Mrs. America season 1 episode 3 review: Power concedes nothing

The third episode of Mrs. America follows the 1972 Democratic National Convention and Shirley Chisholm’s historic run for president.

“Shirley” has jumped ahead another year after the events in “Gloria” to 1972 with 18 states having ratified the ERA. While the libbers are gearing up for the Democratic National Convention in Miami, Phyllis’ efforts are formalizing with the STOP ERA movement in St. Louis.

The main STOP ERA story revolves around the Louisiana faction throwing around casual racism and comparing segregation to the women’s liberation movement. Thankfully, Sarah Paulson’s Alice finds it just as cringeworthy as this critic and encourages Phyllis to do something about it.

But Phyllis values politics above all else and sees that they need the numbers and power of the Louisiana group. After sacrificing Alice to bring up the big R-word (racism), Phyllis appoints leaders for each of the states there, including Louisiana.

But then she says they need to have a strict code of conduct, including scripts for media appearances, now that they’ve gone national. It’s a great moment to show Phyllis’ political prowess and dedication to her goals while also demonstrating the varying degree to which racism is salient for the members of STOP ERA.

This sacrifice of values for politics rings true for the libbers’ storyline, as well as them having to choose between supporting the first female president or rallying behind the “more likely” candidate to win.

In a plot point that will ring familiar for many of today’s viewers, Uzo Aduba’s Shirley Chisholm has run a strong populist campaign but failed to secure more than one percent of the votes in the primary, leading many voices within the party to call for her to concede so they can coalesce around McGovern.

Yet Shirley understands there’s power with delegates, and if she can keep her delegates going into the convention, she stands to push the platform forward.

However, the call to concede comes from the most unexpected places: the Black Caucus and the libbers. While the establishment Democrats (including Bella) want to avoid a contested convention, Shirley wants to shake things up:

"“If I tell it like it is and some of the delegates defect to me, that’s chaos? I call it a revolution.”"

The establishment politics trickle down to impact everyone’s decision-making. Even while Gloria says she plans to endorse Shirley, she also toes the line since she believes they need McGovern’s support.

Meanwhile, Bella believes that McGovern is the only viable candidate and that they have to unite behind him to push their platform forward. And Betty wants to push to nominate Shirley as McGovern’s vice president, something that would still be groundbreaking and allow her to make change from the inside.

This all culminates in a tense fight as Bella accuses Shirley of running a joke of a campaign based purely on her ego. Of course, Shirley keeps on going and asks the women’s caucus on the convention floor for their support rather than conceding.

This gives us one of the episode’s best moments as Bella and Shirley hug and wave to the crowd while smiling and cattily whispering about the game afoot. Bella sees Shirley as a rulebreaker, while Shirley sees herself as a revolutionary.

As a viewer, it’s easy to root for Shirley. We already know that McGovern did not turn out to be the white male savior the women’s liberation movement pinned all their hopes on. But it doesn’t make it any less painful to watch as they sell themselves (and Shirley) out in the hopes for a more inclusive platform.

When Bella and Gloria get summoned to McGovern’s campaign suite, it’s clear they feel like they’re breaking through a glass ceiling of sorts by making it into the inner sanctum of the campaign.

And it’s almost shocking to watch how quickly Gloria is willing to make a deal with McGovern’s aide to deliver him delegates (delegates that Shirley is trying to win) in order for McGovern to simply stay neutral on abortion instead of supporting it.

When Gloria and Bella leave the suite and get on the elevator, they come across Betty, who immediately puts together what’s happened and goes off on them. (Betty wins the White Feminist Award for this episode.) The moment only grows more stifling as the elevator fills and the camera pans up to a birds-eye view of Gloria looking skyward as she realizes what she’s done.

But it’s too late, of course. The next day, the floor vote on abortion is about to happen, and the overwhelmingly white male delegates are giving up their seats for the female alternates from the women’s caucus so they can vote. Things are looking good for one brief shining moment.

Then, at the last minute, they take their seats back so they can vote no. As Gloria realizes she was played, she runs up and screams at McGovern’s aide that he lied. It’s a great moment of acting from Rose Byrne (even as the wig and glasses threaten to overpower her).

Gloria goes to see Shirley to make one last move to nominate her as vice president, but Shirley tells her it’s essentially pointless. McGovern played them for the votes, and now that he has them, he’ll abandon every progressive policy they fought for.

"“He put on a good show, but don’t mistake that for real political power … Power concedes nothing.”"

In the final moments of the episode, McGovern takes the stage as he receives the Democratic nomination for President to a crowd of women who still look conflicted.

And then Shirley, in a bright, patterned dress, standing out among the line of white men in suits, takes the platform and the weight of the moment looms large. It’s heartbreaking and profound.

We haven’t had a Black woman get as far as Ms. Chisholm did in nearly 50 years, and she didn’t live to see the first Black president. Hopefully, Mrs. America will do some small part to help change that.

You can now stream the third episode of Mrs. America on Hulu.