7 Ways Curb Your Enthusiasm's Finale Parallels Seinfeld's Last Episode

Summary Larry's trial in the Curb finale mirrors Seinfeld's gang facing jail time for breaking an obscure local law.

Both shows use guest stars to testify against the main characters in court, bringing back familiar faces.

The Curb and Seinfeld finales result in a guilty verdict, but only Larry gets saved by a well-timed twist, having learned no lessons.

From a cameo-studded criminal trial to a sly first-episode callback, the series finale of Curb Your Enthusiasm borrowed a lot from Seinfeld’s notorious ending. Ever since Larry was arrested in Atlanta for giving Auntie Rae a bottle of water at the polling station, Curb Your Enthusiasm season 12 has been building towards the inevitable trial. This setup naturally led to a lot of fan theories that Curb would be copying Seinfeld’s final episode. And ultimately, Curb’s finale – season 12, episode 10, “No Lessons Learned” – did have a lot in common with the Seinfeld finale.

Much like the Seinfeld finale, the Curb Your Enthusiasm finale sees the main character on trial in an unfamiliar town, facing jail time for breaking an obscure local law. This trial allows for a succession of guest stars from the show’s history to resurface and provide their testimony. After Larry is initially sent to jail, just like the Seinfeld gang, there’s an unexpected twist that completely changes the ending.

The namesake of Seinfeld, Jerry Seinfeld himself, has gotten the case thrown out due to a run-in with a juror who resembled Joe Pesci. Jerry recognized the juror at the courthouse the next day and realized he had violated the sequestration. But before Jerry saves Larry from suffering the same finale fate he did, “No Lessons Learned” is jam-packed with references to Seinfeld’s last episode.

7 Larry Is On Trial In The Curb Finale Like Jerry, George, Elaine & Kramer In Seinfeld's Finale

The Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm finales share the same premise

Curb Your Enthusiasm’s finale shares the same premise as Seinfeld’s finale. The main characters of both shows are put on trial for breaking an obscure local law. In the Seinfeld finale, Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer’s plane has to make an emergency landing in the small town of Latham, Massachusetts. After showing callous indifference to a carjacking, the four characters are arrested for violating the “Good Samaritan law” – which enforces a duty to rescue – and put on trial.

In the Curb Your Enthusiasm finale, Larry is on trial in Atlanta for breaking the Election Integrity Act, a controversial, recently passed Georgia law that forbids people from giving out free food or water to voters waiting in line at a polling station. In Curb Your Enthusiasm season 12, episode 1, Larry was arrested for giving a bottle of water to Auntie Rae at a polling station. In the finale, the case finally goes to trial and Larry returns to Atlanta to take the stand.

6 Both Finales Involve A Succession Of Familiar Faces Testifying Against The Main Characters In Court

Both finales have a "greatest hits" compilation of memorable guest stars

In the Seinfeld finale, the trial is used as a vehicle to bring back a bunch of familiar faces from the show’s history. Each week, the characters of Seinfeld wronged a different one-off supporting character, and in the finale, their past comes back to haunt them as all these enemies come out of the woodwork to testify against them in court. The Curb Your Enthusiasm finale uses the same trick as the prosecuting attorney – Earl Mack, played by Greg Kinnear – brings in a succession of character witnesses to testify against Larry.

The Seinfeld finale featured appearances by Teri Hatcher as Sidra Holland, Brian Doyle-Murray as the Bubble Boy’s father Mel Sanger, Philip Baker Hall as the library detective, Joe Bookman, and Larry Thomas as Yev Kassem, the “Soup Nazi.” Jane Leeves reprised her role as Marla Penny, Jerry’s sexually inexperienced ex-girlfriend who was horrified by the contest. Brian George returned as Babu Bhatt, the Pakistani chef whose business was ruined by Jerry’s suggestions and whose citizenship was ruined by Elaine’s carelessness. Frances Bay returned as Mabel Choate, the elderly woman whose rye bread was stolen by Jerry on the street.

The Curb Your Enthusiasm finale featured appearances by long-standing Larry rivals like Saverio Guerra as Mocha Joe and Dana Lee as Mr. Takahashi, as well as one-off characters like Jillian Bell as Maureen, Larry’s assistant from the Seinfeld reunion (he peed on her portrait of Jesus Christ). Bruce Springsteen returned to accuse Larry of intentionally infecting him with COVID. Alexander Vindman returned to accuse Larry of trying to bribe a city councilor. Tracey Ullman reprised her role as Larry’s ex Irma Kostroski to recount the tale of Larry stealing a pair of shoes from an exhibit in a Holocaust museum.

Some of the Curb finale’s guest appearances were deep cuts. Iris Bahr returned as Rachel Heineman, the woman who jumped off a ski lift to avoid being with Larry after sundown. Bailey Thompson returned as Tara Michaelson from season 2’s “The Doll” – one of Curb Your Enthusiasm’s greatest episodes – a part she originally played as a child. Ellia English returned as Auntie Rae, initially to testify in Larry’s favor before deciding to sabotage his case by revealing every terrible thing he ever did to her. Like the Seinfeld finale, the Curb finale is a veritable who’s-who of past guest stars.

