Hacks season 3 premiere: Let them eat cake

[Editor’s note: The recap of Hacks season 3, episode 2 publishes May 3.]

It’s Deborah Vance’s world; the rest of us just live in it.

Vegas’ greatest washout-turned–comeback kid made her supremacy abundantly clear in the Hacks season-two finale, when she abruptly fired her joke writer/punching bag/soulmate Ava Daniels at the height of their shared triumph. But in case you forgot this important fact in the two long years since Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky’s Emmys-sweeping Max series was last on the air, the season-three premiere opens with a bracing reminder.

At the entrance to Caesars Palace, a woman who is definitely for sure 100-percent Jean Smart steps out of a sleek black SUV in a sequined coat. The camera follows her as she strides through the lobby and past the craps tables to a golden podium, where her former husband and business partner Marty (Christopher McDonald) is waiting for her. It’s not Deborah, of course, but an unconvincing impersonator Marty has hired to promote his new Deborah Vance-themed slot machines. When a photographer asks why the woman herself isn’t here, he chuckles. “Yeah…she’s a little busy these days.”

Actual Deborah is walking the red carpet at the TIME 100 Gala, celebrating the latest of many recent successes. In the year since her standup special debuted to global acclaim, she’s become universally adored beyond her wildest dreams. But the flip-side of her hard-won fame is a crushing sense of loneliness—the kind you cope with by rearranging your collection of antique salt-and-pepper shakers at three in the morning. Presented with the evidence of this late-night KonMari session, Deborah’s estate manager, Josefina (Rose Abdoo), considers slipping an Ambien into her boss’ coq au vin.

The next morning, Deborah meets with her stylists to pick an outfit for an upcoming awards appearance at the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal. As they kiss her ass at every turn, it’s obvious how much she misses having someone in her life who will give her an honest opinion—preferably served over ice, with a chaser of sulfuric acid.

Deborah turns to her “closet” for inspiration, which is the size of a warehouse because it’s, well, a warehouse. Her face lights up when she stumbles upon a sublimely hideous yellow-and-black couture gown that screams “elevated Bee Girl.” To add yikes to yikes, it doesn’t fit her anymore, which she plans to remedy by crash-dieting. It’s a sign of how lost Deborah is right now that she doesn’t clock her underling’s insincerity as they fawn over the terrible dress.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Ava (Hannah Einbinder) is also apparently thriving. She’s living with her very hot GF, Ruby (Lorena Izzo), the star of a CW-esque superhero show called, yes, Wolf Girl and working a cushy staff gig on a critically acclaimed satirical news show called On The Contrary With Lewis Benton. But there’s no escaping the hold her former boss/torturer/mother figure/MILF girlfriend still has over her. Ava’s so distracted by the image of Deborah posing in a Supreme sweatshirt on a highway billboard that she rear-ends a city bus. And it’s about to get worse, because Ava has just agreed to fill in for another On The Contrary writer at Just For Laughs. Hope she doesn’t run into anyone whose mere presence in the same zip code will emotionally destroy her!

Holding down the episode’s B-plot are our favorite managers doin’ it for themselves, Jimmy (Downs) and Kayla (Megan Stalter). While rubbing elbows at the Montreal DoubleTree, they discover that their former Latitude coworkers are trying to sign Clive Matthews (Matt Bush), a hot young comedian performing at the fest. But Jimmy’s determined to get there first.

The two are amazed when Clive immediately says yes to their offer, but of course it’s too good to be true: Turns out the reason no one wants to take him on as a client is because he has three months to live. (“Oh, my god,” Kayla whispers in Jimmy’s ear. “It wasn’t on Stage Four. It’s called ‘Stage Four.’”)

At the DoubleTree bar, Ava hobnobs with Logan (Jordan Gavaris) and Mirya (Dylan Gelula), two fellow writers she was on a panel with earlier that day. Like a bloodhound, she immediately catches a familiar scent wafting off of Logan: Black Pashmina, Deborah’s signature fragrance. He explains that his boss makes him wear it whenever he’s in her presence because he doesn’t “process onions well.” A nuclear reactor explodes behind Ava’s eyes as she realizes that Logan and Mirya are her replacements—which means that Deborah is here at the fest, which means Ava’s big weekend is dead in the water.

Also in the crowd: Winnie Landell, the head of Ava’s network, played by Academy Award winner Helen Hunt. (Hacks continues its sacred mission of reviving the careers of great actors of a certain age.) After casually dropping the bomb that she once had an affair with Jimmy’s dad (a true power move), Winnie invites Ava to a cool rooftop party later that night.

Fortunately, Hacks doesn’t make us wait long to see Deborah and Ava’s fateful reunion—in a hotel elevator, no less. They’re cordial with each other, which is so much worse than if they were shouting; the tension is so thick that it’s a wonder anyone can breathe. It takes less than a minute for Ava to knock on Deborah’s door, calling out the off-ness of the vibes. She didn’t even shit-talk Ava’s new haircut! (“You’re not gonna say I look like a little pageboy or something?” “No, I just thought maybe you had put a child’s wig on backwards.”)

