What to remember about The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel before starting season 3

With the turn of our decade, The Marvelous Maisel is bringing about the turn of their own in season 3. Midge, Susie, the Maisels, and the Weissmans are returning to the small screen in an age of cultural revolution: the ‘60s.

Perhaps as Tony Shalhoub previously pointed out to EW, it’s fitting because the rapid-talking, memorable cast are all evolving in different ways. But before bingeing Maisel 3.0 when it drops on Amazon Prime tomorrow, make sure you remember what happened in all those cliffhangers.

From career moves to personal ones, here are the five things you need to remember about where Midge and company left off at the end of season 2.

That Awkward Reveal

There are many ways that Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) could have relayed to her father that she was a closet stand-up comic, but it went the absolutely worst way: He unknowingly attended one of his daughter’s gigs in the Catskills and locked eyes with her when she was joking about her parent’s sex life. Not long after, Midge told her mother too and things got complicated. There was a beacon of hope in season 2 episode 9 when Abe beheld his daughter’s talents on a telethon. The Weissman family may not be entertainers, but there’s some hope Abe will start to come around.

That Fresh Start

In general, the world Abe once knew changed rapidly in season 2. Besides learning of his daughter’s secret occupation (and his son’s as an analyst for the C.I.A.), the Weissman patriarch quit his cushy jobs at Columbia and Bell Labs in favor of his own path to self-discovery.

“He realizes that the ground beneath his feet is not only shifted, it’s fallen away. And so that has caused him to reevaluate everything, every corner of his world and his existence,” Shalhoub previously mused to EW. “So that’s catapulting him to what we discover in season 3. But it’s not a clear path before him — it’s got all kinds of twists and turns and uncertainty and possibly nothing, possibly failure and the end of the line for him.”

Unfortunately, along with finding himself, Abe has to find another source of income and a place to live since Columbia was funding his family’s luxurious New York City apartment!

That Return to Old Habits

Midge is finally granted her father’s blessing to get engaged to Benjamin (Zachary Levi), the successful surgeon she met in the Catskills who loves her for who she is, but the strong independent comic ends up sleeping with ex-husband Joel Maisel (Michael Zegen). Granted, Joel has come a long way since freaking out about his former spouse’s calling, and a return to a previous flame doesn’t mean Midge will take a step back in her career or personal growth.

“People always ask whether I’m Team Benjamin or I’m Team Joel, and I always answer that I’m Team Midge,” Brosnahan previously told EW. “I personally don’t necessarily believe that you have to choose between a personal and professional life. That’s an idea that a lot of people, men and women alike, still embrace.”

That Big Step

In the season 2 finale, Midge got another potentially life-changing proposal. But this one didn’t involve marriage. Sauve superstar singer Shy Baldwin (Leroy McClain) phones Midge to propose she open for him on his U.S. and European tour, “with a lot of fancy clothes” that he has offered to pay for. Without even consulting her agent Susie Myerson (Alex Borstein), Midge agrees to embark on this career-launching, six-month tour with Baldwin. But these venues are no Gaslight. They are the big time. So big, in fact, that Brosnahan told EW that they had almost 800 background actors on set for an episode. Besides having to adjust her jokes to a larger and diverse audience, Brosnahan told EW that Midge may have to also expand her mindset when it comes to her tour partner, Baldwin who is an African American in the Civil Rights era.

“Even though he’s a huge star and in some ways has transcended the late 1950s relationship to a black man – in a lot of ways he hasn’t, he can’t. And that’s something that Midge will have to wrap her head around,” Brosnahan said. “I think that’s an idea that she never considered carefully before, that somebody’s relationship to the world around them could be so different from her own. And obviously you know we’re a comedy, but I think that’s certainly something that she gets confronted with.”

That New Client

Susie managing a comic besides Midge? This is no joke. Midge’s adversary Sophie Lennon (Jane Lynch) offered to pay Susie big bucks to take her on as a client. Put that on your plate! The two sealed the deal — well mostly Sophie did — when Susie was invited to her grandiose estate for tea and then sent on her merry way with one of those thick fur coats. Let’s just hope that in season 3, taking on the megastar was not a mega mistake.

Related Content:

• Rachel Brosnahan on Maisel season 3: Bigger crowds, personal growth, and ‘so many good hats!’
• The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel star Alex Borstein says it’s ‘do or die’ for Susie in season 3
• Tony Shalhoub says Abe is ‘stepping out into the void’ on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel