Warning: This article contains spoilers for Hacks season 3, episodes 7 and 8.

Summary

• Deborah faces her past problematic jokes as she reconnects with family and fights for her dream late-night hosting job.
• Ava's mom visits, igniting humor and cultural appropriation discussions, as Deborah's team seeks a Fatty Arbuckle biopic to sway a rival.
• Kathy and Deborah hash out their complex relationship, while Jimmy's strategic moves put Deborah back in the running for hosting.

From Deborah finally hashing it out with Kathy to a history of problematic jokes coming back to haunt the legendary comic, Hacks season 3, episodes 7 and 8 are full of huge story developments. Episode 7, “The Deborah Vance Christmas Spectacular,” sees Deborah throwing a lavish holiday party and struggling to reconnect with her estranged sister Kathy after reluctantly extending an olive branch with the invitation. Episode 8, “Yes, And,” sees Deborah traveling to Berkeley to receive an honorary degree, then having to do some last-minute image rehab when some of her older problematic jokes resurface in a supercut online.

Episode 6 ended with the disappointing revelation that Deborah has been ed over for the late-night hosting job she wanted, but episode 7 quickly establishes that it’s not quite over yet. The comic who got the job over Deborah, Jack Danby, would drop out in a heartbeat if he got his dream role as silent movie star Fatty Arbuckle. So, Jimmy and Kayla set out to get a Fatty Arbuckle biopic into development. It’s a long shot, but Deborah’s dream of hosting the Late Show isn’t quite dead yet.

10 Ava's Mom Comes To Visit

Ava Has A Complicated Relationship With Her Mom Nina

Jane Adams reprises her role in the Hacks cast as Ava’s mother, Nina Daniels, in season 3, episode 7, “The Deborah Vance Christmas Spectacular.” Nina reached out to Deborah and asked to be invited to her Christmas party and, much to Ava’s surprise, Deborah invited her. The episode opens with Ava pulling up at the airport to pick up her mother. Nina is enamored with all things Vegas; she finds it really fun and glamorous that she could gamble in her airport terminal.

Nina has brought in a roommate named Priya to rent out Ava’s bedroom, and she keeps talking about all the exciting new cultural things that Priya has introduced her to. Ava warns her that she’s dangerously close to cultural appropriation, but Nina claims she’s just broadening her horizons. Adams plays every scene opposite Hannah Einbinder hilariously.

9 Jimmy & Kayla Try To Get A Fatty Arbuckle Biopic Off The Ground (With An Ulterior Motive)

Despite Their Complex Past, Jimmy & Kayla Still Make A Great Team

While Kayla is talking to her dad, she learns that before landing the Late Show job that Deborah wanted, Jack Danby was trying to get into dramatic acting. His dream role is that of silent movie star Fatty Arbuckle in a biopic, but the Arbuckle estate won’t relinquish his life rights. This gives Kayla and Jimmy an idea: if they can convince the Arbuckle estate to let Hollywood make a Fatty Arbuckle biopic, and Jack lands the role, then he’ll drop out of the Late Show job.

Christopher Lloyd plays Larry Arbuckle in Hacks.

So, Jimmy and Kayla pay a visit to Larry Arbuckle, a reclusive and eccentric descendant of Fatty’s, to try to talk him into selling the life rights. As it turns out, Larry has written his own script for a biopic, and he wants Jimmy to read it there and then. Larry is played hilariously by Back to the Future’s Christopher Lloyd, one of Hacks season 3’s best guest stars to date.

8 Kathy Comes To Deborah's Christmas Party

Deborah And Kathy Are Off To A Rough Restart

At the end of episode 6, after a heart-to-heart with Ava, Deborah decided to extend an olive branch to her estranged sister Kathy by sending her an invitation to her Christmas party. This episode ending revealed the new guest star who’s been tapped to play Kathy: Succession’s J. Smith-Cameron. In episode 7, Kathy accepts the olive branch and attends the party, but Deborah finds that it’s not so easy to let bygones be bygones.

Previously played by Linda Purl in Hacks season 1, Kathy Vance is played by J. Smith-Cameron in season 3.

Deborah feels betrayed when she learns that Kathy is really close with her daughter D.J., and they’ve been in touch through all the years that Deborah was ignoring her sister. When Deborah introduces Kathy to D.J.’s husband, she’s surprised to learn that they already know each other. Deborah really wants to make amends with Kathy, but it’s not as easy as she hoped it would be.

7 Jimmy, Kayla & Larry Arbuckle Have Christmas Dinner With Jimmy's Mom

The Mysterious Identity Of Jimmy's Mom Is Finally Shockingly Revealed

While Jimmy is trying to read Larry’s hefty screenplay, his mom keeps texting him. She’s furious that he hasn’t arrived for Christmas dinner, so Jimmy reluctantly invites Larry and Kayla to come to his mom’s house for dinner. Kayla can drive and Jimmy can read the script in the car. Jimmy is baffled by some of Larry’s stylistic choices, like including a bunch of nonsensical dream sequences and using more than one font.

It turns out that the mother of Paul W. Downs' Jimmy LuSaque in Hacks is none other than Days of Our Lives' Deidre Hall.

