‘Hacks’ Co-Creator Explains Why the Finale’s Surprise Storyline Was Its Logical Conclusion

The way “Hacks” would ultimately end hasn’t changed since the series was pitched seven years ago, Lucia Aniello told IndieWire, but the decision to make Season 5 the last was debated late in the writing process.   

[Editor’s note: The following interview contains spoilers for “Hacks” Season 5, Episode 10.]

In its penultimate episode, with Deborah (Jean Smart) performing her big comeback special, the “Hacks” creators had neatly tied up their Season 5 storylines, clearing the slate for an unexpected gut punch in the series finale: Deborah has advanced cancer and wants Ava (Hannah Einbinder) to go with her on one final trip through Europe. The final stop: a euthanasia facility in Switzerland.

In an upcoming episode of the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, co-creator Lucia Aniello, who co-wrote and directed the series finale, discussed the ending of “Hacks” that no one saw coming.

“The core of the show is Deborah and Ava fighting about the big stuff in life, and disagreeing, but then seeing each other’s perspectives. And, I think, a certain logical conclusion, to us, would be the right to life argument,” said Aniello.

It’s an argument that played to the core aspects of Deborah and Ava’s beliefs, which they would then be forced to confront because of their bond with one another.

“Ava would, of course, feel that she was somebody who believed in people having a right to end their lives how they would want,” Aniello said of Einbinder’s character, who often outwardly defines herself based on her liberal political beliefs. “But then, when it actually came down to it, she would not support Deborah in that because she loves her so much.”

As Aniello and co-creators Paul W. Downs and Jen Statsky had been carefully tracking through the entire series, with each new layer revealed about Deborah’s past — including Episode 4 this season about her 1970s breakout hit sitcom, “Who’s Making Dinner” — it’s clear how her maverick career path was chiseled from a need to call her own shots.

“For Deborah, she’s somebody who is so all about control, that has always been her thing, I think especially because so often in her life she didn’t have control, and that’s when her more traumatic experiences happened,” said Aniello. “In the end, I think we really wanted to play with what is it that Deborah would find most sacred? And yes, control is so important to her, how she wants to end her life, and to ‘call her own light,’ as she says. But the only thing that is maybe more powerful than that was the love she has of creating art with her best friend.”

Through the first four seasons, it’s a relationship that was born from conflict. Deborah and Ava were always two sides of the same coin, and there were times they recognized that and were drawn together in collaboration, but could just as easily pit them against one another. As Aniello discussed on the podcast, this “one step forward, two steps back” aspect of their relationship came to an end in Season 4, Episode 9 (“Slippery Slope”), when Deborah walked away from her dream job hosting late night to stand with Ava.

“[Deborah] realizes that the relationship that they have and how much she means to her is more important than this job, that she thought meant everything,” said Aniello. “Ava, likewise, in the beginning of Season 5, Jimmy wants her to start writing her own stuff, and she says, ‘I just have to stay here and help Deborah because of what she’s done for me.’”

Season 5 sees the two characters come to understand that they are, as Aniello put it, “soulmates,” both creatively and personally. Leaving the one final challenge to be how they would resolve their differences about how Deborah handles her battle with cancer.

The creators have long known how the series would end. While on the podcast, Aniello said the series ending was actually part of their initial pitch when she, Downs, and Statsky were trying to sell “Hacks” seven years ago. So while they’ve known how they wanted to end the series for years, the idea that Season 5 would be the last season was something they debated well into writing the last 10 episodes.

“We actually talked about [it] in press, we were like, ‘We don’t know [if Season 5 would be the last],’ and that wasn’t a lie, that was the truth. We really just weren’t sure if we could say goodbye,” said Aniello.

While on the podcast, also Aniello discussed how the success of “Hacks” has opened the doors to numerous opportunities, but the three creators kept their focus on the series, in part because of how much fun it was to make, and not wanting to stop working with their “Hacks” writers, cast, and crew.

“We went into Season 5 saying, ‘You know, what if it was a two-part season? Let’s make eight episodes here, and take a little break, and then eight more episodes,’ really because we did not want the ride to end,” said Aniello. “ But in the end, we did end up feeling like that version of the show maybe wasn’t the most ideal version of the show, and so we did end up capping it at 10 episodes for Season 5.”

To hear Aniello‘s full interview, make sure you subscribe to the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform.