The third season of Hacks sees Deborah trying to land her dream job, but not without some help from Ava. The series is now streaming on Max.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Since Deborah fired Ava to encourage her independent career, Deborah herself has seen great success; her special has been a hit.
Deborah’s popularity as a comedian is at an all-time high, and she even made it onto the Time 100 list. Despite this, she cannot help but feel bored and in desperate need of a new challenge.
Jimmy started his own firm. Kayla as well as Deborah joined his firm. Jimmy and Kayla are now seeking to sign other talents to their firm.
Meanwhile, Ava is now a writer for a popular show called On The Contrary. She is dating an actress named Ruby and lives with her.
The producer of On The Contrary takes Ava to an event, where she runs into Deborah, who had cut Ava out of her life entirely after firing her.
It does not take Ava long to confront Deborah for not returning her calls or texts. Unsurprisingly, Ava remains brutally honest with Deborah, unlike her other employees.
Deborah realizes that Ava missed her and attempts to make amends the next day, but by then, Ava has already left for LA.
Deborah gets the opportunity to be a guest on the Late Show. Initially, she hesitates to go on the show, fearing that people will judge her if she’s not as funny as they expect.
Eventually, Deborah agrees to appear on the show. However, at the last minute, when the host has to pull out due to an emergency, Deborah agrees to host the show herself.
Thanks to her special, everyone now knows that hosting the Late Show was Deborah’s dream job, so she is under immense pressure to prepare a good script quickly.
Unsatisfied with everyone else’s ideas, Deborah calls Ava and asks for her input. Ava’s ideas are the only ones she likes, and Ava comes to help her prepare the script.
The episode that Deborah hosts impresses everyone. She then learns that Danny Collins, the current host of the show, is leaving in a few months.
Danny’s departure leaves the host spot open, allowing Deborah to try to get what her younger self wanted but failed to attain.
In the upcoming weeks, Deborah needs to be as entertaining as possible. She asks Ava, with whom her relationship has improved since their reunion, to work with her.
Ava enjoys working with Deborah, and she has a hiatus coming from her show, so she cancels her plans to go to Iceland with Ruby, who will be shooting there.
Ruby is unhappy with Ava’s decision to work for Deborah, knowing how toxic their past working relationship was; Ava had to go to therapy because of it.
Since Ava is choosing to work for Deborah over going to Iceland with Ruby, Ruby wants to take a break from their relationship.
Ava then moves in with Deborah in Vegas, and Deborah fires the two writers who work for her.
Deborah and Ava’s relationship is different this time around, with them establishing boundaries and Deborah encouraging Ava to work on her own material.
Ruby eventually breaks up with Ava because she is unwilling to go to Iceland with her. At the same time, Ava’s presence is making Deborah a better person.
Deborah organizes a roast of herself and invites DJ, who is pregnant, to take part in it. DJ performs better than expected and starts understanding why Deborah is addicted to getting laughs.
Despite the successful roast, Deborah learns that a man named Jack, who has connections to influential people, is the network’s choice to replace Danny.
Ava advises Deborah to publicly express her desire to host the Night Show to show that she is an option, and Deborah follows Ava’s advice despite her fear of failure.
The network has never had a woman host a talk show, so Jimmy and Kayla also do their best to assist Deborah by speaking with the network’s representative, Winnie.
To impress the network’s top executives, Deborah participates in a golf tournament and tries to charm the most important one of them all, Bob.
Despite all of Deborah’s hard work, Bob chooses Jack over her. This leads Deborah to stop downplaying her golf skills to impress Bob.
Deborah ends up sleeping with Bob, who is a married man. However, this experience helps Deborah understand Kathy’s past actions.
On Christmas, Deborah decides to invite Kathy, as DJ has been insisting that Deborah make amends with her sister.
Deborah doesn’t want to hold onto anger towards her sister because of her ex-husband cheating on her with Kathy, but she finds it difficult to let go.
Deborah and Kathy talk and realize it would be better to meet again another time. Meanwhile, Deborah and Ava continue to bond and grow closer.
One day, when they get lost in the woods, Deborah confides in Ava about her fears of not having enough time to accomplish everything she wants.
Refusing to give up on Deborah’s dream, Kayla comes up with an idea to get Jack to back out of the show. She and Jimmy approach a man named Larry.
Jack has always wanted to make a film on Larry’s grandfather’s life, and Jimmy convinces Larry to work with Jack by asking him to spend Christmas with his family.