However, when he reaches the end of the script, he has to it that the bones of a great movie are there (although it’ll need a lot of edits). After spending the day with Jimmy and Kayla and enjoying a festive dinner at his mom’s house, Larry finally agrees to let a biopic get made. But he has one condition: he wants Jimmy to produce it.

6 Deborah & Kathy Finally Hash It Out

This Confrontation Has Been Brewing Since Season 1

After Deborah gets a crib for D.J. and learns that Kathy has already given her a crib, she’s finally had enough of the secret friendship between her daughter and her estranged sister who stole her husband. Kathy leaves the room and Deborah reluctantly goes outside to talk to her. They have a snowball fight with fake snow, then go to a fountain to wash the fake-snow chemicals out of their eyes. But after that, they finally hash it out and talk about their feelings.

Kathy tells her side of the story. Deborah and her husband had grown so distant that they weren’t even sleeping in the same bed. Deborah went off to shoot a movie and Kathy moved in to help with the childcare. Deborah’s husband made the first move and Kathy was 19 and vulnerable, but she felt terrible about it. After this poignant conversation, the two sisters finally make peace after all these years.

5 Jack Danby Drops Out Of Hosting Late Show & Deborah's Back In The Running

Jack Was Deborah's Biggest Rival For The Late Show Job

After Jimmy manages to get the Fatty Arbuckle biopic into development, Jack leaps at the chance to play the lead role and drops out of the Late Show hosting job. Deborah doesn’t immediately get the job, but she is back in the running. The shortlist has been narrowed down to Deborah and some hotshot from X Games. The network wants both of these candidates to do a test show to see who would be a more suitable Late Show host.

This is a perfect example of what a great manager Jimmy is. He might not have the most famous clients, but he would do absolutely anything for the clients he has – including spending Christmas reading a poorly formatted screenplay and bringing a descendant of silent film star Fatty Arbuckle to crash his mother Deidre Hall's holiday celebrations. Against all odds, Deborah is back in contention for the job.

4 Deborah Is Offered An Honorary Degree From Berkeley (But Then Her Old Problematic Jokes Resurface)

This Reflects The Real Relationships Between Prestigious Universities And Entertainment Icons

At the beginning of episode 8, “Yes, And,” Deborah finds out she’s double-booked. She’s supposed to go to Berkeley to accept an honorary degree and she’s supposed to host a Pride event in Palm Springs on the same day. Initially, she plans to do both: she’ll go to Berkeley, accept the degree, then fly straight to Palm Springs for the Pride event. However, her visit to Berkeley gets a lot more complicated than she expects.

When Deborah arrives at Berkeley, Ava is surprised to learn that a supercut of all Deborah’s most offensive jokes from over the years is being ed around the student body. In her early days, Deborah had a lot of problematic material that wouldn’t fly today. The Berkeley students start planning a protest at Deborah’s honorary degree ceremony, which throws a spanner in the works.

3 Deborah Does A College Improv Show & Attends A Frat Party To Combat The Controversy

This Shows That Deborah Still Has Fans Among Younger Audiences

As soon as she finds out about the supercut and the planned protest, Deborah starts doing everything she can to combat the controversy. She agrees to do an improv show on the campus with the college’s resident improv group. Unfortunately, the show is a disaster. When Deborah steps out onto the stage and the head of the troupe asks for suggestions from the crowd, they start shouting out things like “racist jokes!” and “problematic comedians!”

In a further attempt to undo the controversy, Deborah attends a wild party at a frat house. She outdrinks all the college kids and even does a keg stand (albeit with Ava holding onto her wig so it won’t fall off). However, the good times are dampened when Deborah gets a call from Jimmy saying that the network has called off her test show.

2 Deborah Apologizes For The Offensive Material At A Town Hall Meeting

The Backlash Over Deborah's Offensive Jokes Mirrors The State Of Comedy Today

Throughout the episode, as Deborah tries to course-correct and resolve the backlash against her, Ava keeps telling her that the simplest solution is just to apologize for the offensive jokes. But Deborah keeps saying that it’s an unwritten rule that comedians should never apologize for jokes. She says that if someone is offended by a joke, they should just not laugh. But Ava points out that some of her early material was really hurtful, and that’s worth apologizing for.

When Berkeley organizes a town hall meeting on the campus for upset students to air their grievances, Deborah attends with her head held high. She finally relents and apologizes for the jokes. Then, she sits back and listens to all the students who were offended by her jokes (and why). It doesn’t make up for the problematic material, but it shows that she’s willing to listen.

1 Deborah Gets The Late Show Job

Every Comedian In Deborah's Generation Has Dreamed Of Hosting The Late Show

When Deborah and Ava return from Berkeley, they think that Deborah has lost her shot at hosting the Late Show. They read a profile written by a powerful journalist who was shadowing Deborah on the campus and it’s not 100% positive, but it does praise Deborah for listening to the people she offended and pledging to become a more comionate and understanding performer. And then Jimmy pulls into Deborah’s driveway with some good news.

This development is likely based on the career of the first female Late Show host, Joan Rivers, one of the many trailblazing comedians that Deborah Vance is based on.

As it turns out, the network didn’t cancel Deborah’s test show because she’s no longer in contention for the job. They canceled it because they realized she already did a test show – and crushed it – when she guest-hosted. The stage is set for an awesome Hacks season 3 finale next week as Deborah has finally achieved her lifelong dream of hosting a late-night show.