‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ Ending Explained: How The Series Finale Bids Farewell To Midge, Susie, And Lenny Bruce

After five seasons, 43 episodes, six decades spanned on screen, and countless laughs, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel — a platform-defining show for Prime Video — took its final bow with a series finale so momentous it has not one, not two, but three different endings.

Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino’s inventive comedy drama started as a show about Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan), a ’50s housewife who drunkenly discovered her stand-up skills after her husband Joel (Michael Zegen) cheated on her. Over the years, it became a source of ambition for viewers with seemingly far-fetched dreams, an homage to the critically-acclaimed comedian Lenny Bruce (Luke Kirby), a celebration of stand-up as a craft, a canvas for Sherman-Palladino’s lengthy scripts and lavish sets, and so much more. But when the end credits roll on the series finale, you’ll remember the friendship between Midge and her manager Susie (Alex Borstein) as the heart of the show.

“We couldn’t have dreamt it up,” Brosnahan told Decider when asked about The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel‘s ending. “We were so surprised when we read the final script.”

If you have yet to see the series finale and want to avoid spoilers, consider this your chance to stop reading. But if you’ve made it to the delightful end credits of “Four Minutes,” you know the series — which started in the 1950s — ambitiously ends in 2005 with Midge and Susie apart in distance, yet watching Jeopardy together over the phone. Filming the closing scene separately was bittersweet for Brosnahan and Borstein, but they’re ultimately satisfied with the ending and fully trust in Sherman-Palladino’s vision.

“In some ways it was hard not being in the same room with Rachel shooting that. In some ways it was so hard to not have the characters side by side on a couch,” Borstein told Decider over Zoom. “But it also feels right, you know? Amy wrote where she felt that the trajectory would lead these two, and but I’m very eager to see how it feels when you watch it, how it plays to know what the music is like under it. How they edited it, how they cut it.”

“I think there was a Jeopardy rights issue for a minute. So they were definitely tweaking and playing up until the end,” Brosnahan laughed. “It just feels so fitting that they end together, but apart, you know? They’re still there for each other. They’re still the primary love story; the center of the show. They’ve also had their own lives and their own pasts, but even being on the other side of the country can never take away this special bond that they have. And that they end laughing…”

Curious how The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel wraps up everyone’s storylines after five seasons? Wondering how Midge gets her big break? Or how the series says goodbye to Abe (Tony Shalhoub), Rose (Main Hinkle), Joel, and of course, Lenny Bruce? Decider’s ending explained has you covered. 

Be mindful that major spoilers lie ahead. But other than that, TITS UP!

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Ending Explained: Season 5, Episode 9, “Four Minutes” Finale Recap

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel‘s farewell episode starts with a cough — Lenny Bruce’s cough. It’s 1965 and the brilliant comedian is bombing in what will become his penultimate performance in San Francisco. After flipping through court documents, jumbling his words, and forgetting his own bits, he starts doing a folk dance on stage while a concerned Susie looks on from the back of the room. “What I saw outside tonight was a fucking disgrace. You can do more than that,” Susie — now managing Dick Gregory, Phyllis Diller, and Eartha Kitt — tells him after the show. “You are Lenny Bruce. There’s only ever gonna be one of you. Let’s get him back.” Lenny, a shell of his former self, declines the offer but asks Susie if Midge is with her. Susie says no, then walks outside to find Midge nervously having a smoke. “Well?” Midge asks. “No. He’s a mess, Miriam. You wanna go in?” Susie says. Heartbroken, Midge declines. And Susie says she’ll try to get through to him again when she’s in LA next month.

Next thing we know, we’re back in New York, 1961, where Midge is bailing Susie out of jail for assaulting police officers in the park. (That was the urgent call she received at the end of Episode 8.) The two grab coffee and Susie reveals she asked Hady to get Midge on The Gordon Ford Show, then finally opens up about their history together. Turns out Hady and Susie were involved at Pembroke, but Hady went to Paris junior year, came back engaged, and broke Susie’s heart.

When Midge returns home, Rose says her colleagues called six times looking for her. Midge changes her clothes, goes back to the writers’ room, and reams out the guys for their calls, only to learn that Mike was calling because Gordon wants to see Midge. She meets Gordon, who’s in a next-level mood. “OK, you win. you’re on the show…tonight,” he says, clearly livid that Midge made Hady vouch for her. She races to tell the writers, and — after another wardrobe change — heads to Susie’s office to share the news. After a brief celebration, Midge calls Joel (who just learned his parents are not getting divorced!) to invite him to the show. He’s elated and gives her full permission to skewer him on air (what growth!), but when Midge hangs up the phone, she finds pigeon shit on her show dress so Dinah heads to Bergdorfs to pick up her dresses on hold.

