Warning: This article contains spoilers for Hacks season 3.
From Ava’s relationship trouble to Deborah’s relentless campaign for the late-night hosting job, episodes 3 and 4 of Hacks season 3 are full of major story developments. Episode 3, “The Roast of Deborah Vance,” sees Deborah being roasted by a star-studded line-up of famous comedians, from Patton Oswalt to Natasha Leggero, as well as her own daughter, who has some big news. Episode 4, “Join the Club,” sees Deborah finally being invited into the boys’ club by the comedians she idolized when she started out (and finding that she doesn’t enjoy their company as much as she thought she would).
After the season 3 premiere brought Deborah closer than ever to achieving her lifelong dream of hosting a late-night show, she’s determined to finally make that dream a reality. A younger male comedian is tipped for the job, so it won’t be easy, but Deborah and her trusty co-writer are ready for a fight. From a sudden and shocking breakup to a surprise pregnancy announcement to a trip to New York to host the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, episodes 3 and 4 of Hacks season 3 are full of huge changes in the story.
After Ava chose going back to Vegas to work with Deborah over staying with Ruby on the set of her show at the end of episode 2, episode 3 opens with Ava trying to meditate in Deborah’s guest room. More specifically, it’s her “1987-1992 guest suite,” decorated with photos and memorabilia from her career between the years of 1987 and 1992. This includes a picture of Deborah laughing it up with Saddam Hussein, which Ava finds particularly disturbing.
Her meditation is promptly interrupted when Deborah barges in without knocking to get her notes on a roast joke. It immediately becomes obvious that, when she agreed to come and stay with Deborah, Ava waived her right to privacy. She apparently also waived her right to meditate, as that becomes impossible after Deborah has riled her up.
In Hacks’ season 3 premiere, when Ava went to the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, she was dismayed to find that Deborah had replaced her with two new writers: Mirya, played by Dream Scenario’s Dylan Gelula, and Logan, played by Orphan Black’s Jordan Gavaris. And worse yet, Ava has worked with them before on an Ice Age punch-up. But their tenure as Deborah’s personal writing staff is short-lived, because it quickly turns out that no one can replace Ava as Deborah’s most reliable collaborator.
At the beginning of episode 3, Deborah tells Ava to fire Mirya and Logan. So, she has to go into an office with these two acquaintances she used to work with and tell them that she’s taking their jobs. It’s classic Deborah to put Ava in an uncomfortable situation like this.
Hacks season 3, episode 3 brings back It’s Always Sunny’s Kaitlin Olson as Deborah Vance, Jr. – better known as D.J. – Deborah’s daughter who’s still working through all the ways that her mother messed her up during her childhood. D.J. takes Deborah to one of her support meetings for eating disorder recovery, but she’s furious when Deborah just makes the whole meeting about herself. In the midst of this fight, D.J. tells Deborah that she’s pregnant.
Although she doesn’t make it easy, it’s clear that Deborah deeply cares about D.J. and wants to earn forgiveness for her past mistakes. She can’t seem to switch off her narcissism, but she is committed to helping D.J. with the pregnancy any way she can. This scene brings out a softer side of Deborah as she finally lets her guard down and allows herself to be vulnerable.
As the title would suggest, “The Roast of Deborah Vance” sees Deborah getting roasted. Mario Cantone is the roastmaster and he introduces a star-studded line-up of comedians to take the stage and mercilessly mock the woman of the hour. Patton Oswalt, Natasha Leggero, Andy Kindler, Steph Tolev, and Naomi Ekperigin all play themselves roasting Deborah in a hilarious montage. As expected, the pros all kill it, but Deborah and Ava are worried about the only non-comic on the panel: D.J.
Both Deborah and Ava expect D.J. to bomb with material borrowed from jokebooks and a jarringly profane catchphrase (“What a c***!”). But, much to their surprise, D.J. kills. The audience loves her bitter resentment towards her mother and even the catchphrase goes over well. Deborah has never been prouder of her daughter than in this moment.
While most of the roasters who make fun of Deborah are real-life comedians playing themselves, there’s one fictional comic with a key role in the plot: Jack Danby, a thirtysomething rising star with a clean-cut image and inoffensive, TV-friendly material. Deborah initially lauds Jack as a talented young man with a bright future, but she quickly changes her tune when she finds out he’s the frontrunner for the late-night hosting job she wants.
After nailing her guest hosting spot and getting personal praise from the current host, Danny Collins, Deborah thought she had the job in the bag. When she finds out that Jack is the one who’s tipped to replace Danny in the host’s chair, she realizes it won’t be so easy to finally achieve her lifelong dream. But this is Deborah Vance, so she’s ready for a battle.
While she’s staying in Vegas, Ava stops by a P.T.A. fashion show at a school, where Kiki – Deborah’s former personal blackjack dealer who’s now a model – is performing. Kiki convinces Ava that it’s important to set boundaries with Deborah or she’ll walk all over her. Determined to avoid slipping into a toxic working relationship like the last time she worked with Deborah, Ava takes this advice onboard.
Ava sits Deborah down and tells her that she’s going to lay out some ground rules and she’d like her to respect them. One of these rules is that Deborah can’t make fun of Ava’s appearance, but Deborah instantly finds a workaround as she texts an insult to Josefina and has her come in and read it to Ava. It’s clear that Deborah won’t respect these boundaries and their working relationship will re-toxify in no time.
In Hacks season 3, episode 4, “Join the Club,” Deborah flies out to New York City to co-host the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with Mario Lopez. While it’s a high-profile gig that will surely bring a lot of attention to Deborah, she’s initially unsure of how this hosting job will affect her career – and particularly her quest to host the Late Show. She’s going after a late-night spot and considers the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade to be too daytime.
But despite these concerns, she still makes the trip to New York and hosts the parade with Lopez. As the old adage goes, all press is good press. Plus, there’s probably some crossover between the audience for late-night shows and the audience for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, because they’re both broadcast on traditional network television.
Iconic character actor Stephen Tobolowsky guest-stars in Hacks season 3, episode 4 as Henry Winks, an old-school comedian that Deborah used to idolize when she was first starting out. Back then, the standup comedy scene was even more of a boys’ club than it is today, and Deborah struggled to fit in with Henry and his chauvinistic peers. But that all changes in episode 4 when she’s finally invited to play cards with them. She’s also invited to get colonoscopies with them – that’s their new tradition at their advanced age – and she’s excited enough to accept the invitation.
However, when she sits around the poker table (or, rather, the Uno table), she finds that she can’t enjoy their banter, because they’re all offensive, politically incorrect, and out of touch. When they start making bigoted remarks about bisexuality, Deborah storms out, because she cares about Ava – and finds a way to hold that against Ava when she gets home.
After Ava decided to work with Deborah instead of staying with Ruby at the end of episode 2, it’s established that they’re taking a break in episodes 3 and 4. But Ava assumes that the break will eventually end and they’ll get back together. At the end of episode 4, after a mishap with a Ring doorbell notification, Ava is forced to talk to Ruby and gets a very different story.