Hacks – Par For the Course

By: Kelly Kearney

After the big D.J. pregnancy announcement, the Vance family and friends are having a gender reveal party, and grandma-to-be, Deborah is in attendance along with Ava and the Vace-World team. Also in the episode, Deborah heads to the affiliate event where she and Ava–separately, don’t get excited Deb/Ava shippers, do the walk-of-shame after a night of regretful hook-ups on the backend of a golf scheme to land the Late Night gig. Meanwhile, back home in Las Vegas, a plan is underway to reunite the warring Vance sisters after years of animosity over Kathy Vance stealing Deborah’s husband. It’s romance in the rough, babies, and burying hatchets on  “Par for the Course.”

Deborah’s Little Christmas Extravaganza

We open with Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) holding what a confused Ava (Hannah Einbinder) thinks is an offensive audition for her yearly Christmas party extravaganza. Deborah makes a big show out of the holidays and hiring a group of little people to dress as elves and deliver her party invitations just feels wrong to Ava, and after she wipes the sleep out of her eyes and eats breakfast she will come up with a litany of reasons why. Deborah is used to Ava’s outrage meter always set to 100, so she ignores her and gets back to the auditions. This is a sought-after gig and she pays the actors double the SAG rate for their time, so Deborah sees it as a win for them and her.

Practicing her swing for the affiliate golf tournament she booked to emcee, Deborah isn’t just treating this event as a stand-up gig, but as her best chance to impress the people who pump money into the Late Show’s network. Her ankle is still sore from her hiking adventure with Ava but that’s not going to stop her from nailing this job down. This golf tournament is the most important step in cementing her name into the minds of the people who have financial pull with the network; she needs to know everything about these people if she plans to impress them. Damien (Mark Indelicato) and Ava test her with flashcards and question whether or not her ankle will hold up for the weekend. Vance is all about no pain, no gain, and besides, that sprain isn’t affecting her stellar golf swing–the woman is a ball-smacking machine, in more ways than one. Speaking of men she would like to smack, we learn Marty (Christopher McDonald) will be at the tournament since he owns an affiliate station out of Carson City, Nevada. Deborah doesn’t seem concerned with running into her currently engaged ex, but Ava seems a little unsure about it. She knows how badly Marty hurt Deborah when he fired her from the residency and announced his engagement not long after they hooked up. The wounds from that are still fresh, and any sort of Marty turmoil could put Deborah’s weekend agenda at risk.

Aunt Kathy

Before heading to the tournament, Team Vance attends D.J. ‘s (Kaitlin Olson) gender reveal party. Doing her best Rocky impersonation, D.J. punches out a blow-up boxer, and out comes a plume of blue powdery smoke. “It’s a boy!” her husband, Aiden (Paul Felder) yells, and everyone in the crowd cheers–even Ava, who must’ve forgotten about her detest of problematic gender reveals. Everyone at Vance World is thrilled with D.J.’s news until the name Kathy is mentioned. The feud between the Vance sisters is legendary fodder for the rumor mills and Deborah never misses a chance to use the strained relationship in her stand-up. Everyone knows how she feels about the sister who stole her husband, but how does she feel about the close relationship between Kathy, and D.J.? Deborah is instantly perturbed when she hears her sister is watching the reveal via Zoom on D.J. ‘s laptop. She knows she is still on thin ice with her daughter so Deborah plays it cool when D.J. practically begs her to bury the hatchet. She refuses–that’s no surprise, but there is less fury behind it than the previous mentions of Kathy. Her sister is now a widow–alone and shunned by her family, but D.J. has always maintained a relationship with her and wants the same for her son. It’s been decades since their fall-out and neither of them is getting any younger, so it might be time to grow up and move on–at least for the baby’s sake.

Lessons in Manipulation

Later, at the affiliate golf tournament, Deborah does a good job of charming the attendees with her flashcard knowledge about their lives. If there is one thing wealthy people seem to love, it’s finding out other wealthy people are impressed with them enough to know the inconsequential details of their lives, and Deborah has done nothing but study. After making her splashy arrival, she and Ava grab a bite to eat and that’s when Deborah spots Bob Lipka (Tony Goldwyn)–the CEO of the conglomerate that owns the network. Deborah is laser-focused on catching his eye and making her play for the Late Show since he would have the final say on who gets the gig. She is giddy with glee over the younger and handsome CEO; if she can turn on the charm, the job might be hers. Ava is underwhelmed by all the billionaires at the tournament–Lipka included, as she thinks it’s a tax bracket of out-of-touch elitists who abuse the working class. Deborah interjects some facts into her bandwagon socialism to inform her of Bob and his wife’s philanthropy. “They give millions to the democrats” and at least Ava can be thankful for that. Ava exists in a black and white world and Deborah seems to be the only one who reminds her there are many shades of gray. Together, they keep each other grounded and it’s why Deborah points out Ava’s issues with elitism when the writer wants to hang at the restaurant while they wait for Tee time. “You’re no woman of the people” Deborah points out as Ava admits it’s true she never waited tables. She hadn’t realized her idea of a two-hour endless cup of coffee taking money out of their server’s pocket– just like she didn’t understand the elf auditions. Not everyone rubs elbows with celebrities and gets to cosplay as their caddy all weekend. Yes, thanks to Deborah shaming her over lunch, Ava agrees to be Deborah’s caddy and feeds her flashcard information as the woman sinks both balls and her claws into these money makers on the course. Deborah already bribed the attendant to make sure she was grouped with Lipka for the game and had a cordial run-in with Marty – who overheard her exchange with the attendant. The exchange is pleasant enough even if he is a bit miffed when he realizes she isn’t bribing her way into the group because of him.

