Hacks has always been good, but in Season 4, it’s the best it’s ever been, due in part to Hannah Einbinder‘s captivating performance as Ava Daniels. So it’s not surprising to find that the star has been nominated for her fourth Emmy in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Could 2025 be the year she finally wins?

The storytelling and performance are rife with possibility after Ava blackmailed her way into the head writer job on collaborator Deborah Vance’s (Jean Smart) late-night show. As Ava put her most competitive foot forward to push the program towards greatness, that battle was an uphill climb that eventually reached a breaking point, making way for one of TV’s best crash-outs in recent memory.

While Ava combatted Deborah’s digs and demands, she helmed a writers’ room that became her tipping point when she discovered in Season 4’s sixth installment that they’d been abusing her subsidizing of their lunches by ordering expensive items for “Mrs. Table,” a made-up entity to excuse overindulging on Ava’s dime.

Set a day after Ava’s desk joke segment was turned down by Deborah, and after she was embarrassed by her ex Ruby’s (Lorenza Izzo) personal story on the show, which revealed their near-engagement, Ava’s metaphorical skin was worn thin. The betrayal by her writers tipped Ava over the edge. The crash out, which included throwing a branzino at the window, saw Einbinder pushed to extremes in her role.

“For this thing, I learned the lines and just kind of went in and let her rip,” Einbinder tells TV Insider in the video interview above. “It felt clear to me on the page, and I get such amazing guidance from [showrunners] Paul [W. Downs], Lucia [Aniello], and Jen [Statsky], so I had a feeling we’d work it out,” she adds of approaching the intense scene.

“She’s also totally heartbroken over everything that has gone down,” Einbinder points out, “I think [the crash out is] totally cumulative.”

Einbinder reveals that when it came to throwing branzino, it “must have been like eight or nine fish.” Since Season 4’s premiere, the show’s team has stopped throwing them and started delivering them to different writers’ rooms in the late-night sphere. “I really appreciated them doing that, especially with everything going on with late-night writers right now,” Einbinder acknowledges, adding, “Obviously, what the show covers is unfortunately coming to fruition.”

Hacks‘ fourth season concluded mere weeks before it was announced that CBS would pull the plug on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, an event that was eerily reminiscent of the show’s pivotal penultimate episode, “A Slippery Slope,” which saw Deborah walk away from her late-night TV dream because she refused to fire Ava to keep up appearances at the network.

After a season filled with backstabbing moments, Deborah’s decision to defend Ava was among the show’s most poignant yet, as Einbinder puts it, “This is the dream of all dreams of what Ava would want from Deborah, especially after a season of just eating s**t… It was very cool and meaningful.”

Einbinder opens up about other great moments from Season 4, including a cut scene, where she imagines or hopes Ava’s love life goes next, tackling topical issues onscreen, excitement over returning for Season 5, and much more in the full video interview above. And catch Einbinder’s iconic scene and other stellar moments by streaming Season 4 anytime on HBO Max.

Hacks, Season 4, Streaming now, HBO Max