‘The Comeback’ Season 3, Episode 5 Recap: No Captain

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‘The Comeback’ Season 3, Episode 5 Recap: No Captain

“How’s That?!” needs a real leader. The guys surrounding Valerie right now clearly aren’t up to the task.

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Brandon (Andrew Scott) tells Valerie (Lisa Kudrow) that her show is his least troublesome production. That probably isn’t a good thing.

Credit...

Erin Simkin/HBO

By

Noel Murray

April 19, 2026,

11:10 p.m. ET

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Season 3, Episode 5: ‘Valerie Lights a Candle’

Valerie Cherish doesn’t have the best luck with men, does she? I’m not just talking about her husband here — even though in this week’s episode, Mark does announce his highly questionable, nonnegotiable plan to go to Burning Man with their doorman. No, I’m thinking more about all the needy men who populate her workday, buzzing around her like pesky gnats.

In this week’s episode, Valerie gets let down by Billy, her annoyingly unhelpful agent and co-producer, who has his phone set to “Do Not Disturb” at 10 a.m. She gets distracted by her male “How’s That?!” castmates P.D.P., Frank and Walter. And she is out-and-out threatened by Marco, the former writers’ assistant who is now her sitcom’s showrunner, even though he has shown no knack for managing people or being funny.

So how does Valerie respond to all these demanding, angry, borderline-useless men? She calls in a toxic TV writer who has tormented her for decades.

Paulie G. (Lance Barber) makes his Season 3 debut this week, in what may be a one-time appearance — if Valerie listens to reason. Paulie does ride to the rescue and saves a foundering “How’s That?!” episode. But as is always the case with Paulie, he does it with a dark, dismal energy.

Valerie’s desperate call to Paulie comes after it becomes clear that NuNet will not assert any real control over “How’s That?!” Her angry voice memo last week did prompt the NuNet executive Brandon to fire Josh and Mary Abrams and promote Marco — since, according to Valerie’s rant, Marco was the only one listening to her. But Brandon shrugs off the idea that this show even needs a runner. He expects Valerie just to tell Allassist what she wants. “It’s got all the greatest writers at its fingertips,” he says, “From Shakespeare to

the Charles brothers

.”

The problem is that while Brandon leaves Valerie effectively in charge, he does not pass this information to Marco, who quickly starts making terrible decisions. He hires his roommates to play the small but pivotal parts of an angry tourist couple, and they’re so muted and mumbly that even the perpetually chuckling crew member Zeke (Mike Mitchell) doesn’t laugh. Valerie has to call on her casting director, Sharon, to fire the roommates because Marco thinks they’re “fine.”

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