Imagine if your sister ran off with your husband and blamed you for it.
I don’t think I’ve been more shocked by the arrival of a character in a show than I was by Kathy Vance. In my recent deep dive into ‘Hacks’ (2021-present) her short-lived presence on the show was, in many ways, heartbreaking. The rise and fall of a ghost. Or, a devil.
Because this woman is the epitome of deluded. Somebody without introspection. Who runs from a place of selfishness. Not unlike her sister.
Deborah Vance is probably my new favourite character on television. I walked away from this first watch feeling overwhelmed by this ambitious, bitter woman. She is defined by her stance that she doesn’t “have any time”, and that is reflective in all aspects of her life throughout the show. She takes the bull by the horns, even as the gate behind her remains open and much safer.
In ‘Yes, And’ (Season Three, Episode Eight) Deborah tackles the consequences of her actions in the past in a real, tangible way. She almost loses her biggest opportunity in the wake of former jokes coming back up. It goes her way in the end, but we do gain insight into how she processes the past, even with all the growth of previous seasons. Never give up and never surrender. Except, apparently, with Kathy.
The show is absolutely flooded with toxic familial relationships. From Ava and her neurotic mother to Deborah and DJ (for whom my heart breaks), every character allowed dimension does so through their crumbling relationships. But at the core of it, Deborah and Kathy have been the thread that keeps being pulled. The events of their relationship collapsing thirty years prior is not only personally important to the comedian at the heart of the show, but also professionally. It is foundational to the text.
Kathy has all the signifiers of the “good” sister. She’s soft-spoken, relationship-focused, and most importantly, sweet. Cloyingly so.
Even when confronted with her actions, Kathy cannot take the type of accountability that Deborah is often tasked with. Her stance is that her sister pushed her and their shared husband away, which is an assessment of the situation that does not allow her any agency in the decades long estrangement. Yes, she was 19 when she started her relationship with Frank. He was clearly not a good man. But 19 is old enough to know better than to sleep with your sister’s husband and the father of your niece.
Deborah Vance is not a nice lady. Everyone, including her daughter, is replaceable. That’s half the reason Ava is allowed into the fold in the first place. She’s often the nastiest person in the room. People aren’t wrong for comparing her relationship with Ava to that of an abuser and their victim. But even if that were equally true thirty years prior, she is still not the villain in that story. Her sense of fairness is shown through Kathy’s very presence. DJ wants her there, and Deborah accepts and hopes it can be healing. The same way her special has been an act of recovery.
The show is so good at playing with expectations when appropriate. Kathy reads as one thing, but the show will not undercut its previous successes in Deborah’s vulnerability to lift her up. She’s a person who is just as selfish as her sister. The difference between the two is that she dwells on the past, Deborah boarishly pushes through it when possible. Kathy reads her sister’s accountability as forgiveness, and not a reclamation. It’s supposed to be easy for her.
Every character on the show is selfish, but most have grown across the series. Kathy is not meant to grow, and her reconciliation with Deborah is yet another moment for her to fail. The show makes it clear that it’s never too late to begin to heal, but she thinks that part is over. The widowed Kathy wanted forgiveness on only her terms. That is why she walks away in the end. Her fantasy was for her sister to abandon her very soul to accommodate her.
Returning to ‘Yes, And’, it is Deborah’s curiosity and openness, a trait that has been heavily nurtured by Ava’s often bumbling social awareness, that makes her feel special. Even if it is just for an audience. She has not become an empathetic member of any wider community by any stretch, but she can be open when necessary. It’s part of why she drops her lawsuit against Ava earlier in the series, and what makes Kathy’s abandonment so much harsher. Kathy brushes off her culpability and guilts her sister, while Deborah sat in a room and let dozens of (admittedly haughty) college students pepper her with questions on her failings.
Kathy drops Deborah after their visit to the mausoleum is briefly interrupted by a phone call and a reveal about their parent’s bodies. Deborah can be selfish, but this immediate and brutal rejection feels more like an excuse than a reason. Because fundamentally, Kathy does not like her sister. It’s clear that she’s spent a lot of time in therapy preparing to do this, before it even happens. This reads the exact same way as blaming her absence on the affair. Kathy does not make bad choices, because she believes she’s just reacting.
To take a step back, ‘Hacks’ makes it clear that Deborah’s fearful flailing towards the end of Season Three is her at her worst. You cannot blame people for being upset with her. But Kathy’s righteousness does not read as hurt. Maybe it’s just me, but her choice feels premeditated. She is understandably upset, but if this relationship had mattered so much to her, why throw it away so quickly?
When I refer to Kathy Vance as the “devil”, it’s because she represents the worst choices characters make on the show. It’s acquiescence, and never acceptance. It’s a call out, and not a call in. Deborah is capable of change, but Kathy is not. She’s happier away from her sister. Much in the way that Ava’s mother cannot stop prodding and dismissing her daughter, Kathy proves this was never about Deborah for her.
But maybe this is just me hoping for better from a character that I like. Deborah is the antagonist of the moment, but the show often leaves her the anti-hero who makes better choices once pushed. She can recognise guilt. I hope that may be enough.