Once upon a time, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was a love story. We’re not talking about the never-quite-over romance between Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) and her ex-husband Joel (Michael Zegen), or the sizzling chemistry she shared with Lenny Bruce (Luke Kirby), or any of the other suitors she’s entertained throughout the seasons. No, the central pair at the heart of the show has always been Midge and her manager, Susie (Alex Borstein). Or at least it seemed like it was. After “The Testi-Roastial,” which dropped on May 5, we’re not so sure.
Showrunners Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino have been playing with time jumps in this fifth and final season, giving us glimpses of what happens to the characters in the future. But this episode is the first one to take place mostly outside of the early 1960s time period. The framing device is an event—a compromise between a testimonial dinner and a roast, thus the portmanteau in the title—set in 1990 at the famed Friars Club in New York City, celebrating Susie’s successful management career. Through a series of second-hand (and not entirely reliable) narratives, we learn about how Susie worked her way up the industry ladder to become a showbiz legend worthy of a dinner in her honor. We also learn what caused the big falling out between her and Midge hinted at earlier in the season.
In the list of our favorite female friendships on TV, Midge and Susie are up there with the greats: Laverne and Shirley, Leslie Knope and Ann Perkins, Meredith Grey and Christina Yang. So it’s a bit jarring to witness their downfall in this episode, even if, by the time it happens, it’s a long time coming. After everything they’ve been through together, we’d like to think they’d formed a bond strong enough to survive anything, but by 1990 it’s still unresolved. On an evening that’s supposed to commemorate Susie’s illustrious career, no one dares mention the name of her first and most successful client. Midge doesn’t trouble herself to come, and Susie doesn’t expect her to. Although Midge does send a video as a sort of tentative olive branch, hearing the words “tits up” in that context is devastating.
Susie has always had what it takes to be a good manager. She’s tenacious and loyal, with a keen eye for discovering talent. She can size anyone up within minutes, and once she’s on your side she’ll never stop fighting for you. Her one flaw, and it’s not a small one, is her inability to handle money. So it makes some sense that her big split with Midge would come down to money and Susie’s gross mismanagement of it. It’s been coming since season three, when Susie got mixed up with wise guys Frank and Nicky, and used Midge’s tour money to pay off her gambling debts. What’s surprising is that it took until 1985 for Midge to catch on that Susie was pulling a Colonel Tom Parker on her, forcing her to play Vegas casinos to support her habit.
It was an explosive end to a tumultuous relationship that the show took the trouble to meaningfully center, but never bothered to fully define. That was okay, for a while. We didn’t have to know if they were just business partners, bosom buddies, or more, as long as they were together. The show is never more alive than when the two of them are sharing a scene. Whether they’re working on her act, or bickering at breakneck speed, or those precious moments when Susie gets caught up in the Weissmans’ lavish lifestyle. Pretty much every moment with the two of them is golden. And yet, as we find out in this episode, the first time Susie ever admitted out loud that they were friends was right before it all fell apart.
The two of them always were an odd couple. Midge was born into privilege, an Upper West Side life that came with some restrictive expectations but sheltered her from the harsh realities of the outside world. Susie grew up in a tough neighborhood with a dysfunctional family and had to learn early on to fend for herself. While Midge comfortably fits the mid-century ideal of femininity and womanhood, Susie rejects it entirely.
And yet, despite their differences, Midge and Susie seemed to make a great team.
Even before it was revealed that she was once romantically involved with Mrs. Gordon Ford (Nina Arianda), Susie was a queer-coded character. Midge even tried to take her to a lesbian bar last season, the first instance of the show addressing the open question of Susie’s sexuality. She balks at the well-intended gesture, reminding her that if she wanted to find a lesbian bar she wouldn’t need Midge’s help. Some fans have theorized that she’s been in love with Midge this whole time. If so, Midge taking her to a lesbian bar would only add insult to injury. And of course, Midge, being as self-absorbed as she is, wouldn’t get it.
The issue seemed destined to simmer in subtext for the duration of the series, except for a fleeting mention in the stand-up set that opens this episode that seems to imply that Midge was definitely aware of what was going on. She tells the audience in 1985 that she’s just broken up with someone. The audience yells out the names of the various men she’s been with, including Paul Simon, but she brushes them off. “It was a woman,” she says, then holds up a finger. “Don’t. And it was a real partnership. Lasted longer than any of my other marriages combined. In its way, it was just like a marriage. Started with a contract, ended with a lawsuit, and we never had sex. Except once. There really isn’t much to do in Pensacola.”
The throwaway line gets a laugh, which stings. Her relationship with Midge, romantic or not, has always been a bit lopsided, but that joke seems to cross a line.
The flashback to Midge’s aborted wedding to Phillip Roth is a stark encapsulation of how much she’s thoughtlessly put her through. Not only does Midge lean on Susie for emotional support, but it seems like Susie planned an entire destination wedding for her, which Midge doesn’t even go through with. And Susie’s the one who has to cancel everything and break the news to the groom. Their relationship has been turned into a transactional game of give and take, with Susie doing all the giving.
So, then: Has The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel been trying to tell us all along that Midge is actually the villain? Is the message that anyone with ambitions of that size is an inherently selfish person, destined to toss away anyone in her life who gets in the way of her pursuit of fame? We’ve seen her sacrifice her relationships for her career time and again. Somehow, though, we thought Susie would be spared. One of the joys of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel for four and a half seasons was watching these two mismatched partners navigate their way through the male-dominated world of show business together. This episode, though, forced us to re-evaluate that relationship.
Susie isn’t totally blameless here, either. If she’d been a little better with money and addressed her gambling problem, she wouldn’t have had to sell her soul to the mob. Because she couldn’t separate her personal financial problems and her business, those problems became Midge’s and Joel’s too. That bill was going to come due someday. It’s still nothing, though, compared to the way Midge recklessly toyed with Susie’s feelings and used them to her advantage.
“I dumped her and got a fifth dog,” Midge bitterly jokes in her stand-up routine. “Still a bitch, but at least this one will fetch my shoes.”
Maybe they’re better off without each other after all.