Paul W. Downs, Creators On Spin-Off, That Wild Ending

TVLINE | Were any other endings considered or any smaller elements that were left on the cutting room floor?
STATSKY | This was always the way that we had planned it. As we’ve said, when we initially pitched the show, we knew where we were headed for the end, for where these characters would land. This was always the plan and this was always where we wanted to end them, so no, no other crazy alt-ending is in existence either shot or in our brains, because this is always what we felt was the most fitting end for these two characters.

TVLINE | What was the genesis of this ending? How’d you arrive there and how did it help you set up this big European trip the ladies wind up taking?
ANIELLO | We’ve actually been laying groundwork for it since Season 1 when [Deborah] says, “Oh, the progesterone packets that I sell at QVC, people get cancer from them,” and so it’s something we’ve been seeding for a long time. And there’s been little moments that she’s been sick. We see it even in the end of Season 4 when she’s coughing at the Las Vegas store, a little souvenir shop. And then this season, obviously you find out in Episode 7 and Episode 8 when she’s thinking about what she wants to do, she wants to go on vacation. At that point we feel she does already know. Episode 9, she’s like, “I have to do [my hour] now.” That’s also a nod to the fact that she knows that this is happening. So, it’s been something that we’ve been seeing since the very, very beginning.

We try to examine everything we can that makes sense for these characters and for us. How somebody wants to end their life with dignity feels like a pretty big part of life and not something that a lot of shows do, and it felt like something that our show could do. Also, when you get to really know the character of Deborah over five seasons the way the audience has, I think you also have to acknowledge that control has been such a big part of her life. And so the idea that she would want to end it on her way also feels very real, but then we were able to reflect back onto the pilot and the idea that working with Ava and laughing with Ava and joking with Ava gives her new material that makes her excited to live again. And so that’s true for both the pilot and the finale.

TVLINE | We see DJ at the opening of the Diva, but we never see DJ’s reaction to her mother’s illness or Deb’s decision to end her life in Europe. Why is that?
DOWNS | We did talk about that. We turned that over a bit, but it was really something that, in our minds, she had her time and her discussion with DJ off-screen, because really, as Lucia said, the show has been about these two women from very different generations and the way in which they come at the the world in very different ways. And so for us, the ultimate debate is about life and death. This was the ultimate grist for them, and actually, right to life is something that we feel like Ava would normally be like, “I’m a huge advocate for ending your life with dignity, and I believe in assisted suicide,” but when it comes to someone you love, it’s so different. So we just felt like it was the most poignant and honestly the most heightened version of what these characters have done, which is wrestle with ideas and bring to each other a new perspective that makes them better.

So not only did we want to do that, but as Lucia said, getting them to a point where Deborah is reminded about the thing, the reason that she gets up in the morning and making it all sort of boil down to: The people that you laugh with and the material that you make is the thing that makes you wanna fight another day. We were like, “Well, that feels like it.” That feels like a good way to make this full circle. It’s like the pilot, but just on such a different level.

TVLINE | Season 5 was all about Deborah solidifying her legacy, but what beats were most important to you when crafting the season?
ANIELLO | Ava’s realization over the season, and the reckoning and developing of the show “Who’s Making Dinner.” To be able to have her know that now Deborah’s legacy, her story, [is] in Ava’s hands is, I think, a really beautiful thing. To be able to be like, “She’s now my muse,” beyond what we see in the show, was something we really wanted to do.

We were really excited to have Marcus come back and be part of a brick and mortar future for Deborah, and also part of the future of Las Vegas in this world. We also really wanted to wrap up DJ’s story in a hopefully emotionally impactful way, and then we also wanted to keep people on their toes and have new things and be exciting and fun and different. So in that way, you don’t want to just do a victory lap season. You don’t want to just do a tying-up-in-a-bow season. You also want it to still feel like its own season, and I think that [it’s] a season that’s a lot of fun, but also, as you know, heads into more intense territory as the series ends, and I think that’s fitting for “Hacks.”