Summary

• Deborah's fame rose after a hit special, but she struggles with the downsides of stardom: phony laughs and lack of challenge.
• Ava's new romance with Ruby is going strong, but issues arise when she reconnects with Deborah.
• Jimmy and Kayla launch comebacks for old-school comedians, gaining success but not respect among other agents.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Hacks season 3.

Hacks season 3 picks up one year after the shocking twist ending of season 2, and plenty of big changes have happened in Deborah and Ava’s lives in the meantime. After Deborah fired Ava in the season 2 finale, Ava returned to Los Angeles, secured a job in television, and got into a committed relationship. Deborah, on the other hand, is enjoying a much-deserved career comeback after releasing a hit special at the end of season 2. The season 3 premiere catches up with this unlikely duo in very different places in their lives.

The two-part season 3 premiere set up a new story arc. After killing in her late-night guest-hosting debut, Deborah has a renewed drive to achieve her lifelong dream of hosting her own late-night show – and Ava is going to help her get there. But before getting to that point, season 3 has a lot of catching up to do to fill in the year-long time jump. From Ava’s rekindled romance to Deborah’s most famous new fan, a lot of huge developments have happened in the characters’ lives between seasons 2 and 3 of Hacks.

10 Deborah's Special Made Her More Famous Than Ever

Deborah's Big Break Takes Her By Surprise

At the end of Hacks season 2, Deborah released a standup comedy special, My Bad, that ended up becoming a huge hit. Deborah released the special as a DVD on QVC and it sold out within minutes. She was then informed by Jimmy that there was already a bidding war for the rights to the special. Hacks season 3 follows up on this triumphant success as Deborah is shown to be more famous than ever.

The subject of this tracking shot is revealed to be a drag queen dressed as Deborah.

The season 3 premiere initially teases that Deborah’s career has taken a nosedive as a tracking shot follows her into a Vegas casino, where she’s shown to a stage on the casino floor. However, the subject of this tracking shot is revealed to be a drag queen dressed as Deborah. As it turns out, Deborah has become so famous that she has her own Vegas impersonators.

9 Ava Got Back Together With Ruby

Ava Finds Love Again

The previous seasons of Hacks had introduced The Green Inferno’s Lorenza Izzo as Ava’s ex-girlfriend, Ruby Rojas. Ruby is a rising star in Hollywood who’s just been cast to play the lead role of Wolf Girl in a new supernatural action series based on a popular in-universe graphic novel. Ava and Ruby are shown to be happy together: they have an active social life, they’re very ive of each other’s careers, and they love joking with one another.

They have very different lifestyles. Ruby is constantly working out with a personal trainer to get in shape for the show, whereas Ava hardly ever gets off the couch. But the relationship works beautifully where it counts: they’re always there for each other, they’re great at communicating, and the season 3 premiere’s steamiest scene shows that they’re very sexually compatible.

8 Deborah Quickly Became Disillusioned With Fame

Deborah Discovers the Price of Success

Despite finally achieving the fame and glory she always felt she deserved, Deborah is shown to have quickly grown jaded and disillusioned with her newfound fame. In true Deborah fashion, she can’t just enjoy what she has. She’s sick of being asked inane questions by paparazzi, she’s sick of walking the red carpet, and most of all, she’s sick of getting unearned laughs.

Now that she’s one of the most famous comics in the world, Deborah finds that her audiences will laugh at her material just because they love her. They won’t even let her get to the punchlines, so the laughs aren’t coming from the jokes themselves. She misses the challenge of having to earn a laugh, and desperately replaces that challenge with pointless new challenges, like trying to pull off a hideous dress.

7 Ava Is Working On A Hit TV Show

Ava Lands a Prestigious TV Gig

After being fired by Deborah in the season 2 finale, Ava has landed a different comedy writing job. She’s working as a staff writer on a Peabody Award-winning comedy series called On the Contrary. This writers’ room is a much less toxic working environment than writing for Deborah. Here, Ava’s colleagues openly appreciate her contributions. The head writer tells her that she’s his favorite writer on the show (although he asks her not to share that information with the other writers).

In season 3, episode 1, “Just for Laughs,” the showrunner chooses Ava to represent the show at a at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival. She fields questions from fans and offers useful advice to young writers trying to get their start. It seems that, in the Hacks universe, On the Contrary is as widely acclaimed as Hacks itself.

6 Deborah Hired Two New Writers

Deborah Shakes Up Her Team

While Ava is networking at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival, she bumps into two writers she’s worked with before: Miria, played by Dream Scenario’s Dylan Gelula, and Logan, played by Orphan Black’s Jordan Gavaris. According to Ava, they all worked on an Ice Age roundtable together, likely punching up the script with more jokes in the midst of production. Now, as it turns out, these new additions to the Hacks season 3 cast have secured a new gig.

