The Comeback Recap: The Firing Squad

The Comeback
Valerie Chases the Truth
Season 3 Episode 7
Editor’s Rating ★★★
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In my last recap, I started with the positive by mentioning my delight at finally seeing a clip of Mrs. Hatt. So, let’s try this again: I am thrilled that we got to watch Valerie Cherish go on Hot Ones. It’s the kind of brilliant “The Comeback in 2026” pitch that justifies a third season. Watching Val attempt to maintain her composure while lashing out at the host (“What’s funny about this to you, Sean? I think you’re a sadist”) killed me, though I think I laughed most at her defeated, “Sean, I can’t hear you, I’ve got ringing in my ears.” Look, sometimes it’s nice to focus on the good stuff before moving on to the critiques, especially when writing about a show and a character so close to my heart. Because while the penultimate episode of season three is a slight improvement over last week’s, there are still some fundamental storytelling problems holding the show back from greatness.

“Valerie Chases the Truth” picks up the morning after the last episode ended. Yes, Mark left Burning Man early to support Val, but he still had time to get a tattoo — a giant “ANYWHERE ELSE” across his back. Val is appropriately horrified, perhaps even more so when Mark explains that it’s a reference to how deeply unhappy he is right now. She doesn’t think that’s something he needs a permanent reminder of. “When something’s bad, you gotta move on,” Val says. “You can’t just stare at it.” It’s a preview of what’s to come, as much of this episode is about moving on from the shitstorm of the AI leak, but the show seems overeager for resolution without really putting the work in. Along those lines, Val easily makes up with Jane, who shows up outside the high-rise to let Val know that she wasn’t the leak and that Val doesn’t deserve all the vitriol she’s facing. When Billy arrives to pick up Valerie, he apologizes to Jane for throwing her off the lot. “I was protecting our business,” he explains. “I’m sorry, too,” Jane replies. “I was protecting humanity.” If that’s how she feels, shouldn’t she be happy about the AI story leaking? I’m glad she’s back, but her motivation is muddled. 

Maybe she’s just that committed to finishing her documentary! She’s brought the camera she used to shoot her Oscar-winning short The Lesbians of Treblinka, which impresses Val enough to let Jane continue filming. They head off with Billy, Patience, and bodyguard James to the Coffee Bean that Paulie G frequents, determined to get him to admit on camera that he leaked the AI story. Once there, however, they’re ambushed by the same angry writers roasting Val on social media. “Did you come by to take our livelihood in person?” one asks. I’m still finding The Comeback’s depiction of writers to be off. As Val and company are making an escape from the Coffee Bean, Billy tries to defend Valerie from another irate writer, who says, “She’s taken all of our writer money for herself, and I had to take my kids out of private school because I can’t afford it.” Billy calls him out for spending $8 on a latte, at which point the writer throws (mercifully iced) coffee on both Billy and Valerie. I’m left wondering whose side we’re supposed to be on here. The writers most affected by the industry downturn are the ones who couldn’t afford private school in the first place. Outside, Val and Billy run into Paulie G, who swears that he didn’t leak the story and had actually texted Valerie in support. You will never catch me defending this man, but why isn’t Paulie angrier at Val? He actually thanks her, because his brief work on the How’s That?! set reminded him how much he loves being a writer, and now he’s taken a big pay cut to work on someone else’s zombie rom-com. The show has presented a really compelling moral quandary for its central character — I’m just not sure how interested The Comeback is in truly unpacking it when we keep returning to “Val is ultimately a good person who doesn’t deserve this hate.”

To be fair, the reception to Valerie back on the lot shows that she can’t make up with everyone so easily. It’s not only the protesters outside — there’s also a clear division on the set, with the crew in revolt over being the last ones to know about the AI writing. Evan is back to being bullied (I chuckled at “fuck you, Genius Bar”), and Val is facing the wrath of even the friendliest crew members. Zeke, whose defining trait thus far has been laughing too hard at everything, puts it plainly: “She is the one who lied to us about AI.” And Bev, who is mostly just trying to keep things moving, doesn’t mince words either. “Val, I love you, but you lied,” she says. “You lied by omission.” I don’t really understand the fixation on the lying, which feels like a lesser sin than choosing to work on an AI-scripted sitcom in the first place. When camera operator Jack refuses to do his job, Bev is forced to step in. I do think her speech to the crew reflects the complicated realities of their situation. “The way I see it, AI’s like a lot of directors we have to work with,” she reflects. “You hate that he’s here and you resent you have to work with him, but you put your nose down, and you do it anyway because you love what you do, and you have a mortgage or kids or in my case both.” Not everyone can afford to take a principled stand. Still, I’m going to admire anyone who refuses to be complicit in their own obsolescence. Mary was an asshole, but she wasn’t entirely wrong.

