‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ Season 4 Finale Spoiler Review – “Ethan… Esther… Chaim” & “How Do You Get To Carnegie Hall?”

Following The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4 Episodes 5 and 6, the finale has something to look forward to.

Beware, dear reader, for there are spoilers ahead!

Episode 7: “Ethan… Esther… Chaim”

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4, Episode 7 “Ethan… Esther… Chaim” starts by introducing a new man to the scene. Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) explains through a serene voiceover how they met. She and her son Ethan (Matteo Pascale) were walking their dog through the park when this unnamed man’s own little pooch came running up to them. They spark a flirty conversation and the show cues the romantic montage of them running into each other the following days. Kind of like The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon. Who knows how long they’ve been walking that same path every day? All we know is that now The Man routinely shows up.

They continue this short courtship and it eventually leads to them hooking up at his apartment conveniently nearby. As Midge lays in his bed, she inner monologues how this newfound spontaneity in her life is making her want to keep chasing that feeling. She’s quickly knocked down to the bottom from her high when The Man’s wife comes bursting in though. As The Man and his wife scream at each other in the background, Midge scrambles to leave the scene, tragically leaving behind one of her favorite dresses. Remember this, it’s important for future reference.

As short-lived this romance was, it makes for a great subject to include in Midge’s comedy sets!

Outside of the Button Club, Joel (Michael Zegen) is giving his good friend Archie (Joel Johnstone) descriptive instructions on how to make cash deposits at the nearest bank. Like his mother, he’s inherited that sense of fear when it comes to leaving cash around and he hasn’t found his good hiding spots yet. Archie tells an anxious Joel to not worry and “I got this!” Tell me, since when does that ever end well for a character reciting those exact words? Archie hasn’t even made a step off the street when a motorcyclist whizzes by, snatching it straight out of his hands.

Abe (Tony Shalhoub) is at a tobacco shop and is cornered by two of the matchmaking ladies out for Rose’s career, Gitta and Molly (Jackie Hoffman and Marceline Hugot). Apparently, Rose (Marin Hinkle) hadn’t taken their very well-crafted instruction to “Stop!” by the ladies and didn’t end her business like she said she would. But why would she want to when she’s milking the cash cow? They tell Abe that it’s in his best interest for Rose to heed their mysterious message except now instead of “Stop,” it’s “Stop now.”

At a breakfast with Midge, Joel is stressing out about how hectic his life has become. Add to that some new money problems no thanks to Archie. His clipped attitude doesn’t go missed by Midge, and when he asks him about it, he reveals that he and Mei (Stephanie Hsu) are having a baby. Midge’s excessive questions are adding even more grey hairs to his head. She’s surprisingly taking this well and is mostly concerned about the fact Joel knows nothing about his baby mama.

Next comes my absolute favorite Abe moment of the entire season. This show is fairly humorous to me, but never have I ever laughed my hardest when Abe recalled his disastrous run home after being approached by the scary matchmakers at the tobacco shop. He practically sprinted out onto the streets and found ironic sanctuary in a Catholic Church. As a Jewish man! He saw people moving and so moved along with them; his strategy at fitting into the scene. What this line eventually led him to was the front of the altar, where he knelt along with everyone else and took communion. Way to stick to character, Abe. I’ve gotta admit, the dedication is impressive.

When the priest said “The Body of Christ,” he answered, “Mazel Tov,” which maybe made the priest a little suspicious of Abe. Maybe. Abe immediately spat out the communion bread and pocketed it as evidence. He ran straight back home, red, sweaty, and choking as if he consumed the devil himself, and shared this story with Rose. Rose says they have bigger problems on their hands and to just cover it with a napkin and set it aside.

At Susie Myerson and Associates, Susie (Alex Borstein) shares with Midge that she has big news. She managed to land a headlining gig with a thousand-seater venue and great pay. What’s the catch, Susie? It’s in Zagreb, Croatia. It’s a five-night stay but the place only turns on the electricity one night a week. So obviously the most sensible decision is to fly in for that one night, perform the gig, then fly back home. Midge unsurprisingly passes.

