They say, “All good things must come to an end,” and that apparently holds true for the fifth and final season of Amazon Prime’s hit TV show, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. But fans of the period-piece dramedy likely never expected that adage would apply to the bond between titular character Midge Maisel and her talent manager, Susie Myerson. Yet, the second episode of season five opens with Midge’s 60 Minutes interview, in which the host dubs her and Susie’s relationship a “25-year friendship gone bust.”
While it never becomes clear what actually caused the rift between the two main characters, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel creator Amy Sherman-Palladino said she wanted the final season to explore the ramifications of this friendship breakup “because the emotional crux of this show was always Susie and Midge,” she tells Women’s Health. “That’s the enduring relationship.”
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was always “about a woman discovering her ambition and how she follows through on it,” Sherman-Palladino says. Indeed, Susie is the vehicle by which Midge is able to achieve success—and vice versa.
“It was through Susie that she [Midge] even got the idea to do [stand-up comedy], and it was something she could not accomplish without Susie,” Sherman-Palladino explains. “[Likewise,] Susie could not accomplish what she wanted without Midge.”
Sherman-Palladino recalls that when she and husband Dan Palladino, who is an executive producer, writer, and director on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, were discussing the final season, they knew that in order to make fans feel like the journey was worth it, they had to lean into the heart and soul of the show: Susie and Midge.
And despite the mysterious fissure in their friendship, “these two are end game,” says Rachel Brosnahan, who plays Midge. “And when you’re end game, there’s some high, high highs and low, low lows—and they’ve experienced both together.”
Exploring how Midge and Susie’s relationship evolved—and devolved—this season challenged Rachel and Alex Borstein, who plays Susie, to develop their characters in new and unexpected ways. “They fight a lot [this season, but] they have always fought a lot, and it’s been some of our favorite stuff to shoot,” says Rachel. “But it was really surprising to see the way that this ultimate fight unfolds, and it felt really real.”
While their characters may be fighting, the cast of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is having too much fun testing their knowledge of each other:
These fights fueled Midge and Susie’s decades-long friendship, allowing their characters to achieve an unparalleled closeness (perhaps rivaled only by the main characters of another Amy Sherman-Palladino joint, Lorelai and Rory Gilmore). “When you get to a point in a relationship—any relationship—where you’re fighting, it’s a good sign,” says Alex. “It’s a sign of trust. It’s like, ‘I feel like I am at a point where I can be honest and brutal and ugly and still possibly not lose you.’ It’s actually a sign of trust and a certain amount of respect and love.”
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Perhaps that hard-won trust, respect, and love will allow Midge and Susie to find their way back to each other before the curtains close on this series, but only time will tell.
Lifestyle Director
Lindsay Geller is the Lifestyle Director at Women’s Health, where she oversees the Life, Sex & Love, and Relationships sections on WomensHealthMag.com and the Mind section of Women’s Health magazine. When she’s not writing or editing articles about the latest dating trends and pop culture phenomenons, she’s usually watching reality TV or playing with her dog, Lucille (Go Fetch That) Ball.
