Does Deborah Die in the ‘Hacks’ Finale? What Happens

Ava (Hannah Einbinder) and Deborah (Jean Smart) have gone through it all. Rivalries. Partnerships. Stints in Las Vegas and late night. Vitriol and joy. Too many jokes to quote.

The episode opens on a triumph. It seems like everything is turning out well for our heroines. Ava is a showrunner. Deborah is the proud owner of a casino in Las Vegas called the Diva, a turn after the show began with her permanent residency ending.

Side characters have their moments, too. Marty Ghilain (Christopher McDonald) is running the Diva. Marcus (Carl Clemons-Hopkins) got recognized as the business mastermind behind Deborah’s team. Jimmy LuSaque (Paul W. Downs) and Kayla Schaeffer (Megan Stalter) take over Latitude after catching on to her father’s scheme selling the likeness of dead clients to AI companies.

And then: An unexpected twist, one that feels true to life and all the more devastating for it.

What Happens to Deborah Vance?

Deborah, earlier in the season, had a mass removed. In the finale, she says that the the doctors called back with an update: The cancer had spread.

During a conversation with Ava, Deborah lays out her diagnosis and what’s next. Doctors want her to do chemo. That’s not what Deborah envisions for herself. “I don’t want to put myself through that,” she says.

Fresh off her record-breaking show at the Garden, and with her casino open, Deborah feels like she can, well — go.

“You know I like to do things on my own terms … it’s not going to get any better than this. I want to go out on top,” she says.

Ava doesn’t understand her logic.

“If anyone can beat anything, it’s you,” she says.

But Deborah is set on pursuing assisted suicide in Switzerland. She has one last request of Ava: Join her in Europe for a blowout vacation.

Ava, of course, is distressed and can’t accept Deborah’s diagnosis or her plan. At the last minute, though, she turns up at the airport before Deborah takes off and agrees to her proposition. One last vacation, and then the end.

The two go to Paris and traipse around cafes and have a memorable exchange at the Louvre (“The Mona Lisa? Is mid?”).

Throughout the trip looms a mutual understanding of what is to come. At one point, Deborah considers buying salt and pepper shakers to add to her collection, but she decides not to. Ava seems to zone out on the dance floor.

She then tries to convince Deborah to be part of a clinical trial.

“For someone who always said, ‘Listen to women,’ you’re having a hard time hearing me,” Deborah responds, explaining she doesn’t want to “waste away.”

Ava is angry and bereft. She resorts to begging to Deborah not to leave. “I’m sorry,” Deborah says.

After a trip to a church, Ava has a change of heart — sort of.

“I hate this. But I support you. What am I going to do without you?” she says.

Deborah reassures her. “You’ll be OK. You’re a big, brave girl,” she says.

And, after all these years of making fun of Ava’s big hands, she reveals her hands are bigger.

Does Deborah Choose to Die?

It seems like she’s set. The plan is in place. They’re sitting at the train station.

And then — they start brainstorm jokes about the best and worst parts of dying. It’s then that Deborah seems to lose a bit of her momentum. Ava takes the bags and pummels forward to make the train. Deborah stops her. She’s landed on the perfect joke.

“The worst part abut dying is that I can’t even enjoy being bone thin,” she says.

Deborah, after all that, changes her mind, and seems to land on her next (and maybe last) project. “I may not have 30 years. But I think I have another hour,” she says. “Will you help me write it?”

Ava, in tears, hugs her. “Of course,” she says. They start workshopping jokes about cancer in Paris. The show transitions to them walking and talking on the Las Vegas strip, indicating the work keeps going. They’re going to do another special together, even if it’s the last one.

The show ends on that image as Barbra Streisand’s rendition of “Happy Days Are Here Again” plays. The show leaves Deborah’s fate in the air. Instead, it focuses on their partnership.

What Did the ‘Hacks’ Creators Say About the Ending?

“Hacks” creators say the ending was planned far in advance.

“We always knew that this was the ending, so we’ve been building to it for quite some time,” series co-creator Jen Statsky told TheWrap.

Deborah’s decision to stay with Ava and keep writing is in line with the point of the show and a callback to the connection they found with each other in Season 1.

“When these two people meet, they have this creative spark between them that lights them up and changes them … at the end of the day, that is what she decides is worth living for, and that was always the intention and the point of the show,” Statsky told TheWrap.

Co-creator Lucia Aniello, in an interview with Variety, said the show is meant to end the way it begins.

“Deborah being inspired by her banter with Ava is obviously the inciting incident to the pilot,” she said, “and so, to have it also be the way the show ends is why this was always the idea from the beginning.”

Aniello added that there was never a version of the story where Deborah died because that wasn’t the message they wanted to send.

“The purpose of having her be sick was for the ultimate redemption, the idea of the comedy and writing together saving her life,” 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.”