#mayor pezzimenti

[warningsine]

[internacionalista]

Okay, but Lauren Weedman should have been nominated for an Emmy for playing Mayor Pezzimenti on "Hacks"

[mollrat101]

Relationship Analysis: Marty & Mayor Pezzimenti

For the Ava and Deborah Could Be Endgame series, I’m going to analyze some of the non-Ava/Deborah relationships on the show and how they serve their love story in this Relationships series. 

Read the rest of the endgame series here or on A03. 

Read this essay on A03

First off, we’re going to examine the relationship between Marty and Mayor Pezzimenti!

….Hear me out.

While I think the mayor is a funny character, I had to start racking my brain to think of why she’s in the story. 

She’s not exactly a throwaway character. She has several lines of dialogue, she interacts with the main characters and, as she has a major role in this world, she’s not likely going to disappear anytime soon. 

But remember the always important adage throughout this whole essay series: everything in this show ultimately serves Ava and Deborah’s story. 

So how does the Mayor serve their story? 

In episode 7, two love triangles are set up. 

Ava/Deborah/Marty (the most important one) 

Deborah/Marty/Mayor Pezzimenti

These two love triangles are interlinked. 

The question of whether or not Ava and Deborah end up a couple at least partially rests on whether or not Deborah can finally get away from her toxic affair with Marty. While season 1 ends with them definitely not reconciled, this likely isn’t the end for them. Deborah also claimed in episode 2 that she would never sleep with him again and yet in episode 7 she did, so this is a 30-year affair that is perpetually stuck in a cycle Deb can’t seem to fully break free of despite her desire to. 

In the dinner scene in episode 7, Deborah and DJ are sitting across from each other at the ends of the table, signifying how they are mirrors that face off against each other in this scene. Tellingly, Aidan and Marty are sitting right across from each other, almost trying to suggest that Marty is Deborah’s ‘Aidan’...except he’s definitely not. 

Not only because subtextually, Aidan is an Ava parallel (same first initial, same hair color, same kind and loyal demeanor), but because Marty doesn’t love Deborah unconditionally like Aidan loves DJ. DJ even points this out. 

“You’re just jealous because someone actually loves me” 

DJ knows something is up with Marty and her mom. Just like Deb’s other child, Marcus, DJ likely knows about their affair. And she is saying this to her mom while Marty is sitting right there. DJ has seen their toxic relationship for several years now and she knows Marty doesn’t love Deborah. And as DJ is an extension of Deborah herself, DJ is simply saying something that Deb knows deep down. 

The episode goes out of its way to confirm that it is Ava who loves Deborah for exactly who she is. 

It is Ava who dreams about romantically being with Deborah after she saw her physically and emotionally vulnerable in episode 6 (which contrasts how Deborah can’t even take her off wig when having sex with Marty). It is Ava who looks sympathetically at Deborah after she’s clearly broken her daughter’s heart. 

It is Ava who comforts her daughter, but also doesn’t do it by throwing her under the bus. She tries to persuade DJ that Deborah isn’t malicious, but scared and in pain. 

It is Ava who looks as though she would rather stay and comfort Deborah than drive DJ and Aidan home. 

It is Ava who knows how much it would devastate Deb to miss her daughter’s wedding so she video calls her. 

By the beginning of episode 8, Marty once again betrays her and uses her. Marty doesn’t love Deborah “for exactly who she is”. Ava does. 

But back to table arrangements. 

At the dinner, the Mayor asks Damien: 

Mayor: “How about after we get done with our entrees, why don’t we all change seats? Just kind of switch it up a little. How about that?” 

Damien: “No. That’s not how this is gonna work.” 

This line speaks to how entitled and arrogant the Mayor is, but considering how much this show loves its callbacks this could also be foreshadowing. 

When you watch that dinner scene, there’s an inherent feeling of wrongness. Deborah created the seating arrangements. That’s why Damien said they weren’t going to change anything. He’s following her orders. She deliberately sat Marty next to her, as if symbolically trying to pretend that Marty is her ‘Aidan’.  

But the whole night, Ava is gazing longingly at Deborah and Deb seems to be putting some distance between her and Ava. They had an intense bonding experience last episode, but Ava and Deb don’t interact that much this episode. Deb seems to be avoiding Ava a little and hyper focusing on Marty which as I’ve discussed is incredibly weird considering how her and Marty last left off. 

By suggesting the seating arrangements be changed, the Mayor could be predicting a future where the Mayor and Marty are dating and so they are sitting together (it’s obvious that’s her motivation for saying it) and, the thing we most care about, Ava and Deborah will be together and sitting next to each other. Ava will be where she belongs, right beside Deborah. 

I want to be extremely clear here that I couldn’t give two shits about what happens to Marty. He’s not going to evolve, he’s not going to change and he’s not going to end up with Deborah (I will feel a hate crime has been committed otherwise). 

But if you’re looking for a potential perfect partner for Marty, it would be Mayor Pezzimenti. 

Even before the dinner scene actually, we see the two love triangles together. Perfectly halved, the Mayor ends up with Marty and Deborah ends up with Ava. Plus, the framing of it also puts Ava, Deborah and DJ together which sets up the family unit that they basically act like in this episode. 

Marty and the Mayor are arrogant, entitled, awful people and they frankly deserve each other. 

Marty is more attracted to Deborah than he is to his younger romantic partners, but he hides this because he wants the status symbol of having a hot, younger woman on his arm. In private, Marty could actually be very attracted to the mayor. She’s closer in age to Deb and she’s also a blonde. She could be viewed as almost a knock off version of Deborah. While she is the Mayor, Deborah is the Queen of Sin City, but Marty doesn’t deserve Deborah, so it would only be appropriate to be knocked down a few pegs. 

