‘Hacks’ Stars Hannah Einbinder & Robby Hoffman Break Down Deborah’s EGOT Goal (VIDEO)

Hacks is finally back for (sadly) it’s last season at HBO Max, and Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) was hitting the ground running as she set off to readjust her legacy following a false death announcement at the end of Season 4. Fair warning: There are spoilers for the Hacks Season 5 premiere ahead!

In the premiere episode, “EGOT,” Deborah believes the quickest way to cement her legacy is by achieving an EGOT, otherwise known as winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award. The problem? Deborah’s hands are still legally tied by Bob Lipka (Tony Goldwyn), who is eager to punish her for blowing up her late-night show by calling out his immoral standards.

This means that Deborah gets creative with ways to try and achieve her goal, by playing an instrument in a mariachi band, or hiring the Tony Kushner to help pen her memoir. Despite Deborah’s attempt at the path of least resistance, creative partner Ava (Hannah Einbinder) is somewhat reduced to a yes-man out of fear that a no will send Deborah down a bad path.

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“Obviously, we see Deborah like really crashing out in Singapore, and I think Ava’s just so worried about that happening again,” Einbinder tells TV Insider. “[She] just wants to be supportive to get her out of the rut that she’s in. So I think, yeah, she does become kind of a yes man in that situation.”

Along to help in Deborah’s crusade is team LuSaque & Schaefer (or Schaefer & LuSaque, depending on how you look at the name), which includes Jimmy (Paul W. Downs), Kayla (Megan Stalter), and Randi (Robby Hoffman), the latter of whom is helping to guide the company forward. Following Deborah’s late-night situation, maintaining clients has been difficult for the company, but Randi is keeping a positive outlook, supporting any and all ideas.

“Jimmy and Kayla have more of a hopelessness,” Hoffman says. “They’ve been around longer… They’ve seen so many things go wrong, Randi is still Curious George… the world is her oyster.” It is that kind of outlook that eventually leads Deborah to do what she does best, break some rules and put on a stand-up show, in secret. The only thing is, it wasn’t so secret as she and Ava covertly planned for the set to leak online, forcing her to court per legal agreement with Lipka’s contract.

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By the episode’s end, Deborah was announcing plans for her comeback show at Madison Square Garden, aiming to win over the public’s adoration, especially after discovering all of the work she and Ava had done over the past few years had been wiped from online due to Lipka’s position.

Can they build back the reputation and legacy Deborah wishes to have? Fans will have to tune in week-to-week to find out as the final season of Hacks plays out. Check out the full interview in the video above, and let us know what you thought of the premiere in the comments section below.

Hacks, Season 5, Thursdays, 9/8c, HBO Max