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The following story includes major spoilers from the series finale of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel… proceed with caution
The last ever episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which dropped on Amazon this morning (read our recap), pretty much tied up every character’s story arc with a resplendent, period appropriate bow. That’s not to say we weren’t left with a burning question or two or…. OK, we had nearly a dozen. Luckily, series creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and fellow EP Daniel Palladino made themselves available to TVLine early Friday morning to field every last one of them.
TVLINE | How are you both feeling this morning?
AMY SHERMAN-PALLADINO | I think its great that it’s out there. I hope people enjoy it. I hope people feel like it was worth their hours and hours of investment.
DANIEL PALLADINO | We threw everything we had at this last season.
AS-P | There’s no kitchen sink left.
TVLINE | The flash-forward interludes in the finale steered clear of the year 1966, which is when the real Lenny Bruce died. Did you ever consider showing us Midge’s reaction to news of his passing?
DANIEL | We debated it. We thought it would be too on-the-nose sentimental.
AMY | Everyone knows he dies. They know what his sad end was. What we wanted to do instead was show the decline. And that’s why we started [the finale] the way we did… And if we see his demise [play out] more on stage, it ties it in a little more thematically with Midge’s journey. And that picture of him naked and dead in his bathroom, which is kind of an iconic and horrifying picture, it was so burned into our brains that we were like, “Let’s not see him like that. Let’s see the demise of the work and his great brain and the great talent” instead.
TVLINE | The final shot of the entire series was of Susie and not Midge. Why?
DANIEL | [Laughs]
AMY | The practical reason was that we had this big wide, expansive shot of Susie and Midge [was on a tiny set]. You can only get the camera back so far when you have a [tiny] set. So we felt like we wanted to end on the bigness of their friendship. The last laugh we hear [after the screen fades to black] is Midge’s.
TVLINE | Speaking of Midge’s apartment, here’s an inside baseball question from a fellow New Yorker: Does she live in The Dakota or The Ansonia? ‘Cause it looked like The Ansonia but Yoko Ono, who Midge mentioned living in the same building as her, famously resides at The Dakota.
AMY | She lives in The Dansonia.
DANIEL | [Laughs] It’s a fictional Manhattan she is living in.
TVLINE | All of the show’s series regulars were present for the big, climactic Gordon Ford Show sequence with the exception of Kevin Pollak. It was explained that Moishe was still recovering from the mishap in the bathroom, but his absence still felt somewhat conspicuous.
DANIEL | Moishe and Shirley’s big last moment was that shower thing where they [reach] the culmination of their journey. It was just a choice that we made.
TVLINE | Was that elaborate taxi cab bottleneck set piece actually shot on Park Ave?
DANIEL | Yes. [The city] lets you do that on a Sunday night for a certain number of hours. They gave us three blocks.
AMY | They gave us way more than I thought we were going to get… We rehearsed that scene at the Steiner Studios parking lot [in Brooklyn]. We cleared the parking lot and we brought in cabs and every crew member lined up their cars and we measured it and taped it and rehearsed it over and over because we simply wouldn’t have had time to put it all together [during the limited time we had to shoot along Central Park East]. It was two days with stand-ins for Marin Hinkle and Tony Shalhoub and then a day when we brought Marin and Tony in and we ran them around the Steiner parking lot.
DANIEL | It was Michael Mann type s–t we were doing.
TVLINE | Was that just a case of you wanting to include a big set piece in the final episode?
AMY | Rose and Midge were thick as thieves in the pilot. Best friends. And we had never really gotten back to that. Rose still had never seen Midge do stand-up — at least not in a sober state. Midge asking Rose to [attend the Gordon Ford Show] taping and Rose realizing that her daughter wants her to be a part of this thing that she has been so dismissive and afraid of was [a significant] emotional burst. And this felt like a fun, cinematic way to show how important it was to Rose. She will run through f–king [traffic] because she has to get to her daughter’s show.
TVLINE | What did Rose die of?
DANIEL | We figured it was cancer.
TVLINE | When in the timeline did she die?
AMY | She didn’t live too much longer after we saw her in Episode 7’s [1973 flash-forward.
TVLINE | How much of Gordon Ford’s enthusiastic reception to Midge’s four-minute set was genuine and how much of it was him just saving face?
AMY | It was 100 percent genuine. His pride is so big that for him to be won over he really had to be won over. His territory had been peed on. He was instructed to do something he didn’t want to do. We wanted it to be genuine, [almost like him admitting], “I was a d–k. You were the real deal.”
TVLINE | It cracked me up that Susie and Midge were still using a VCR in 2005…
AMY | Trying to get an old person, once they know how to do something, to do something else is [impossible]. At some point you’re just like, “F–k it. I press a button, something happens, that’s all I care about.”
TVLINE | Kudos to the team who made Rachel Brosnahan and Alex Borstein look genuinely old in that final [Midge-Susie] scene.
AMY | That was our biggest [concern] this year.
DANIEL | That’s good to hear because it’s so [hard] to do… We hired Mike Marino, one of the best prosthetic artists in the business… It was a lot of work.
