Mrs. Maisel: What Happened To Midge’s Season 4 Revenge?

Warning: SPOILERS for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4

Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) started off The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4 by declaring her desire for “revenge!” but why didn’t she get it? Picking up immediately after The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 3’s cliffhanger ending, the season 4 premiere, “Rumble on the Wonder Wheel,” dealt with the fallout of Midge getting fired from Shy Baldwin’s (LeRoy McClain) world tour. Midge was angrier than she’d been since her husband Joel (Michael Zegen) left her in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 1 but the events of season 4 didn’t see Miriam exact the revenge she claimed she wanted.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel‘s season 4 premiere is bookended by Midge doing a stand-up set at the Gaslight. Mrs. Maisel cracked up the audience with her honest feelings about how furious she is that, once again, “a man” – either Shy or his manager Reggie (Sterling K. Brown) – “f****** up my life.” Midge declared that she wanted her “pound of flesh” and “Medea-level revenge” during her blistering set. Based on the content of her act, Midge’s stand-up performance took place after the events of “Rumble on the Wonder Wheel” since she referenced the inaccurate reporting of her new enemy, Daily News gossip columnist L. Roy Dunham (Hari Nef), who turned out to be a woman. But every incensed word that came out of Midge’s mouth came off like a mission statement that The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4 would be about Midge exacting revenge.

However, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4 wasn’t about Midge getting revenge at all. Instead, Midge hid from her detractors for most of the season. After discovering the Wolford, a seedy Manhattan strip club, Midge realized that it was a place where she could earn a steady paycheck as the emcee and in-house comic. Mrs. Maisel’s rationale for working at the Wolford was practical because there, she could do her act the way she wanted without subjecting herself to the humiliations of being bumped from comedy clubs or terrible newspaper reviews (although L. Roy Dunham eventually found Mrs. Maisel at the Wolford). Midge also took charge backstage and significantly improved the Wolford’s presentations and working conditions, earning the club more money (although the Wolford’s popularity led to it being raided by the police).

But Midge working at the Wolford wasn’t the revenge she craved at the start of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4 because, once her anger dissipated, being vengeful isn’t really in Midge’s personality. This was proven when Midge finally came face-to-face with Shy Baldwin at his wedding. In one of the best scenes in all of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Midge didn’t exact “a pound of flesh” from Shy. Instead, she offered her heartfelt apology for hurting him at the Apollo while keeping her distance and firmly establishing that they aren’t friends. But there was no revenge on Shy from Midge. Later, Midge had another chance at revenge when Shy’s management team bribed her, but Mrs. Maisel steadfastly refused their money and walked away wanting nothing from Baldwin or his people.

It turned out, despite her fury, Midge Maisel is no Medea. Rather, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4 was about a wounded Midge licking her wounds and using the Wolford to gain some control while simultaneously hiding from the pain that her career brings her. Meanwhile, being at the Wolford was actively hurting her career because Midge refused any opening act gigs, even from Tony Bennett, and Mrs. Maisel made it impossible for her manager Susie (Alex Borstein) to book her anywhere. However, Midge did get a modicum of revenge against her nemesis, Sophie Lennon (Jane Lynch) when she accepted a job as the warm-up comic for Sophie’s NBC game show. That gig lasted exactly one afternoon but Midge was able to give as well as she got in a blisteringly funny and savage duel with Sophie, which was one of the highlights of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4 is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

About The Author