While practicing her act, Midge finally reaches her dad who promises to get her mother to the studio in time. Before Abe (still high on his emotional epiphany in Episode 8) hangs up the phone, he takes a moment to tell Midge how wonderful the achievement is. He rushes home and begs Rose to get ready, but she boycotts the show because Midge didn’t call her herself. After realizing the phone was off the hook all day, Rose hangs it up and promptly receives calls from Joel, Shirley, Zelda, and the Gordon Ford Show writers relaying the news. She and Abe sprint to get a taxi to 30 Rock, only to realize everyone is mid-shift change and unwilling to drive them, so they hop a “harrowing” bus and arrive just in time.

As Midge is refining her act and flipping through her notebook, a mysterious fortune falls out that reads, “YOUR LUCKY NUMBERS ARE 46, 24, 11, 6, & 5.” She reads it, smiles, and tucks it in her dress close to her heart before Gordon comes in to welcome fellow guest, astronaut Alan Shepard, to the show. Gordon clocks Midge’s fancy dress and tells her she’s not going out to perform, she’s simply on the show to answer a few questions about being a writer. Despite protests from Midge, Susie, and Mike, Gordon won’t budge and even has his team bring out a STOOL for Midge, because the couch is for real guests.

Wait…So How Does Midge Get Her Big Break?

Gordon introduces Midge as his “resident lady writer,” tries to run out the clock by talking about himself, and lets the rest of his writers on camera to make her guest spot feel less special. When Midge gets a laugh, Gordon throws to commercial four minutes early, and just as she’s about to admit defeat, her eye catches the microphone.

“I have four minutes left,” Midge tells Susie. “I’m thinking about doing something, something reckless that could go very bad for both of us. It could ruin us. Definitely me, and you by extension. What do you think?” Susie says Midge started her career by getting up on a stage that no one told her to get up on and saying a bunch of shit that no one wanted her to say. “So tits up,” she concludes. “Tits up,” Midge echoes. When the show returns from commercial Midge dodges Gordon’s question about why the coffee in the writers’ room is so good by saying, “I wouldn’t know, because, fun fact: I’m not actually a writer. I’m a comedian.” She defies orders, grabs the mic, and performs a phenomenal set that touches on her family, her divorce, her journey from housewife to comic, life as a single woman, her dreams, her kids, and she even remembers to thank Bergdorfs so they’ll comp her dress. An icon.

After a six-minute set (and way more than four minutes of air time), overwhelming applause, and one last ” THANK YOU, AND GOODNIGHT” Gordon welcomes Midge to the couch, gives her a proper introduction as “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” and promptly fires her. That easily could have been the end of the series, but it wasn’t.

How Does The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Say Goodbye To Lenny Bruce?

We travel back in time six months and the camera pans down to a Chinese food restaurant in the snow. Inside, Lenny and Midge are in their Season 4 finale clothes making good on Lenny’s promise to take Midge for “some truly terrible Chinese food” after doing “some very blue things in that very blue room.” They’re in a booth engaging in effortless banter. Midge practices signing her autograph while Lenny asks for the check. She tells him it’s been a great night, and he concurs. Then she asks why he’s so sure she’s going to be famous. “It’s just a hunch,” he says. “I’ve seen your act. I watched you escape a police raid. You have many skills.”

The fortune cookies arrive and Lenny steals Midge’s out of her hand. “Allow me,” he says as he reads from the tiny piece of paper. “The spotlight waits for you center stage,” he says, making Midge’s eyes light up. “All you have to do is step up and claim it,” he continues. “Once you do everyone will know who you are. They will know your wit, your intellect, smile, great expressive eyes. They will be helpless to your charms. They will fall at your feet and worship at the altar of you and your show corset.” After realizing he fully made the message up, Midge grabs the fortune from his hands and finds it is blank. The only message it bears is, “YOUR LUCKY NUMBERS ARE 46, 24, 11, 6, & 5.” She kept the fortune all those months and had Lenny close to her heart when she got her big break. (Yes, I’m crying!) “You mark my words. Very soon in the not too distant future you will be paying for the Chinese food,” Lenny says. Again, that EASILY could have been the end of the series, but it wasn’t.

How Does Midge And Susie’s Story End?

It’s no secret The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 5 embraced time jumps, so from six months before Midge’s big break, we head to 2005 (a year when Gilmore Girls existed in the world). Midge’s team is running through her schedule, informing her she has a free Tuesday coming up, and trying (and failing) to teach her to text on a Motorola Razr. After her meeting, the comedian walks around her ornately decorated mansion, adjusting a photo of her and Joel from their wedding day, eating dinner in her kitchen alone, and retreating to a room full of Mrs. Maisel memorabilia and career nostalgia. She makes a call on her landline, grabs a VHS tape, and fires up her TV. Susie answers the phone in a mansion of her own with long grey hair, a giant bird cage in her living room, and palm trees outside. The two live “a continent away” from each other, but every night they simultaneously press play on a pre-recorded Jeopardy episode and watch it together over the phone.

“I want you to come back to work,” Midge tells Susie as a “Tournament of Champions” episode plays in the background. “I’ve done my time,” Susie says. As the two start joking about reincarnation, the screen fades to black and their laughter rings out before the end credits roll. That, my friends, is Maisel‘s final bow.

All five seasons of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel are currently streaming on Prime Video.