AMY | We didn’t want people to be so [pulled] out of the reality of it that they’re just staring at the makeup and they don’t hear the scene.
I so wanted Midge and Joel to get back together in old age.
I wasn’t exacty rooting for them but I would be interested to know if at any point in the timeline (once he got out of prison) if they did try again (and it didn’t work out again). Feels like they would have.
either that or maybe they did but he eventually died
I kind of assume based on her visitation and the fact none of her relationships worked out they at least tried. I assume they intentionally left it ambiguous for that reason. I think it’s a huge accomplishment making us want them together considering where the series started alone. I really am just excited to know Amy can really write a good finale after knowing how she wanted to end Gilmore girls. I know she’s a terrific writer but I wasn’t sure. Not every amazing show creator can run one (Ryan Murphy)
No, that was a classic example of POOR writing, not GOOD writing. Midge and Joel were supposed to get back together!! If I ever don’t have to work and and have time to write, I’ll rewrite every show and book that didn’t end the way they were supposed to!! PP writers who don’t care about US and what WE want!
ExActly!!! Classic example of poor writing.
I can’t express how excited for s5 I was, it was bringing me so much joy waiting for it to come back.
S5 has been so depressing and a lot of it not making any sense form the 4 previous seasons.
I still want to know what happened to Abe after Rose died. I hope he found someone. We got a more complete picture of what happens to Ethan than his sister, Esther. Beside being a genius with Mom problems, what happened to her? What happened to Joel after he got out of jail. Did he take his hidden cash and leave the country? I loved this show and will miss it.
I interpreted the flash forward with Rose in 1973 to imply that Abe had died before Rose did.
I am disappointed with the ending; nothing was clear cleaned up. The Susie fight, Joel, Midge’s parents and kids, Dinah, Midge’s brother. The closing scene was weird; Susie in a caftan made no sense.
Although I would have liked to have known how Joel ended up, I was glad they didn’t show them back together. Midge really didn’t need a man permanently in her life since she was rarely home. Joel also had many other interests. They were each others support system and best friends. It worked better for them than being an actual couple.
No, they were meant to be together. Extremely disappointed and upset!!
They should’ve ended the series with her beaming at the end of the Gordon Ford Show.
You can make a small case for ending it with the Lenny Bruce scene (thank GOD they didn’t cover his death!) and no case whatsoever for showing Midge and Susie as old people, much less with neither of them having a partner. Midge doesn’t get back together with Joel or reconcile with her kids, no one is sharing all that space with her, not even a DOG, all she has is working and watching a game show with Susie by phone… no sign that she’s enjoying her money or fame?
And what’s with Susie doing the long loose hair and appearing less masculine/androgynous when she gets older?
And we never learn if Joel finds any kind of happiness with anyone?
And Abe…?
Why do these highly paid writers and show runners find it so impossible to EVER come up with a decent end or explanation for every character that the fans care about?
Who says that’s not Midge’s way of enjoying her money and fame? She’s happiest on stage, and that’s why she keeps her schedule full… Not everyone wants the same things out of life.
Midge never needed a husband or kids. She came of age in the 1950’s when it was expected that everyone marry and have children. She was a terrible mother and her career became her child. She realized her dream of fame and fortune but the only time she looked happy rattling around in that huge apartment was when she spoke to Susie.
Because the show was basically about Midge and Susie. They are the focus of the entire series so it’s only right that it should end with them. All the rest of the characters, while some more significant than others, was not what the show was about. Most time we don’t get all the answers we’d like in life which made the finale more relatable.
.
I think the Palladinos did a kick ass ending not to mention series. I’m a big fan of their writing. I just hope that they work with Luke Kirby again as I think he is a massive talent.
He’s gonna be on their new ballet show.
Exactly
Nope. It wasn’t a good ending at all. Not even close. But of course, as always, the writers don’t care about that, which makes me mad. Can’t wait until I can rewrite everything to end like it’s supposed to.
I agree! I also felt it should have ended on the Gordon Ford show where Midge gambles & takes her shot.
Also, I think Susie looked awful in that outfit and hairdo!
Just so well done we felt empathy for the characters not an easy feat
I will miss this show. All the actors amazing. The characters were so great. Sad that it’s over.
I think her turning their wedding picture around signified something heartfelt happened. Maybe they did get back together and he passed.
This. I don’t know why people are still asking about to see more about him. I thought that made it clear that he was and would always be part of her life. Seems like they weren’t paying attention at all to her act on the Gordon Ford show.
I really didn’t enjoy season 5. Most definitely the worst of an otherwise very enjoyable show. Would have been nice to get Joel back with Midge or some happy thing for him!
Did I miss something? When was it said that Rose died on the show? The finale was perfect and I’m so sad to see one of my favorite shows ever come to an end.
She was already dead by the 1987 flashforward episode.
In 1973, when she was making that awful commercial for Rose’s match-making business, Midge told the accountant, that was telling her to close the business, that she wouldn’t and not to say anything to Rose because she had so little time left.