Susie is facing major problems with booking Midge because of the fact that she works at a strip club, might I mention, an illegal operation in 1960s America. So whenever Susie wants to send potential bookers to see Midge in action, sending them to a strip club might give them the wrong idea.

Midge employs Nicky and Frank (John Scurti and Erik Palladino) to investigate Mei for her. It’s not the most efficient or ethical way of getting to know a person, but I’m exhausted of Mei’s enigmatic personality at this point too. I’d even hire Nicky and Frank to do the dirty work for me. Long story short, they fearfully back out after finding out exactly who they were tasked with investigating. And if it’s not telling that a couple of mobsters terrified of getting in the way of another mafia family should be territory one mustn’t cross, then I don’t know what is.

Although Susie has been lacking a bit when it comes to booking new gigs for Midge, she’s been doing pretty well with her other client, Alfie The Magician (Gideon Glick). The whole Weissman clan is at his first show. Abe even brought his communion wafer as his show-and-tell conversation starter! I’m guessing he keeps it in his pocket solely for that reason.

Alfie’s show begins and he’s actually pretty great. He’s branded as a magician but his real act for tonight’s show is hypnosis and he pulls Rose from the audience as his subject. After hypnotizing Rose into performing what her daughter does at her job, she performs Midge’s act at The Wolfard verbatim. The same act she saw when she snuck in to spy on her.

The act exploited a ton of personal and uncomfortably sexual stories about her family and they’re all there to see it. It causes a rift between Midge’s brother and his wife, Abe is angry after finding out (through Midge’s act via Rose) that he never actually changed the light bulb that one time. It also leads to a street-side argument between Midge and Rose after the show.

Midge is mostly angry at her mother for spying on her but the conversation detours into Rose admitting that she’s quitting her business because of threats by the matchmaking mafia. Rose had never been supportive when it came to her daughter’s job, but the negativity hasn’t been passed on to Midge. In a turn of events, it’s Midge who’s giving Rose the wise speech of trudging through hard times. Midge is telling her mother that she loves her matchmaking job and she shouldn’t let a bump on the road (or four scary ones disguised as fancy ladies) deter her from pursuing her passion.

Midge points out that their journeys are not so different from one another. Midge’s own just involves more naked women and dick jokes. It’s easy to quit, but don’t, Midge says. Don’t stop. Susie walks by right at this moment to laugh at the irony.

Even though Susie has been struggling lately with booking Midge, Midge was the one to book herself an event in this episode. One of the strippers at her work, Gloria (Kayli Carter), told her that there’s a big New York fundraiser for John F. Kennedy coming up called “Wives for Kennedy” and that they’re looking for a comedian. At this event, Midge is given one rule: no dirty jokes. That should cover the rule of “just stay clean,” shouldn’t it? Midge calls back from her affair at the start of this episode about a “lucky dress” she has. That’s a story for another time, she says, but all the ladies urge her to continue this juicy story.

I’m not entirely sure about the public’s knowledge of JFK’s affairs at the time, but maybe keeping the topic of adultery off the table while speaking in front of Jackie Kennedy is a superb idea, eh Midge? She trudges on, relaying the intimate details of sleeping with a married man. Like a record scratch, the room falls silent. It was at this point I paused the screen right on the audience’s reaction and almost every lady was no longer laughing. Midge should’ve taken that as her cue to cut the infidelity out of her act. But no, in the once wise words of Miriam Midge Maisel, don’t stop! She clearly takes this mantra seriously.

So she continues despite the exaggerated dispersed gasps, gossiping glances, and disappointed facepalms. It ends with Jackie Kennedy sobbing at her table. So yeah, the show wasn’t her best.

At Susie Myerson and Associates, Susie decides she’s going to fire Dinah (Alfie Fuller) over dinner, referring to her trusty old Hiring/Firing book as guidance. Dinah could tone down the unprofessionalism and stop bringing her personal life into work, but there’s no doubt she keeps the office running. Susie would be lost without her. Susie is making her firing motives terribly obvious. She probably hasn’t gotten to the “firing” chapter of the book yet, but she’s giving Dinah the clear idea by having her pack up all of her things before they go out to dinner.

