Warning: SPOILERS for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4, Episode 1 – “Rumble on the Wonder Wheel”
Miriam Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) wants her money in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4 but she has no idea that it’s all gone because of her manager, Susie Myerson (Alex Borstein). The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4 picks up immediately after season 3’s cliffhanger where Midge and Susie were fired by Reggie (Sterling K. Brown) and left on the airport tarmac. Midge’s set at the Apollo where she inadvertently outed Shy Baldwin (LeRoy McClain) in his hometown infuriated the crooner, which led to Mrs. Maisel being dropped from his European tour, leaving her career in shambles. Little does Midge know that she’s also broke, thanks to Susie’s gambling habit.
Susie has a gambling problem that’s been an issue throughout the series. Midge’s diminutive manager likes to play the numbers and bets what little cash she’s able to scrounge up. When Mrs. Maisel signed on to open for Shy Baldwin in his tour in Miami, California, and casino residency in Las Vegas, they asked for about $4000 for the gigs, which Susie was entitled to ten percent of. But Midge, who is admittedly a spendthrift, asked Susie to handle all of the finances, which was a big mistake because Mrs. Maisel doesn’t know her manager has a serious addiction to gambling. In The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel‘s season 3 finale, “A Jewish Girl Walks Into The Apollo…”, Susie bet all of Midge’s earnings on a prizefight and lost every cent her client earned from the tour. Desperate to replace Midge’s money, Susie and her sister Tessie (Emily Bergl) committed insurance fraud and burned down their mother’s house in the Rockaways. Susie then went to Midge’s husband, Joel (Michael Zegen), and asked him to secretly take charge of Mrs. Maisel’s finances from now on.
Susie understandably went into a panic mode when Midge asked for her Shy Baldwin money in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4’s premiere. Susie had no idea that Midge bought back her Upper West Side apartment from her father-in-law, Moishe Maisel (Kevin Pollack), and that she used the promise of her tour earnings as collateral. Now that Mrs. Maisel is fired, she has to use her earnings to pay Moishe back in full – except there is no money because Susie gambled it all away. Instead of coming clean to Midge, Susie followed up on her insurance scam with Tess, only to find out the check they expected is being withheld due to the insurance company’s suspicion that the Myerson sisters committed fraud.
The most amusing part of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel‘s money farce was Susie coming to Joel and asking him for Midge’s money, with Joel pointing out that Susie never actually gave him Midge’s money in the first place. What Susie actually did was ask Joel to manage Midge’s future earnings. However, after Midge confessed to the combined Wasserman and Maisel clan at Coney Island’s Wonder Wheel that Shy Baldwin fired her and that she bought back her Manhattan apartment from Moishe, Joel understood that his wife thinks she has money that she doesn’t actually have. Proving again that he loves Midge, Joel cut Susie a check to cover Midge’s money that her manager lost, with a quid pro quo that Susie tells him everything that led to Shy Baldwin firing Midge because of her set at the Apollo.
By the end of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel‘s season 4 premiere, Midge is still blissfully unaware that Susie gambled away all of her Shy Baldwin money. This is crucially important to Susie because she needs to maintain Midge’s trust that she can properly manage her career. With the money Joel secretly shelled out to Susie, Midge can now pay back Moishe and move herself and her parents, Abe (Tony Shalhoub) and Rose (Marin Hinkle), back to the Upper West Side. Of course, Susie will have to pay Joel back somehow, and Midge may one day find out Susie lost all of her money, which could set off more fireworks in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4 streams Fridays on Amazon Prime Video.
