Hacks creators and showrunners Lucia Aniello, Jen Statsky, and Paul W. Downs knew how the Emmy-winning HBO series would end before it began. The destination was always clear: Jean Smart‘s Deborah Vance and Hannah Einbinder‘s Ava Daniels choosing each other, and choosing the comedy they make together.
“We actually pitched a lot of what happens to Deborah and Ava — the idea that she is willing to give up control to continue to write comedy with her best friend and laugh — in the initial pitch we shopped around town,” Aniello says. “That always stayed. Of course, we were like, ‘Should we change this?’ or ‘How can we make it even better?’ But it kind of always felt like the right choice for the show.”
It was a fitting conclusion for the much-lauded series, which in turn was rewarded by TV Academy voters with the most nominations for a comedy series in a single year (25).
While the ending was set from the start, getting there was anything but predetermined.
“Much of the rest of the episode was stuff that we found as we were creating the show,” Aniello says. “A lot of the Jimmy [Downs] and Kayla [Megan Stalter] material was stuff we found throughout. It was a combination of things that we’ve always believed in and things that we found along the way.”
That spirit of discovery runs through the entire finale. Aniello describes the episode’s shifting tone: “Parts of it feel almost like a music video, parts of it feel like a dream, parts of it feel like it’s hearkening back to the pilot. There are so many different things going on.”
Music helped tie those disparate pieces together. The show’s creative team approached songs almost as additional characters, using them to establish mood, underline jokes, and amplify the emotional stakes in the finale.
Downs points to the iconic Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand duet, “Get Happy/Happy Days Are Here Again,” which plays in the series’ final scene. “Even though it’s ‘Get Happy, Happy Days Are Here Again,’ there is some sadness to it, which is very much the tone we always wanted for the show — to be about a comedian and have jokes, but also be very real and have heart. So I do think that’s very emblematic of the series.”
Music supervisor Matt Biffa worked with the showrunners to map out the finale’s musical landscape early in the process. “I think if we work backwards, I would say the Judy Garland and the Barbra Streisand song was always in Jen, Paul, and Lucia’s minds very early on,” he says. “So it starts off as early as possible because you’re always thinking about the arc and the emotion of it.”
The choice of music underlines one of Hacks‘ defining traits: the show’s ability to balance laughter and pain.
Biffa says playing against expectations enhanced the finale’s impact, particularly during Ava’s emotional turning point. “That happened in the club scene,” Biffa explains. “It’s a really lovely thing that it’s so emotional, but the song [Georgia’s “About Work the Dancefloor”] itself is very major key, very upbeat. And so that kind of makes it even more effective with Ava’s realization.”
For Jon Philpot, who edited the series finale, the needle-drops were key to the collaborative post-production process. “I’m always trying to find something that makes everybody feel good, and see if I can find something that nobody’s heard,” Philpot says. “It’s almost like hanging out with your pals and you’re just listening to records and you’re like, ‘Oh, you heard this? Oh, check out this.'”
Not every song made the final cut, however. Philpot had a personal favorite that couldn’t quite fit: “Heaven or Las Vegas” by Cocteau Twins. “I never found a spot for it, and I really was like, ‘I need to find a spot for this.’ It’s such a good song and, thematically, would have been perfect.”
When it came to the closing moment — Deborah and Ava walking together down the Las Vegas Strip — Statsky recalls the magic of watching the scene come together. “They’re laughing and doing the very thing that bonded them and connected them the first time they met — which was laughing together, punching up jokes, and making each other better.”
Capturing that sequence required both technical precision and incredible luck. Downs notes that the transition involving the camera going from the Eiffel Tower in Paris to the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel, “took a lot of math and thought and prep and operating by our team.”
Then came the sweeping drone shot pulling away from Deborah and Ava as they faded into the vast lights of the Strip — a shoot that required extensive coordination with two casino resorts.
“The fountains [at the Bellagio Hotel] went off at the exact moment it reached its highest point and the moment the song crescendoed,” Downs says. “It was crazy — like the universe helping us out.”
Plenty of moments were left on the cutting-room floor as well. Aniello reveals that some of the final scenes filmed featured Deborah and Ava conversing inside the Louvre. “Those scenes were so beautiful and so fun — just to watch them hanging out at the Louvre and talking, and they were improvising. We really tried to make it work, but in the end, it just didn’t.”
That willingness to trust the audience and leave details unsaid extended to Deborah’s relationship with her daughter, DJ (played by Kaitlin Olson), and whether Deborah disclosed her diagnosis to her. Aniello confirms she did.
“I think there’s been some questioning of whether or not Deborah ever spoke to her daughter DJ about her diagnosis,” Aniello says. “And for us, she absolutely did, but it’s not something that we felt was necessary to show.”
In the end, that narrative restraint brings the series right back to the resolution Aniello, Statsky, and Downs envisioned from day one.
“Ava and Deborah walk on,” says Statsky, “and they’re making each other laugh still, doing what they do best, and doing what they feel is worth living for.”