Speaking to each other in their mutual love language (vicious insults) is all it takes to break the ice—that and an uneaten coconut cake gifted to Deborah by Tom Cruise. (“Kirsten Dunst said it was one of the best cakes she’s ever had; and she was in Marie Antoinette!”) When Deborah says she hasn’t tried it because she’s off sugar, Ava seizes her moment.

As she has her cake, Ava eats it, too, humble-bragging about how great she’s been doing since the two last talked. Then, her eyes land on the Bee Girl dress, which she accurately describes as “fugly-ass.” Scandalized, Deborah sends for a “bellhop—a gay one” to cast the deciding vote. Naturally, the guy agrees that the gown is the worst—until Deborah explodes out of the bathroom and he changes his review to “fierce.”

Ava and Deborah’s easy dynamic returns as the martinis flow. Ava masterfully teases out the dissatisfaction roiling just beneath the surface of Deborah’s success: Since audiences laugh at anything she says these days, she’s no longer being challenged—which is precisely why she’s trying so hard to fit into the world’s ugliest dress. The conversation takes a turn when Deborah asks Ava—as a friend—for her opinion as to whether “toilet” or “shitter” would sound funnier in her acceptance speech. Ava points out that friendship doesn’t usually involve ignoring your friend’s texts for nine months.

Banter is how these two women show affection; so when she demands that they have a purely straightforward conversation, no jokes allowed, you know shit has gotten real. Ava bares her soul, confessing that Deborah deeply hurt her feelings when she cut her out of her life. She even went to couple’s therapy because Ruby was getting sick of her constant rants about her former employer.

Deborah doesn’t know how to have a conversation like this without falling back on cheap shots; but for the first time, Ava isn’t having it. She’s no longer the masochistic simp we met in season one; a year out from under her mentor/tormentor’s shadow has made her realize that she deserves better.

At the Changing the World With Laughter panel the next day, Ava takes a question from an aspiring TV writer in the audience: How do you keep going when you’re hitting brick walls at every turn? Ava offers an answer born from years of strife: “What you were saying about it being hard…it is. Really, really hard. And, to be honest, that doesn’t ever change, y’know? You gotta scratch and claw, and it doesn’t get better. It just gets harder. But the scratching in the very beginning is the good part—it’s the fun part. I hope you get every job that you want, but just try to enjoy where you’re at right now. ’Cause you’ll miss it, and you can never go back.”

Watch Ava’s face over the course of the speech as it slowly dawns on her that there was a gift hidden inside Deborah’s cruelty. If she hadn’t been forced to walk barefoot across those hot coals, she wouldn’t be sitting on this stage; and she certainly wouldn’t have become someone’s hero.

Because Hacks is determined to break our fragile hearts, the episode ends on Brandi Carlile’s “The Story”—a cathartic banger about a woman who’s been to hell and back and is much worse for the wear. But she decides it’s worth it in the end, because it led her to the only other person in the world who could understand what she’s been through. Carlile’s song is an effusive love letter writ large; but all it takes for Ava to reconnect with her soulmate, moments before Deborah walks out to accept her award in a flattering green-sequined number, is a one-word text: “Toilet.”

When Deborah shows up at Ava’s door the next morning, heart and Tom Cruise coconut cake in her hands, her friend is already gone. But Smart’s grin as she slips a fingerful of frosting between her lips is a promise that their strange love affair is far from over.

It’s Deborah’s world, sure. But maybe now it’s Ava’s, too. Hell, maybe it’s everyone’s.

Stray observations

• “Ava’s Theme” from Carlos Rafael Rivera’s soundtrack plays over Deborah’s sleepless night of salt-shaker organizing. In the immortal words of Michael Scott, “Well, well, well. How the turntables…”
• The show reunites us with Ava as she’s playing Beat Saber in her living room with no pants on. Ruby assures her girlfriend that she looked “really, really sexy” dodging invisible blocks while Porky Piggin’ it in a VR headset.
• On a related note, Ruby seems like a really great girlfriend! Ava is definitely gonna fuck this up, huh?
• On The Contrary is a satirical news show hosted by a bespectacled Englishman. Remind you of anyone?
• This episode features some delightful guest turns by actors from a variety of dearly departed TV series: Rachael Taylor (Jessica Jones), Gavaris (Orphan Black), and Dylan Gelula (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt).
• Big ups this season’s costume team. It takes true talent to make a garment so atrocious that even Jean Smart can’t pull it off.
• Two side characters I’m keeping my eye on: Lewis (Aristotle Athari), who, though he appears to be a mensch, is giving low-key sex-pest vibes; and Silas (Michael Garza), a Latitude rep who can’t stop making heart eyes at Jimmy. (Kayla ships it: “Silas is up your ass. It’s sending chills down my spine.”)
• Banter of the week: “Enjoy Montreal!” “Oh, I won’t. It’s Paris in the ears, but Hartford on the eyes.”