5 Both Finales Are Intercut With News Coverage Of The Trial By Real Newscasters

In both the Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm finales, the main action of the episode is intercut with news coverage of the trial delivered by real-life newscasters. This news coverage serves two purposes: it gets the necessary exposition out of the way succinctly and organically, and it shows that the finales’ respective trials are national news stories. The bulk of the Seinfeld finale’s exposition is handled by Geraldo Rivera, who famously hosted the tabloid talk show Geraldo from 1987 to 1998. CNBC special correspondent Jane Wells also makes an appearance, but she’s burdened with a lot less exposition than Rivera.

Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, and Willie Geist, from MSNBC’s Morning Joe show, all appear as themselves reporting on Larry’s trial in the Curb Your Enthusiasm finale. All three had appeared in previous season 12 episodes. The trio commented on Larry’s arrest on a TV screen in episode 2, “The Lawn Jockey,” and Geist came to L.A. to profile Larry in episode 4, “Disgruntled.” Throughout the Curb finale, there is also some media coverage of the trial from Dan Abrams, Chris Hayes, and Nicole Suárez, all playing themselves.

4 Richard's Girlfriend Buys A Gun In Curb Your Enthusiasm (Like Susan's Dad In Seinfeld)

Both finales tease a morbid ending that doesn’t come to fruition

Throughout the Curb Your Enthusiasm finale, Richard Lewis reconnects with Cynthia, an old flame who lives in Atlanta, played by guest star Allison Janney. Larry has problems with Cynthia from the moment he meets her – before he even knows she’s Richard’s girlfriend – in a road rage incident on the highway. On the final day of the trial, when Larry sees Richard in the courtroom, Richard tells him that he broke up with Cynthia and she’s bought a gun, because she plans to kill Larry.

This is another callback to the Seinfeld finale. In Seinfeld’s last episode, while the jury deliberated over the verdict, Susan’s father could be seen buying a gun, presumably to kill George if he was found not guilty. In both finales, the purchase of a gun sets up a morbid twist ending with a gruesome murder that never comes to fruition.

3 Both Finales' Trials Result In A "Guilty" Verdict

Larry is found guilty, just like Jerry and co.

In the Curb Your Enthusiasm finale’s trial, Larry is ultimately found guilty by the jury. This is the same verdict faced by Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer in their own trial in the Seinfeld finale. Even the sentencing is the same. In Seinfeld’s final episode, Judge Art Vandelay – who shares his name with George’s oft-used alias – sentences the foursome to one year in prison. In Curb’s final episode, Judge Whittaker – played by Breaking Bad’s Dean Norris – sentences Larry to the maximum prison time allowed for violating the Election Integrity Act: one year.

The difference is that the Seinfeld gang ended up actually serving their jail time. Larry is saved from prison when Jerry gets the case thrown out. There’s a hilariously self-aware layer to Jerry saving Larry’s fictional alter ego from facing the same finale fate that Larry doomed Jerry’s fictional alter ego to.

2 Curb & Seinfeld's Finales Both Have A Callback To The Series Premiere In A Jail Cell

Larry brings back the "pants tent" gag like Jerry and George brought back their shirt button conversation

After Larry is sentenced to a year in prison, the bailiff takes him to a jail cell in the back of the courthouse. There, he notices a bunch-up of material in the crotch of his pants. He gets talking to a fellow jailbird about how the bunch-up could be mistaken for an erection, and the other convict asks what it’s called, to which Larry replies, “A pants tent.” This is a callback to Curb Your Enthusiasm’s very first episode – season 1, episode 1, “The Pants Tent” – in which a pants tent got Larry into trouble with one of Cheryl’s friends.

This is a callback within a callback. Larry making a reference to Curb’s first episode while he sits in jail following his sentencing is similar to Jerry and George making a reference to Seinfeld’s first episode while they sat in jail in their own finale. The pilot episode of Seinfeld – season 1, episode 1, “The Seinfeld Chronicles” – opened with Jerry and George bantering about the placement of a button on George’s shirt. In the final scene of the final episode, they have the same conversation, word for word, within the confines of their jail cell.

1 In Curb & Seinfeld's Finales, No One Learns Their Lesson

The title "No Lessons Learned" is very apt

In both the Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld finales, no one learns their lesson. Judge Whittaker sentences Larry to a year in prison in the hope that he’ll learn his lesson, but the case is thrown out shortly thereafter, so he doesn’t have to learn his lesson. The title of the Curb finale, “No Lessons Learned,” makes a point of this. Even after having to go to prison, the characters of Seinfeld don’t learn their lesson, either.

Jerry, George, and Kramer are seen in prison over the end credits of the Seinfeld finale, and they haven’t changed a bit. The final episode of the Curb Your Enthusiasm finale sees Larry and his friends on a plane flying back to L.A., bickering about the shade on Susie’s window. This scene demonstrates that Larry hasn’t changed a bit in 25 years.