The Hacks Series Finale Landed The Perfect Punchline

HBO Max

Don't make any life-changing decisions or book a European vacation if you haven't watched "Hacks," the series finale of "Hacks." Full-series spoilers ahead!

"That's the better joke!" This line, spoken twice by Jean Smart's comedienne Deborah Vance, bookends the hilarious HBO Max series "Hacks" ... and creators Paul W. Downs, Lucia Aniello, and Jen Statsky always planned it that way. That's what makes the conclusion of this gut-bustingly funny, incredibly emotional, and pitch-perfect show so perfect.

In a post-mortem of the series finale with Slate, Aniello and Statsky talked about planning this ending from the very beginning; in the post-finale featurette "Bit by Bit," Downs also mentions that the show's creatives knew the ending of "Hacks" when they first pitched the series. "One thing that is nice is that, because we'd been talking about this for so long, and we knew what we were building to across the five seasons of this show, it allowed us to lay in things that we wanted to plant as Easter eggs or that would come back later," Statsky told David Mack. She continued:

"The major arc of these two characters and where they were starting and where they would end up was always what we had pitched when we took this out to the town in 2019. It allowed us to really stick to the plan. Of course, we would stress-test the plan and talk about it and turn it over, but at the same time, we knew that that's where we were headed."

Not every show that carefully plans its trajectory manages to get its finale right; I'm looking at you, "How I Met Your Mother." "Hacks" did, though ... in Paris, the city where Statsky, Downs, and Aniello wrote the pilot. So, what happened, and why does it work so perfectly?

Kenny Laubbacher/HBO Max

In the penultimate episode of "Hacks," Deborah Vance finally achieves a lifelong dream and performs for a massive crowd in New York City — not at Madison Square Garden like she always imagined but in the middle of Central Park with a crowd of roughly 30,000 people. Buoyed by this success, Deborah and her writing partner — and arguably, her life partner — Ava Daniels (perfect AI-hater Hannah Einbinder) take a trip to Paris, something that Deborah promised in the lead-up to her big show. There's a catch, though. Deborah, who revealed to Ava that she had a mass removed earlier in the season, is sick, and she plans to take a train from Paris to Zurich at the end of the trip to visit an assisted death clinic called Dignitas. (This is a real place.) Ava begs Deborah to reconsider, but her mind seems made up ... so, she joins her on the fateful trip.

The two drink and dance and roam in Paris, but there's an undercurrent of grief and sorrow constantly; even a moment where Deborah declines to buy salt and pepper shakers at a flea market (which she pretty famously collects) becomes horrifying under the circumstances. At the last minute, though, Deborah changes course ... and I mean the last minute as Ava and Deborah are about to board a Zurich-bound train at Paris' Gare de Lyon. (One quibble: The two are eating at a random station restaurant and not the luxury dining spot, Le Train Bleu, at Gare de Lyon?!) After riffing about dying, Deborah stops Ava and comes up with a punch-up. "I might not have 30 years," she says, "But I think I have another hour. Would you help me write it?"

HBO Max

To say I cried over this line, delivered so beautifully by Jean Smart in her final moments as Deborah Vance, is an understatement. Reader, I wept. Deborah's plan for her own demise was, admittedly, revealed so quickly in the finale that I did think and hope that she wouldn't go through with it. The relief and joy I felt when Deborah was saved by the two things she loves most — Ava and the desire to make a joke truly perfect — was overwhelming. 

Deborah's need to control every aspect of her life (and, to that end, her death) ends up battling her desire to write jokes with her best friend, and the latter wins out. That is what makes "Hacks" so beautiful, and while there's probably also a wonderful ending where Deborah passes away with Ava by her side, I much prefer this option. Plus, this apparently wasn't in the cards. "The purpose of having her be sick was for the ultimate redemption, the idea of the comedy and writing together saving her life," Lucia Aniello told Variety in another post-finale interview. "We wouldn't have had her die. There's no reason for her to be sick, except to tell the story of how, in the end, she is saved by her want to continue to write."

Not only that, but in the very last moments of "Hacks," the camera pans from Paris' Eiffel Tower to the Las Vegas replica as Deborah and Ava, set against the duet "Get Happy/Happy Days Are Here Again" by Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland, walk the Vegas Strip making jokes. It's stunning, emotional, and perfect.

"Hacks" didn't just stick the landing. It nailed the punchline. Watch it on HBO Max.