‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ Season 4, Episodes 5 & 6 Review

A lot happens in the following episodes, one of the highlighting moments being the closure we finally get with the Shy Baldwin storyline.

**Spoilers ahead for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4 Episodes 5 and 6**

Episode 5: “How to Chew Quietly and Influence People”

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4, Episode 5 “How to Chew Quietly and Influence People” begins with Susie (Alex Borstein) at her office/housing quarters interviewing for a new secretary. She’s terrible at the interview process, but the impressive backdrop of the city behind her makes up for the lack of professionalism at Susie Myerson and Associates. She constantly excuses herself from the interview to go and read a chapter from a book called Hiring and Firing: A Guide for Modern Managers. Possibly hiring a hiring manager would be a good productive step to business expansion. Oh, the irony…

Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) is in a fashionable matching arm sling because, oh yeah, she fell into the pit at The Wolfard in the last episode. I can see how this might create some obstacles, or it could be an excuse for the dressing department to show off some new fabric and their talent at styling.

Meanwhile, Joel (Michael Zegen) and Mei (Stephanie Hsu) are holding a casual conversation about how they think Nixon looks like he eats children, all the while fielding non-stop phone calls and the ringing doorbell. Joel doesn’t want to answer any of them because they’re probably just one of “Ma’s girls” and if he answers, then he’s as good as engaged. Mei finally agrees to go out to dinner and meet his parents to end both of their sufferings.

Back at Susie Myerson and Associates, Midge shows up with a purple outfit and matching purple arm sling. It’s fairly impressive, but now I’m getting distracted tracking its continuity. Midge is there to show what she got in the mail: a wedding invitation from Shy Baldwin (LeRoy McClain). I’m glad they brought this storyline back because, as all The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel viewers are aware, that unresolved storyline is like an itch in the middle of your back. And you’re in the middle of an empty room with your arms tied together and mouth taped shut. Midge carries a lot of bitter anger towards Shy. It’s a poor judge of character considering she almost outed a black man in 1960s America. She refuses to attend but Susie persuades her with the open bar.

Sophie Lennon (Jane Lynch) makes another return, meeting Susie for lunch at The Stage Deli and already complaining about how exhausting and harrowing it was for her to hail a cab. They’re meeting with Mike Carr (played by Rachel Brosnahan’s real-life husband, Jason Ralph), a rep for Gordon Ford’s late-night talk shows in hopes of landing Sophie a spot for a live interview. I have to applaud Susie’s salesman ability, she’s a real charmer. Mike is initially uninterested but Susie sells him on the fact that he’ll be getting Sophie Lennon Unhinged. Sophie’s publicist quit on her and she’s got nothing to promote so her disturbed mind and closet of dead skeletons are wide open for viewing.

In other minor subplot news, Rose (Marin Hinkle) landed a big-shot client, Solomon Melamid (Scott Cohen), a “cash cow” as Rose calls him. Her success with his business is a guarantee for a flood of new clients, however, he makes it very clear that discretion is of utmost importance. It’s around this time that Rose also finds out that Midge is working at a strip club and immediately wants her to quit because it could selfishly ruin the image of her business.

We finally arrive at the climactic meat of the episode: Shy Baldwin’s wedding to longtime girlfriend, Monica (Chinara Hill). Midge and Susie make it to the reception–sans arm sling–and take immediate advantage of the open bar and photo ops with the paparazzi.

Midge is unrepentant in her pursuit of revenge, it’s off-putting. It’s moments of selfishness driven by ignorance that force her down the unlikable meter in my eyes. It feels intentional though, to have the audience hate the way our heroine is crying and complaining on the podium of privilege that she’s perched on. Susie’s more upset by the stop in income but Midge’s eyes flame red from her loss of attention and potential fame.

Let’s take a quick break to check on Joel and Mei. Mei is stressing out about the dress she plans to wear and Jewish culture. It’s endearing at first, but she ends up dropping out at the last minute and Joel shows up to dinner with his parents by himself.

