If you were expecting the third episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s final season to be a Succession-like game changer, I’ve got some bad news for you.
“Typos and Torsos†is the weakest installment of the new season’s three-episode debut because it’s caught in that unavoidable transition phase where it’s trying to do too much: Wrap up old storylines (Rose’s matchmaking war), pursue new ones (Midge fighting for respect at The Gordon Ford Show; Ethan’s childhood neglect affecting him in adulthood), and cram in annoying subplots (anything Moishe and Shirley).
Midge has been on staff at The Gordon Ford Show for a month now, putting us somewhere in either late December 1960 or early January 1961. Quick timeline side note: I know the series has been setting the main storyline in a generic 1961 from the start of the season, but I’m disregarding that decision. Mentions of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and JFK being elected but not yet inaugurated set the first couple of Maisel episodes in late 1960, not 1961. Don’t @ me. We will get to 1961, I promise.
Anyway, Midge has hit another rough patch both personally and professionally: She’s yet to get one joke into Gordon’s monologue, and she’s reminded of that failure every day (there’s a writers’-room chalkboard where everyone tallies their jokes). Plus a lonely Ethan has started sleeping in her bed.
Cut to another flash-forward, where we learn that Midge isn’t estranged onlyfrom Esther. In 1984, Ethan Maisel is a 29-year-old yarmulke-wearing resident of an Israeli kibbutz (an agrarian commune). He never went to college, he’s allegedly been in rabbinical school for years, and he’s not too thrilled when Midge obnoxiously lands her helicopter in the middle of the kibbutz’s lettuce farm. I don’t blame him, considering his mother only showed up to guilt her son into showing his face at a UJA Federation ceremony where she’s being honored that night in Tel Aviv. We also meet Ethan’s tough-as-nails fiancée, Chava, who immediately sees through Midge’s superficial nature: “I don’t like her,†she says bluntly. This whole sequence is just another sad reminder of the consequences of fame.
When we return to the “present,†we glimpse Midge at least trying to help her 6-year-old son out of his bed-hopping habit. Per the school therapist’s advice, Midge is putting tape down in the hallway to trick Ethan into sleeping slightly closer to his room until he’s back in his own bed. Hey, it’s worth a try. We’re also treated to some very dated attitudes about child therapists, courtesy of Joel, and disturbingly acceptable 1960s stances toward mental health. Sigh.
Speaking of mental health, Rose and Abe aren’t doing too well either. Since her tearoom burned down, a paranoid Rose has been jumping at every slight noise. Abe, for his part, is suffering from every writer’s worst nightmare: a published typo. He spends the entire episode in a tizzy because he misspelled “Carol Channing.†Only Tony Shalhoub would draw out this one-note joke into something this spectacularly funny. He tries to get a 1,500-word apology published in the Village Voice and attempts to call every Voice subscriber to personally apologize for his error. But nothing beats Abe deadpanning, “I may have gotten something wrong in kindergarten, but there are no existing records of my time there. I checked.â€
Meanwhile, Rose approaches Susie, “the angriest person†she knows, for help in getting a gun. At first, Susie wants no part of Rose’s professional mess, but as soon as Midge’s mother mentions that her tearoom was burned down, well, now it’s personal. You may remember last season when Susie, grieving for Jackie’s death, found solace in giant bowls of “celestial†whipped cream served at the said tearoom. Susie is livid (“I was gonna invest!â€) and vows revenge. Dinah immediately suggests Susie’s mob pals, Frank and Nicky, though Susie eighty-sixes that idea. Except Frank and Nicky, still regularly hanging out at the Susie Myerson and Associates office, overheard every detail of Rose’s predicament …
Over in midtown: Hey, Midge finally got a joke in the monologue — and her first tick on the chalkboard! But when Gordon fumbles the punchline (mistakenly referring to “Elmer Fudd†as “Felmerâ€), an overly excited Midge groans. Audibly. Even though Gordon recovers, the rest of the writers slowly move away from Midge and a furious Mike warns her to grovel, hard.
At Toots Shor’s later that evening, Midge follows Mike’s advice: She apologizes to Gordon, he accepts, and all is well. Until it isn’t. Gordon mutters that Midge’s joke wasn’t great to begin with, and the next thing we know, Midge is going toe-to-toe with the egotistical late-night host. She calls out Gordon for refusing to admit that he screwed up the joke (his argument is “Who cares? I got the laugh!â€) and for not caring about the quality of his material. It’s a stupid fight, but since Midge needs to fear for her job for the rest of the episode, it’s necessary for the plot. The next morning, Susie calls with the news that Midge’s argument with Gordon made the gossip pages. Midge had better bring a box to the office on Monday.
