What The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 3 Finale Really Means

If you haven't seen season 3 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel yet, go binge watch it on Amazon Prime before reading further because there are major spoilers ahead. If you have seen it, hold on to your pillbox hats because we are unpacking that eventful season finale.

The season 3 finale of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was rough. While the first two seasons of the show end on a high note, with our heroine Midge optimistic about her career, the third season ends with Midge being booted off the second leg of singer Shy Baldwin's tour after pretty much outing him as gay in her act. The take-charge comedienne is reduced to tears and it's clear that she has a rough road ahead of her.

Not only is Midge relying on the career boost that comes from opening for a major act, but she's also counting on the money. She used her contract as collateral to buy back her old apartment from her (sort of) ex father-in-law, Moishe. Her manager, Susie Meyerson, is also depending on the money from the gig as it's revealed towards the end of the season that she has a gambling addiction and is so in need of money after gambling away both her earnings and Midge's that she resorts to burning down her childhood home for the insurance money (viaThe Cinemaholic).

The first two seasons of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel focus heavily on Midge's romantic relationships. In the first season, Midge is processing the end of her marriage to Joel. In the second, she falls in love with Levi and thinks about what it would be like to return to domestic life. Both seasons end with her being at least a little attached to a man. The season 1 finale ends with Midge thinking of getting back together with Joel. The second season sees her again turning to her ex for comfort.

At the end of season 3, though, Midge has finished turning to the men in her life for support or validation. She's just doing Midge. "I think for the first time, Midge is forging a path that is entirely her own without worrying what anyone is doing or why they're doing it," Rachel Brosnahan, who plays Midge, told Bustle.

Brosnahan revealed that show creator Amy Sherman-Palladino imagines Midge one day being "extremely successful and living in her Park Avenue penthouse with 15 poodles," grateful that her marriage to Joel ended.

Brosnahan added, "She will have achieved this enormously successful career and she will look back wistfully at how simple things were."

So what does the season 3 finale really mean for season 4? The next season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is set up to open as grim as the season 1 opener, in which Midge's husband leaves her and reveals he's been having an affair with his secretary. This time, though, her safety net is gone. Her parents, who she had been living with, are nearly broke and are moving into her apartment — the one she can no longer afford. Midge also faces the possibility of being blacklisted again as her nemesis, Sophie Lennon, is on the outs with Susie. We wouldn't put it past her to retaliate by messing with Midge's career like she did in season 2.

Midge's personal life is also in crisis. After calling it off with her fiance, Levi (who confronts her in the season finale), she drunkenly remarries her ex-husband, Joel, in Las Vegas. 

We know that Midge will pull things together because the premise of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is centered on Midge's eventual fame, but there's no doubt that the show's writers are setting her up for some tough times.

Season 3 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is all about Midge coming into her own and becoming truly independent. The season 3 finale of the show sets Midge up for a difficult time in season 4, but it is also sets her up to truly shine not just as a performer but as an independent woman.

Considering that the show moves into the 1960s in season 3, a time period in which more and more women were asserting their independence, it seems likely that Midge's feminism will become an even stronger story line moving forward. Just how far along in the decade the show will go, however, remains to be seen. Sherman-Palladino recently told TV Line that, while the ending of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is mapped out, it may be years before we know how her story ends.

"We know where we want [Midge]'s story to end," she said. "We don't know how many more seasons it will take to get there, but we know when the journey is over."