Okay, wedding time. After a serenading number from Shy with a soulful voice and dead-behind-the-eyes look, Midge corners Shy in the women’s restroom, knowing he’d be in there. They start with friendly banter but Midge is visibly fuming. She leads the conversation in a way that ultimately puts the blame on Shy for her downfall. That he was missing two folks on that plane and that he should’ve let her on and she should’ve been there.

What catches us all by surprise is that this speech isn’t fueled by her own selfish mania. She goes on to explain that she deserved to be on that plane so that she could tell him face-to-face that she fucked up. Not because she deserved to keep the job. She’s apologizing and owning up to her mistake and, oh is that satisfying. Surprising, yet satisfying. It was a much-needed lock on the door to this over-marinated issue. Not only did she want to apologize, but she’s also admitting to overlooking the consequences of potentially outing Shy and how career-breaking that would’ve been for him.

Midge’s resentment comes from a place of genuine hurt, a place where she thought they were friends and she deserved a chance at a civil conversation instead of being straight ghosted by Shy and his team. There are no more chances at a future Midge and Shy collaboration anymore because that door is definitely closed. So much so that she stops herself from getting out of her taxi in order to console him standing melancholy outside of the venue.

Instead, she finds another man to help out in the dead of the night. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s Season 4, Episode 5 ends with Midge stepping out into the sidewalk to pull a drunken man off his face. We don’t get to see who it is though because the screen fades to a blur and the end credits roll.

Episode 6: “Maisel vs Lennon: The Cut Contest”

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4, Episode 6 “Maisel vs. Lennon: The Cut Contest” opens up with the answer to the last episode’s question: Who was that man? It’s none other than fellow comedian Lenny Bruce (Luke Kirby). The enigmatic bunny that pops up once in a blue moon to either spout some comedic wisdom on Midge, bail her out of jail, or increase the confusingly romantic tension. That’s just me shipping but it looks like a four-season-long ploy to get them together.

A hungover Lenny wakes up in a kid’s room, confused and disoriented. He stumbles into the kitchen, into a world entirely unknown and uncomfortable to him. With Rose and Abe sitting for breakfast and Midge in full-fledged mother-mode, Lenny fearfully runs away. Midge explains that she found him practically dead on the sidewalk and when she asked him where he lived, he responded with “Nice hair.” He didn’t actually say that but for the sake of their friendship, Midge says to just stick with that story. Ahh, so there is an attraction brewing somewhere. Noted.

This personal and domestic lifestyle that Midge has opened up to Lenny, he claims shouldn’t be melded into his comic life and grimaces at the mere thought. They’re supposed to talk about debauchery and pornography, and so blending the two lives together is an idea unfathomable to Lenny and clears the way for a tragic ending to the potential romance.

At Susie’s office, things are running more smoothly thanks to her new secretary, Dinah (Alfie Fuller). The guardian angel sent by God to watch over Susie Myerson and Associates, making sure it doesn’t burn all of Times Square down to the ground. Susie’s office is filled to the brim with gift baskets from Sophie Lennon as an extended thanks for landing her that interview with Gordon Ford. Which led to her new gig as the game talk show host of Seconds Count!

Midge’s small new changes back at The Wolfard lead to greatness and success. Turns out that Midge had been attracting a huge amount of ladies to the club, driving up the sales of the bar which means Susie is now forcing her way into negotiating a cut of the bar sales. Boise (Santino Fontana) brings up his concern with Midge’s traffic at a business meeting with his business partner, Terrence (Daniel Oreskes). That Midge is bringing in “the wrong kind of people;” the kind that makes pork chops for dinner. Women. Terrence is all for this new business model because more ladies mean more men buying more drinks. 

Abe hires Midge’s best friend, Imogene (Bailey De Young), or “Dody” in Abe’s eyes because fathers never learn the names of their daughter’s friends. He takes her on as his transcriber so that he can have the freedom to write without typing. I personally don’t have the excessive finances to employ my own transcriber, and using the voice-to-text feature reaps more consequences than benefits.

