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Following the tragic accident that claimed the lives of Preston and Paul during their brief visit to Montana, Stacy Clyburn and her family have discovered an incredibly supportive local community. These residents are the type to whip up a casserole, help repair a fence, or offer a ride to town. Such acts of kindness are second nature in Montana, where community spirit thrives. In contrast, Taylor Sheridan’s portrayal of New York City in The Madison paints it as a chaotic and self-centered place. In Montana, the notion of helping others is deeply ingrained, evidenced by Deputy Van and Cade Harris, who personally dug Preston and Paul’s graves. Despite Stacy’s attempts at integrating into this rural lifestyle and Van’s presence alongside Abby during the ceremony, her family remains distinctly out of place, their urban roots showing. Stacy even departs the ceremony early, leaving behind a family still grappling with loss and struggling to process their grief. “I don’t think they’re dealing with it all,” Van confides in Cade. “And who can blame them?”
Stacy didn’t exactly rush out, but her annoyance at the funeral’s formalities was palpable. The intimate gathering, which included only her family, Van, Cade, Kestrel, their children, and a man named Swenson (J. Downing) who transported the coffins, felt excessive to her. The ceremony seemed like an act of public mourning that Stacy found unnecessary. She has much to express about Preston’s passing and her emotions, “but not today,” as Abby reassures Paige that those conversations will come later, likely in private.
Back at the cabins, Stacy graciously interacts with the community members who have organized a picnic in memory of her husband and brother-in-law. She listens to their stories and memories, but noticing Paige’s distant expression and the apparent tension between Abby and Van—who weren’t officially a couple but still—it becomes clear to Stacy that it’s time to return to New York. “It’s time to go home, isn’t it?” she concurs with Liliana.
Remember the ultimatum from Episode 3? Stacy had firmly stated to Abby that her daughter needed to stay with her, and it seemed logical when she discussed schooling with Kestrel Harris, anticipating Bridgette and Macy would adapt to Montana life. Yet now, the family is heading back east on a private jet. Abby is seated at one window, Paige at another, and Stacy informs Liliana that Preston’s death might weigh heaviest on Paige, given how much she lived to earn his approval.
After Abby informed Van of her departure but expressed a desire to return, she leaned in for a kiss. However, the deputy pulled back, explaining the realities of his life: a modest salary as a sheriff’s deputy, investments tied up in a traveling rope horse, and hunting trips with his sons to prepare for winter. “What part of that sounds good to you?” he asked, laying out the simple yet demanding nature of his lifestyle.
And what of her life? Pilates, therapy, the girls’ activities, and at Christmas, a month in Italy. To which Van says he’d rather just miss what could have been. “You’re really breaking up with me at my father’s funeral?” Whether they were ever going out or not, for now, the realities of distance and their daily lives have done them in.
In New York City, Stacy arrives home to a cavernous and empty high-rise townhouse. She turns on all of the TVs. Flashes back to Preston always leaving his wedding ring at home in their bedroom, because he lost it in the river once. It sits there now, screaming at her. She picks up one of Preston’s dress shirts, inhales, shudders. And finally she calls Liliana. She doesn’t think she can stay in this home. “I can smell him.”
Maybe Will Arnett can help with that. Arnett is Dr. Phil Yorn in The Madison, a Fifth Avenue therapist recommended by Liliana, whose taste in casual men’s sweaters Stacy immediately detests. Yorn uses words like “hostile” and “mistrusting” for her, while she says she isn’t his typical client, some rich and bored housewife. She has real pain she can’t process, and it makes her lash out. At the funeral ceremony in Montana, or right here in Yorn’s fancy office. He says she has as much life left to live as she wishes, but she must allow herself to live it. “Or you’ll have none.”
There are only six episodes in this first season of The Madison, and we imagined the series would be showing off a bit more Out West seasoning by now. Instead, everyone is back in New York City, with their experience in Montana existing almost as an isolated experiment in grief immersion. A destination event, to face Preston’s untimely death, in a place foreign to them. But one that left them with so many feelings unprocessed. And as Stacy reenters her New York life, Michelle Pfeiffer is careful to carry her character with the sense that she is now truly alone. The space around her, the unending expanses of high-design gleam in her home, those white marble floors: they are all indicators of everything she has in this life. It would be a dream for some. but none of it will ever make her whole again.
Mad Hits for Season 1 Episode 5 of The Madison (“No Name and a New Dream“):
- “My job is to help you understand how you feel,” Dr. Phil Yorn says, “and understand the behaviors that those feelings elicit.” Which, like, isn’t that the definition of therapy? Maybe Yorn and Stacy will have more of a breakthrough if they continue to raid his office’s liquor cabinet.
- We also get a look at Paige and Russell’s place in NYC, a modern loft in SoHo with a curious multicolored light feature. Seems about right.
- And Stacy was correct about Paige’s capacity for processing Preston’s death. She’s not surprised when Russell calls, because Paige can’t stop crying. The fix, which Stacy and Abby deliver, is rocky road ice cream cut with cheap supermarket chocolate chips. When Paige says “Fuck you and your bad roots” to her sister, they know she’s herself again, and finally on the road to processing.
Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.