A blog of sorts

I keep dwelling on this exchange (not verbatim):

"You are the one who walked her down the aisle."

"That is precisely what I cannot forgive."

Now, what I think he is actually saying here is 'forget'. There has to be something soul-shattering, downright traumatizing about having to walk your daughter down the aisle while she is quietly weeping next to you. I think that haunts him. It doesn't matter that it all turned out well, that Bertha was right, and he should have just trusted her. Whenever he thinks of Gladys, he remembers that image. It could explain why he avoids her like the plague. He doesn't write to her, doesn't interact with her, probably can't even look her in the eye. He is dealing with this like a coward - but in a way, I can understand.

To be perfectly honest, all of the most common options seem implausible to me.

Him asking for a divorce? He knows what it means for women, and he is nowhere near despising Bertha enough to want to ruin her life. That would only be the case if she actually managed to destroy Gladys' happiness forever which she didn't do, quite the opposite. Bertha inviting divorced women to her ball would not suddenly make it okay, and I doubt he even knows who is on the guest list, he is too busy dying and/or not caring about "silly women stuff".

Him asking for a separation? A little more likely, but it would be odd if it was the big revelation. He could reveal that he is going to keep living at the Union Club, and she would have the most heartbreaking sad eyes again. But it's hardly a shocker that he would continue to do something he has already been doing. It is a bit more likely if he reveals he has gotten a new place for himself, but it still doesn't feel dramatic enough.

He reveals he cheated? I just don't see it happening. Firstly, he had zero time or brain capacity to chase skirts this season, and I don't see Fellowes practically character assassinating him like that. He loves teasing cheating storylines (like with Turner + several Downton Abbey characters) but doesn't go through with them because he doesn't want us to actually hate his protagonists. Plus, if he did cheat and would have to atone for it throughout season 4, it would be a boring repetition of season 2.

He drops down and dies after all? Lol I wish, but judging by Morgan's interviews he is still going to be around for season 4.

Bertha finds out she is pregnant and he reacts in an ooc way? That would be hilarious, but I feel like that would come too out of nowhere and be too soap oper-y after all the other melodrama of this season.

He decides to give up his business to Larry and move to Saskatchewan to live a quiet life? Now that would be extremely ooc, but that would mean removing George Russell (and Bertha if she agrees to join him) as a player and I don't see Fellowes wanting to do that.

In any case, here are my predictions:

45% it's option 2, the reveal being George getting his own place

45% it's a secret seventh option absolutely no one could predict because it's so bonkers

OR

This "woman is being punished for her sins through her family turning on her" narrative brings to mind Lady Catherine de Bourgh who in some adaptations of Pride and Prejudice is shown sullenly isolated with her daughter as her punishment for being a horrible person. I could easily imagine Bertha in a similar shot, all haughty and mighty, with a "who needs a family anyway" air while alone in some dark room with her plans for the ball. But that did not happen. Instead, we have scenes proving that Gladys is actually falling for the Duke (aka Bertha managed to pull the most incredible move ever and give her daughter both a title and a happy marriage), Bertha genuinely happy to see her son back (son, not pawn) only to get trampled down on in return, the male Russells ignoring her in what is an almost caricature of an "underappreciated wife & mother" moment, and then what is perhaps most telling; the initial scene where George drives her out of his office. When he yells at her, you see her actually flinch. That is not an antagonist getting a taste of her own medicine moment. I feel like that was meant to genuinely upset the audience. Like why would that be included otherwise? How is seeing a woman frightened of her own husband be meant to be seen as cathartic in any way? It was more so George who seemed to be getting the villain edit, being so flippant with Bertha and excessively arrogant with Clay.

I hope the trailer moment where Bertha yells at him has her finally reading him to filth. I don't care if he is on his death bed when it happens she needs to twist the knife, it's what he deserves

Unable to face the possibility of an empty house in New York, Bertha stays in Newport for 22 days after returning from England.

22 days is enough to make George reconsider who is in danger of losing whom.

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