Hacks
Season 5
Episode 10
Editor’s Rating
5 stars
*****
The series finale gives Deborah, Ava & Co. an optimistic outlook on work, family, death, and the future.
Photo: HBO Max
Are everyone’s dreams coming true? Hacks has had plenty of criticism to dish about the entertainment industry, but it does seem, at the end of the day, to be far more smitten than snarky. The best-case scenario for every character on Hacks is not to find fulfillment outside of their jobs (although some of them do sort of do that?) but to find their way back into the game, just on better terms than before, no matter how many times the industry kicks them in the teeth. The big dream is not that they’ll be free of this work but that they’ll never have to be; they’ll get to die at their desks doing what they love.
With that in mind, we know that the one loose end we really need to tie up in this finale is Jimmy’s (and, by extension, Kayla’s). The guy with all the monologues about how important art and storytelling are, and how agents are a mission-critical part of that work, is not going to end this series in the mail room. It’s just not that kind of show! We have known from day one that Kayla’s dad is a scumbag whose employees are but an army of scumbags-in-waiting; the man knew that one of his clients committed vehicular manslaughter and, burdened by crippling PTSD, became a barely functioning alcoholic, and he would have happily continued exactly like that until his daughter got in the way.
So while it’s not surprising, it is still satisfying to watch Jimmy, who carries himself through the mail room with the dignity of a prisoner of war who refuses to disavow his true nation, discover, through the bread crumbs of invoices, checks, and that weird run-in with Gene Latimer’s widow, that Kayla’s dad has been (1) selling the voices and likenesses of dead clients to AI companies and (2) keeping the money, to the tune of over $10 million. Stealing from clients’ families, stealing from the company, enabling the gross zombification of late talent by selling out to AI … that’s what I like to call a dayenu situation. (Is it just me, or are the villains this season especially mustache-twirly-two-dimensional in their villainy? Bob Lipka, Graham the AI guy, Kayla’s dad. Then again, I guess these assholes are all actually like that.)
Kayla and Jimmy confront Kayla’s dad at the Latitude retreat, to which they were not invited. (Hilariously, Randi, who can rise in any ecosystem, was not only invited but has already ingratiated herself amongst the less-offensive staffers.) They successfully blackmail him into handing over the company. Finally, somebody is getting forced out of a job and into an early retirement who actually deserves it! Kayla’s dad barely resists, saying they can have it. “The whole industry is in the shitter anyway!” he says in defeat. And this is a deeper conversation for another venue, but I do feel like this is what’s going on with a lot of our industry powers that be: They’re clinging to their power until the thing they had power over has rapidly diminishing relevance and resources. Then, and only then, are they kicking the power position to someone younger, all but confirming that your successor will never outshine you.
On his way out, Kayla’s dad puts Jimmy and Kayla on the spot, announcing that he’s stepping down and handing the reins to “my spirited daughter and her unrelenting business partner,” much to the horror of approximately 50 percent of the Latitude staff. Jimmy and Kayla address the room, which is in open revolt, through one shared headset. They lose a lot of the crowd by saying “anyone who thinks doing good work is ‘gay’ can leave”; the exodus escalates when Jimmy confesses they won’t be having Sugarfish for lunch anymore. But the people who are left behind are the people who want to be “part of a new, midsize Latitude.” Randi leads a standing ovation. They end up at the desks where they belong: Jimmy in his old office, Kayla at her original perch just outside his door, and Randi, who will one day be everyone’s boss, in the corner office. Even Bob Lipka wants to be in business with them now!
Also at the top of their game: Ava, showrunning her Who’s Making Dinner? pilot with confidence and ease, and Marcus and Marty, who are giddily overseeing the grand opening of the Diva. Great font on that “Deborah Vance Comedy Club” sign! (Loved Marty asking for June off so he could attend the 1,000 Miglia, an amateur classic-car race in Italy, and then, when this request for four weeks of PTO is denied, swiftly regrouping: “No problem, I’ll just drive fast here.”) Kiki is pit boss/mama; Josefina is a “lifestyle concierge” with a massive pay bump; Damien is as before. We get a quick shot of DJ celebrating her mom at the ribbon cutting, and, in a not-not-bittersweet turn of events, that is the last we see of her, despite everything that transpires in the rest of the episode. (See above re: Hacks’s take on whether work is more important than life! Your work family > your real family, every time. Grandbabies be damned!)
Deborah makes a heartfelt speech about how special Las Vegas is. She is wearing a lot of fuchsia, but I think she’s pulling it off. Mayor Jo arrives to smash a bottle of Champagne so badly that she hits an artery and gushes blood all over the stage. I love her!
Over lunch, Ava and Deborah kvell over their shared successes. Deborah is adamant that they take this trip to Europe during the three-month window while Ava waits to see if the network will pick up her show. “If you want to be an authority as a boss, you have to have eaten real bread,” Deborah says wisely. Interesting. I didn’t realize Deborah ate carbs … is something wrong? Then, Deborah spills the real news: Her minor medical thing was not so minor after all. The mass has spread. But she has no interest in chemo. She’s done it all and wants to go out on top by taking a fabulous trip to Paris and then a train to Zurich for the best assisted-suicide experience the world has to offer.