Val steps out for some fresh air, and we finally get to see Malin Akerman’s Juna. (Another one of the episode’s funniest moments: Val sprinting away when she hears someone calling her name. “It’s a writer, one got loose!” she yells.) Valerie shares that everyone’s mad at her because she “lied by commission” about the AI. Juna insists that the experienced crew of How’s That?! must have known all along. How else could they explain the lack of writers on set? When Val rightfully expresses regret over treating people poorly, Juna responds, “I don’t accept that. You don’t treat people bad. You just don’t.” And yes, it’s nice to hear Baby Girl say how much Val did for her when Juna was first starting out. The kindness and warmth Val showed her in Room and Bored is something Juna has carried with her ever since. But I can’t help but feel like this is another scene of Val being let off the hook. Juna telling her, “To me, you’re ‘it,’” a line that prompts Valerie to break down, should make me similarly teary. Instead, I find myself frustrated that the show is so insistent on Val’s innate goodness. It’s worth noting that last season, Juna had no problem confronting Valerie about her complicity in Paulie G’s distorted version of events by signing on to Seeing Red. While I don’t expect her to necessarily be the voice of reason here, she doesn’t need to be another person proclaiming that Val did nothing wrong.

I realize that I’m harping on this, but the fallout from the AI leak is perhaps the biggest disappointment of this season. The Comeback has always allowed Valerie to be nuanced and flawed, so why not really reckon with her missteps here? I like my characters to be fallible! Season three is too eager to make sure we’re on her side without putting in the effort to get us there, including by limiting Val’s culpability to keeping NuNet’s secret. What has she done to remedy the harm of taking this job? I have similar feelings about the Mark reveal we get in this episode. Val is finally filming Finance Dudes when Mark gets a (planned) call from one of the titular Dudes to ask about Mark getting Me Too’d. He walks off set into the laundry room, with Val following behind. She urges him to explain that he was fired over a bad joke, or people will assume something much worse. But it is something worse, Mark tells her. He slept with multiple women who worked under him, and who may have felt obligated to do so because he was their boss. “I hate myself for acting like that,” Mark says. “I was one of the guys, and before Me Too, I never even questioned it.” Lisa Kudrow and Damian Young are wonderful in this scene, and I’m grateful that the show keeps bringing us into such thorny territory. But again, it feels like we’re addressing it only so we can move on. While Val tells Mark he’s a different person now, it’s not clear what changes he’s actually made — and he’s been complaining about being unjustly fired all season. Regardless, Val tells him, “You got knocked down. You can’t just lie there. You gotta get back up, darlin.’” It’s a pep talk to Mark and to herself, and it gives him the motivation to quit Finance Dudes and for her to show up to the press event she’d planned on skipping. It all just strikes me as a little too easy, given the gravity of what we’re talking about.

When Val shows up at the step-and-repeat event, she’s prepared to meet the firing squad. Her canned statement about AI is weak —  “AI is a valuable new tool being used to help writers free up their full potential” — but she “doesn’t even look nervous,” Patience notes. “Yeah, she’s a pro,” Jane answers in admiration. Stop telling me how great Val is, and get back to showing me! We don’t get to see Val on the tiny carpet, however. Instead, we catch up with her after she’s finished, when she meets Ridley in the flesh for the first time. It probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that NuNet leaked the AI story in an attempt to drum up attention days before the premiere. I’m personally a little dubious of the “all press is good press” mentality, but I totally buy that an evil corporation would think this way. As stunned as Val is, she’s even more surprised when she sees Billy, decked out in a flamboyant high-end ensemble clearly inspired by producer-turned-fashion icon Jordan Roth. “Val, this person has been inside me a very long time wanting to come out,” Billy tells her after the event. “I don’t want to be an actor, I want to be a star.” For whatever reason, The Comeback has decided that Billy — a character who was largely on the periphery until now — should be central. And sure, without an adversary like Paulie G, I guess he makes sense as the non-AI villain of season three. I just wish the show were less determined to make Val a hero.

Give Her Another Take

• It’s a bit unfortunate that the funniest part of the episode, Val going on Hot Ones, is relegated to the end credits. Reminds me of season one, when she complained about Aunt Sassy’s single joke on an episode of Room and Bored suffering a similar fate.

• While I do feel like the show is letting Val off the hook more than it should, I appreciate her growing self-awareness. As she outlines all the possible leakers to Jane, she concludes, “It’s me! I’m the leak. Told too many people.” 

• I know, I know, suspension of disbelief, but it’s hard to imagine that Mark wouldn’t have been fired from Finance Dudes after shooting a single scene. He would never have been hired in the first place — he’s a disaster on camera.

• I did really enjoy reality pro Val’s attempts to stir up drama. “Well, those Dudes don’t sound very serious about finance,” she says. “Word on the street is that they take drugs and stay out all night.” Andy Cohen would be proud. 

• Probably could have done without the reference to “chocolate” streaks in Frank’s underwear. As Val says, “Not necessary.” 

• Paulie G.’s last name is Giappino. The more you know!