Lloyd Braun returns after a nervous breakdown and time in a mental institution, helping Kramer restore an old movie theatre. Kramer encourages Jerry to accept his offer on a line of gum. Elaine accidentally leads Lloyd on through a series of mishaps. George tries and fails to convince a friend from high school that he’s not losing his mind.

Written by: Tom Gammill & Max Ross
Directed by: Andy Ackerman

This is an interesting one for being almost completely unified; George’s story is the only one that isn’t centred around Lloyd Braun’s return in some way. It’s interesting that they kept the name and character considering they changed not only his actor, but his whole personality – his history with Elaine and George is, to an extent, still important, but they otherwise basically dismantled him – admittedly, there wasn’t much to him in the first place. Kramer is the most interesting here, because he’s entirely motivated by making Lloyd feel as comfortable as possible, driving him to do things that are insane even by his standards; “This is a perfectly sane food to eat!” is iconic (mostly because shitposters can swap out the word ‘food’ for anything), but I’d forgotten that it’s a line motivated by the plot, which is what makes it so funny.

Jerry’s plot is intertwined with Kramer here; he’s pulled into something he doesn’t want to do, but on some level, he gets that making Lloyd comfortable by censoring all personal discomfort is a worthy goal here, to the point of wearing big glasses that weren’t prescribed for him. Hell, even Elaine’s story is a riff on that; she can’t just say “I’m not interested in you, Lloyd,”, she has come up with an elaborate lie to avoid being uncomfortable. I suppose that’s the driving motivation behind a lot of the social blunders these characters make; there is an aspect of genuine compassion driving the characters, but it’s at least 75% a desire to never be uncomfortable, and how that can lead us to uncomfortable places.

Meanwhile, George’s plot is another fantastic example of the show not quite getting meta but getting right up to the line. When he barks out that this is just a series of bad coincidences making him look insane, he’s really describing the ethos of the show in a nutshell. I’m convinced by arguments that it’s possible to be too self-aware – I defend Community for taking the concept as hard as you possibly can as sincerely as you possibly can, but many shows use it as a crutch for real comedy. Seinfeld goes right up to the line, showing how useful it is to learn from yourself.

TOPICS O’ THE WEEK

• “[Gum] is like a stationary bike for your mouth.”
• “In the end, Lloyd Braun became more like you.”
• We see the death of the Jon Voight car.
• The thing is that Kramer’s scheme is actually cool, even if he’s being pompous about it.
• Another moment of Seinfeld (comedian) being a great comic performer, if not great actor: him listening to Elaine’s terrible lie to Lloyd.
• “Oh, I’m going to give you a royal bearing.”
• This has out last physical appearance of Larry David, though he’ll continue to voice characters off screen.

Biggest Laugh:

Next Week: “The Rye”