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Jimmy prepares for a lunch so tense he wants the knives cleared from the table: A summit with Deborah and Ava. Ah, apparently these two were so busy getting back together they forgot to tell their manager that they’d buried the hatchet. So all of Jimmy’s knife-removal and rose-and-thorn icebreaker prep (that dog bite gave him ringworm, woof) is for naught. Jimmy says he’s just happy they made up even though the part where they left him out of the loop does not feel great. As Kayla says to him at the office, this is just like that time he found out about his parents’ divorce from Soap Opera Digest . Kayla’s right: It is messed up that Deborah and Ava couldn’t be bothered to tell Jimmy about their renewed relationship, and it is on Jimmy to demand his clients treat him with respect.

Time for a visit from another Hacks icon: Ava’s mom (Jane Adams) is coming for a visit! Not the point but wow, you can get a direct flight from Boston to Burbank? I’m so jealous! I’m always dealing with LAX and taking that shuttle to the parking lot where the Ubers and the Lyfts live. It’s a journey. Every time I’m there, I’m like: wow, I can’t believe our country STILL doesn’t have high-speed rail in our major metropolises. Anyway, that’s not Ava’s mom’s problem. Ava’s mom is here to do that thing moms love to do: Pressure their children into having children. Ava’s only 28 years old and—as I assumed and as Ava will eventually confess—doesn’t even want kids, but that’s not going to stop her mom from offering to share the windfall from her class action lawsuit so Ava can freeze her eggs. (“Are you still waiting to meet Leonardo DiCaprio to have a child? Because I think there’s something to that! You move in the same Hollywood circles!”)

While Deborah does the robot in a motion-capture suit for a football commercial, Winnie pops by to ask about that spin-off, which will be hosted by Anthony Anderson, even though it doesn’t exist yet. “Celebrity Strip Poker” isn’t family-friendly enough. Deborah finds this inquiry incredibly irritating and while I do appreciate her annoyance, I also find it a little off… like, clearly the spinoff is a sign that her show is doing well, not to mention she’d get a producer credit and ultimately do very little of the actual work of running it (right? That would be Anthony’s job?), so more money would be rolling in, more brand recognition, etc. If this — “this” being the “leaping on leap day” social media promo Deborah’s doing while she’s on green screen — isn’t beneath her, why is expanding her show into a franchise?

Ava’s mom is in the writers’ room for a wild and perfect news story: Our favorite Las Vegas mayor was caught having an orgy on a zamboni with MULTIPLE hockey players! Okay, Mayor Jo! Of course the writers struggle with the modern late-night comedian’s dilemma: all the good jokes are already all over the internet. They also have a personal problem: Deborah won’t make fun of her friend. Ava’s suggestion: Why not have her on the show? So Deborah flies (private, obviously) to Las Vegas and, in a big ol’ Cruella de Vil fur, scales the side wall to avoid the press out front and knocks on Jo’s window. Jo comes down the stairs wearing a bright pink Juicy velour sweatsuit and wielding a gun. Fantastic.

Jo is already making jokes about her predicament (“The Jimmys railed me. My second gangbang of the week.”) and Deborah convinces her that, rather than step down as mayor, she should come on the show and tell her side of the story. Deborah recites the old Nora Ephron line (which was actually her mom’s line!) about slipping on a banana peel — if you tell the story, it’s your joke — even though Nora Ephron called Deborah a bitch once. Her LORE.

Back at the office, Jimmy gets another blow. His client, Clive — the one he and Kayla signed in a real coup for their new agency, only to find out he had terminal cancer — is feeling better. MUCH better. His cancer is in remission! So cool! So he’s firing Jimmy… to sign with Kayla’s dad . What the hell! We do not have time to dwell on this just yet because (1) Jimmy needs a rabies shot and (2) it’s showtime at Late Night! Can you believe how quickly Ava moves around the set? Her mom certainly can’t: “She was always last in her presidential physical fitness challenges.”

Mayor Jo — my hero, my heart, America ’s mayor, as far as I’m concerned — kills. She rides out on a zamboni. She is wearing fabulous shoes. She owns that, as the mayor of Sin City, she is supposed to be out there having (legal, morally upstanding) fun. The crowd loves her! As they should!