So far we’ve only seen the Mayor’s blatant displays of attraction to Marty, but there’s no reason he couldn’t reciprocate in the future, especially if he knew Deb was no longer available. If he’s looking to have his ego stroked, well, the Mayor is as good a woman as any. 

Plus, Marty’s attraction to his toxic relationship with Deb is that he’s never bored with her. Deb tells Marcus while drunk that Marty loved being blackmailed by her which likely has a grain of truth to it. Marty is constantly bored by his younger partners and seems to actually want a partner who excites him. Marty would never be bored with the Mayor. Not necessarily in a good way, but he seems to be into that anyway. They can go off and have an absolutely awful relationship together. 

Her age could potentially be a reason Marty doesn’t want to, but in exchange for compromising on that he can still have power and status by being with her and again he’ll never be bored. 

Finally, there’s one more scene where it could suggest they could end up together. 

Damien and Josefina go to usher the Mayor out the door, but she says she’s waiting for Marty to come back from the bathroom. 

We know that Marty ends up staying the night with Deborah, the Mayor gets kicked out and he doesn’t go home with her. But Marty staying over isn’t a positive thing and it doesn’t end with him and Deborah’s feelings being cemented for each other. It could be a subtle suggestion that, in the future, the Mayor will be taking Marty home with her. 

This is a good thing because then it will keep Marty the fuck away from Deborah’s house. 

But the most important reason I would like this unholy ship to set sail is simply because it’s fucking hilarious. 

Can we appreciate the beautiful irony in that?

Marty cycles through 20-something women and has superficial relationships with them and then ends up with a woman around his age and it is Deborah who ends up in a loving relationship with a 26-year old? I mean that is just *chef’s kiss* an absolutely beautiful execution of irony. 

Seeing Marty and the Mayor be a toxic, awful power couple which allows Ava and Deborah to be the ultimate comedy power couple and the true Queens of Las Vegas is just the kind of comic ending I would hope for with this show. 

[warningsine]

[mollrat101]

Why Ava & Deborah in ‘Hacks’ Could Be Endgame Masterpost

In this multi-part series, I’m analyzing the text of the show and how it gives evidence to the idea that Deborah and Ava’s story is a romantic love story. 

Note: I will continue to edit this post when I add more essays and it will be pinned on my blog, but here it is all in one post. 

Important note: All essays were written prior to season 2.

Read the whole series on A03

Introduction

Deborah & Sexuality

An exploration of Deborah Vance’s sexuality.

Introduction & What Is Compulsory Heterosexuality

Repression, Shame & CompHet

Deborah’s Discomfort with Queer Women

Romantic Parallels

The 9 romantic parallels of Ava and Deborah throughout Season 1. 

Ava & Deborah’s Romantic Parallels: Introduction & Part 1-Marty/His Partners and Kayla/Jimmy

Part 2: Marty/Deborah and Marcus/Wilson

Part 3A: Therese/Carol from ‘Carol’

Part 3B: Harry/Sally from ‘When Harry Met Sally...’ and Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner

Symbols

The various symbols throughout Hacks and how they serve Ava and Deborah’s love story. 

Ava’s Doc Martens

Ava’s Necklaces

Red Hair

Flannel

Relationships

The non-Ava/Deborah relationships in the show and how they serve their love story. 

Marty & Mayor Pezzimenti

Why They’re So Important to Each Other

These essays are about how Ava and Deborah are crucial to each other’s character arcs. 

Ava’s Connection to Death & Suicide: How Deborah Helps Ava Choose Life

[mollrat101]

You know my bananas theory that Marty and Mayor Pezzimenti are clearly meant to be? Like that they’re soulmates but for shitty people? 

Okay, I’m going to go a step further. 

I want Ava to predict that pairing. 

Ava can be scarily insightful. Known Marcus for like a week, at this point? “You and Deborah share an ass?” Pointing out their co-dependent relationship. Ava says Ruby wasn’t happy with Kelly the first time so why would she be now? Boom, two months later she finds out they broke up. Ruby asks how Ava’s dad is doing and she says “He’s...alive”. *awkward silence*

...Anyway, so yeah Ava is the perfect person to predict this. She says insightful things but basically no one listens to her. She’s a Cassandra, okay??

So imagine Deborah and Ava are arguing about Marty. Ava finds out that he’s shitty to Deb so she pops off because of course she does. Deborah can’t really defend her choice to continue to sleep with him all these years despite all of this, but she’s defensive anyway because duh. 

Ava probably says something like, “Just because fucking each other over can sometimes be fun doesn’t mean you have to keep coming back to him. At least, be in a weird relationship with someone who makes you cum. Let him ruin someone’s life. Like the Mayor! Let the Mayor have him!” 

Deborah snorts as if that would ever happen. 

*flash forward to like I don’t know man sometime in the future, hopefully Deb and Ava are banging at this point. Ava was the weird person who could make Deb cum, obviously*

They’re at some Las Vegas event or maybe they’re just walking down the street...and guess who they spot? 

That’s right, it’s Ava’s NOTP (or OTP depending on your perspective cause at least it gets Marty the fuck away from Deb). 

Ava. Loses. Her. Shit. Deborah is stunned into silence. Ava starts laughing like a madwoman, proclaiming herself the non-existent Goddess’s prophet. Deborah is horrified on so many levels. He sleeps with Deborah and then goes to her? That would be incredibly embarrassing for people to know, luckily they never went public. Also, having to ever tell Ava she was right is awful in of itself. She’s going to be smug for months, just unbearable to live with. Deborah may kick Ava out to sleep on Liberace’s butthole sofa, at this rate. 

It would be hilarious, it would be gross thought for it to come true, Ava would later question how she could use these powers for such evil, and Deborah would want her to shut the hell up. All in all, a perfect scene.