She starts the firing process first by gaslighting her and saying she’s (Dinah) not happy at her job. Their attentions are averted to an amateur comedian performing on stage at the diner they’re at. Turns out it was Dinah’s plan all along to bring her there and meet this comedian, James (Jay Will), to hopefully take him on as a new client. As it’s almost every secretary’s job to know everything about their boss, she knew that Susie would take a liking to James. So much so that she takes him on as her new client. James seems special and his comedy is uniquely different from Midge’s, it makes me excited to see more of him and hopefully, we do.

At the end of the episode, Joel finally breaks the news to his father Moishe (Kevin Pollak) that he’s getting married to Mei and that she’s also pregnant. From a point-of-view shot afar, we’re not sure exactly what part of the news Joel was telling him at the moment, but it’s stressful enough to cause Moishe to pass out.

Episode 8: “How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?”

The season finale episode begins with Midge, Abe, and Rose rushing into Moishe’s hospital room. He’s lying unconscious and Abe is weirdly the most distressed of them all. Considering Abe and Moishe’s relationship is one comparable to Tom and Jerry.

Midge and Joel are in the hallway arguing about which one of them killed Moishe. Joel says it’s because he mushed the words “Chinese” and “pregnant” all in one nervous rush of the spout. Midge says it’s because she told him two weeks ago that she couldn’t make her payment and laid the track to a slow heart attack. Archie and Imogene (Joel Johnstone and Bailey De Young) come running in for emotional support and Archie also admits he was probably the one who killed Moishe after losing the bag of money in the last episode. Poor Moishe.

Abe soon tasks himself with writing Moishe’s obituary since someone at The Times won’t do it. The audacity The Times has to reject writing an obituary for someone below their league of interest, amirite? I can’t tell yet if this is Abe excited Moishe is practically dying or genuinely sad? Either way, it’s probably bad luck to write someone’s obituary before they pass. Of this, I’d like to emphasize that buying your own cemetery plots is completely different and is called being prepared.

Back at the hospital, Joel had spent so much time studying medical books to try and get to the root of Moishe’s sudden heart attack, but he came up short. The only thing he’s able to figure out is that Moishe’s heart attack probably had something to do with his heart. Mei is teaching Shirley (Caroline Aaron) how to play mahjong and Shirley is wiping her clean of her money.

Midge suggests that she and Mei finally have “the talk” in regards to their children. Mei will have to be stepmother to her kids, and vice-versa. So they need to set up some ground rules. All of this is terrifying Mei, especially the idea of being married and having kids. Although it’s a bit too late to rectify the latter.

Since Midge is there at the hospital to support her ex-in-laws, she had to pass on her shift at The Wolfard. It throws the club off balance a bit and Boise (Santino Fontana) calls Midge, desperate to have her back and extinguish the fire she caused with her absence. To cover for her, Midge hired three strippers to take over her emcee job. The comedic delivery isn’t there, and they’re reading the jokes off notecards held up at eye level like they’re reciting a poem for their fifth-grade English class. The most it earns is scattered laughter, but nonetheless, they need Midge.

After finding Mei consoling Joel as a significant partner does, Midge decides she’s not necessarily needed at that time and leaves momentarily to perform one set at The Wolfard.

Like most of her sets, she uses them as her personal diary. She literally just left the hospital so it seems a bit too soon to share publicly the insights of her family drama. She does it anyway and starts off by telling everyone that her ex-father-in-law had a heart attack. It made me think; it must be scary being in Midge’s circle. You’re constantly at risk of having the personal details of your life shared with a live audience for some laughs.

Considering we’re four seasons deep into the show and Joel and Midge broke things off in the first season, it seems weird for Midge to still slip in calling Joel her “husband.” She catches herself quickly to correct herself though. She gets uncharacteristically emotional, in the sadder sense, when she’s usually passionately angry. Her whole set turns into a talk of feminism, how women are stronger than most people give them credit for. Dare she ask, are women more important than God? Perhaps they were always the ones in charge and that no one told them.

Lenny Bruce (Luke Kirby) shows up to stop by and say hello. Also to apologize for his weird outburst during their last interaction. His other other reason for being there was to say he’s been talking Midge up to Tony Bennett’s people. Tony Bennett! Bennett’s team initially wanted Lenny to open but since he’ll be busy performing at Carnegie Hall, he suggested getting in contact with Midge Maisel. Before she could even say no and that she doesn’t do opening acts anymore, the club is raided by the police.

