Note: This story contains spoilers from “Hacks” Season 5, Episode 10.
While the penultimate episode of “Hacks” saw Jean Smart’s Deborah Vance cement her comedy legacy, the HBO Max show wrapped up its five-season run by celebrating the deep bond between Deborah and Hannah Einbinder’s Ava in a series finale the co-stars thought was “perfect.”
“It’s, in my opinion, perfect as ever,” Einbinder said during an FYC screening of the finale and panel conversation Tuesday in Los Angeles. “Every time we have a finale of any season, I feel like it leaves off in like such a beautiful place, and I think … what we get to see in this finale is representative of the entire arc of the series. It is representative of the depth of their love and the depth of their connection.”
In the finale, Ava gets off to a successful start leading production of her pilot, though soon gets delivered devastating news by Deborah, who shares she has cancer and does not want to pursue treatment. Instead, she asks Ava to come with her on a carefree European vacation that will end with a visit to an assisted suicide institution — an idea Ava resists but eventually gives into.
Along their journey, however, Deborah realizes she still has another (standup) “hour” in her, and the show leaves off with the pair chatting through jokes in Paris, and eventually back in Las Vegas.
“I had … a little bit of an idea of how it was going to end,” Smart said during the post-finale panel, referencing the “Hacks” co-creators longstanding vision for the ending. “I don’t think it hit me until I just watched that last scene … it’s just perfect … because the relationship between the two of them is … always sort of the at the heart of the show surrounded by brilliance.”
Smart also pointed out the duet that wraps up “Hacks”: Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland’s duet of “Happy Days Are Here Again” and “Get Happy.”
“They told me shortly before we did the finale, that they were going to use that fabulous duet at the end, and I was so excited, because it’s such an incredible piece of music, and it was perfect that it was not just that song, but that it was a duet,” Smart said, resulting in Einbinder dropping to the floor of the stage in mourning of the series.
Einbinder was among the “Hacks” cast and crew — all of whom watched the finale among a crowd of TV Academy voters, press and others — that was full of emotions with the finale. The Emmy-winner recalled “bawling, sobbing, heaving, weeping, walking directly onto a stage,” ahead of shooting the finale, joking, “[I] wish I could say it was my first time.”
Co-creator Lucia Aniello, who directed the finale, also stifled some emotions as she discussed the full-circle moment from the pilot to the closer, this time with Ava at the helm of her own series.
“Deborah’s given so much of herself to Ava, and so when Ava now is in charge and being able to run her own show, which, as we establish as their dream, I think we are trying to say visually that she is now so much of Deborah — Yes, I’m going to go there,” she joked. “So much of Deborah is now in Ava, and so to mirror those shots is just kind of a continuation of that life.”
As the “Hacks” crew reflected on the legacy of the series, Smart applauded the show’s centering of the unique bond between Deborah and Ava, saying “I don’t think there’s ever been a relationship like this in a story that I can recall in a film or a TV show.”
“It’s not like a role I’ve ever done, and it’s just been, and to have this one here as my partner has just been incredible — not that kind of partner, just calm down, been there, done that,” she joked. “To be part of that has just been incredible.”
“It is like a shrine to our love … I can watch the show, and I can revisit these characters,” Einbinder said. “I know in moments where we lend ourselves to the characters, and the show is riddled with so much love between Jean and I, and so many of the moments where they’re getting along and laughing together … everything light and sweet like that, I can see us there.”
Beyond the duo’s bond and the intergenerational boundaries it helps break within viewers, Einbinder shouted out the show as becoming a “safe” place for the queer community.
“It has also become this very safe and warm and joyous place for queer people at a time where our community is experiencing so much violence … I think it is this beautifully queer show and space,” Einbinder said.
“In a world where free speech is under attack and comedy is under attack and queer people are under attack, I do feel like I hope that this show, because we tried to celebrate the craft of comedy, the making of comedy … I’m getting emotional again, so I’m losing my words,” co-creator and supporting actor Paul W. Downs added. “It’s about finding your people, and I hope that’s the legacy of the show — that people who love it and watch it have found their people through it.”
“Hacks” Seasons 1-5 are now streaming on HBO Max.
