The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (4.1-4.2) Episode Recaps: Everything New Becomes Old Again

The third season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel ended with a punch to the gut after a season full of promise for Midge and Susie. After Midge's set at The Apollo, Shy Baldwin leaves her on the tarmac suitcases in hand. The first episode of this fourth season deals with the immediate fall out of her being fired from the tour. The premiere spends most of its time establishing and reestablishing the relationships between the most important characters of this ensemble. This process also results in one of the funniest scenes on television in recent memory and the genesis of episode’s title: “Rumble on the Wonder Wheel.”

Before diving deeper into that particular scene (the best from either episode), the most important thrust for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in this episode is the aftermath of the scene: the admission from Midge to her family that she was fired and is back in New York for good. This episode mainly functions as scene-setting for the rest of the season. It opens with Midge going on an extended monologue about revenge in her first set of this season. The episode ends with Midge vowing to never compromise who she is or her act for anyone anymore. It’s exhilarating watching her gear up to go scorched earth on show business in season. The second episode quickly brings all those expectations crashing down to earth.

By the end of the second episode, instead of setting the industry ablaze, Midge seems to be toying with becoming the host at a burlesque show venue to achieve her dream of being able to always be herself on stage. While the possibility is exciting, it’s most certainly a downgrade from what she imagined. And even what this second episode teased at one point. Despite all the buzz she generated from her act, opening for Shy Baldwin, and more, she (with Susie’s help) is stuck having to beg for spots on the bill at the same clubs she killed at just a season prior. As Susie so eloquently puts it when Midge once again gets arrested for solicitation, “Fucking here we fucking go again.” The more things change, the more they stay the same. Even when the characters refuse to be the same. Both of these episodes do a great job drawing parallels to how these characters moved through this historical world in previous seasons with how they do it now. The second episode ends with a remarkably endearing scene between Midge and Abe. Abe, who has consistently expressed confusion at Midge’s career choice, seems to finally fully understand where his daughter is coming from. Her pursuit of what she loves clearly inspired his decision-making about his own career over the past few seasons of the show. But it is not until they are sharing drinks from the same bottle sitting in the living lit only by the TV that this all comes to fruition. He gives her his paycheck from The Village Voice to help out around the house, and it is paltry enough that Midge jokes it will cover the cost of one egg, maybe two (to which Abe retorts, “one short of an omelet”). It breaks the ice between them. They have always been connected but rarely so explicitly. They toast to pursuing their arts; to art in general. It is a beautifully grounding (and, funny enough, sobering) scene for a show that often finds itself so swept up in tack-sharp dialogue.

That dialogue is as good as any show on television right now though. It has not only become a hallmark of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel but the works of Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino as a whole (the writers of these episodes, respectively). The Gilmore Girls veterans established their knack for perpetually entertaining dialogue years ago but they have never been better. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel may not have the same warmth that Gilmore Girls had, but it truly does take the best elements of that show and transplants them into this world. One of the best examples of this is the screwball comedy nature of the dialogue inspired by the likes of It Happened One Night and His Girl Friday. The Wonder Wheel scene is a hilarious distillation of the style. Instead of making each character talk in a circle about Midge’s announcement about being fired, they are all stuck in different carts on a Ferris wheel yelling at each other and trying to resolve misunderstandings and miscommunications largely to no avail. As the camera cuts between all of them, we are treated to gems of dialogue like this about Abe needing a matchmaker to meet Rose:

It’s the way that the show so effortlessly crafts this dialogue, bouncing between all the characters as it plays on each of their unique personalities. That’s what this show does best though. It is also a terrific piece of historical fiction, but that’s largely not what sticks with you after the credits start. It’s not necessarily the world but how each of these characters moves through it. It is Tony Shalhoub as Abe complaining about…well, everything. It is Rachel Brosnahan giving a nuanced performance as Midge slowly cracking under the pressures of managing her career, relationships, and family as a woman in 1950's (and 60's now) America. It is Alex Borstein delivering expletives with the tact of a baseball bat to the head and still being the funniest part of any scene she performs in as Susie. It is how the whole ensemble comes together in this messy and glorious way. It is Amy Sherman-Palladino (and Daniel Palladino!) at her best, and I am just grateful The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is back in our lives.