Deborah has hired Miria and Logan as her new writers. Ava feels insulted that Deborah hired two new writers, because she thought she fired her to assert her independence, but now she’s been replaced. Jimmy tells Ava that she should take it as a compliment, because Deborah needed two writers to make up the comedy firepower that Ava provided on her own.

5 Ava & Ruby Moved In Together

Ava and Ruby Take Their Relationship to the Next Level

Not only have Ava and Ruby rekindled their relationship; they’ve also moved in together. Ruby comes home to find Ava swatting at imaginary projectiles with a VR headset on when she’s supposed to be working. Hacks’ season 3 premiere wrings a lot of laughs out of Ava adjusting to cohabitation and a long-term commitment. She ends up jumping the gun on a marriage proposal after an unfortunate misunderstanding.

She interrupts Ruby’s workout with her personal trainer to coyly suggest that they should get some new silverware.

When Ava finds a ring amongst Ruby’s things, she assumes that Ruby is going to propose. She interrupts Ruby’s workout with her personal trainer to coyly suggest that they should get some new silverware, so their silverware can be “our silverware.” As it turns out, Ruby isn’t planning to propose and the ring is a prop from her show, leading to the season premiere’s most hilarious cringe gag.

4 Deborah Broke Off With Ava

A Bridge Burned?

When Ava and Deborah bump into each other in an elevator at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival, they’re forced to reconnect. It’s clear that Ava resents Deborah and Deborah wants her to explain why. As it turns out, Ava isn’t mad at Deborah for firing her; she’s mad at her for cutting off all with her after the firing.

In the year since Deborah fired Ava, Ava has reached out to Deborah a bunch of times, but Deborah has never returned any of her calls or answered any of her texts. The most egregious thing for Ava is that Deborah didn’t reply to any of the “objectively funny memes” she sent her. This included the meme template of Homer Simpson retreating into Ned Flanders’ hedge – or, as Deborah puts it, “the yellow guy in the bush.”

3 Jimmy & Kayla Have Become Renowned For Launching Comedy Comebacks

Jimmy and Kayla Make a Name for Themselves

In previous seasons of Hacks, Deborah and Ava’s agent Jimmy was forced to work with his boss’ daughter, Kayla. In Hacks’ season 3 premiere, Jimmy and Kayla are still working together – and they haven’t learned to get along any better – but they have become renowned within the industry for launching successful career comebacks for old-school comedians. Every comic in Deborah’s age group wants them to launch a similar comeback for them.

Despite earning widespread success for their clients, Jimmy and Kayla are sort of a laughingstock amongst other agents.

At the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival, Jimmy mentions that they’ve just signed Valerie Bertinelli as a new client. Despite earning widespread success for their clients, Jimmy and Kayla are sort of a laughingstock amongst other agents. The other agents focus on developing young, up-and-coming talent, but Jimmy and Kayla’s success has proven there’s plenty of money to be made with the older legends.

2 Deborah Gained A New Fan In Tom Cruise

Deborah Finds an A-List irer

Thanks to the success of her special My Bad, Deborah has earned new fans all over the world. She’s become so popular that there’s a whole Etsy store full of unauthorized Deborah Vance merchandise (and as soon as she finds out about it, Deborah wants a piece of the action). One of Deborah’s new fans is none other than Tom Cruise. When Ava gets to Deborah’s hotel room in Montreal, she’s surprised to learn that Deborah is on Cruise’s coconut cake list.

Every Christmas, Cruise famously sends a coconut cake to each of his friends, and following her comeback, Deborah has made the Tom Cruise coconut cake list. Despite deeming leading-man culture to be toxic, Ava is curious to try this cake. And, much like every real-life celebrity who’s eaten it, she sings its praises.

1 Ava & Ruby Had To Go To Couples' Therapy Over Deborah

Ava and Ruby Need Help Dealing with Deborah

Problems start to arise in Ava’s relationship with Ruby when she rekindles her friendship with Deborah. As it turns out, after Deborah fired Ava, Ava was talking about her so much that she and Ruby had to go to couples’ therapy to get over it.

When Ava reconnects with Deborah and starts writing for her again, Ruby worries that she’s forgotten what a toxic work environment it was last time.

Ruby is really concerned about Ava working with Deborah again. It’s looking like, at some point in Hacks season 3, Ava is going to be forced to choose between her girlfriend and her comedy partner. And since, at the end of the two-part premiere, she chooses writing for Deborah over staying with Ruby on the shooting location of her show, it seems pretty clear who she’ll choose if she’s forced to make such a decision.