In a chaotic run of colorful strippers, Midge and Lenny sprint out and find refuge in Lenny’s hotel room, which is conveniently nearby. You can’t see it but I’m smirking. Do you smell what the Palladinos are cooking up? A dish with delicious romantic tension bursting through! Two old friends with raging chemistry are stuck in a hotel room in the middle of a snowstorm. How could it possibly end? Not that Midge is planning to stay for the night, but I should mention there’s only one bed.

During a talk about corsets, Lenny can’t believe Midge has one specifically for the event of performing. Midge says that the difference between her show corset and the one she wears to the dentist is that it’s much more likely to suffocate her. Also, it’s prettier.

Lenny responds—with a daring sexual gaze—never breaking eye contact: “It’s always the pretty ones who try to kill you.”

It’s not his charming wit or flirty gazes that suddenly change the atmosphere, it’s the straightforward comment, “You are more important than God.” I think Lenny Bruce is a man written by a woman. And stop staring, Lenny, you’re making me nervous.

Midge points out that he’s good at paying attention. Lenny says, “To you? Always.” Be right back, I’m going to fling myself off a cliff.

Lenny, in desperation, says that he needs to see the show corset. They inevitably begin their hookup. *Cue the Michael Scott gift from The Office: “Oh, my God! Okay, it’s happening!”

It’s not like I’ve waited four seasons for this to happen. Thank you, Palladinos.

In the middle of the night, Midge escapes to the bathroom where she discovers Lenny’s heroin stash. When Lenny finds her going through his stuff, he’s surprisingly unfazed. All he does is assure her that “All is well.” And then promises her some Chinese food later.

At Abe’s work, he gets a message from the hospital. We don’t know what’s said over the phone, but we do know it’s urgent enough to have Abe running with Moishe’s typed-up obituary in hand. He bursts into Moishe’s hospital room to find him conscious and doing well with the rest of the family sitting all around him. Mei is introduced to Abe as the mahjong player the hospital hires to comfort the family of patients about to meet impending death. Not as Joel’s girlfriend. So Shirley still doesn’t know who Mei really is.

They ask what Abe is holding in his hand and when Abe says it’s Moishe’s obituary, Moishe now thinks Abe was excited for him to die. Shirley urges him to read it in front of everyone and so he’s pressured into doing so. I kind of got the gist that the obituary was going to be heartfelt and not full of excitement. He first starts off by summarizing the life Moishe led then moves into how Moishe took him and Rose in when they had nowhere to go. Moishe took care of their daughter even though she wasn’t with Joel anymore, and that he was a very good man. He delivers the last line with a shaky voice and teary eyes: “I miss you very much.”

As we’re all well aware that two men in the 1960s expressing any emotion other than broodiness and anger is considered emasculating, Abe tags the end with a “But you’re not dead so…” There’s a true friendship between Abe and Moishe and although it’s not verbally said, their mutual respect and love are shared with a knowing look and smile.

Back at Susie Myerson and Associates, Susie’s on the phone with Tony Bennett’s people and her irises are practically flashing dollar signs. It’s instantly wiped away when Midge reminds her that she doesn’t do opening acts anymore. It’s a very headstrong attitude towards changing the industry, but Midge’s privilege is peeking through when she expects to have headlining gigs handed to her all the time.

Frank points out that the Bennett gig seems like a big opportunity lost and Midge thanks him for his input and says that she and Susie “have a plan.” A plan that started in the first episode of Season 4 and has yet to make moves…

In a quick sequence of events to rectify this episode’s multiple subplots, Midge points out that Nicky and Frank have some sort of ulterior motive and are waiting for a rainy day to demand a favor from Susie, Midge being the “favor.” Moishe tells Joel that Mei must convert before introducing her as his girlfriend to Shirley. Also that he’s not angry about Mei being Chinese and that she’s pregnant. After all, it’s another chance for him to name another grandchild after his grandmother, Helda. And Rose sends the matchmaking Mafiosi a neat little letter reading “I will not stop!”