Alas, Jimmy’s day is only getting worse. Jack Danby wants to “go method” to be Fatty Arbuckle, but he’s vegan. (Kayla reassures him: “He can do it! I know a lot of vegans who look like shit.”) When Jimmy tells Kayla about her dad poaching Clive, Kayla goes what she calls “full gorilla mode.” She barges in on her dad in the men’s lounge of the Beverly Green Spa. Rather than deny his shady dealings, Michael Schaffer tells Kayla that he wants to poach her , too: Jimmy isn’t enough of a killer, but word’s gotten out about Kayla. Not that he ever had any doubt: “Remember that time at Sea World, you killed that dolphin? I saw you stick that muffin in its blowhole.” There’s a corner office at his agency and a [Carly Rae Jepsen cadence] beach house in Malibu , complete with the jetski, with Kayla’s name on it — if she leaves Jimmy for her dad.

Great news: The Mayor Jo interview went viral. Bad news: the show is still in third place, because the clips don’t get shared until after they air. Virality doesn’t help with live numbers. So Deborah pitches a new structure: Tape the show a day early, release the clips as teasers with cliffhangers before airtime, and then bam: everyone is tuning in to see the punchlines. So what if they can’t do topical jokes? Who needs late night for that anymore anyway? It’s a sharp idea and a big swing and Rob gives them the green light to try it. We’re going for BUZZY. We’re going for DISHY. We’re going to let Deborah interview people she ACTUALLY LIKES.

This means we are treated to a fantastic, zippy little series of Deborah’s new interviews, including a plastic surgeon to the stars and Diana the psychic, as Deborah asks gossipy questions like “ how much did you get in the divorce?” and offers tantalizing intel like “the name of the resort where the entire cast of Ocean’s Eleven is no longer welcome.” Their efforts are a success: they’re Number One, baby!!!! The network is so thrilled, they want Deborah to do the live show after the Oscars. (Ava, ecstatic: “This is the closest I’m ever gonna get to working in features!”)

It’s all going very well for everyone but Jimmy, who pulls into the parking lot to see a jet ski with a big bow on it in the parking spot beside him. Randi doesn’t know what it’s about; she’s on the bus. (“I like to mentally map a city before I drive in it.” She’s not wrong!)

That evening as they celebrate, Stacy reports to Deborah and Ava that they’d graduated from their HR-chaperone-situation. She will be going to Costa Rica for a mental health break. No, not for beach time. “They don’t let you anywhere near the ocean when you’re at the facility.” Rob is so happy he’s giving Ava a massive hug. Winnie is delighted but she says Deborah still needs that spinoff — time to capitalize on their success! Their conversation is very tense. Deborah returns home to a gift from Problematic Bob: Blue Label Johnnie Walker. Signed with an “XO”! BOB.

Deborah calls him to say thank you (!!!!) and, as they flirt, Deborah admits she’d “love it if Winnie never asked me to deliver her a spinoff ever again.” I quote this directly BECAUSE I want to know if everyone thinks Deborah realized what she was setting in motion and/or if she regrets it. Because in the morning, Winnie is fired. Ava is scandalized. No one knows what happened except, of course, Deborah, who doesn’t tell anyone. Rob says their fates depend on who Winnie gets replaced with, because (duh!) it could be a LOT worse. And let’s pour one out for Winnie, who is going to have to spend a lot more time with those kids she can’t stand.

Deborah’s clearly startled by the news, but it’s hard to tell if she’s really bothered by it, or if a part of her is too drunk on the success and power to see what this reveals about Bob. If he could just axe Winnie like that… what does that mean for her? For now, she is busy being carried onstage by hot shirtless men, resplendent in her Greek-goddess-meets-Cleopatra getup, cackling maniacally.

In my opinion, the Winnie blowup feels like a lawsuit waiting to happen… firing a top-ranking woman right after her show gets to number one? And what kind of dirt about Bob and Deborah would come out in that legal kerfluffle? Something somebody might want to worry about!