(SPOILERS) After 12 seasons, HBO’s Emmy-winning comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm ended on Sunday, April 7, with a finale that deliberately poked fun at Seinfeld‘s divisive 1998 final episode.
That classic show, which Curb creator and star Larry David co-created, ended with Jerry, George, Kramer, and Elaine behind bars for violating Pennsylvania’s Good Samaritan law. A cavalcade of character witnesses — past characters from the show’s nine-season run — returned to testify against them.
Curb ended much the same way: Larry is on trial, this time for violating Georgia’s Election Integrity Act back in the season’s first episode.
Just like the end of Seinfeld, characters from seasons past with an axe to grind against Larry attempt to get even, including the now-adult woman who endured decades of therapy after Larry hugged her as a little girl while he had a bottle of water in his pocket, and Bruce Springsteen himself. The Boss, testifying via video, accused Larry of “maliciously” giving him COVID.
The jury finds Larry guilty. The judge, played by Breaking Bad‘s Dean Norris, throws the book at him, and he’s sentenced to a year in jail. But then in comes Jerry Seinfeld himself to spring his old friend: It seems a juror broke sequester, thus invalidating Larry’s sentence.
Larry, now free, gets the happy ending the “Seinfeld Four” didn’t.
“You don’t wanna end up like this. Nobody wants to see it. Trust me,” Jerry says to Larry, winking to the audience. The show ends with them walking down the halls of the prison with Larry a free man, and an a-ha moment for the pair.
“Oh my God, this is how we should’ve ended the finale!” says Larry. “Oh my God you’re right, how did we not think of that?!” Jerry replies.
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