Hacks season 2 ends by neatly wrapping up each ongoing arc and upending the key dynamics that serve as the show’s narrative foundations. After Deborah publicly credits Ava for being the co-writer for Deborah’s successful stand-up comedy special “My Bad,” Deborah also fires and stops suing Ava, and the two go their separate ways. Empowered by Deborah’s success, Jimmy and Kayla’s new PR firm is on the right track, and Marcus and Deborah are also on the way to reviving Deborah’s personal entertainment and merchandising empire.
Meanwhile, with Palmetto Casino owner Marty getting married, Marty and Deborah’s love story has come to an end. As the revelations in “My Bad” allow Deborah and DJ to further process their past as mother and daughter, Deborah has another chance at doing right by DJ, as the grandmother to the child that DJ wants to have with Aidan. Elsewhere, Hacks‘ real stand-up comedians wake up to massive changes in the Las Vegas and LA comedy scenes, much of which are direct results of the now-defunct partnership between Deborah and Ava.
Apart from Deborah firing Ava, the next biggest twist in the Hacks season 2 finale is when Deborah actually drops the lawsuit against Ava. In Hacks season 2, episode 2 “Quid Pro Quo,” Deborah sues Ava for violating the non-disclosure agreement in their work contract. While the prospect of facing a long and expensive court case causes Ava to become anxious at first, the lawsuit quickly becomes a minor nuisance in Ava’s mind — just one of the many things she needs to endure while working with the great Deborah Vance.
Considering how Ava freaks out after getting fired, it becomes very apparent that Deborah suing Ava in Hacks season 2 was just Deborah’s twisted way of expressive love and care for her one and only writing partner. Deborah never really intended to take Ava for everything she’s worth. Instead, Deborah simply used the lawsuit as a way to reveal Ava’s true perspective — which was to stick with Deborah no matter what — as well as to show Ava the error of her ways.
This is further punctuated by Ava getting saddened by the news from Jimmy that Deborah is no longer suing her, as this gives them no excuse to see each other again. Deborah dropping the lawsuit against Ava essentially forces Ava to stop obsessing over Deborah’s career and start forging a path for herself. As Deborah tells Ava when she fires her, Ava needs to find her own mountains to climb.
In the end, the lawsuit only served to strengthen Ava and allow her to take her pick out of the many career paths she can choose to traverse. Apart from confirming that Deborah is actually a good person, Deborah dropping the lawsuit also shows that Deborah is confident in Ava’s ability to make it on her own. At the very least, wherever Ava finds herself in the cutthroat entertainment industry, she’s going to think twice before violating the terms of yet another contract, which is arguably the most valuable lesson imparted to her by Deborah.
Although Deborah wasn’t in the room with Jimmy when he quit on the spot because their PR firm refused to support Deborah’s new stand-up special, Deborah knows that Jimmy risked his entire career to support “My Bad.” While Deborah turns to Ava for conversations about sexuality and the Kinsey scale or the next direction of her material, Deborah depends on Jimmy for actually representing her in the male-dominated boardrooms where the most important decisions in the comedy industry are made.
It’s become crystal clear to Deborah that not only is Jimmy extremely loyal, he was also the best and most forward-thinking agent in that PR firm. In fact, it was Jimmy’s crazy idea to make Deborah and Ava work together in the first place – essentially the first person to plant the seeds for “My Bad.” Just like how Jimmy got Deborah in touch with Ava, Jimmy could be the key to further pushing Deborah’s material beyond Ava’s contributions.
In Hacks‘ deadly entertainment industry, which eerily parallels the power dynamics in classic mafia movies like The Godfather, Jimmy is the Tom Hagen to Deborah Vance’s Don Vito Corleone — the war-time consiglieri that Deborah can defer to for making both tactical and strategic career decisions. Jimmy quitting their PR firm to stay with Deborah seals his loyalty to Deborah’s vision and growing empire. That said, Marcus, Deborah’s CEO, might have something to say about who should be considered Deborah’s consiglieri.
In their last scene in the Hacks‘ season 2 finale, Marcus and Wilson agree to stay friends as Wilson is already dating someone, and Wilson invites Marcus into his home so they can have a much-needed talk. Unlike Ava and Ruby, who are clearly on the way to getting back together, Marcus and Wilson’s future is less certain.
However, with Deborah’s personal growth from the process of writing “My Bad,” echoing Hacks‘ true story-inspiration of comedians getting a second lease in life, Marcus could prove to Wilson that he’s worth taking back. As Deborah’s second-in-command, Marcus will continue to be busy – but he’s also actively making room for love.
The ending of Hacks season 2 saw Ava and Deborah parting ways on less-than-friendly terms. However, it was also clear that the pair weren’t done with one-another, and that there still existed a considerable level of professional respect between them. This directly played into Hacks season 3, as it was clear from the trailer that the two would end up working together again. They first bumped into one-another at the Just for Laughs festival, and the pair have an awkward yet constructive conversation where it’s revealed that Ava has tried to keep in contact with Deborah.
However, this puts strain on Ava’s relationship with Ruby. Ruby and Ava are back together, although Ruby hasn’t forgotten (or forgiven) Deborah for the way she treated Ruby’s partner. Ruby and Ava’s relationship is rocky for multiple reasons in Hacks season 3, such as Ava mistakenly believing that Ruby wants to propose. The straw that breaks the camel’s back though is Ava reuniting with Deborah to work together once more, something that Ruby cannot comprehend given everything that happened during the ending of Hacks season 2.