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This season-three finale is all about breakups (plus one beautiful makeup).
Only one pair really emerges from this episode closer than they were before.
Everyone else either splits or stays together under less-than-ideal circumstances (blackmail).
Thats showbiz, baby.
Do you ever think about how some people are just better off as exes?
Hes so happy for her!
Shes going to teach him how to unlock his hips!
And she never told Kathy!!
Or even ASKED her!?!
True sociopath shit because you know Deborah knows that Kathy probably comes here all the time.
Why have I spent my entire life trying to make amends to someone so awful?
I believe Kathys therapist would call that a breakthrough.
(Perfect line-reading by Jean Smart.
God, what a PRO.)
Deborah is getting anxious now that shes on the precipice of getting what she always wanted.
She is ready to relitigate the past.
What does she learn?
Nothing she didnt already know, except that hers was their highest-testing pilot ever.
So perhaps she spoke too soon when she asked Ava to come back toLate Nightas head writer.
Ava believed in Deborah the entire time.
They have never been more solid.
In accordance with the laws of good television, this means their relationship is about to come crashing down.
(I love that the real safe is in the floor of the pool.
Ava tells herOn the Contraryboss that shes leaving.
It all goes so amicably.
He even makes her a counteroffer: What if he made her head writer ofOn the Contrary?
It seems like a big jump, right?
Or did I miss something?
Im not mad about that; just curious what you all think.
Ava gets very cart-before-the-horse about the whole thing, even getting new headshots taken.
Deborah reports this as a mandate from management.
Which, what do you know, wasnt Ava after all.
Should we take a detour to Kayla and Jimmy before we get into the big showdown?
The RANGE [golf pun!])
arrives, and we soon learn that Bella was Kaylas bully.
I know some of you have felt like Kaylas a one-note character.
(Is that why you dress like that?
You dont really care what I think.
Kayla needs to get out of L.A. to clear her head.
But because she bought her plane ticket on the company card, Jimmy knows exactly where to find her.
gesture of chasing her onto the plane to beg her to stay with him.
Kayla is a great outside-the-box thinker!
Kayla is a MANAGER.
They are hugging on the plane!
Are you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside?
Well, too bad because its time for a huge fuckin fallout and a major betrayal.
Maybe get yourself a pack of cigarettes and a White Claw, then return to the recap.
Fresh off her friendly chat with Winnie, Ava confronts Deborah.
With Steve, Ava argues, the show will be what it always was, except in a dress.
Ava explodes at Deborah for encouraging her ambition, but only until Deborah is inconvenienced by it.
For the second time in two days, Deborah is told to her face that she is selfish.
Here the episode gets its title:Late Night, Deborah says, has to be bulletproof.
demands she stop crying.
Ava meets with Jimmy at his new office he already had it professionally saged!
and tells him she has no idea what to do.
Be a staff writer for now; trust that shell get the promotion later.
Deborah and Ava need each other, according to Jimmy.
But later, Ava has an idea.
A much darker idea.
I feel like it came on for her after she bought the cigarettes but before the Champagne, no?
On the first day of work, Deborah (license plate: LADIVA98) is early to work.
But Ava is earlier.
So I think I am your head writer after all.
The girl has ICE in her fucking EYES.
This is not the same Ava whogroveled through the Ring doorbell camera for intel on herWolfgirlex!
Deborah has a real Dr. Frankensteinhave-you-met-your-monster moment when Ava points out that this is what Deborah would do.
Anything for the dream.
