‘Hacks’ Creators Breakdown Season 1’s Emotional Ending

Hacks Season 1 Finale Spoilers Ahead!

The first season of Hacks ends on a total emotional cliffhanger. While it seems that Deborah (Jean Smart) and Ava (Hannah Einbinder) have not only reconciled after their big fight, but also become closer than ever, a bomb is about to go off in their relationship. As Ava settles in on Deborah’s private plane to set off on the road to test and hone Deborah’s emotional new act, she gets a frantic call from Jimmy (Paul W. Downs). After her explosive fight with Deborah in Vegas, a drunk and upset Ava wound up emailing the British writers she met in Episode 9 all the dirty, personal, damaging details about Deborah’s private life. Jimmy has learned about this and it seems soon Deborah will, too.

So what gives with that cliffhanger ending? What will happen to Ava and Deborah’s relationship in Hacks Season 2? And why did the creators of Hacks — Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky — choose to end the season like that and not on the emotionally cathartic scene where Deborah and Ava console each other?

“It was very purposeful for us to put HBO Max in a position where they felt they had to renew it,” Hacks co-creator Lucia Aniello told Decider with a laugh this week.

“And also a position where we got to see a lot of the conflict that we love about these two characters,” fellow Hacks co-creator Paul W. Downs added. “So it was intentional. As Deborah says on QVC in Episode 1, very intentional.”

Luckily for the Hacks team, HBO Max has already renewed the series for a second season. That means that Hacks Season 2 will likely pick up right where Season 1 left off, but it will also take Deborah out of the comfort of her Las Vegas residency and into the tumult of performing stand up out on “the road.”

“We found so much fun in writing the scenes like the scene with Ava and Deborah at the antique store in Episode 2, or them going to Sacramento to the comedy club. Getting them out of the castle that Deborah has built up around herself has been really, really fun for us,” Downs said. “It’s also going to be interesting to see the way in which someone like Deborah Vance tours, because I don’t think it’s the exact same way a lot of ‘Road Dog’ comedians tour, which means she’s getting home anytime she can. She’s getting into that Whirlpool bath.”

Hacks co-creator Jen Statsky said, “She’s not going to have to Airbnb-out her place. So she can go home whenever she wants. We’re excited for the mix of that, to get to open up that world, like Paul said, but also get to still be in the castle at times too.”

Of course the reason why Deborah has to go out on the road in the first place is tied to an interesting choice the Hacks team made for the finale. After a whole season of setting up Deborah’s final show in Vegas to be a triumph of confessional comedy, the Hacks Season 1 finale not only cuts away from Deborah’s new material, but informs us that the legendary comic bombed. Hacks‘s creators told Decider that Deborah bombed off screen to not only “subvert the expectation” of the audience, but to stay true to the reality of comedy.

“We wanted it to be a turn you maybe didn’t expect but also we want this show in every aspect to be very grounded and realistic. It doesn’t matter who you are, [every] stand-up would tell you this, and I think there’s been plenty of documentaries where you can watch Seinfeld evolve a joke or something like that. It takes work and it takes work and it takes work, so we really wanted it to feel as truthful as possible,” Downs said. “Even though it’s her house and her main stage, and it’s the Deborah Vance who can make anybody laugh, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to be a home run. you can still bomb no matter who you are.”

Lucia Aniello added that the choice helped set up Hacks Season 2. “By saying she needs to workshop, the whole show gives us a lot more to explore and gives us a lot more to watch Season 2. And obviously going on the road, we do think is a really interesting, cool way to see how our show will evolve,” Aniello said. “I think it’s just a way for us to continue the tension between not only Deborah and Ava, but also Deborah and her material.”

Maybe the riskiest scene, though, in the Hacks finale is the one where Ava and Deborah seem to truly become friends. Deborah crashes Ava’s father’s funeral and uses humor to give the man the memorial he deserves. After that, she joins Ava in her childhood bedroom to console the younger woman and give her some much-needed advice. It’s a tender scene that’s a complete swerve from the acerbic roasting the show built its foundation upon. Jen Statsky said the team was “confident in what we had built writing-wise up until then, and confident in the performances that Hannah and Jean gave.”

“They can be acerbic, which feels really true to their nature as comedians. But then, in moments like in Episode 6, when they’re bonding and getting closer, it also emotionally just feels so true there. So I think we felt really confident that they could handle whatever was on the page and make it feel authentic and real,” Statsky said.

“I also think the truth is that at that moment, Ava is grieving. She’s lost her father, and when things like that happen, I think you’re obviously very raw and tender. And I think when the people in your life are around you in those moments, they respond to that,” Statsky said. “There’s a level of rawness and emotional vulnerability that I think happens when someone is in that state and you love them and care for them, and you kind of meet them wherever they need to be met. And I think Deborah in that scene really meets Ava where she needs to be met. And so, I don’t think we were worried about it.”

One thing Ava might want to be worried about heading into Season 2? Her penchant for going nuclear against Deborah on her cell phone when she’s drunk and upset. She narrowly avoided getting fired earlier in the season and might have blown up her relationship with Deborah with that awful email to the Bitter End writers.

“She needs to have a lock,” Aniello said. “A child lock.”

Downs said, half-joking: “I know it takes time to really change. True change takes time and discipline.”

The Hacks Season 1 finale is now streaming on HBO Max.

Where to stream Hacks