Hacks Season 4 Episode 4 “I Love LA” marks a huge milestone for the MAX show: Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) is finally, really, officially a late night host.
**Spoilers for Hacks Season 4 Episode 4 “I Love LA,” now streaming on MAX**
Late Night With Deborah Vance makes its long-awaited debut on television, a cause for celebration. But when Deborah’s plans for a swanky dinner with network brass falls through, she winds up spending the big night with assistant Damien (Mark Indelicato). Their convo soon turns to how Damien is struggling to find his footing as an “LA gay.” He doesn’t have the body type to keep up with the dating pool, but, it occurs to him, he does have the connections. Damien convinces Deborah to visit a gay club with him, where she is feted as the icon she is…and soon passes out after being given poppers for the first time.
Poppers, of course, are a popular recreational drug in gay circles because whiffing them relaxes certain muscles in the body. (Cue Michael Fassbender in Black Bag talking about sphincters.)
Deborah Vance might not have known much about what she was huffing in that club while dancing, but Jean Smart told DECIDER she “definitely” knew what Hacks was asking her to do.
“Oh, I definitely knew about poppers,” Jean Smart said. “I hadn’t tried them, but I definitely knew about them.”
Smart then revealed that her anxiety about the scene was tied to Deborah’s performance in the cage. “Yeah, my dancing was not what I would have liked,” she said. “I was not happy with my dancing, but—”
“Really?” Hacks co-star Hannah Einbinder interrupted.
“The poppers was okay,” Smart reiterated.
“I’m sure you were beautiful,” Einbinder said.
Even though Deborah’s trip to the club lands her in the hospital, it also provides a reconciliation of sorts between her and Ava (Hannah Einbinder). Because Ava is still listed as Deborah’s emergency contact, she’s the one called to sit with the convalescing star. Conveniently, this means the two women, who have been at odds all season, are able to watch the premiere of their show together…in a hospital waiting room.
Of course, Deborah’s poppers incident isn’t her only medical emergency in this week’s episode of Hacks. During a rehearsal show, Deborah experiences her first ever panic attack. She’s then referred to a cardiologist by the network. In the doctors’ waiting room, she meets Carol Burnett playing herself.
Jean Smart told DECIDER it was a “thrill” to work with the comedy legend, sharing that one of her “big professional regrets” was not being able to work with Burnett on a Broadway show about the comic’s childhood.
“I was ecstatic when I found out she was gonna do the show,” Smart said. “If I can be her, you know, in 20 years, I’d be very, very happy. I mean, she’s just sharp as a tack, easy-going. Her timing’s still perfect.”
“There aren’t a lot of women who have been physical clowns like that, that were as brilliant as Carol Burnett. I mean I love doing physical comedy, as well, but I could never do the kind of stuff that Carol did,” she said. “She’s very, very special and one of the sweetest human beings ever.”
Hacks returns next Thursday at 9 PM ET on MAX.
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