Rose’s matchmaking business might be coming to an end this episode. She had been trapped into a setup by other local matchmakers through the disguise of an invite to the Small Business Women’s Council annual luncheon. It’s less of an innocent networking brunch and more of a classy mafia-esque showdown because apparently, the matchmaking industry has territories and rules. Rose is the threat infiltrating all of it after snagging the Melamid clan. Although it ends her business for now, it does explain that mysterious note Rose received a while ago. A fancy note with elegant calligraphy and one word written: Stop.

The episode branches into a new storyline with the potential to introduce a new female rivalry? Or alliance if Midge plays her cards right. At least that’s how I see it with the introduction of character L. Roy Dunham (Hari Nef), the journalist responsible for the articles bashing Mrs. Maisel’s stage performances. When Midge shows up at her office expecting there to be a man behind the lethal pen, she’s surprised to see all of the hurtful words were written by a woman. With no success at getting her to stop, she leaves, but not before Dunham reminds her that she’s the reason her name is in the press. There are only two more episodes after this one, so I’m interested to see how this transforms into what could be Midge’s next downfall, or her finally rising up the ashes.

After Sophie’s relentless gifting of a new Cadillac and set of golf clubs, she’s unsuccessful at bagging Susie again as her manager. So she desperately claws her way into Midge’s apartment. Metaphorically, of course, because Sophie gets exhausted after opening a door so I can’t imagine her physically willing herself around. She offers her a spot on her show Seconds Count! as the new emcee. It’ll be a win-win situation for the both of them because Midge will get paid a lot of money, and if they get along in front of Susie, it might persuade her back into Sophie’s payroll. The cherry on top of this absurd offer is that Sophie will muzzle L. Roy Dunham for her. If it were up to me, with all the destruction Sophie has caused, I’d steer clear. But there’s no story in that so Midge hesitantly accepts her offer.

Oh, I was right! As most of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel viewers are with this dynamic. Midge is a hit with the audience of Seconds Count!, using her humor to charm the audience. Sophie’s delusion glazes over and identifies that as an instant threat. So she steals a mic and goes head-to-head with Midge in an on-stage battle of comedians. It immediately turns sour because their jokes get personal, bringing in the Shy fiasco and Sophie’s drug abuse. Doesn’t end well. But what does when it comes to Sophie?

Final Thoughts on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4, Episodes 5 & 6

I’m still a little unsure of Joel and Mei’s weird dynamic. They’ve only been together a short while yet they fight like a couple about to celebrate 30 years of marriage. Mei couldn’t even call what they had a “relationship” so I’m just curious as to what either of them are getting out of this? For Mei, it’s nothing so far. For Joel, he got a new jukebox machine.

Since Midge was left on the tarmac the night she was fired from Shy’s tour, I understood her frustration with losing such a big job. It’s how her anger transformed into a seething hatred catalyzed her egocentric privileged white woman image. But I’m beyond glad that it was more of an emotional battle of friendship and not a career-driven one. Shy was a nice breath of fresh and new air to the show and LeRoy McClain’s soothing voice is enough to warm anyone up this winter season. Sad to see him go, but happy to see it all resolved.

As I’ve noted earlier, there are only two episodes left in the season and I hope that’s enough to figure out what the heck is going on with Lenny Bruce and Midge. Was his little incident that drove him into the home of the Weissman’s a way for the writers to break that ship? Knowing that they’re incompatible in more ways than they are compatible? I don’t know, what I do know is that it leaves me wanting them together even more.

Rose’s matchmaking business was a nice hustle to keep her busy, so I don’t see the writers killing that off for her just yet. She just landed the Melamid family! There’s no way she can let go of that now! I guess we’ll have to see how she persists under the scrutinizing eyes of some very scary matchmaking ladies.

Finally, let’s address Sophie Lennon. Her character is a “cash cow” for the show because she undoubtedly causes the most complications, albeit, in a very entertaining manner. Seeing the way her deluded mind sabotaged her relationship with Susie by fighting with Midge again, should be unsurprising and predictable at this point. I truly hope things work out for her in the Maisel universe and I hope it’s not the last we see of her. Even though I complain so much about her interactions with Susie and Midge.

Other things I should probably mention: Mei is pregnant, and Midge dropped the “Maisel” from her name when introducing herself to L. Roy Dunham.

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