But that’s only the start of Susie’s busy weekend. She’s summoned to what I’m assuming is Rikers Island, where Kelly Bishop’s matchmaking boss, Benedetta, is waiting behind plexiglass (she “has priorsâ€). Both women are very confused until Benedetta starts talking: She received a call saying there was a gift at her door from “Susie Myerson.†The “gift†was getting arrested for burning down the tearoom. The other three matchmaking doyennes also got the same call — now one is dead, one is in Argentina, and the other is AWOL. Susie still has no clue who Benedetta is, until Benedetta mentions Rose. And that’s when it’s clear to everyone that Frank and Nicky got involved. Now that Benedetta knows Rose has “protection,†she’s willing to make a deal. Rose is now allowed to work the Upper West Side and Hell’s Kitchen if she stays out of Harlem and doesn’t go downtown. It’s a good deal. Although this scene concludes Rose’s battle with the matchmaking old guard, Frank and Nicky’s involvement opens another complex web of debts for Susie and, by extension, Midge.
Rose’s problems may have been solved in this episode, but the same can’t be said for Ethan and his issues. While Abe wholeheartedly disagrees with the school-therapist-sanctioned plan of having Ethan sleep in the hallway, he doesn’t do anything to help his grandson, either. In fact, he adds to Ethan’s nighttime trauma by shifting him to a different spot in the hallway because the boy was blocking his path to the bathroom. This decision leads to a scene where Abe and Midge are literally dragging this poor kid back and forth across the floor. It’s really no wonder Ethan moved halfway around the world to get away from these people.
It turns out the hallway dragging was just Abe warming up: The following day, he decides to put Ethan’s fears in perspective — by scaring the shit out of his grandson. Using the theory that fear is a useful survival tool, Abe tells Ethan the very true story of a midair plane collision over Park Slope, Brooklyn, graphically describing the incident in detail, including the “various arms, legs, and torsos†scattered over Kings County. Even though the parent in me is screaming at the top of my lungs, Shalhoub kills in this scene. His delivery — “Death comes for all of us … Now, would you like me to read you a bedtime story?†— is worth another Emmy nomination.
Back at 30 Rock, Midge still has a job because The Gordon Ford Show is the No. 1 talk show in the country. That means it’s time for another whimsical Amy Sherman-Palladino sequence — a drunken ice-skating office party at the rink at Rockefeller Center! Did you know that Rachel Brosnahan and Alex Borstein are great skaters? Or that Midge was known as “the Enema Queen†during her high-school candy-striper days? You learn both during this scene. Other details we find out? Gordon and Midge no longer have beef, but that’s mainly because, as the rest of the writers deduced in the last episode, Midge is Gordon’s latest sexual quarry. I’d also take note of how a married Gordon explains his kiss attempt: “I’m not that kind of married.†Midge rebuffs him and skates off, but Gordon isn’t giving up so easily.
There’s also plenty of juicy action going on inside the Gordon Ford offices: While roaming around, ostensibly to use the bathroom, Susie catches Mike forging George’s signature (which he’s been doing for a decade). He then quietly thanks Susie for bringing Sophie Lennon to him because “she’s a good guest.†Oooh, the ice is melting between these two! OMG, did Mike Carr just set up a lunch with Susie Myerson? Get on it, Dinah!
Then Susie wanders into Gordon’s office. She notices a framed photo of Gordon with, we assume, his wife (played by Nina Arianda), and her face falls. This is the same woman Susie noticed at the elevator in two episodes ago. Well, Gordon did say he wasn’t “that kind of married.†His wife obviously has a history with Susie, and I need more deets!
Later that night, Midge comes home to discover the hallway routine has, no thanks to Abe’s plane-collision story, crashed and burned. Ethan is in her bed, asking her about Park Slope. “Spending time with Grandpa?†she correctly infers. Midge lets him stay there while she sleeps in the kids’ room. There’s a beautiful moment when she takes a sleeping Esther out of the toddler crib and snuggles with her in Ethan’s bed. But then Esther wakes up and goes back to her little bed. Both children are feeling Midge’s absence, and they’re dealing with it in different ways. Sadly, Esther has already detached at the ripe old age of 3.
More Maisel Musings!
• I’m still not sure if Moishe and Shirley are actually divorcing, but I think it was sweet how they comforted each other over the news that Mei and Joel broke up and that there is no baby. I also think Joel was right to let Shirley believe Mei had a miscarriage. An abortion would’ve been harder for someone of that generation to accept.
• Mike references a British band that canceled their Gordon Ford appearance because their drummer died in a hot-air balloon accident. Was the band Spinal Tap?