Elaine is invited to Sue Ellen’s wedding in India, and complications ensue because she once slept with the groom. Jerry sleeps with a woman George was hoping to sleep with because of one awkward pause in the conversation. Kramer’s friend wishes for him to drop dead, and he gets in competing wish-offs. Oh, and the whole episode is presented in reverse-chronological order.

Written by: Peter Mehlman and David Mandel
Directed by: Andy Ackerman

Oh yeah, the backwards episode! This is one where the negative reactions range from puzzling to insane; I will grant that I happen to enjoy format- and structure-breaking episodes like this, because I understand tropes and story structure so well that I love things that shake it up for me, but even by that standard, I find myself wondering if people want to go out of their way not to enjoy something. This episode is another product of a late-era writer finding a way to play with the conventions of the show, with the assistance of an early-era writer. It calls a lot of attention to how elegantly structured the plots of the show are, simply by reversing cause-and-effect; my favourite part here is the runner of George using “stuff your sorries in a sack, mister!” as we watch it degrade, and that’s just a very funny expression of how we watch the emotion, if not the insanity, dial down over the course of the episode (I’m struck by how the last third of the episode is simply a different kind of insane to the first).

Two major – and common – criticisms are present on the episode’s Wikipedia entry; Trevor La Pay described it as ‘a gimmick-based farce’, as if that’s a bad thing. David Sims (of the Old Site) complains that it loses its effect upon rewatch and you realise how it fits together, which has a little more substance even as its equally incorrect; I fail to see how that’s any less true of any of the more conventional episodes; frankly, the fact that it has as much substance as a typical episode is remarkable, and shows how much discipline the show has – this is a typical Seinfeld episode (which, last time I checked, is better than anything else on TV) but with more jokes! As Jim Morrison once put it, people are strange.

Kramer’s plot, amusingly enough, has the most depth to it; we’ve talked about Kramer playing out different social concepts, and this one has him taking a basic idea – things people superstitiously wish on – and taking it so much more seriously than anyone ever does. There’s a compelling argument that Jerry, George, and Kramer are all autistic in different ways (maybe Elaine too, but she’s more amusing to me as a neurotypical person), and there’s definitely something here in how he believes in a basic rule he’s been told so much that he goes mad.

I do also think that there’s much this episode makes out of the misunderstandings that drive the show, and not in the typical farce way; we, like Sue Ellen, initially believe that Elaine slept with the groom on the wedding night or at least during their engagement, and it takes us a while to really peel back the onion and see the big picture. There are a bunch of other elements like that in the various stories, like Jerry sleeping with Nina; it really was a stupid impulsive act that looks almost – by these character’s standards – understandable.

TOPICS O’ THE WEEK

• “I’m too tired to even vomit at the thought.”
• The opening scene works perfectly at being an ending to one story but also setting up the other.
• “I should get to sleep with Elaine!” / “That doesn’t punish me! It punishes Elaine. And cruelly, I might add.”
• “Goodnight, Jugdish!”
• This also really draws attention to how insane Kramer’s plots are.
• “No one else was gonna come to India, not even Pinter’s parents! And they’re from India.”
• “Funny guy! Right here!” Admittedly, I love this mainly because I use it as an image react when someone burns me.
• “Hey, what time is it?” / “You just asked me two minutes ago!”
• “I’ll tell you a little secret about zip codes… They’re meaningless.”
• “I did invite you! Your invitation must have gotten… lost in the mail!”
• “Who else you got back there?”
• “Oh my god, this drawer is filled with fruit loops?” / “So?” / “And milk?”
• “At least the wedding gown will give her some support.”
• “What the hell is email?”
• Ending with eleven years earlier is hilarious, especially the Kessler joke.
• “We’re neighbours. What’s mine is yours.”

Biggest Laugh:

Next Week: “The Apology”