I must have missed that line! Thank you. Poor Rose :(
There is NO Central Park East. It’s Central Park West or Central Park South. Anyone who lives here knows this.
There’s literally a Central Park East High School.
I grew up around the corner from that intersection they were looking for the cab, and it’s 100% 76th and CPW, you can see the NY Historical Society Museum and the church is distinct. Google Streetview it, no mistaking it.
On a sidenote my grandma founded the original CPE school so I’m familiar with it, but literally no NYer says “Central Park East” when referring to the avenue bordering Central Park on the east, it’s Fifth Avenue.
Yea that’s also clearly Central Park West, no idea why the interviewer says Park Ave. Park has the greened median with 2 lanes of traffic on both sides, the one we see has 2 lanes of traffic both directions with no median, and the park across the street.
I saw that headline before the episode, and went through the whole thing expecting two cast members to die within the episode itself. Doubt I’m alone either.
Daniel’s explanation on why Kevin Pollack wasn’t in the Gordon Ford show scene doesn’t ring true. All Moishe had to do is sit in the audience and laugh! And that would have been profound, since he was the one character beyond all others who had maintained Midge wasn’t funny.
While I would have liked another 10-15 minutes to fully flesh out what happened to all of the characters (even a line of dialogue explaining if not an actual scene) I still found the finale to be very satisfying. The way Midge’s big break played out at the Gordon Ford Show was just brilliant. My heart burst. Rachel Brosnahan and Alex Borstein were perfection. The two of them were magic throughout the entire series an I am really going to miss them together. Such an outstanding show that was a joy to watch.
That being said I wish TV line asked the creator and EP about where all the characters ended up. Even if they didn’t have a direct answer, just them using their imagination would have been amusing for alot of viewers left wondering.
I was in my early 20s in 2005 and definitely had a VCR, lol.
I moved in 2004 and between cutting service at my old house and setting up service in he new place I hooked my TiVo up to my mom’s tv. Never got it back. Had to get a new one.
I mean she totally would have given it back to me but she LOVED it and was obsessed and literally was never without a DVR for more than one day of the remainder of her life.
She wasn’t texting in 2005. She didn’t even really start texting until 2012(ISH). But one day with my TiVo and she never touched another VCR.
I wish that their could have been a spin-off with the character Suzy.
I can only speak to how the series began, rather than how it ended, because I checked out midway through season 2. While the “origin story” of season 1 was interesting, there were a lot of efforts that didn’t ring true, which primarily centered around one overarching fact: the show about a comedienne was seldom funny. From her first performance while drunk to all the others I saw through part of season two, they were going through the motions of the joke setup and punchline with the “laugh here” demand, which gets tiresome after a few shows. This phenomena of a series/film about a comedienne without good jokes is a common problem, which is simply because the writers and actors of the show can’t be as funny as the original was. In Mrs. Maisel, while they didn’t have the burden of representing a legendary comedienne, their writers still needed to deliver good material and their lead had to deliver a funny performance. From my limited viewing, the show didn’t earn my continued viewing, which is the job that every show must do. Sayonara Mrs. Maisal.
I can’t help but feel a touch of sadness to the way the lives of Midge and Susie ended up. Alone. Money, but so what? Although they can be content, contrast with what they could have had.
I get it. They had experiences, did what they wanted and now have anything money can buy. But that really isn’t much. No joy filled big family get-togethers for them. Sad.
I kind of wish the ending showed Mrs Maisel as a question on Jeopardy that they were both watching together. To show how famous she became.
^ Ahhhh this would’ve been great!
Joel and Midge were meant to be together. The fact the writers didn’t get them together is another classic example of poor writing and the fact that writers don’t CARE about doing what’s right or making people mad…there should always be happy endings and always the right people together. NOT HAPPY!!!!
Respectfully, take a breath. Personally, I think It’s obvious that they got back together, just in their own way. You don’t have to live literally happily ever after to love someone. And if you didn’t like it, write your own version, just like you were saying. Use your NOT HAPPY fuel to write what you want. You’re all over this thread. Stop writing here, start writing your own thing. I’m sure you would make someone else not happy, because that’s how writing works. You’d also probably make a lot of people VERY HAPPY. That’s literally the gig. Write your own Joel and Midge.
I want to know why they brought Milo Ventimiglia’s character back, hinted that he’d be back again and he never showed up…
Very disappointed in the ending, I was hoping for more.
Thank you for not killing off anyone in the last episode, Because if you had I probably would not be watching the series over and over as time passes. And thank you giving us such great entertainment, You helped make our lives a little happier.
Ok want the skinny?
Pollack threw a hissy fit and refused to work the final week except for two specific days. God only knows why. (“Borstein takes days off, why can’t I?” he actually complained.) Production couldn’t reach him to get him to come. Brosnahan was so upset by his diva move that she didn’t want him back when he finally realized he’d blown it. He was persona non grata. He flew himself to the wrap party, where one of the EPs walked away from him when he tried to approach.
And they didn’t give him any of the closing- week swag.