The episode concludes at the Carnegie Hall where Lenny Bruce performs in front of a roaring crowd. Midge catches him a little late after the show and he ends up leading her back to the stage he was just on shortly before, but this time the seats are empty. Essentially showing her a taste of where he stands in his career, and showing her that she could be standing there too if she wasn’t so stubborn with her gig choices.

Lenny asks Midge why she turned down the Bennett gig when he’s worked so hard behind the scenes to get her in the first place. Midge repeats, yet again, no opening acts. Coming up is the much-needed slap-in-the-face with reality speech Lenny gives to her. A huge tangent by Lenny telling her that he’s worked very hard to get to where he is. The hard work included playing every single gig he could get knowing most of the time he’ll get arrested. He hustled his way to Carnegie Hall and is urging Midge to do the same, then accuses her of hiding.

His clear message is to not give up no matter how many bad gigs she receives. It’s lost on me how Midge has a clear manifesto of not stopping, yet she picks and chooses when exactly she goes and stops. Clearly, there’s an error in her judgment. She’s easily discouraged, I’ve noticed. Turning down all opening acts puts her at a snail’s pace at the big race to the endgame.

Lenny Bruce speaks for all of us when he says to her “If you blow this moment, I swear, you will break my fucking heart.”

The scene, episode, and season end with Midge fighting through a snowstorm. She loses her umbrella but stops in the middle of the storm to stare up at a big billboard of The Gordon Ford Show. What could this possibly allude to?

Final Thoughts on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4 Episodes 7 & 8

We’ve got a lot of action-packed moments in the last two episodes of this season and I am here for it. Considering the first few episodes moved a bit slowly, we still received some satisfying conclusions about a few things.

Midge seemed to be all talk when it came to “changing the business” at the beginning. It made me look forward to watching the innovative ways she and Susie can find to kill the patriarchy and reign at the top. Sort of a bummer to realize that she didn’t get very far and complained most of the season. However, it does leave more room to actually initiate things with a new season. 

I don’t want to discredit Midge’s work ethic because she is indisputably a hustler. Just maybe not the right kind of hustler. At least she’s not sitting at home wasting her breath complaining about the downfall of her career. She puts herself to work. Hopefully, she heeds Lenny’s advice and stops building her own roadblocks.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 5 Predictions and Desires

I’ve complained a ton about Sophie Lennon (Jane Lynch) and the chaos she brews, but I do hope to see more of her in this next season. She’s already experienced a public outburst and reached Sophie Lennon’s definition of rock bottom: hailing her own taxi cabs and opening her own doors. Whether her arc resolves itself with Sophie finally recognizing her psychotic ego, or with Midge beating her to the top, her drama is more than welcome by us viewers and Jane Lynch enthusiasts.

I’m not very confident with the Mei and Joel storyline. So far, she hasn’t convinced me much that she shares the same level of attraction with Joel, or maybe she’s battling her own inner feelings about him. Either way, her hesitance throughout this entire season proves forthright that she is not ready. I wouldn’t be surprised if this narrative continued in the new season with Mei ghosting Joel completely and her paying him a surprise visit with a surprise baby in her arms at the end of the season.

Rose had made the risky decision with continuing her matchmaking business endeavor. I definitely see some financial and power-related success in her future, however, a force of four against one calls for a war in this upcoming season. There’s no way she’s coming out of this unscathed.

I also see potential growth in Susie Myerson and Associates. There’s no doubt in my mind that Susie has an eye for raw talent and an insane salesman ability. Speaking of, I hope to see more of James as well. We only got a tiny glimpse of his charm and wisecrack humor. Under the right management, he might see himself working alongside Midge as comedic allies.

Nicky and Frank had been hanging out a lot at Susie’s office, offering unsolicited advice and the occasional housekeeping labor. Midge is the one to raise suspicions because at first, it looked like a fun dynamic between ex-kidnappers turned closest confidants to their ex-hostage. Considering they are mobsters, Midge points out a great observation: they’re holding on to a favor for a rainy day. We’ll probably see exactly what it is in this next season. Their presence is innocent at first, but could actually end up being the season’s leading predicament.

I do want to see more of Lenny Bruce. That’s obvious. Without a thought.