Review: Hacks, "Bulletproof"| Season 3, Episode 9
Deborah can't quite escape her demons as she begins production on her show
After a stretch of relative amity between them, it was inevitable that Deborah and Ava would have a major clash to close out the season. Once Deborah has enough conversations that make clear what a knife’s edge she’s walking with her show, she panics and demotes Ava from the head writer job, which would be bad enough if she didn’t try to escape all responsibility for it by lying to Ava about why it’s happening. Ava, predictably, blows up at her when she finds out it was a lie, pointing out the obvious: that Deborah owes her because of their relationship, and that their working relationship is effective, and she’s going to end up with a more boring show if she retains the existing, more experienced head writer.
It’s a pretty brutal fight, made all the worse by the fact that it’s clear Deborah has no plans to back down no matter what Ava says to her. It’s gratifying to see Ava stand up for what is valuable about their working partnership—too often, we see Ava experiencing the fallout of trusting her toxic relationship with her employer, but at its core their creative connection produces really high quality work, and it reads as real growth for Ava that she makes her argument to Deborah on those terms. The Ava of Season 1 would probably have responded a lot more childishly, but her maturity in the dispute makes Deborah’s backslide into the emotional cruelty she’s previously been known for all the more brutal when it happens. She doesn’t want to deal with Ava’s messy emotions about what she’s done, just like she doesn’t want to deal with Kathy’s messy emotions about her secretly moving their parents’ graves. She’s been really isolated for a really long time, and having something to lose—both personally and professionally—is pretty terrifying.