Larry is ready to make the film with Jack if Jimmy produces it. Jimmy agrees to his condition, which leads to Jack becoming involved in the project.
With Jack no longer interested in hosting the show, Deborah still has a chance to get her dream job, especially since she is also receiving an honorary degree from Berkeley University.
However, some students plan to protest at the ceremony due to problematic jokes Deborah made in the past. Ava suggests that Deborah apologize to the students, but Deborah refuses.
The network then cancels Deborah’s test run, and Marcus points out that Deborah does not listen to anyone.
This prompts Deborah to listen to the students’ complaints and take responsibility for her actions.
As a result, a journalist named Mina, who often criticizes public figures in her articles, writes a piece favoring Deborah as the next host of the Late Night Show.
Ending explained:
Marcus’ decision to quit
Marcus had earlier suggested bringing in the individuals who were unofficially selling Deborah’s merchandise and selling their products on QVC, taking a share of the profits in exchange for Deborah’s promotion.
Later, Jimmy informs Marcus that the network has concerns about Deborah selling her merchandise. Marcus is well aware that Deborah would be willing to give it up for the job opportunity.
Furthermore, Deborah disappoints Marcus by not attending the pride event he organized, but another fan of Deborah helps Marcus realize that letting go can sometimes be good.
As a result, Marcus decides to resign from working for Deborah and accept the job that Roy had previously offered earlier in the season.
Deborah’s dream comes true
Jimmy informs Deborah that the network has chosen her to host the Late Night Show. Deborah will finally be getting her own show.
Deborah then offers the position of head writer to Ava, who readily accepts it knowing that they work best together due to their relationship.
Working as the head writer on Deborah’s show is Ava’s dream job, so she quits her current job despite her boss offering her the same position there.
Before moving to LA, Deborah meets with Kathy in an effort to improve their relationship. However, Deborah repeatedly disappoints Kathy by prioritizing work over spending time with her.
When Kathy learns that Deborah had their parents’ remains moved to Vegas without informing her, she decides she does not want to reconcile with Deborah.
Now that Deborah finally has what she has wanted for so long, she starts fearing that she might lose it. She meets with the producer who canceled her show 40 years ago.
The producer tells her that Deborah believes working hard will bring success, but sometimes luck plays an important role. Deborah was impressive 40 years ago as well.
The main reason she did not get the show was due to the negative press that was associated with her name, which does little to ease Deborah’s fears.
Jimmy and Kayla’s partnership
Kayla introduces Jimmy to an actress, an old friend of hers. The actress is willing to sign with their company, but Jimmy refuses to represent her.
He realizes that she was Kayla’s bully, not a friend. Jimmy does not like how she treats Kayla, so he makes this decision on his own.
Unhappy with Jimmy’s decision, Kayla quits her job as his assistant, feeling that Jimmy also sees her as incompetent like everyone else.
Jimmy realizes his mistake and offers a heartfelt apology, admitting that he underestimated Kayla despite her brilliant ideas.
He asks Kayla to become his partner and agrees to all her conditions. Jimmy finally rents an office where Kayla will be working as his partner.
Ava and Deborah’s clash
After Ava quits her job, Deborah tells Ava that the network is unwilling to change the Late Night Show’s head writer.
The fact that she will be the number two writer, even though she deserves to be the head writer, upsets Ava. Soon after, she discovers that Deborah lied to her.
Ava confronts Deborah, who admits that she does not want to take risks that might ruin her show. Ava realizes that Deborah is acting out of fear.
Despite having full freedom from the network to hire her team, Deborah refuses to make Ava the head writer, even though Ava rejected the offer to be the head writer of her previous show.
All Ava wants is for Deborah to treat her fairly, but she is heartbroken when she realizes that Deborah is unwilling to do that, even after Ava uprooted her life for her.
Deborah believes that making tough decisions to ensure the success of her show is simply part of running a business, even if it means losing Ava.
Ava walks out on Deborah, but not before pointing out that Deborah is selfish and lonely, which she believes will not change.
Jimmy then talks to Ava and tells her that she and Deborah work well together and that she should not leave the job.
Ava then decides to take a page out of Deborah’s book. She is no longer going to play fair to get what she wants and deserves.
She blackmails Deborah into making her the head writer by threatening to leak the fact that Deborah slept with Bob right before she got the job. Deborah has no choice but to give her the position.
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