The Emmy-winning comedy Hacks has concluded after five acclaimed seasons with a finale that left fans sobbing and praising it as one of television's best conclusions in recent years.
Major Spoilers Ahead
In Thursday's series finale, it is revealed that the cancerous mass Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) had removed in an earlier episode has now spread. Uninterested in treatment, Deborah tells her young Gen Z writer Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder) that she wishes to travel abroad to an assisted suicide center. While Ava is unhappy with the decision, she ultimately agrees to support Deborah, and the two embark on an end-of-life adventure—first stop, Paris. There, the duo indulges in baguettes, tours the Louvre, and spends the night at a disco. Their typical banter resumes as they trade jokes about what Deborah might appreciate about being sick. As they prepare to board a train to Switzerland, Deborah's final destination, she stops Ava to share one more gag: “The worst part about dying is I can’t even enjoy being bone thin—that’s the better joke!” In that moment, Deborah realizes she is not ready to die and that her cancer offers perfect material for a new stand-up routine—one she wants Ava's help writing. The final scene shows the pair walking together, arms linked, laughing as they riff about Deborah's impending timeline.
Creators Explain the Twist
“The purpose of having her be sick was for the ultimate redemption, the idea of the comedy and writing together saving her life,” co-creator and executive producer Lucia Aniello told Variety. “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.” Fellow creator and executive producer Jen Statsky added, “Deborah being inspired by her banter with Ava is obviously the inciting incident to the pilot, and so, to have it also be the way the show ends is why this was always the idea from the beginning.”
Viewers React
Although the finale ends on a happy note, it still left viewers in tears. “Hacks finale is EVIL i’m sobbing,” one person wrote on X, as a second said: “Crying over the Hacks finale again this morning, this one hit too close to home.” “Oh the Hacks finale WRECKED ME. Jesus,” a third noted, while a fourth commented that they were “crying on my way to work over how beautiful the Hacks finale was last night.” “That Hacks finale was one of the best finales I think I’ve ever seen,” a fifth declared, with another insisting, “the Hacks finale is how to make television.” “Hacks finale couldn’t have been done any better,” one argued, while another applauded the finale as “perfect. No notes. Perfect show, each season pushed itself to be better and never took the easy option and was still very funny even when it had to hit the emotional notes.”
All five seasons of Hacks are available to stream on HBO Max.
