The Gilded Age timeline, season by season: four seasons in, the show has covered four years

HBO's The Gilded Age premiered season 4 on November 1, and the opening episode, "Ring the Bells," picks up in 1885, about nine months after season 3 ended. That premiere drew nearly four million viewers across linear and HBO Max in its first three days, up 25% from the season 3 premiere, per ScreenRant. It also brings the show's timeline to an easy rule: one season, one year.

Here's how it breaks down.

Season 1: 1882

The show starts in 1882, with Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson) arriving in New York to live with her aunts, Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) and Ada Brook (Cynthia Nixon), across the street from the newly rich Russells. Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) spends the season trying to break into old-money society, and George Russell (Morgan Spector) spends it buying his way through the city.

The real history in season 1 is the arrival of electric light: Thomas Edison's electric power ceremony is the set piece of episode 7. The finale is a social victory for Bertha. Mrs. Astor (Donna Murphy) agrees to attend Gladys Russell's debutante ball, and with that, the Russells are in.

Season 2: 1883

Season 2 picks up in 1883, the year two New York landmarks opened. The Brooklyn Bridge gets its unveiling, with Emily Roebling front and center, and the Metropolitan Opera's October 1883 opening drives the season's main plot. Bertha backs the new Met against Mrs. Astor's Academy of Music in the "opera war."

Bertha wins that too. Most of society chooses the Met, and her guest of honor is the Duke of Buckingham. Meanwhile, labor strikes hit George's Pittsburgh mills, and Marian and Larry Russell (Harry Richardson) share their first kiss.

Season 3: 1884

Season 3, set in 1884, turns the Duke into a son-in-law. Bertha breaks up Gladys' secret engagement to Billy Carlton, and Gladys marries Buckingham in episode 4 and sails for England. Larry and Jack sell their clock patent for $600,000.

The finale ends on a gunshot. George is shot in his office and survives, Dr. Kirkland proposes to Peggy Scott (Denée Benton), and Oscar van Rhijn proposes a marriage of convenience to Enid Winterton.

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Season 4: 1885 (so far)

Season 4 opens in 1885 with three of those threads paying off:

• Gladys: She gives birth at Sidmouth Castle in England, and an emergency hysterectomy that the doctor performs without asking anyone means she can't have more children.
• George: He brings in the Pinkertons to track down the man who shot him.
• Oscar and Enid: Their marriage of convenience is now official.

There's also a president. Agnes hosts a dinner for Grover Cleveland, and Ada refuses to pay for it after Peggy raises concerns about Cleveland's record on Black Americans. Telephones go in at the Russell mansion, so the 1880s are officially getting louder.

In four seasons, Bertha Russell has conquered society, the opera and the British aristocracy. The calendar has advanced three years.

Will season 4 make it to 1886?

That's the open question. Before the season aired, ScreenRant reported that season 4 would reach the dedication of the Statue of Liberty, which happened on October 28, 1886. If that's in the back half, season 4 will be the first one to span two calendar years.

Six episodes are left, with the finale on December 20. If the statue does show up, the show will have covered five years in four seasons, which is still a slower pace than Bertha Russell's social climbing.

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