‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ reveals why Joel went to jail: ‘He’s taken the blame’
The following piece contains spoilers about “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” Season 5, Episode 6, “The Testi-Roastial”
The decade-spanning final season of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” didn’t waste any time explaining why Joel went to jail. After revealing in the season’s fifth episode that an older Joel was in prison for an undisclosed crime – and still happily in contact with Midge – this week’s sixth episode disclosed what put Mr. Maisel behind bars.
After coming to understand how mobsters Frank and Nicky take a huge cut of Midge’s earnings because of Susie’s debt to them, Joel goes around Susie and makes his own deal with the mafia. As a result, Midge, unbeknownst to her, is never again forced to give the mafia a single cent of her hard-earned money. But by 1985, after more than two decades of what viewers can only assume are numerous financial crimes, Joel is arrested in an FBI raid. He tells Midge everything that happened via a letter. Armed with the backstory, Midge and Susie have a massive fight that ends with the dissolution of their friendship – an event that has been teased in the season’s flashforwards.
Speaking in interviews published after the sixth episode, Joel actor Michael Zegen said his character’s behavior is a final shot at redemption.
“He loves Midge. Since he wronged her all those years ago, he’s been trying to make up for it, and this seemed like a reasonable solution to that,” Zegen told Entertainment Weekly. In the show’s first episode, Joel left Midge for his secretary, an event that sparked her turn to comedy.
“Even though him leaving her in that first episode jump-started this newfound career of hers and ultimately led to a better life, deep down he’s never really been able to come to terms with what he did,” Zegen added. “Despite the fact that it led to this new lavish lifestyle for her, he’s always retained feeling guilty.”
Zegen said that while Joel told Midge the entire story of what led to his incarceration – and Susie’s role in his ultimate downfall – he wasn’t trying to scapegoat the foul-mouthed manager.
“At this point, he’s taken the blame. Sure, he’d like to throw Susie under the bus, but it’s so far down the line, it doesn’t matter anymore,” Zegen said. “He did what he did and he’s going to pay the consequences.”
Joel has long been a contentious character for how he treated Midge in those early episodes of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” But Zegen said to TVLine that he hopes the decision to save Midge from the mafia would be viewed as a redemption for his onscreen alter-ego.
“It all kind of came together like, ‘Oh, shit, he was really admirable,’” Zegen said of Joel. “Which was nice. Maybe I won’t get so much hate mail anymore.”
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