So far as maligned sequence finales go, few sitcoms can match as much as “Seinfeld.” After 9 critically acclaimed seasons, the hit NBC present ended with the gang tossed into jail for a complete 12 months. That will sound bleak, however it will get worse: Even earlier than the downer conclusion, the finale is mainly an hour straight of the present trashing its predominant 4 characters. Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer are all horrible individuals, the finale argues, and albeit we must always all really feel dangerous for liking them.
The finale has loads of defenders, myself included. We are able to admire how the present all of the sudden pulls us out of the gang’s perspective, exhibiting us how they arrive throughout from the skin wanting in. Nonetheless, the finale’s detractors outweigh its followers, a lot in order that creator Larry David primarily apologized for it together with his “Curb Your Enthusiasm” ending. There, Larry additionally received despatched to jail, besides this time he was bailed out on a technicality.
In actual fact, some followers appear to hate the “Seinfeld” finale a lot that they’ve created elaborate fan theories to clarify it away. The preferred idea, as lined by u/Bfitzyc on the r/FanTheories subreddit in a 2019 submit, is that the gang technically by no means went to jail in any respect. Bear in mind how their aircraft almost crashed at the beginning of the episode, spurring the chain of occasions that despatched them to jail? Properly, this consumer proposes that the aircraft by no means course corrected — it crashed, the gang died, and the remainder of the finale is them being judged and sentenced to everlasting damnation. (Or maybe only a 12 months of damnation.)
OK, the Seinfeld finale idea makes some sense
The Reddit consumer factors out that the nosedive on the aircraft does not fairly match as much as what begins it, which is Kramer tripping into the cockpit. “A lovable [doofus] bumping the controls and inflicting a nosedive would, for an skilled pilot, be fixable in seconds, particularly with a smaller non-public jet. Nevertheless, this nosedive lasts over a full minute earlier than the aircraft is all of the sudden righted up,” Bfitzyc wrote.
They identified that all the pieces in regards to the gang’s trial over breaking the Good Samaritan legislation was nonsensical; not solely is it extraordinarily unlikely they’d be arrested within the first place because of this technicality, however the concept that they’d get a complete 12 months in jail is absurd. As they elaborate:
“No method anyone would get precise jail time in actual life in the USA for laughing at a fats man being mugged, regardless of how imply or apathetic it’s. This means that jail is the metaphor for some form of cosmic punishment. I personally lean in direction of purgatory (one thing you are caught in, however can ultimately get out of on sure situations) because the choose does present the group with a restricted one 12 months sentence. To throw a idea inside idea on the market, maybe after the group is launched following their one 12 months sentence, they get one other likelihood to show themselves worthy or fail and obtain extra punishment.”
One other level on this idea’s favor: Many Jails (not less than in America) do not put ladies in the identical cells as the boys. Elaine sharing a cell with the gang solely is smart if they have been far faraway from the legal guidelines of normal society. It is also true that the format of the trial — with the gang pressured to reply for his or her many misdeeds over time, no matter how trivial — is fairly just like a whole lot of standard theories in regards to the afterlife. A variety of religions speculate that the primary day of demise is one big trial deciding for those who go up or down.
Bfitzyc posits that the gang could also be trapped in “some form of psychological torture loop” as a part of their cosmic punishment. Very like the characters from Jean-Paul Sartre’s well-known play “No Exit,” the “Seinfeld” predominant solid will unwittingly function their very own tormenters.
The speculation is very acquainted to followers of The Good Place
Spoilers for “The Good Place” beneath.
On the floor, this destiny may not appear that dangerous for the “Seinfeld” gang — they’re mates, proper? — however there is a huge distinction between hanging out with somebody of your individual free will and being caught with them. The gang’s storylines might intersect consistently, however in a typical episode, they’re often every off doing their very own factor. To place them trapped in the identical place collectively for a full 12 months, although? Their easygoing camaraderie may crumble rapidly.
It is also price noting that the time the gang has spent collectively up to now within the present has already been sufficient to make them extra depressing. For Elaine particularly, her more and more insular buddy group has step by step reworked her from a well-adjusted, emotionally steady individual in season 1 to a vindictive, risky menace by season 9. As one video essayist speculated final 12 months, Elaine was already in a little bit of a self-induced torture chamber earlier than the season 9 finale, and it is had a transparent unfavourable impact on her psychological well being. This doesn’t bode effectively for her 12 months of jail/purgatory forward.
It is not clear if u/Bfitzyc had watched “The Good Place” earlier than posting the idea, however his thought for what actually occurred within the “Seinfeld” finale feels just like that later present’s predominant premise. The 2017 NBC sitcom is mainly a few demon who posits that one of the best ways to torture sinners will not be by way of the standard bodily strategies. As a substitute, he decides to choose 4 “dangerous” individuals, with personalities uniquely designed to drive one another loopy, and power them to work together with no information that they are in hell.
Not one of the writers concerned in “The Good Place” have cited the “Seinfeld” finale as their inspiration, however it’s doable that deep down of their unconscious it was Larry David, not Jean-Paul Sartre, who unwittingly planted the thought. And though “The Good Place” was a sentimental, optimistic present at coronary heart, “Seinfeld” was a cynical beast. The gang in “The Good Place” may’ve ultimately turn out to be good mates and higher individuals, however I’ve zero religion that spending a 12 months within the afterlife collectively will do something to enhance the “Seinfeld” gang’s ethical facilities.
The one complication with the idea: Curb Your Enthusiasm
As some redditors identified within the feedback, one downside with Bfitzyc’s idea is that Larry David’s later present, “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” would go on to base its seventh season round a reunion particular for “Seinfeld.” In Larry’s script for the episode, the gang are again in New York residing their common lives. There isn’t any trace of something cosmic happening right here. It looks like their 12 months in jail was nothing greater than an disagreeable non permanent factor, and all the pieces went again to regular as quickly as they received out.
The apparent counter to this grievance, nevertheless, is that it is not clear how a lot of “Curb” ought to be thought-about “Seinfeld” canon. All of the actors concerned could also be taking part in themselves, certain, however they’re nonetheless fictionalized variations of themselves. Their expertise and understanding of the “Seinfeld” finale might not replicate how the true solid and crew view it.
Some may also say that the “Curb” sequence finale, which as soon as once more treats the “Seinfeld” finale as a simple story of the gang being despatched to jail, is one other level in opposition to the “they’re all useless” idea. Nevertheless, I would argue the other: Larry being thrown into the very same state of affairs because the “Seinfeld” gang implies yet one more spherical of cosmic judgment is at play right here. Maybe Larry died on his flight to Georgia, and season 12 was one huge trial to see if he goes to hell or not. Larry’s comfortable ending implies that he was adequate to keep away from the painful purgatory the poor “Seinfeld” solid have been sentenced to.
Then once more, if the season 5 “Curb” finale was something to go on — that is the episode the place he will get kicked out of heaven for being annoying — it is possible that Larry avoiding hell/purgatory has nothing to do with him being a greater individual. Odds are, the satan merely does not wish to take heed to him for a complete 12 months.
