Hello, and welcome to my weekly coverage of the final season of Hacks! These will not be scene-by-scene recaps; instead, I’ll pick a thematic thread or particular scene/arc from the episode to focus on. Basically, I’m just going to write about whatever stands out to me!

Since the beginning of this series but especially since season three, Hacks has so gorgeously captured the intimacy, complexity, joys, and tensions of what true creative partnership is. While I support the Ava/Deborah shippers in their dedicated efforts to posit Ava and Deborah’s relationship as sexual or romantic, the main reason I have not also tipped into this delusion (respectfully!) is because I think what Hacks shows between Ava and Deborah is actually more interesting than romantic or sexual partnership and just as meaningful.

Creative partnership is a beautiful thing. It can also be a really messy thing, especially when money is involved, when egos are involved, when two people can’t see eye-to-eye. One of the worst breakups I’ve experienced in life was not after the dissolution of a romantic partnership but rather the dissolution of a creative partnership between me and the couple I co-created a lesbian webseries with (I know, I know). They were a literal couple, and we sometimes joked I was their third, though nothing physical was happening between us. We were making a webseries with very little money and resources, and I’d crash in their Brooklyn apartment for weeks at a time during production, our daily lives syncing up in the ways cohabitation causes. We spent so much time together, much of that time working but a lot of it not, too.

Then it all fell apart. There had been tensions along the way, some of the couple’s personal conflict leaking into the creative process. We didn’t always agree on certain choices or directions. I sometimes felt ganged up on in our two-on-one configuration. A lot of it we could work through, until we couldn’t. Their romantic partnership ended, and so did our creative partnership, for reasons that both diverged and overlapped. When I walked away, it was not just from the project itself but from those friendships, too. It hurt, and I didn’t feel like I had the right language to talk about it, at least not without other friends inevitably asking if I’d been in love with both or one of my collaborators. I hadn’t been. But why was that where so many minds jumped when I spoke of the closeness we’d had and the pain of leaving them? Was that really the only way it made sense to them?

In “Number One Fan,” Ava finally more directly brings up her hurt feelings about what Deborah said to her in Singapore at the end of season four. Among other mean things, Deborah had told her while drunk that it was weird she was Ava’s only friend. Now, Ava brings it up like it’s a joke, in typical Ava fashion. But it’s clear the words have been sitting with her. It doesn’t matter that Deborah was drunk and doesn’t remember; she’d hurt Ava’s feelings. And she’d meant to.

Because Hacks has shown over and over again that Deborah and Ava’s relationship is not merely that of mentor/mentee or even just collaborators. They’re in something so deep and true together. So much of their emotional intimacy is given to each other. Ava isn’t hurt because Deborah called said she’s her only friend; she’s hurt because Deborah said it was weird, and she really doesn’t think it’s all that weird. They spend all their time together, working and not working. They live together.

Yes, their relationship is often toxic and cyclical and codependent and fraught, but it’s also fulfilling, meaningful, inspiring, and challenging in the right ways. Ava and Deborah are the closest thing the other has to a best friend. But just like “romantic relationship” doesn’t really fit for them, “best friendship” doesn’t really cover it either. They’re creative partners, its own special type of relationship that can encompass one’s work life and one’s social life in ways that are so fun but also so messy and drama-prone (and sure, it’s complicated by the times Ava is directly on Deborah’s payroll, but that also feels realistic for how these creative relationships sometimes shift and become unbalanced in real life, too). I’ve often worked with people I consider best friends, people I’ve had complicated relationships with, including right here at Autostraddle. Work friendships can be every bit as impactful on one’s life as any other big relationship.

When I walked away from my creative partnership with that couple, I didn’t write anything for over two years that wasn’t for my job. I was in a deep creative rut that I was also in denial about. I think a large part of it was that I never really processed or reflected on that breakup as much as I would have had it been a romantic one. Maybe if I’d had Hacks then, I could have better understood it all.

Okay, last week I used this addendum section to shoutout favorite lines from various characters, but this week I just want to shoutout the GUEST STARS! ANN DOWD!!!! Renee O’Connor!!!!! (Jimmy being a Xena fanboy makes so much sense; there’s something so culturally lesbian about him.)

Favorite Guest Actor Lines:

Literally just everything Jane Adams says always in every episode she appears in. Hannah’s mom is one of my favorite characters. Imagine that being your mom. Yeah, now you understand everything that’s wrong with Ava. If I had to pick one of her line readings from this episode, it’s “I know! I read your journals!”

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Alanna Ubach (love her, where my Girlfriends Guide To Divorce heads at!): “Murder My Stupid Ass Please has over 90 million monthly listeners. It is hosted by two of the most popular people in America. They swaaaayed the presidential election.”

Vinny Thomas: “You haven’t sent out Deborah’s Dos and Dont’s in almost two years I don’t know what to do and what not to do. Sometimes I just sit in the dark.”

Hannah Pilkes: “I just wanted to replace you and write for her, you stupid bitch!” and “They’re not jokes, they’re THOUGHT POEMS!!!!!”

Side Notes:

I also like what the episode has to say about fan culture. It is easy for stars to dismiss their fans, as Deborah initially does in the episode. But she eventually does come to realize she needs her fans, that her fans often filled the void of her deeply ingrained intimacy/trust issues that keep her from ever being really close with anyone. I think it’s really important that real-life discourse about fan culture has rightfully critiqued the notion that celebrities are not allowed to have privacy or boundaries, but I also think it’s just as important to acknowledge that the artist/fan relationship is a symbiotic one. This episode threads that needle well.

I’ve written about the show’s portrayal of this complicated relationship configuration so many times, and I’m sorry if I’ve been repetitive in these missives, but clearly it’s my main point of obsession with the show! Some quotes from my past recaps/reviews:

  • “Hacks is about complicated partnership. It’s about doing great work with someone you sometimes want to push off a cliff.” // This Is the Best Season of ‘Hacks’
  • “When I call Ava and Deborah toxic work wives, it’s only kind of a joke. They are the embodiment of a working relationship with bad boundaries, blurring lines between the professional and personal. But Hacks simultaneously zeroes in on these power imbalances and problems while complicating matters even further by showing there’s truth, depth, and good to be found in this kind of artistic marriage. Ava and Deborah push each other creatively. They’re unlikely collaborators, but when they hit their stride, their comedic chemistry is undeniable.” // ‘Hacks’ Is Sooooo Back and Better Than Ever
  • “Deborah and Ava’s relationship might not be explicitly romantic, but it contains all the intimacy, intensity, and layers of a romantic relationship, just expressed through a different mode.” // How Dare ‘Hacks’ Be This Good?!
  • “Ava might not literally be topping Deborah, but metaphorically? Oh yes. And their dynamic has always been almost more erotic than sex itself.” // In a Delicious ‘Hacks’ Season Three Finale Twist, Ava Tops Deborah (ok, I was kinda wild for this one, but I stand behind it)