Warning: SPOILERS for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4

There's palpable anger in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4 that's justified by where Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) finds her life and career as well as the circumstances under which Mrs. Maisel season 4 was produced. Mrs. Maisel season 4 picks up immediately after the ending of season 3: Midge and her manager, Susie Myerson (Alex Borstein), are shellshocked after she's fired from Shy Baldwin's (LeRoy McClain) tour. Stuck in New York City, Midge has to admit her humiliation to her family and pick up the pieces of her damaged stand-up comedy career.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel began with Midge angry and hurt after her husband Joel (Michael Zegen) left her for his secretary. Midge's fury is what fueled her initial foray into stand-up and it's why she was so devastatingly funny on-stage. Miriam Maisel is known and beloved for her sunny disposition and her rapier wit but she has always had a temper that gets her in trouble. Midge has also suffered a lot of mistreatment, whether it's comedy club managers and male comics belittling her or being blacklisted by Sophie Lennon (Jane Lynch). Midge also began The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 3 upset with Susie for agreeing to become Sophie's manager. Midge has even been arrested a handful of times because men with authority took umbrage at her wisecracks. But everything that has gone wrong in Midge's life since Joel left her and she became a comic has built up and exploded in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4.

Related: Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Timeline: Every Season & What Happened

Everything that's happening to Midge in Mrs. Maisel season 4 continues the series' theme that Midge's mother Rose (Marin Hinkle) articulated at the end of Mrs. Maisel season 3: that a woman in this era (and any era) can easily and powerlessly have her entire life upended by the whims of a man. Midge is understandably furious after Shy's manager Reggie (Sterling K. Brown) fired her and she has a breakdown on the way back from the airport at the start of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4. Reggie firing Midge on the tarmac at the last second was callous, but it was made worse when Midge discovered that the newspapers already knew she was fired and replaced on the tour (by a male comic) before Reggie told Midge and Susie. Worse, Midge is now being attacked by a Daily News gossip columnist named L. Roy Dunham who seems to have a vendetta against Mrs. Maisel.

Mrs. Maisel Silhouette

Mrs. Maisel season 4 crystallizes how Midge's life and career are again jeopardized by men. But as she announces on stage in the Mrs. Maisel season 4 premiere, this time, Midge wants (and will get) her revenge. Midge continues to suffer indignities in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4, episode 2, "Billy Jones and the Orgy Lamps," when she finds out she has no credit with the milkman, who only dealt with Joel, and her father, Abe (Tony Shalhoub), selfishly and thoughtlessly commandeers her bathroom. Worse, both of Midge's parents took credit for the Upper West Side Apartment Midge bought for them. Even though Midge has bounced back from humiliations before, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4 seems to be amping up Midge's fury beyond the previous seasons and Mrs. Maisel season 4 feels like it's building up to something big.

Although The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season 4's recreation of 1960s New York remains immersively impeccable, the harsh reality that the season was produced during the COVID-19 pandemic also seeps into the margins. The unfairness, fears, and anger of the real world have always felt throughout the previous three seasons of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, but perhaps it's never been more prevalent than in Mrs. Maisel season 4. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is wonderfully witty and ingeniously clever escapism, but the driving force of the series has always been Midge's anger. Mrs. Maisel will need to harness and use every bit of that rage if she's going to "change the business" and carve out her place as the best stand-up comic in America.

Next: Mrs. Maisel: What Happened To Midge's Money

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 4 is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.