WARNING: Contains SPOILERS for Curb Your Enthusiasm‘s finale, “No Lessons Learned”.
A throwaway gag in the Curb Your Enthusiasm finale teases that there’s a tragic ending in store for Larry David after the final credits rolled. The sitcom exploits of the fictionalized version of Larry David came to an end with “No Lessons Learned”, a defiant and hilarious extended riff on the controversial Seinfeld finale. In the notorious final episode of Seinfeld, Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer were put on trial for violating the Duty to Rescue law, the culmination of nine seasons of bad behavior. Hilariously, Larry David flipped this in Curb Your Enthusiasm‘s series finale, with Larry being put on trial for doing something humane.
On trial for offering a bottle of water to Auntie Rae as she waited in line to vote on a scorching hot day, Larry David has all of liberal America behind him, except for guest star Bruce Springsteen. Despite this, Larry can’t help but make life difficult for himself, helping Jeff to steal Auntie Rae’s salad dressing recipe, and accusing Cynthia (The West Wing‘s Alison Janney) of lying about cutting him up on the freeway, and about her dramatic response to being dumped by Richard Lewis. Larry and Cynthia’s clashes in the Curb Your Enthusiasm finale set up a blackly comic tragedy that could have been more controversial than the Seinfeld finale.
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Larry David Confirms Huge Seinfeld Ending Theories In Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Series Finale (With A Twist)
Larry David’s ending for Curb Your Enthusiasm perfectly confirms numerous theories about the show’s setups regarding Seinfeld’s series finale.
Curb Your Enthusiasm Never Resolves Cynthia Buying A Gun To Use Against Larry In The Finale
“She bought a gun.” “To kill herself?” “To kill you.”
After Larry exposes Cynthia’s lies about her suicide attempt to Richard Lewis, the comedian breaks up with her. When Richard tells Larry this, he warns his friend that Cynthia bought a gun, not to kill herself after the break-up, but to kill Larry. It’s a throwaway gag that, for a moment, sets up Larry David being gunned down by Alison Janney on the courthouse steps as the most absurd and melodramatic way to end Curb Your Enthusiasm‘s finale. When Larry is sent down by Judge Whittaker (Breaking Bad‘s Dean Norris), he’s saved from that fate, although Cynthia’s gun is never resolved either way.
Cynthia’s gun in the Curb Your Enthusiasm finale not being resolved does suggest that death could be waiting for Larry David on his return to LA. In an unused scene from Curb Your Enthusiasm‘s season 11 finale, Larry David was killed off, so it wouldn’t have been completely outwith the realm of possibility for season 12 to have Cynthia kill Larry. It would have been interesting to see such an outlandish black comedy ending play out, but gunning down Larry would have felt out of place in the meta-textual plot centered on the Seinfeld finale.
Larry’s Possible Death Was A Genius Red Herring For Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Ending
Larry had almost died in Curb Your Enthusiasm season 11.
Larry David’s script for the controversial Seinfeld finale was full of red herrings, including the early moment where it looks like everyone’s about to die in a plane crash. So it’s on brand for Larry to do the same with the Curb Your Enthusiasm finale, teasing that he may finally get a brutal and bloody comeuppance for his behavior. However, as Jerry Seinfeld wryly points out in his final scene with Larry in prison, “Nobody wants to see it“. Instead, Larry avoids prison on a technicality involving a Joe Pesci lookalike and travels back to Los Angeles on a rowdy flight with all of his friends.
Larry evading punishment for his bad behavior, be it death or prison, is a perfect ending for Curb Your Enthusiasm. It’s also how Seinfeld, a show that had the mantra “no hugging, no learning“, should have ended in 1998. Both Jerry and Larry flippantly acknowledge this in their whimsical walk from the cells, proving that at least one lesson was learned in “No Lessons Learned”.
All episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm are available to stream on Max.
Curb Your Enthusiasm
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Curb Your Enthusiasm is a Comedy television show created by Larry David, the same creative mind behind the wildly popular sitcom, Seinfeld. Starring Larry David himself, along with Cheryl Hines, and Jeff Garlin, the show acts as a semi-fictionalized look at Larry’s every day life and the people he would come in contact with.
Seinfeld
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Seinfeld stars Jerry Seinfeld as a stand-up comedian whose life in New York City is made even more chaotic by his quirky group of friends who join him in wrestling with life’s most perplexing yet often trivial questions. Often described as “a show about nothing,” Seinfeld mines the humor in life’s mundane situations like waiting in line, searching for a lost item, or the trials and tribulations of dating. Co-starring is Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Jerry’s ex-girlfriend and current platonic pal, Elaine Benes; Jason Alexander as George Costanza, Jerry’s neurotic hard-luck best friend; and Michael Richards as Jerry’s eccentric neighbor, Kramer.
