Warning: This article contains spoilers aboutThe Marvelous Mrs. Maiselseries finale, “Four Minutes.”
In 1966, Bruce died at the age of 40 from a morphine overdose.
But Kirby surmises that Bruce has been carrying a torch for Midge throughout that time.
Luke Kirby on ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’.Amazon Studios
He’s a busy guy.
Kirby believes it’s the former.
“He would love to see her,” he says.
Luke Kirby on ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’.Prime Video
“That’s my impression.”
And why does Susie lie about Midge’s presence?
“Her presenting him with a way out is just a fantasy,” muses Kirby.
Rachel Brosnahan and Luke Kirby on ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’.Philippe Antonello/Prime
“She might as well be inviting him to Disneyland in that moment.
It’s not a reality that he can see.
She’s talking time machine talk.
you might’t go backwards, you know?”
Midge knows what’s coming.
She didn’t want him to know it was her doing it.
She felt like he wouldn’t respond to her.
What I took from it is she’s made many attempts.
She’s sending Susie in to see if there’s a last hope."
But the question always loomed whether we’d see his demise.
“It would be hard to do that without it being kind of ghoulish,” says Kirby.
“It’s not the show to do it like that.
There’s so many descriptions about Lenny’s last days and last moments out there.
I had no real yearning to play it out.
That’s when we were doing him verbatim.
He assumed he’d said Lenny’s goodbyes in episode 1 of the season.
“We did discuss it,” she tells EW.
Everybody’s seen that horrible picture that they ran of him on the floor.
What does that give us?
We know Midge will be sad.
But in the context of our story, Lenny was her guardian angel.
They eat in a Chinese restaurant and Lenny gives Midge a fortune predicting her fame and success.
Kirby found a poetic justice in getting that final grace note between them.
“It was really beautiful,” he reflects.
“Because it solidified that what me and Rachel were doing together was really happening.
I felt like I got a gold star.
I never had any aspiration or wish that there would be some rewriting of history.
I love when that happens in certain stories, but it didn’t feel right for this.
It is waiting for you to step up and claim it.”
“The die is cast.
The responsibility now falls on you to keep at it because the talent’s been identified.
I don’t think that Lenny’s talent was a burden to him either.
I think what burdened him was the confusion that some institutions had about his comedy.
Then it turned into an agenda to give a shot to send him to ruin.
I don’t think it was the fame that did that.”
It was his performance and his crackling chemistry with Brosnahan that kept the writers bringing him back.
Perhaps a happy ending with Midge?
“I owe it all to Lenny Bruce.
I don’t know that they would’ve worked well together if it wasn’t him.”