For all of Ava’s talk about Deborah’s obituary, she was not expecting to see it published (correctly, this time) so soon. She thinks this is insane. Did anyone else hear Deborah call her “Hannah” in the little stretch where she’s calming her down? Didn’t bother me, but curious if you all heard it, too: an accidental fourth-wall-breaking moment that felt human and lovely to me.
Ava goes through all the stages: denial, bargaining (for power of attorney “like what Britney’s dad had”), calling Jimmy (surprisingly Zen about the whole thing, reminding Ava that “we’re all gonna die”), refusal, and then, finally, acquiescence. She can’t go on this trip, but she also can’t not go. She meets Deborah at the airport (wearing a tie? For a transatlantic flight? Okay!) and states her terms: “You have to do hard drugs with me. Probably molly.” “Okay, sweetie,” says Deborah. “We can do an eight-ball if that would make you feel better.”
I struggled with last season’s Singapore finale, but this really worked for me! Am I getting soft and squishy-hearted in our show’s final minutes? My favorite parts: Ava referring to the stick-shift automobile as “a rough draft of a car”; Deborah’s many, many coats (whenever I travel, it’s a carry-on-only, one-coat situation … God, that woman knows how to LIVE); Ava’s discovery that Deborah doesn’t have pierced ears because “it’s barbaric”; Deborah’s savvy at Paul Bert, her favorite flea market in the world. For one afternoon, Deborah bought out the Louvre!!!! I would love to know what tier of ultrawealthy this experience is even available to and how it would work. How did they shoot this?! Is it easier than I thought if Deborah can do it for the Louvre and Olivia Rodrigo can do the same at Versailles?
Usually, one of the top-most annoying things about the Über-wealthy is that they have no imagination and spend their money on the most boring, dumb shit. Reminds me of this great Anthony Bourdain interview where he talked about how dictators eat badly. (“There’s all these great Italian restaurants in the city, but they go to Cipriani, you know, they go to Nello, they pay $120 for a bowl of spaghetti pomodoro or whatever they’re paying. Why? Because they want to live in that bubble.”) It is a pleasure to watch a rich person spend money with such taste and verve! Deborah actually appreciates the paintings she has paid handsomely to have to herself. The scene is undermined only slightly by the show’s need to have Deborah get in one more comment about being a “female comedian” for the road, but then we are off to take a disco nap so the girls can go dancing later in outfits selected by Ava.
Ava puts Deborah in … is that an oversize hockey jersey? They dance so hard, it’s like a happy but poignant version of that Industry nightclub scene. I worry what the drugs Ava has taken will do to her in this particular emotional state. You can really see Ava taking in how beautiful and alive Deborah is and how her grief is creeping in. Such a great, quiet moment for Hannah Einbinder! Also loved seeing her, post-club, smoking a cigarette out the window as the sun came up, draped in one of Deborah’s leopard coats. Spiritually, this felt connected to that rooftop scene in Hustlers when J.Lo says, “Climb in my fur.”
By the sober, bright light of morning, Ava is ready to make her case for Deborah’s life again. (I liked her little riff about this hotel having a business center “for the toiling proletariat.”) Deborah is unmoved by Ava’s pitch, which includes terms like “clinical trials” and “experimental drugs” — things Deborah is convinced will serve no purpose except for “finding more off-label benefits for men.” She does not want to be remembered as she remembers Gino from Who’s Making Dinner?, who died of AIDS complications; she does not want to waste away. Ava tries yelling at Deborah, which only makes Deborah go quieter. When she was choking back sobs, saying, “Please don’t leave me,” I lost it!!!
Ava takes herself for a pensive solo walk in comically wide pants. I assume the church where she ends up is famous, but I did not recognize it; in my other recapping escapades, Emily is blasphemous and does not attend religious services, so this was new territory for me! She has a meditative moment in there and finds Deborah at a café, where she says that, while she hates this, she’ll support Deborah’s decision. Deborah rewards this act of generosity from her “big, brave girl” (aww!) with a not-so-secret secret: Her hands are bigger than Ava’s. What a great cackle from Jean Smart!
To the sweet sounds of the opening strings of “Too Late to Turn Back Now,” Ava and Deborah go to the train station and talk about death and the afterlife. Will Deborah be able to find out why Burt Reynolds called her in 1980? Could God be a gender-fluid barista? Is the best part of dying for a person with disordered eating the ability to have the second croissant? Ava goes to the bathroom before boarding, and I will admit I was wrong here: I thought Deborah was going to board the train without her. INSTEAD: Deborah takes out her joke notebook. Because she still has more to say, she wants another crack at it. The worst part of dying, she tells Ava, is that “I can’t even enjoy being bone-thin. That’s the better joke!”
“I may not have 30 years,” she says. “But I think I have another hour.” Something to live for, after all! Deborah Vance, who did NOT die, ladies and gentlemen and they/thems!
I loooove the transition from the Eiffel Tower in Paris to the Eiffel Tower on the Strip. Deborah is back in the game and starting treatment. One more once, as they say! I hope you all are taking away the important lessons from our series: Hollywood is good, actually; AI is evil and for fucking losers; don’t be afraid to negotiate; you need a different cream for your neck than you do for your face; never forsake your core fans; and always eat the second croissant.
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