Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Star Weighs In on [Spoiler]’s Departure in Season 5 Premiere: ‘It Was a Complete Shock’
The following story contains spoilers from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’s Season 5 premiere — proceed at your own peril.
A key Marvelous Mrs. Maisel cast member made a surprising exit in the opening episode of the Amazon comedy’s fifth and final season (the first three episodes of which dropped Friday; read our recap).
Midway through “Go Forward,” which was written and directed by series creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, Mei (played by Everything Everywhere All at Once‘s breakout star/Oscar nominee Stephanie Hsu), revealed to boyfriend Joel (Michael Zegen) that she aborted their unborn child. And she’s moving to Chicago to pursue her dream of becoming a doctor.
“I can’t have it all, Joel,” Mei lamented. “If I’m really going to be a doctor then I have to be a doctor.”
The development brought Hsu’s multi-season Maisel run (she joined the series on a recurring basis in Season 3) to a somewhat abrupt end. Zegen admits that the twist caught him off guard.
“It was a complete shock after reading the first episode,” the actor confesses to TVLine in the above video. “I thought maybe she was going to come back, but [Stephanie] told me she wasn’t. It was shocking… I expected them to be together forever, to be honest.”
According to Sherman-Palladino, the character of Mei was always intended to be a temporary presence in Joel’s life.
“[She] was brought in for a hot blast [to knock] Joel off of his axis [and] out of the Midge world,” the EP explains. “She also represent[ed] the next generation of women that would be coming up after Midge, who might be thinking a little ahead of the game, like, ‘Maybe before I get married and have kids, I’m gonna accomplish this.’ Midge was a little late for that. She fell into her ambition. Stephanie was playing those girls in the 60s who are, like, ‘I’ve seen my mom’s way, and maybe I’m going to do it a slightly different way.'”
Adds EP Daniel Palladino: “We wanted to show Joel with a woman who was even more independent than Midge was. Midge embraced the Betty Crocker myth; Mei did not. So [her] pregnancy [teed up] an inevitable conclusion [for the character].”
Sherman-Palladino notes that the decision to have Mei leave town at the start of Season 5 “was determined [long] in advance of [Stephanie] becoming the biggest, hugest star in the entire world,” adding, “You don’t ask Stephanie to show up and not give her anything to do. If she’s gonna show up, you gotta give her great stuff to do. She’s not going to sit there for two or three episodes and be window dressing just because we’re greedy and we love Stephanie.
“She’s a rock star,” Sherman-Palladino sums up. “She comes in, she does rock star s–t, and then she goes out and [gets nominated for] an Oscar.”
Stephanie Hsu is such a talent. She steals every single scene she is in. She’s radiant! I really liked her and Joel together. I am very disappointed by this.
She has never topped the quality of work she showed in those AT&T commercials with the foam fingers. I knew she was destined for stardom at that point.
You knew that she was either going to have an abortion or have a miscarriage. Sadly, Joel and Midge are the endgame for this series. Midge is going to realize the world isn’t ready for her comedy and she will setting back into living a sad life as Ms. Maisel.
Not the feeling I got from the flash-forward in Episode 1.
While I love Stephanie, and am excited to see what she does next, I wasn’t a fan of Mei and Joel and I’m happy that she is moving on.
I take it you haven’t seen the flash-forwards yet.
Mei deserved better than being saddled to Joel for the rest of her life.
This romance was the weakest part of the show solely because it was never believable or true to life. Not in those cultures, not in that time period, not in New York. No way no how. Just not going to happen. And yes, while the show isn’t trying to be Mad Men with its depiction of the era, it also isn’t trying to use the period solely as window dressing in the story. The Joel-Mei story was just a bridge too far and broke immersion.
I thought Stephanie Hsu might be unavailable for this season of Mrs M because of EEAA, but I still felt like this was a poor and disappointing way to write her out. It was just too abrupt from where we left Joel and Mei at the end of Season 4.
“that she aborted their unborn child”
She had an abortion. She terminated a pregnancy, Why the right-wing linguistics?
“I dropped the baby”.
First, Stephanie Hsu is a big talent and it is a joy to see her in any show/movie. Season 5, so far, does not make me happy and this is key. The first 3 seasons made me laugh and joyous. This season is somber, dismal, unfunny. So far, I am not liking any of the characters. If this is the finale to the show, then I would say it is time to end.
Such a stupid decision. Makes me fear for the ending of the series…
This just makes me remember the ending of Season 6 of Gilmore Girls, and the ending of A Year in the Life.
It is such a disappointment to write out Mei in this way. To be honest, I was a bit tired of Midge since Season 3. Mei has been such a fresh diversion. Bring her back!