As long as Generation Z writer Ava Daniels is the foil of max comedy Hacks' old-school stand-up comic Deborah Vance, the two are not so different.

Ava (Hannah Einbinder) started working at Deborah (Jean Smart) partly because she struggled to find a job after posting a controversial tweet, but mostly because she found it hard to work and, as one of her former writing partners tells her during a chance encounter in Season 1, she "was an a-hole in front of the tweet.""

By the end of Season 3, Ava had plenty of time to learn from the best in bad behavior. So when Eva is wronged by Deborah again, she's convinced that she'll level the power dynamic between them, as she's lying that she can't make her a head writer at her new late-night hosting gig.

In the Season 3 finale (hit with streaming at 5.30 pm), Eva goes behind Deborah's back and paints herself into the role, and if she disagrees she Ava can't lead the writer's room, she says it's time for Deborah to network on a company golf outing a few weeks before she was hired. (Episode 6, "Par for the Course"). This is a move that goes straight out of Deborah Vance's script and will be one of the most amazing TV moments of 2024 so far.1

Season 3 begins a few months after Deborah let go of Eva, telling her to pursue her dream at the end of Season 2, Deborah is Deborah's decades-long dream to be the first woman to direct a major network late night series and lost in the 70s for tabloid fodder. It was a great experience. (She was said to have committed arson when she learned that her husband had cheated on her with her sister, but her ex made a fire and Deborah ran with it and incorporated it into her routine.But in order to see the dream finally come true, the comedy star needs her No.1 Writer (and best friend whether she admits it or not) on her side

Eva admits, the two spend much of Season 3 schmoozing the network boss and perfecting Deborah's public persona to get her behind the late-night desk again. And you know, the young woman she shot a late-night pilot 50 years ago

Even again, in the 9th and final episode of season, "Bulletproof," Deborah tells Eva that she wants to come with her. Ava accepted and revealed that she was writing a joke exclusively for the Deborah show in her downtime and would quit the TV writing job she had gone on to pause for working with her old boss, even after they offered to promote her to the head writer.

However, when the two connect after Deborah first met with the entire network team, she tells Ava that the request of one of the network's same Headley Deborah, who has been there for 20 years, has repeatedly stated that she was pushed back and that Eva would still be in the writer's room.

Hours later, Ava discovered that Deborah had lied to her when she encountered network CEO Winnie Landell (Helen Hunt). She uses a fateful encounter to throw herself into the head writer's job just for Winnie to say, "Deborah can hire anyone she wants." We told her we had full employment power."

The following is the culmination of all of the complex emotions at the helm of Ava and Deborah's connection, their loneliness, their fierce ambition, and the way they interact with each other and their industry (which is also a solid contender for their Emmys reels).Eva rushes into Deborah's house without notice to confront her and call her a liar. Deborah does not back down and matches her ferocity by saying that the network took the risk by picking her, but Eva can't understand.

Eva says that Deborah should give her a head writer job because of their relationship and how Deborah needs her."

"You told me to be particularly ambitious, but I guess unless it's inconvenient for you." Call it "selfish" and respond, stating that she does not want to be a shark or selfish herself.

Ultimately, being selfish is what Ava chooses. A few days later, when Deborah takes a walk on the first day of her new job, she finds Eva waiting for her in the writer's room. In a menacing tone, Ava says that unless Deborah wants to surface a tabloid scandal, she'll fill the head writer's position — inevitably ruining her chances by hosting late night again.

"I think I'm your head writer after all because the show needs to be bulletproof as you said," Ava says. "You wouldn't do that," Deborah's reason for Eva answering Snakely is, "I would do that." There is anger in their exchange, but there is also a sense of pride. Deborah is successfully inspired by Eva to be the shark she may have always been, and Eva is finally one-up her boss by wielding her own words against her. Through the hack, Ava threatened the CEO of the Las Vegas casino where Deborah hosted her residence (Christopher McDonald), admitted that she interfered with her friend's comedy career, and even sued her for opposing the NDA. And again and again, Deborah told Ava to move on from their creative partnership with a fit of anger and asked her to come back because no one knew her well. No wonder it comes out of her stint working for a "hack" in Las Vegas by playing her cards like a hustler; she's learned from the very best of Sin City.

In Deborah's New Yorker profile published before she landed late at night, Ava described the hack as "someone who does the same thing over and over again."The young joke writer says the comedy legend is not because of how committed she is to evolving. Deborah is certainly playing dirty again and again, but it's hard to see her stop that routine right away. Now that Eva is ready to match her game— and accept they are not so different after all — the show will lead to this point and the two will rival each other more than ever since Season 4 is likely to be on the horizon. It would be Ava and Deborah's most riveting act if it was the kind of exchange that deserved their intense debate and gasping at the end of the season 3 finale.