Friends, fans, lovers, enemies, and El Hefe all descend upon New York City this week for Deborah\u2019s career-defining stand-up show. The air crackles with excitement in the opening moments of \u201cThe Garden,\u201d as Deborah puts the finishing touches on her set, a montage capturing her latest grueling routine\u2014workouts, ice-water facials, vocal exercises, choreography. It\u2019s an energizing reminder of how she got to Madison Square Garden, and how Hacks got to the penultimate episode of its critically lauded, award-winning run: hard work and talent in equal measure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That energy continues unabated in \u201cThe Garden,\u201d even after the shocking reveal mid-episode, which we\u2019ll get to in due time. Lucia Aniello is back at the helm, and she shares writing duties once more (and for the second-to-last time) with her co-creators Jen Statsky and Paul W. Downs. Hacks has featured some great directors and writers, all of whom have contributed to the show\u2019s identity, but the domino-toppling of \u201cThe Garden\u201d practically demands the original trio. This is what the final season has been building towards, with its callbacks, setbacks, triumphs, even the flirty interludes<\/a>. And it\u2019s a work of art.\u00a0<\/p>\n 18 months have passed since Deborah quit late night, and although the title of her show is Deborah Vance: Gagged, she\u2019s now free to promote it everywhere: billboards, The Breakfast Club\u2014you name it, she does. She\u2019s spending the last week leading up to \u201cthe best 9\/11 that New York has ever had\u201d rehearsing and depriving herself\u2014but only of food, judging by the call she makes to Marty. Ava\u2019s on the other side of the country, pitching her Who\u2019s Making Dinner? reboot with a proud Jimmy sitting next to her, but it\u2019s a non-starter.\u00a0\u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel personal,\u201d Jessica says after listening to Ava describe her reboot\u2019s themes of economic hardship and Gen Z kinship.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ava\u2019s disappointed, but it\u2019s understandable\u2014aside from her connection to Deborah, there\u2019s no clear reason why she would \u201cneed\u201d to be the one to tell that story. And I realize everyone wants to make the next Friends, but Ava\u2019s idea boils down to \u201croommates,\u201d and she hasn\u2019t really had any; her living arrangements over the last few years have consisted of a hotel, a tour bus, a brief stay in a mall, and room and board at the palatial home of one of the most demanding bosses ever. She\u2019s out of touch with her generational cohort, a fact that becomes crystal clear later when she\u2019s arguing with Deborah over QR codes and minibar usage. Their little tiff, which is really more of a way for Deborah to let off a little steam on the night before her show, inspires Ava to write a new pitch for Who\u2019s Making Dinner?, one shaped by the most important relationship in her life. Ava sells Jessica on the idea by describing the two leads, so obviously inspired by herself and Deborah, as two women who \u201chelp each other see the world differently and they both become better people for it.\u201d More than any other idea she\u2019s worked on throughout the series, this is the story she needs to tell, and her confidence in pitching it is another sign of growth for Ava, who not that long ago (at the end of season two, to be precise) worried that she had nothing of real significance to say. And her statement echoes something Deborah said in season one\u2019s penultimate episode, \u201cInterview\u201d: [W]hen you share a sense of humor with someone, it\u2019s like finding someone who speaks your own private little language, and you make each other better.\u201d Deborah was talking about her late ex-husband Frank, but she was also foreshadowing the relationship that\u2019s been the core of the show.\u00a0<\/p>\n These are just two of many full-circle moments in \u201cThe Garden,\u201d along with Marty, after learning he\u2019s been laid off by the VC bros who bought the Palmetto Group, whining to Deborah about ageism. You\u2019ll recall that he effectively pushed her out of her residency in search of fresh (read: young-skewing) talent back in season one. Deborah\u2019s sympathetic, even if she can\u2019t resist deadpanning about the situation: \u201cWelcome to the club. I mean, you\u2019re 40 years behind, but we\u2019re happy to have you.\u201d Later, Deborah proves yet again that she can forgive, if not forget, by offering him the job of running The Diva, which he immediately accepts. (He\u2019d better not try to book Pentatonix.) But the clattering of dominoes really started to pick up for me mid-episode, when Deborah, dressed in her hard-won Carol Burnett jumpsuit, wonders about the lack of crowd noise at the Garden. Her team\u2014Ava, Jimmy, Kayla, and Randi\u2014is also nonplussed about the eerie quiet at what should be a sold-out event. Clack, clack, clack, wait, who\u2019s the lone person in the audience? Bob Lipka, who was able to easily buy out the show thanks to the low price point Deborah set to make room for the Little Debbies.\u00a0<\/p>\n 18 months of smearing Deborah in the press and enforcing her silence weren\u2019t enough for Bob\u2014he now wants her to sign an NDA (for what he hints is a lot of money) and agree never to speak of him or Late Night again. Apparently, the last year and a half was \u201ca fucking nightmare\u201d for Bob, the smol-bean CEO who almost lost the trust of his board and whose bonus package was reduced after Deborah\u2019s \u201cheroic\u201d exit. Rather than see her stir up support once more with her Garden show, Bob bought out the tickets to undermine her again. \u201cDo you really want to spend your golden years fighting a losing battle?,\u201d he asks her. When Deborah turns pensive, her eyes briefly lowering, I\u2019ll admit I had a flicker of doubt; I thought she might at least ask for a beat to consider the offer, possibly to buy time to scheme with her team. But this is Deborah Vance, after all, so she fires back a succinct \u201cFuck your NDA, and fuck you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n