Hacks' Hannah Einbinder, Paul W. Downs Break Down Ava's 'Fraught' (And Fishy!) Freakout — Watch
Deborah Vance has been trying to get Ava to crack all season long, and in Episode 6, the late-night host finally got her wish... and almost immediately regretted it.
In Thursday's Hacks, head writer Ava is feeling the pressure. Not only does her boss put the kibosh on the writing staff's monthly birthday celebration (poor balloons!), but after Cher bails as a late-night guest, the team is able to book Ruby Rojas — Ava's ex-girlfriend! Deborah then cuts an entire segment of Ava's after making her scramble for alt jokes, and urges Ruby, mid-interview, to tell the story of Ava's embarrassing proposal mishap. On national television.
"It's so devastating. I don't even know how she comes back from that," Hannah Einbinder tells TVLine in the video above. "It's so humiliating and just so sad, of course, because Ava gives up her functioning, healthy relationship to come back into this world that is really not nurturing in any way emotionally. It's pretty brutal."
"It's really fraught because they obviously broke up over Ava choosing to work for Deborah Vance again, so it's already a really loaded situation to have her on," says co-creator Paul W. Downs, who also plays Jimmy. "We thought it would be really funny to have Ruby, since she is an actress, come on the late-night show and have that triangulation play out. While it's hard for the character of Ava, I think it's really fun for story to see what game Deborah gets to play with her."
If that wasn't bad enough, Ava's boyfriend and girlfriend dump her and she finds out that her writing staff has been taking advantage of her lunchtime generosity. So what's a gal to do? She totally freaks — like full meltdown, high-pitched screams and all — and throws a branzino against a wall! She follows that belligerence with one loud, one bold: "I QUIT!" Guess Mrs. Table is gonna have to buy her own lunch from now on.
"I so empathize with Ava's feeling of frustration of just being steamrolled by her writing staff," Einbinder adds. "It's the straw that breaks the camel's back. It's the tiniest last little thing that sends you over the edge."
After Deborah learns of Ava's exit, the ice queen does show remorse while lingering by her head writer's office. Later that night after one of her dogs is nearly attacked by a coyote, Deborah seems to come to a realization. She should've protected and nurtured Ava throughout this whole shebang. But she didn't. When she tracks Ava's phone, she thinks Ava is attempting to off herself in the ocean, so Deb jumps into the water, second favorite fur, be damned! After the real Ava finds her soaking wet (former?) boss, the two finally have the heart to heart they should've had weeks ago.
"There's a lot of things that happened in that episode that sort of crack both Deborah and Ava open and allow them, I think, to have an emotional outpouring," says Downs. "I think it helps shift their perspective and give them both clarity. Deborah, in particular, realizes how much she needs Ava and how she really did set her up to fail because of all that happened at the end of Season 3."
Downs refers to the episode's big closing moment as sort of a midseason climax, as the women try to come together and move past all of their baggage. They agree they must make the show for them, not for some midwestern mom who enjoy wine-o-clock jokes.
"I think they both realized that the thing that's magical about their relationship is creating together and having fun and following the fun," Downs adds. "But obviously, it's a really hard moment for Ava because she's been in this pattern before. When you are in a relationship with someone who is a narcissist, which some might say Deborah is, those patterns repeat themselves. So she's doing it sort of cautiously because you never know what the future holds."
Hear what else Einbinder and Downs had to say (plus co-creators Jen Statsky and Lucia Aniello) by watching the full clip above. Then, let us know what you thought of the episode below in the comments.