How 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel's Final Scene Pays Tribute to an Iconic Comedy Duo (Exclusive)

Spoiler alert! Spoilers ahead for the series finale of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, titled "Four Minutes." Read on at your own risk.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel took its final bow on Friday, as the season 5 finale showed us exactly where Rachel Brosnahan's titular comedienne, Midge Maisel, ended up in the later years of her A-list career.

The flash-forward-heavy fifth and final season of the Emmy-winning comedy took away the suspense of Midge's success early on in the final episodes, sharing with viewers that she did, in fact, become one of the biggest names in comedy. The unique story structure was one that the Mrs. Maisel creative team had been planning for some time, executive producer Dan Palladino told ET.

"Once we decided it was the last season, we just dove right into it," he recalled. "It was fun, because we got to do time travel, but we're not science fiction. We got to see the touchstones in their lives, all throughout their lives. We loved it. We've never tried anything like that. It was ambitious, and it was a great storytelling device for us."

"And, of course," creator and EP Amy Sherman-Palladino added, "it allowed us to drive home the theme, which is the true love of each other's lives were Susie and Midge."

As viewers watched throughout the final season, the comedienne and her long-suffering manager, Susie Myerson (Alex Borstein), had a major falling out over Susie's mob ties. However, by the final flash-forward -- all the way to 2005 -- we see that the pair have reconciled and stayed in touch. In fact, they regularly watch their DVR-ed episodes of Jeopardy! together on the phone from opposite coasts; Midge from her New York City penthouse and Susie from a sunny, bird-filled chateau in southern California.

"It felt right that they would have sort of a mundane moment together," Sherman-Palladino said of the final scene. "We see that they've achieved this wild success. And, yeah, there's a little bit of Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner, towards the end of Carl Reiner's life, when they would get together with TV trays and watch Jeopardy!."

A February 2020 profile in The Guardian -- just a few months before Reiner's death -- detailed how Brooks would drive from his home in Santa Monica to Reiner's in Beverly Hills every evening so the pair could watch Jeopardy! together. Having Midge and Susie do the same was Maisel's way of paying tribute to another iconic comedy duo.

"It sort of felt like the true love of their lives," Sherman-Palladino said of Brooks and Reiner's longtime friendship and professional partnership. "I'm sure they both loved their wives very much. But it was really, you know, they started this journey together and they ended it together. And we felt like that's what we want to do with these women. They started this thing together and they, against all odds, sort of plummeted off the mountain together and landed on their feet."

It's a moment of friendship, yes, but also one that shows the lonely road the pair had to traverse to find themselves at the very top.

"It's a little bit of like, you know, you give up certain things in life to get certain things in life," Sherman-Palladino noted. "But in the end, they had each other, which was the most important thing."

For Brosnahan and Borstein, they simply had a hoot seeing the costumes and set design depicting Midge and Susie's -- particularly Susie's -- future lives.

"It was a genuine surprise and funny. Really funny," Borstein recalled. "I mean, the bird collection. [She] just kind of lost her mind -- goes from living in one room to having a..."

"A palace," Brosnahan finished for her. "Full staff, cage of birds, Merlin hair."

"Yeah, I looked like Gandalf," Borstein agreed, with her co-star noting, "We can't wait to release the selfies."

All five seasons of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel are streaming now on Prime Video.

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