Deborah isn’t the only one who’s gone Hollywood. Hacks has frequently strayed from her adopted home of Las Vegas, spending loads of time in Los Angeles with occasional jaunts to Montreal and New York City. But in the third episode of season five, “No New Tricks,” the series returns to Deborah’s homebase with a vengeance, playfully invoking several Las Vegas clichés: hustlers, weddings, magicians, a horny mayor (though that might just be a trope in this version of Sin City). The episode doesn’t add up to much more than the sum of its parts, but it’s so full of silly bits and droll lines that you can’t begrudge writer and co-executive producer Aisha Muharrar giving Jean Smart the opportunity to say things like “I’ve got an ace in my hole” or Hannah Einbinder the chance to muse “I always wondered what Machiavelli would have been like if he’d been warped by boomer misogyny.”
Amanda Weinberg just set the date, and now Deborah has to find a way to subtly (for her, anyway) rally support for her show at Madison Square Garden on September 11. So, she’s doing the rounds at casinos like The Palmetto, her former home away from home and the site of Marty’s (Christopher McDonald) impending wedding to Victoria (Carole Raphaelle Davis), a fellow gorgeous woman of a certain age. Deborah can’t resist a few digs (“I just can’t picture you young”), but she’s too focused on securing her legacy to wallow in her romantic past. Besides, Marty’s new union seems like a done deal, just like the sale of the Palmetto Group to some venture capitalists, a development that happened offscreen at some point but is already causing waves, leaving Marty anxious to impress the bros and setting Marcus on his next venture: turning the shuttered Paradiso casino into a boutique hotel.
I enjoy seeing Marcus throw himself into a project, like when he helped Ava update and rent out her condo, and fixing up a casino sounds much more interesting (and rife for comedy) than his solar-panel gig. I’m even happier to see him folded into the broader story after being mostly on the periphery for seasons three and four. In addition to a sonorous voice, Carl Clemons-Hopkins brings a distinct but complementary energy to the show: an optimism burnished by worldliness. Marcus has been through the wringer with Deborah and Ava, committing to the former and ceding relationship ground to the latter. Here, he has a chance to do what he does best: create order from chaos, and, as if that weren’t enough, restore some classic glamour to the Las Vegas Strip. But first, he has to deal with a lascivious real-estate agent (played by Lucia Aniello, who’s directed here by series co-creator Paul W. Downs) and Deborah’s lack of enthusiasm for his idea. When Marcus pitches the renovation, she advises him to keep his money in an index and wait for a lighter lift. (I think I got the jargon right.)
As someone going through the world’s longest home remodel, steering clear of a huge renovation does strike me as sound advice, but Deborah’s also preoccupied when Marcus approaches her. At the same party where she cracked “There are so many new terms for eating disorders these days” after Marty mentioned the VC bros’ obsession “with hitting their macros and biohacking,” Deborah met Nico Hayes (The Summer I Turned Pretty‘s Christopher Briney), the Palmetto’s latest artist in residency. And though she assumed the subsequent invitation to dinner was a PR move, it turns out Nico would also like to see the ace up Deborah’s…skirt. The night ends with a kiss, followed by some post-gaming with Ava, who was out on a great first date of her own with Eli (Grady Eldridge of The Sex Lives Of College Girls), a sex worker who shows great “who gets the last mini-cheeseburger at the party” etiquette.
We so rarely get to see Ava and Deborah bond over anything aside from work, so there’s a real sweetness to the kitchen scene, where Ava advises Deborah on what to text (no emojis) to secure the next date. Ava’s flash of (fake?) insecurity over Nico’s ability to make Deborah crack up is also very funny and very in character, as is her despair when she learns that Eli only does sex work to pay the bills. His real passion is magic. Deborah’s dalliance with Nico is charming enough, as she finds common ground with another savvy performer then fumbles it because she’s a little too savvy—tipping off a paparazzo who immediately gives away the game. But I found Ava’s fling even more engaging because Muharrar and Downs know the character well enough to present this (before the magician reveal) as a dream scenario for Ava: a chance to live up to her own loudly preached principles, and, through no fault of her own here, fail. There’s your humor and pathos! But the combination of dating storylines, Marty’s wedding fiasco, the callback to Deborah’s May-December hookup in season two, and the Mayor Pezzimenti (Lauren Weedman) drop-in give “No New Tricks” the feel of a midseason breather rather than the rising action you’d expect from the first third of a season of Hacks, let alone the final season.
For all the speediness of the first two episodes, season five has been light on momentum so far. There’s a clear goal on the horizon, as well as obstacles, but “No New Tricks” primarily acts as a detour, a chance for Deborah to put a button on her story with Marty. After Marty’s left at the altar by his fraudster fiancée (and the FBI), Deborah comforts him, which inspires him to propose to her. She laughs off the proposal—which is technically the second one she gets this episode, though she incorrectly assumes what Nico is offering is a showmance—while encouraging Marty to keep his heart open. “What a gift to still be taking risks,” she says, as much to herself as to Marty. “Come on, we both got our hearts broken. Aren’t you glad that you’re still putting yourself out there like that?” I suppose there are worse things than sending off Christopher McDonald in style.
Deborah rushes back to the altar to propose a new, more equitable partnership to Marcus, who immediately accepts. In the past, trying to commit to more than one business partner hasn’t worked out so well for Deborah, but I don’t think Marcus is being set up as a foil. Despite the fizziness of the episode, it did serve Deborah another lesson in treating people right.
Stray observations
- • The Garden update: Deborah’s still on track, and she’s even planning to make “art” about her brief time with Nico. I wonder what the title of the Diane Warren-crafted clapback will be, though.
- • Ava utters the lines “I’ve been saying sex work is work forever. I wasn’t the first one to say it, but I was definitely in the first thousand” and “There is something so exciting about getting ready for a date with a man. Maybe it’s the tiny threat of being killed at the end of the night” in the same episode. Truly, she contains multitudes. But I am still waiting for her to come more fully into her own this season.
- • It’s too bad things didn’t work out between Ava and Eli. In her defense, he was very bad at magic tricks. In his defense, magic tricks are awesome.
- • Dying at Marty’s umbrage at being treated like a feeble old man by the FBI: “It was peer-to-peer fraud.” I am really going to miss Christopher McDonald in this role.
- • There were no new adventures of Schaefer & Lusaque & Randi this week, but I did love seeing Jimmy continue his quest to push his bromides into the world: “You know what I always say, ‘Stars—they’re just like each other.'”
Danette Chavez is The A.V. Club‘s editor-in-chief.
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