On the course, Deborah gets right to work trying to catch Bob’s attention, and Marty can see right through her. The two engage in small talk as Marty reveals his fiance is extending her summers in France–alone, and well into late in the year. It seems like there could be trouble in paradise for the engaged couple, which begs the question, is this why Marty is turning up the charm? He is flirty with Deborah and seems to eye roll as she plays the damsel in golf distress for Bob’s benefit. Instead of dominating the course like she normally would, she chips the ball and asks Bob for lessons on her swing. Anything to catch the man’s attention and make him feel important. In between strokes, Ava tests Deborah on the affiliates but her focus gets a bit blurry when one very attractive woman (Christina Hendricks) on the course flips off the men when they try to tell her she can only play off of the women’s tees. A vicious feminism barks out of this red-headed affiliate and it is making Ava dizzy with love at first sight, or it could just be that she is nauseated from watching Deborah giggle and hair twirl for Bob. Both women have their eyes on more than golf, especially Ava, who seems to bring out the S&M side of her golf crush. The tension between the wealthy woman and the pretend Caddy is electric and undeniable.

Later that night during a party for the affiliates, Deborah charms the room as she uses all of her flashcard knowledge to her advantage. Unfortunately, this whole weekend goes bust when she spots Bob Lipka taking a private meeting with Late Show competitor, Jack Danby (Luke Cook). After a few drinks to wash away her failed dreams, Jack runs into Deborah and breaks the news: she can be his first guest now that Bob just chose him to be the next Late Show host.

Deborah Breaks Her Pact With Monogamy

After the disappointment over her dashed dreams, Deborah takes her rage out on the golf balls and Bob instantly realizes she is better at the game than he thought. Perhaps the reason why he went with Jack was because he didn’t think she was fit enough to do the job, and now she is proving him wrong. She may be on the verge of tears in private with Ava, but on the course, she is a killer. Even Marty is thrilled to see his favorite ball buster back on the course. Her sweet attitude is also gone and as she confidently destroys Bob at the game, she makes it very clear she knows about that Danby meeting and she is not impressed. Too bad Bob is because the minute she turned down the charm and upon the attitude, he couldn’t take his eyes off of her.

Later that night while Deborah is sulking in her room, Ava runs into Marty at the bar and the two have a friendly chat. These two can’t agree on Ava’s theories about capitalism and the evil rich white men who keep it afloat but they do have one thing in common: a love for Deobrah and an understanding of that woman that nobody else has. Marty gives Ava credit for being the driving force behind the positive changes he’s seen in both Deborah personally and professionally. It seems her ex likes what he sees of the new and improved comedian and It’s why Marty attempts to liquor over her Late Show disappointments. Too bad she is busy cozying up to Bob during an evening golf lesson. Deborah has changed, and that might include not allowing herself to fall back into whatever mess Marty was hoping for. Besides, she has a new mess she is going to have to clean up, after breaking her longtime “other woman” rule and sleeping with Bob Lipka! She knows she isn’t getting the job, but that doesn’t stop her from stripping down to her black lace bustier and getting down to business with the married billionaire. She puts a capital G on MILF and it’s nice to see Hacks recognizing the sensuality of women over age 50.

Deborah isn’t the only one who has a romantic rendezvous that night, Ava runs into her red-headed mistress and the oil heiress immediately orders the younger caddy to sleep with her. Their make-out session in the hotel is hot, but the mood chills the second Ava realizes the only thing this woman is attracted to is her perceived working-class life. She thought Ava was an actual caddy and once she finds out the truth, the chemistry fizzles. Ava was ready to cosplay poverty if it got that woman hot, but once she realizes she almost slept with a Republican, she is disgusted by the whole situation. Self-loathing gays are not Ava’s thing, and the mood is officially ruined.

The next morning Ava spots Deborah doing the walk of shame back to her hotel room but it’s not a high-five moment for her as she is wracked with guilt. After Kathy stole her husband she made a pact with herself to never sleep with a married man. Ava questions her trysts with Marty but Deborah points out they only got together between his marriages-never during. She feels horrible about sleeping with Bob and can’t pack quickly enough. Ava, like she has done this hundreds of times, hops on the woman’s suitcase so she can zipper it up and leave the tournament early.

While Deborah is on her way back to Las Vegas, her sister, Kathy (J. Smith-Cameron), is opening the door to one of the elves inviting her to her sister’s party. She can hardly believe it, and after double-checking the invitation, she is so stunned she closes the door without tipping the actor. It looks like that sister reunion is a go, as long as Deborah can bury the hatchet in time, and preferably not in Kathy’s back.