![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/bc36e84d76b3d7098a662ed42f91850037-thecomeback-ep7.rsquare.w400.jpg\")
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The Comeback<\/a><\/p>\n Valerie Chases the Truth<\/p>\n \n Season 3<\/p>\n Episode 7\n <\/p>\n \n Editor\u2019s Rating<\/p>\n 3 stars<\/p>\n ***\n <\/p>\n \n Photo: Erin Simkin\/HBO\n <\/p>\n In my last recap<\/a>, I started with the positive by mentioning my delight at finally seeing a clip of Mrs. Hatt. So, let\u2019s try this again: I am thrilled that we got to watch Valerie Cherish go on Hot Ones. It\u2019s the kind of brilliant \u201cThe Comeback in 2026\u201d pitch that justifies a third season. Watching Val attempt to maintain her composure while lashing out at the host (\u201cWhat\u2019s funny about this to you, Sean? I think you\u2019re a sadist\u201d) killed me, though I think I laughed most at her defeated, \u201cSean, I can\u2019t hear you, I\u2019ve got ringing in my ears.\u201d Look, sometimes it\u2019s 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\u2019s, there are still some fundamental storytelling problems holding the show back from greatness.<\/p>\n \u201cValerie Chases the Truth\u201d 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 \u2014\u00a0a giant \u201cANYWHERE ELSE\u201d across his back. Val is appropriately horrified, perhaps even more so when Mark explains that it\u2019s a reference to how deeply unhappy he is right now. She doesn\u2019t think that\u2019s something he needs a permanent reminder of. \u201cWhen something\u2019s bad, you gotta move on,\u201d Val says. \u201cYou can\u2019t just stare at it.\u201d It\u2019s a preview of what\u2019s 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\u2019t the leak and that Val doesn\u2019t deserve all the vitriol she\u2019s facing. When Billy arrives to pick up Valerie, he apologizes to Jane for throwing her off the lot. \u201cI was protecting our business,\u201d he explains. \u201cI\u2019m sorry, too,\u201d Jane replies. \u201cI was protecting humanity.\u201d If that\u2019s how she feels, shouldn\u2019t she be happy about the AI story leaking? I\u2019m glad she\u2019s back, but her motivation is muddled.<\/p>\n Maybe she\u2019s just that committed to finishing her documentary! She\u2019s 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\u2019re ambushed by the same angry writers roasting Val on social media. \u201cDid you come by to take our livelihood in person?\u201d one asks. I\u2019m still finding The Comeback\u2019s 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, \u201cShe\u2019s taken all of our writer money for herself, and I had to take my kids out of private school because I can\u2019t afford it.\u201d 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\u2019m left wondering whose side we\u2019re supposed to be on here. The writers most affected by the industry downturn are the ones who couldn\u2019t afford private school in the first place. Outside, Val and Billy run into Paulie G, who swears that he didn\u2019t leak the story and had actually texted Valerie in support. You will never catch me defending this man, but why isn\u2019t Paulie angrier at Val? He actually thanks her, because his brief work on the How\u2019s That?! set reminded him how much he loves being a writer, and now he\u2019s taken a big pay cut to work on someone else\u2019s zombie rom-com. The show has presented a really compelling moral quandary for its central character \u2014\u00a0I\u2019m just not sure how interested The Comeback is in truly unpacking it when we keep returning to \u201cVal is ultimately a good person who doesn\u2019t deserve this hate.\u201d<\/p>\n To be fair, the reception to Valerie back on the lot shows that she can\u2019t make up with everyone so easily. It\u2019s not only the protesters outside \u2014 there\u2019s 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 \u201cfuck you, Genius Bar\u201d), 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: \u201cShe is the one who lied to us about AI.\u201d And Bev, who is mostly just trying to keep things moving, doesn\u2019t mince words either. \u201cVal, I love you, but you lied,\u201d she says. \u201cYou lied by omission.\u201d I don\u2019t 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. \u201cThe way I see it, AI\u2019s like a lot of directors we have to work with,\u201d she reflects. \u201cYou hate that he\u2019s 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.\u201d Not everyone can afford to take a principled stand. Still, I\u2019m going to admire anyone who refuses to be complicit in their own obsolescence. Mary was an asshole, but she wasn\u2019t entirely wrong<\/a>.<\/p>\n Val steps out for some fresh air, and we finally get to see Malin Akerman\u2019s Juna. (Another one of the episode\u2019s funniest moments: Val sprinting away when she hears someone calling her name. \u201cIt\u2019s a writer, one got loose!