The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel – Season 3 Episode 4 Recap & Review

Las Vegas

Following Midge’s successful set in the main room, her warm-up act in episode 4 of Marvelous Mrs Maisel is a big success, as everyone hangs on her every word. After the show, she phones home but given it’s 1am, doesn’t get a chance to speak to Ethan. Instead, she heads out and watches drag racing before Susie gets involved.

Abe is woken up at 5am and forced to move his car by Moishe, narrowly avoiding the milkman while realizing his situation is less than ideal. Meanwhile, Rose is bombarded by a cacophony of noise as the radio and TV blare at the same time. Along with Zelda, all three of them eventually head upstairs and lament their situation while Midge revels in hers. Susie receives a check and believes she’s been over-paid but when she heads into the office, she finds herself shocked when Angie tells him she’s been underpaid.

Meanwhile, Mei arrives with a surprise for Joel – a jukebox. After dancing together, she leaves while Abe and Rose find themselves continuing to struggle in their situation. To make matters worse, Abe finds his editorial idea with the paper thrown into turmoil after his charges with the police are dropped.

Midge invites Joel out to Vegas and he sits listening to her show as she performs. While she does, Susie manages to convince Gavin Hawk to come on-board for a big gig for Sophie but despite the great news, Sophie tells her she needs sexual chemistry with him for it to work.

Meanwhile Midge and Joel wake up in bed together and as the night starts to come back into view, they have pictures of them sealing the deal and getting married. Even worse, Midge has a diamond ring on her finger. Joel starts to panic, especially given Mei is in the scene now, and as Joel leaves, Abe and Rose phone Midge and tell her about their issues. When Susie finds out about Midge’s marriage, she berates her and while she heads out to the stage, Susie heads back to the craps table again.

While the episodic format this season is interesting, Midge being isolated from everyone else here feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. She’s ultimately the glue that holds everything together and this season just doesn’t quite have the same feel as the previous two. Mei and Joel are an unlikely but interesting couple but there’s a distinct lack of screen-time for their relationship to sell us on this.

To make matters worse, Midge and Joel’s Vegas marriage feels like forced drama and a way of injecting some tension into proceedings. Still, there’s plenty to like about this season though despite my gripes and there’s no denying that the show continues to deliver some visually impressive set-pieces throughout.