Twenty-five years may have passed since Seinfeld pulled the same move, dusting off everyone from the Soup Nazi to Mabel with the Marble, but the beats still hit. Sure, Jerry’s overenthusiastic encouragement of Babu’s Pakistani restaurant may have backfired, but that’s nowhere near as bad as David opening Latte Larry’s, a spite store designed to crush David’s coffee rival, Mocha Joe.

Throughout the finale, David’s laundry list of sins, crimes and grievous misunderstandings is laid out for all to enjoy.

What about the time he killed a black swan with a golf club or when he let a woman leap off a ski lift, shattering her knees? Who can forget his urinating on a picture of Jesus or stealing a pair of shoes from the Holocaust museum?

We’re also gifted another cameo by Bruce Springsteen when he returns to remind the audience that David gave him COVID, robbing us all of his final goodbye (not to mention Springsteen’s taste and smell).

As if that wasn’t enough, David gave audiences what they’ve so desperately craved since 1998: another Seinfeld reunion.

While Jerry has appeared sporadically over Curb’s run, his cameo in the finale felt tailor-made for fans. The pair chat about the hypothetical pros and cons of dating a bearded lady, dialogue that could be ripped from early-era Seinfeld, two friends talking about nothing.

By the time David is convicted and sentenced to a year in prison, it’s hard not to admire the audacity of Curb’s creator and star. Of course, the episode ends with David complaining about his pants tenting up in the crotch area—a subject of the first Curb Your Enthusiasm episode and yet another Seinfeld throwback.

But right when you think David is done, he offers one final meta gift. The case gets dismissed after Jerry spots a juror at a restaurant violating the judge’s instructions (he’s a bad sequesterer!), and David is freed on a technicality.

As he leaves prison, Jerry gently reminds his friend that this is how things are supposed to be. “You don’t want to end up like this,” says Jerry. “Nobody wants to see it - trust me.”

The series ends with the pair agreeing that this is how they should’ve ended Seinfeld.

No doubt the Seinfeld-inspired Curb finale might be critically reframed as Larry David’s attempt at addressing his TV legacy, but if we have actually taken anything from one of TV’s greatest minds, that’s never been the point.

Larry David is not here to learn, and he’s not here to teach us a lesson; he’s here to make us laugh.