never Too Much” by Luther Vandross. SCORE: 18
Savannah Bananas midfielder Jackson Olson with Emma Slater performed a paso doble to “Easy Lover” by Philip Bailey and Phil Collins. SCORE: 18
Comedian and podcaster Connor Wood with Rylee Arnold danced a Foxtrot to “Everywhere” by Fleetwood Mac. SCORE: 20
Actress Jenna Dewan with Val Chmerkovskiy danced a samba to “Africa” by Toto. SCORE: 21
Reality star Tyler Cameron with Sharna Burgess danced a jive to “Still the One” by Orleans. SCORE: 17
Paralympian Ezra Frech with Daniella Karagach danced a Foxtrot to “Just the Two of Us” by Grover Washington Jr. featuring Bill Withers. SCORE: 21
Who goes home?
The competition is now down to 12 as Taylor Hanson and Britt Stewart were sent home. Next week is all about Mariah Carey, so the couples will perform a variety of the pop superstar’s biggest hits.
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Another hockey book adaptation has entered the chat.
Netflix is currently building out its cast for the series adaptation of Hannah Grace’s Icebreaker book that kicks off the Maple Hill series. This in addition to their show The Sticks that is also currently in the works.
For everything we know about Netflix’s Icebreaker book adaptation so far, read on.
When will Netflix’s Icebreaker series adaptation come out?
A release date has not yet been set. The show has begun to assemble its cast.
Who will lead the Icebreaker show at Netflix?
Daisy Jelley (Poser, How To Have Sex) will portray Anastasia “Stassie” Allen, and Connor Simos (Subversion) will portray Nate Hawkins in the college hockey drama series.
Who else is in the cast of Netflix’s Icebreaker adaptation?
Gabriel Tierney (Rivals, Enola Holmes 2), Auliʻi Cravalho (Moana), newcomer and professional athlete Peter Berry, Chaneil Kular (Best of the Best, Sex Education), Devin Craig (Sex Lives of College Girls, Maize) and Aidan Shaw (We Were Liars, Heated Rivalry, Finding Her Edge) have joined the ensemble cast.
Tierney will play Aaron; Cravalho will portray Lola; Berry is Robbie; Kular will play JJ; Craig will portray Henry and Shaw is Russ.
What is Hannah Grace’s Icebreaker book about?
Stassie is a transfer athlete gunning for Olympic gold. Nate is the campus star chasing the NHL. When an accident forces their teams to share one rink, Anastasia Allen and Nate Hawkins collide—and discipline gives way to obsession, because the only thing more dangerous than wanting to win is wanting each other.
Who else is behind Netflix’s Icebreaker series?
Jade Halley Bartlett (Road House, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Miller’s Girl) created and executive produced the series. Amanda Lasher (Gossip Girl, The Bold Type, Togetherness) serves as showrunner, writer and excutive producer. Grace also executive produces along with Alex Cooper, Matt Kaplan and Mina Lefevre for Cooper’s Unwell Productions.
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