\u201d she yells.) Valerie shares that everyone\u2019s mad at her because she \u201clied by commission\u201d about the AI. Juna insists that the experienced crew of How\u2019s 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, \u201cI don\u2019t accept that. You don\u2019t treat people bad. You just don\u2019t.\u201d And yes, it\u2019s 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\u2019t help but feel like this is another scene of Val being let off the hook. Juna telling her, \u201cTo me, you\u2019re \u2018it,\u2019\u201d 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\u2019s innate goodness. It\u2019s worth noting that last season, Juna had no problem confronting Valerie about her complicity<\/a> in Paulie G\u2019s distorted version of events by signing on to Seeing Red. While I don\u2019t expect her to necessarily be the voice of reason here, she doesn\u2019t need to be another person proclaiming that Val did nothing wrong.<\/p>\n I realize that I\u2019m 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\u2019re on her side without putting in the effort to get us there, including by limiting Val\u2019s culpability to keeping NuNet\u2019s 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\u2019d. 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. \u201cI hate myself for acting like that,\u201d Mark says. \u201cI was one of the guys, and before Me Too, I never even questioned it.\u201d Lisa Kudrow and Damian Young are wonderful in this scene, and I\u2019m grateful that the show keeps bringing us into such thorny territory. But again, it feels like we\u2019re addressing it only so we can move on. While Val tells Mark he\u2019s a different person now, it\u2019s not clear what changes he\u2019s actually made \u2014\u00a0and he\u2019s been complaining about being unjustly fired<\/a> all season. Regardless, Val tells him, \u201cYou got knocked down. You can\u2019t just lie there. You gotta get back up, darlin.\u2019\u201d It\u2019s 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\u2019d planned on skipping. It all just strikes me as a little too easy, given the gravity of what we\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n When Val shows up at the step-and-repeat event, she\u2019s prepared to meet the firing squad. Her canned statement about AI is weak \u2014\u00a0 \u201cAI is a valuable new tool being used to help writers free up their full potential\u201d \u2014\u00a0but she \u201cdoesn\u2019t even look nervous,\u201d Patience notes. \u201cYeah, she\u2019s a pro,\u201d Jane answers in admiration. Stop telling me how great Val is, and get back to showing me! We don\u2019t get to see Val on the tiny carpet, however. Instead, we catch up with her after she\u2019s finished, when she meets Ridley in the flesh for the first time. It probably shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise that NuNet leaked the AI story in an attempt to drum up attention days before the premiere. I\u2019m personally a little dubious of the \u201call press is good press\u201d mentality, but I totally buy that an evil corporation would think this way. As stunned as Val is, she\u2019s even more surprised when she sees Billy, decked out in a flamboyant high-end ensemble clearly inspired by producer-turned-fashion icon Jordan Roth<\/a>. \u201cVal, this person has been inside me a very long time wanting to come out,\u201d Billy tells her after the event. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be an actor, I want to be a star.\u201d For whatever reason, The Comeback has decided that Billy \u2014 a character who was largely on the periphery until now \u2014 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.<\/p>\n \u2022 It\u2019s 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\u2019s single joke on an episode of Room and Bored suffering a similar fate.<\/p>\n \u2022 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, \u201cIt\u2019s me! I\u2019m the leak. Told too many people.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 I know, I know, suspension of disbelief, but it\u2019s hard to imagine that Mark wouldn\u2019t have been fired from Finance Dudes after shooting a single scene. He would never have been hired in the first place \u2014 he\u2019s a disaster on camera.<\/p>\n \u2022 I did really enjoy reality pro Val\u2019s attempts to stir up drama. \u201cWell, those Dudes don\u2019t sound very serious about finance,\u201d she says. \u201cWord on the street is that they take drugs and stay out all night.\u201d Andy Cohen would be proud.<\/p>\n \u2022 Probably could have done without the reference to \u201cchocolate\u201d streaks in Frank\u2019s underwear. As Val says, \u201cNot necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Paulie G.\u2019s last name is Giappino. The more you know!<\/p>\n Sign Up for the Vulture Newsletter<\/p>\n Entertainment news, for the pop-culture obsessed.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n