Hacks concludes its excellent fourth season run this week with a quiet, contemplative, intimately character-driven episode written by the showrunning dream trio of Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky and directed by Aniello (who truly deserves awards for her directing work this season). I felt mixed heading into this season finale, mainly because last week’s episode was so perfect. It would have been a great season finale. I imagine some viewers will wish it had been. But I’m a fan of the slowed-down, refocused, almost standalone season finale. And Hacks delivers a great one.

The bulk of the episode centers just Deborah and Ava and their relationship, but before we get to that point, a prologue sees them through their initial reactions to the events from the end of last episode. Deborah consults a shady claims lawyer in a desperate attempt to find loopholes in her contract to no avail. Ava visits Jimmy to offer a last-ditch solution: Perhaps she could blow Bob Lipka. This yields my personal favorite line read of the episode: “My blowjob’s not great, but how bad can it possibly be?”

Speaking of Einbinder’s delivery of that line, I’ve been trying to figure out why Hacks seems to get better and better every season — a difficult feat for a cable comedy with this insular of a premise — and part of it is definitely the fact that we’ve watched Hannah Einbinder grow as an actor for the past four seasons. She was strong from the start, but watching her in this final season and this finale especially drives home just how much she keeps improving. She has truly come into herself and her comedic voice, especially her physical comedy. If there’s something that defines the Aniello/Downs/Statsky success, it’s identifying and really nurturing young comedic talent. They did it as writers/producers/directors on Broad City, and they’ve done it here. Watching Hannah Einbinder on Hacks has felt like watching a star born in real time. I’m excited about Hacks being renewed for a fifth season, but I’m even more excited to see what she does next.

In the finale’s prologue, Deborah returns to Las Vegas without Ava and enters a depressive state. I’ve lived in Las Vegas before, and it is a distinctive part of Vegas life to find yourself drunkenly wandering a souvenir shop among the tourists. Deborah cast in those fluorescent lights and then pouring a nip of brown liquor into a plastic bottle of Diet Coke conjures a very specific feeling in my gut. One of the things I love about Hacks is its dynamics when it comes to joke pacing. Sometimes, it goes all-out, punchy, joke-a-minute with the humor. And then other times, it goes several beats without a proper joke setup, lets its characters live in their natural environments in a way that feels organic without being boring. There’s an ebb and flow to the show’s joke cadence and overall tone.

And that ebb and flow is exactly how it feels to work in a creative industry. You’re up and you’re down. No one is immune to this rollercoaster, even at the most elite levels. One second, you’re hosting the hottest late-night show on television. The next, you’re sipping whiskey diet from a plastic bottle in a parking lot.

If I sound superlative when I write about Hacks, it’s because I’m a writer, and I don’t think there’s ever been a television show that has so accurately depicted what it’s like to be a writer/creative/artist in today’s world. The penultimate episode of this season satisfied on a character level in the sense of providing a full (and deserved, in my opinion) 180 for Deborah. But more than that, it allowed the writers and makers of this show to comment on the state of the film/television industry and art-making in a meaningful and incisive way. The jokes this show and others make about the state of Hollywood — “Plubo” from last episode or some of Jimmy and Ava’s conversation in this one — are easy to land. But Deborah’s monologue last episode allowed Hacks to go a bit deeper. To be successful in the arts, one is subjected to the business of it all, and that complicates things. Deborah and Ava have been grappling with that all season.

And even after going through it all, Deborah doesn’t want a break. This, too, reflects the realities of every artist I know. We don’t want vacations. We want to work. Because our work is tied to our art, and our art is such a critical part of our identities. I’ve had to explain to my parents, especially my immigrant and business-minded father, that I will never retire. Not even just because of the economy or whatever. But because I don’t want to, not from writing. Not from the work that fulfills me. Deborah is depressed because she can’t do what she loves, not because she gave up her dream gig.

So, she finds a loophole. Marty offers her the penthouse at one of his hotels on Hawaiʻi, and Deborah and Ava head there on a private jet for some rest and relaxation. Or, at least, that’s what Ava assumes. Deborah redirects the jet to Singapore, where she has taken a gig doing stand-up, which will be translated into another language. The loophole.

At first, it’s fun and fantasy. Deborah easily kills every night. She and Ava gamble, drink, eat, party. But it becomes repetitive, rote. They’re not pushing themselves creatively. They’re coasting. And Deborah is drinking. A lot. When Ava tries to suggest they go home, Deborah turns on her, hurting her feelings. Mean Deborah is back.

But really, mean Deborah never went anywhere. As much as I love Deborah choosing Ava last episode, I think the season needs to end here. Deborah has grown, but she hasn’t transformed. She’s still selfish and cruel, and that doesn’t undermine her choices from last episode. I keep writing this season that Hacks is cyclical, and here we are, starting the cycle again. Deborah is doing what she does best: pushing away the people she loves. The whole finale feels like a reset in a way, refocusing on Deborah and Ava as writers and artists outside of the machine of late night television. I have greatly enjoyed what this season has had to say about the industry and the business of comedy and writing. But I’m always most interested in the characters and their relationship beyond all that.

After their nasty argument on the boat (I’m tempted to transcribe the entire scene, because the writing is so fucking good), Ava wakes up to a bunch of texts and alerts. The tabloids are reporting that Deborah is dead. Now, you don’t have to fall for this fake-out to still get swept up in it, because Ava believes it, and that makes you feel the weight of it even if you don’t. Deborah is of course alive and well, but she doesn’t like it one bit that the false obituary notes her retirement. Suddenly she agrees with Ava; it’s time to start writing again.

The ups and downs of creative life are brutal. It makes sense that Deborah is lulled into a false sense of satisfaction at the Singapore gig. Aided by booze and the easy, breezy comfort of a life lived mostly in casinos, she deludes herself into thinking this is working. But she isn’t working; she’s coasting. And when Ava points that out, Deborah lashes out at her. The creative life is volatile, and so is this central relationship. The finale is such a change of pace, place, and heart from last episode, but I do think this makes for the more interesting end to this chapter of Hacks, shifting away from focusing on the industry to focusing on the artists again. And the acting from both Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder in that boat scene is some of their finest work all season.

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