This article contains spoilers for Hacks Season 5 Episode 4.
Hacks airs two episodes on April 30, a decision that makes sense for Emmy voting but feels as though HBO Max is rushing through the final season of its best series to date. “Who’s Making Dinner?” is a standout episode that returns to the season’s fascination with legacy while creating something both sharply funny and unexpectedly devastating. The episode exemplifies why Jean Smart remains unparalleled, even in a television landscape that has recently featured similarly complex women through performances by Lisa Kudrow in The Comeback and Elle Fanning in Margo’s Got Money Troubles.
“Who’s Making Dinner?” wastes no time putting Deborah (Smart) on the back foot as she runs a practice set for Ava (Hannah Einbinder), Jimmy (Paul W. Downs), Kayla (Meg Stalter), Randi (Robby Hoffman), and Josefina (Rose Abdoo), which goes down badly. Deborah blames the room, insisting it offers a different dynamic to that of a comedy club, though she fares no better later at the Paley Center’s 50th anniversary event for Who’s Making Dinner? If anything, the episode offers Deborah a valuable lesson – to have faith in her comedic abilities – a point Ava reiterates throughout.
From there, writer Samantha Riley balances the series’s wry tone with an emotional exploration of Deborah’s past. Jimmy reveals that the Paley Center will not move the 50th anniversary event for Who’s Making Dinner? to allow Deborah to speak. The gag order blocks her from making a speech, turning what should be a celebration into yet another thing men have taken from her. While Bob Lipka has silenced her, her ex-husband, Frank, takes the spotlight that night. Smart is sensational, delivering a performance that reinforces why she has swept award after award for the first four seasons of Hacks, and will likely continue to do so for Season 5. Her turn here marks Deborah at her most vulnerable yet.
When the Paley Center requests memorabilia for the Who’s Making Dinner? exhibition, Ava takes an interest in the original pilot script, wanting to know how Frank secured sole creator credit. Deborah recalls how naïve she was in letting him put his name on the pilot script they wrote together, a scene that lands like a gut punch, though the devastation does not stop there. She finds herself haunted by flashbacks to her time on set and the betrayal she faced from both Frank and Kathy, a wound reopened when the show reveals that Stage 15 on the Warner Bros lot will be renamed the Frank Vance Stage.
Refusing to remain silent, Deborah introduces the screening despite contrary advice, only to have it prove disastrous and further expose her vulnerabilities. Backstage, she watches an unseen interview with Frank, in which he admits he knew the show worked because of Deborah. She was the funny one; she was always the funniest person in any room. Deborah cannot understand why she still needs to hear that – or why she cares about what some man she met at 18 thinks of her – but Ava counters that sometimes there is just one person we want to impress. For Ava, that person is clearly Deborah.
Much of the final season of Hacks focuses on legacy and what this means for its characters. It comes as no surprise, then, that the series positions Ava as a writer on the cusp of the next phase of her career, which, in turn, deepens her connection to Deborah. Her fascination with Who’s Making Dinner? leads to her next venture when Jessica (Caitlin Reilly) reveals they cannot make Mall Girl despite loving the script.
While Ava initially struggles to come up with another pitch, she later sets her sights on a reboot of the very series at the centre of the episode. She imagines a show in which the grandchild of Deborah and Frank’s sitcom characters inherits their house and lives with roommates who become a chosen family. It would be easy to scoff at Ava considering a reboot – she values originality, and Hollywood’s obsession with nostalgia clashes with that – but her love for Deborah and belief in her work make the choice feel believable.
It is not all devastation, however, as the episode makes excellent use of Jimmy, Kayla, and Randi. Their subplot centres on Jimmy’s supposed flirtation with Beth (Anna Konkle) from the Paley Center, a misunderstanding Kayla and Randi gleefully fuel by pointing to his overenthusiastic emails – particularly his liberal use of exclamation marks – as evidence of something more than professionalism.
What Jimmy insists is friendliness spirals into self-doubt after a discussion about a thong, only for the episode to deliver a perfectly timed reversal that leaves him overcorrecting in painfully awkward fashion. It not only gives the supporting cast room to shine – Stalter, in particular, is excellent, with “Oh yeah? Is it friendly to have your tits out? Button up slut,” immediately entering the repertoire – but also reinforces the episode’s broader interest in perception and the humiliation of getting it wrong. Unfortunately for Jimmy, he has little room to make it right, unlike Deborah.
Later, the police arrest Deborah for violating her restraining order. What looks disastrous – and poses the question of how many legal troubles she will face before she turns all focus on projects beyond the non-compete – soon teaches her the lesson the episode has been building towards. Stuck in a holding cell with a group of women, Deborah turns to comedy, making them laugh with quips about stealing from Neiman Marcus over Macy’s, and jokes about DUIs and Uber accounts.
When Ava, panicked and with bail money, arrives, Deborah decides to bail all the women. Her time in the cell proves worthwhile as she confirms that Frank was right – people loved their show because it was funny. Deborah has spent too long consumed by anger; what people will remember is whether she made them laugh. If “Who’s Making Dinner?” is anything to go by, her legacy is immeasurable.
