"What I'm about to say might upset you, but I think it's better for our relationship if I tell you."
It's the moment that "Hacks" fans have awaited for nearly a year, after the HBO Max series ended its debut season with a helluva cliffhanger: Comedy writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder), plenty drunk and freshly slapped, sent an email revealing deeply personal and damning facts about her boss Deborah (Jean Smart) to a showrunner developing a series about an abusive female boss.
"Making the email a cliffhanger last season, we really wanted to make sure that the payoff felt good," says Paul W. Downs, who co-created "Hacks" with Jen Statsky and Lucia Aniello. "But it's also not just a one-and-done plot device. It reverberates throughout the entire season and has a huge effect on the relationship and love they have for each other."
