Hacks closed out its five-season run on HBO Max in May with a finale that saw Deborah Vance, played by Jean Smart, reveal that her cancer had spread, before a last-minute twist changed the course of the character's final decision.
The episode opened with Ava Daniels, played by Hannah Einbinder, directing the pilot of her new comedy show while Deborah opened her new casino. The mood then shifted as Deborah told Ava about her diagnosis. Rather than pursue treatment, Deborah said she planned to travel to an assisted suicide clinic in Europe, and Ava spent the rest of the episode trying to talk her boss turned best friend out of it.
The finale's final twist
Just as the pair were about to board their last train to the treatment facility, Deborah changed her mind after realizing that Ava made her joke writing better.
"I may not have 30 years," Deborah told Ava outside the train station, "but I think I have another hour. Will you help me write it?" Ava agreed to help with her next comedy special.
The finale closed with the pair walking down the streets of Las Vegas as Judy Garland and her daughter Liza Minnelli sang a mashup of "Get Happy" and "Happy Days Are Here Again." The episode also gave Paul W. Downs and Megan Stalter's characters, Jimmy and Kayla, their own send-off, as the pair cornered Jimmy's father into handing over control of Latitude Management to them.
A record-breaking Emmy run
Hacks returns to the Emmy Awards on September 14 with 24 nominations, the most a comedy series has ever received in a single year.
Smart has already won the Emmy for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2021, 2022, 2024 and 2025. A win this year would make her the first woman to claim the award for every eligible season of a single show.
Delivering the ending fans wanted
Ava was hired by a deceptive Deborah as a comedy writer in the show's first season, and the relationship between the two characters became a fixture of online fan fiction imagining them evolving from enemies into a couple.
Series creators Lucia Aniello, Jen Statsky and Paul W. Downs wrote an episode in the final season in which Deborah and Ava pretended to be girlfriends on a trip with fellow cast members Leslie Bibb and Cherry Jones, including a kiss between the two leads.
"It was so funny," Einbinder told USA Today in May. "I thought they handled it beautifully. I thought it was true to the reality of the characters while also delivering what [fans] wanted."
Guest stars and standout lines
Megan Stalter's character Kayla delivered a string of widely shared lines through the final season, including telling a respected actress, "You're acting's ass and you're being outperformed by a dead corpse, mama!"
The season also featured guest appearances from Jesse McCartney, Christopher Briney, Billy Baldwin, Trisha Paytas, Ann Dowd and Bob Mackie.
Saying goodbye to the show
Einbinder won the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series last year, but told USA Today in April that shooting her final scenes on Hacks took a physical toll.
"I became ill," she said. "The second I walked out of where we were shooting, and I was doubled over. My body was shutting down."
She said her bond with Smart helped carry her through filming. "Jean is such a loving, caring person who really does cherish the people around her, and we all get to feel that warmth," Einbinder said.
Smart said the feeling was mutual, describing Einbinder as someone she could "always lean on," adding, "She'll always tell you the truth."
