With Curb Your Enthusiasm approaching its season 12 and that season supposedly marking the end of the show, audiences need to refresh themselves on the best of the back-catalog of episodes to hype up for the release. Throughout every season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry gets himself into heaps of trouble with each episode, eventually reaching a climactic crescendo in the season finale. It certainly seems that trouble comes looking for Larry, or perhaps it just knows where he is at all times.
As Larry meanders his way around LA, rubbing shoulders with fellow celebrities on a day-to-day basis, near enough every encounter leads to some kind of dispute. While Curb Your Enthusiasm is heavily improvised, each season has its own storyline that reaches a head at the end of the season. When the next season starts, the past events are usually forgotten about and Larry finds himself in new adventures and mishaps. But with season 12 potentially being the last, there may be some unanswered questions from previous seasons that could be wrapped up. Here are five episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm to rewatch before season 12.
1. Season 10: Episode 8 – “Elizabeth, Margaret and Larry”
Season 10: Episode 8 served as one of the most eventful episodes in Curb Your Enthusiasm history and is one of the highest-rated episodes to date. It featured one of the show’s greatest guest star appearances with Jon Hamm, who delivered a hilarious performance. After granting John access to shadow him for a number of days in order to study him for a movie role, the two get into heaps of trouble.
By the end of the episode, John and Larry are like two peas in a pod and are both thrown out of a dinner party in typical Larry David fashion. While Larry tends to end his encounters with guest stars with an all-out screaming match, his relationship with Hamm ended on a different note. This could suggest that the two are still friends and are set for more mishaps in season 12.
2. Season 10: Episode 10 – “The Spite Store”
Larry has made many enemies across the span of Curb Your Enthusiasm, and one that stands out is his bitter rivalry with Mocha Joe. Mocha Joe first appeared in earlier seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm and the two butted heads as soon as they met. However, their earlier arguments were mild compared to their feud in season 10. After opening a spite store next door to Mocha Joe’s coffee shop, this sets off a chain of events that sees the two gunning for each other throughout the whole season. In the episode finale, Mocha Joe comes out on top and proves to be one of Larry’s biggest-ever adversaries.
After teaming up with Larry’s former assistant, Alice, Mocha Joe receives a large settlement after Larry accidentally burns down his coffee shop. Alice also receives a handsome settlement from a historic lawsuit against Larry. So, with their newfound wealth, the two buy a house right next door to Larry’s and close the rivalry out with a solid win. Season 11 didn’t refer back to season 10 at all, but it’s safe to say that Larry may still be stewing about losing this battle, meaning revenge could be on the cards in Curb Your Enthusiasm season 12.
3. Season 9: Episode 3 – “A Disturbance In The Kitchen”
Following a 6 year hiatus from Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David came back in season 9 with the show’s wackiest storyline to date. After writing a musical around Salman Rushdie’s plight with the Ayatollah, Larry finds himself with his very own Fatwa on his head and is summoned to death. After spending some time in hiding and walking around with a makeshift disguise, Larry approaches Rushdie for some much-needed advice. Rushie advises Larry to come out of hiding and make the most out of his situation, claiming that his state of danger will make him more attractive to women.
Larry takes Rushdie’s advice and strikes up a brief romance with Elizabeth Banks. The two quickly embark on a hilarious odyssey around LA, running afoul of an overzealous cop in the process. The short-lived affair between Larry and Elizabeth feels like it was closed off way too soon, as the two had an intriguing dynamic that could have been built upon further. While most guest stars typically only appear once in the show, it feels like there is ample room for many more comedic escapades with these two troublemakers. Larry is always on the lookout for love, and perhaps he will finally find it in the final season.
4. Season 7: Episode 10 – “Seinfeld”
Throughout Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry has become rather lazy in his work and continues to foil any attempt at returning to television thanks to his argumentative ways. But when Cheryl asks Larry for a divorce, Larry sets out on a desperate mission to win her back. Filled with a new found sense of inspiration, Larry gathers the old Seinfeld gang together again for a reunion episode, with the hopes of casting Cheryl in one of the lead roles.
While Larry is successful in casting Cheryl, it doesn’t go to plan and the divorce still goes ahead. The “will they, won’t they” premise carried season 7 through to its finale and Larry continued to try and win Cheryl back in later seasons. Even though Cheryl enters a relationship with Ted Danson, this doesn’t stop Larry from having a brief affair with her. Season 7: Episode 10 shows that the two former lovers have a spark that is unmatched, and who knows, maybe season 12 of Curb Your Enthusiasm will see them finally get back together.
5. Season 11: Episode 10 – “The Mormon Advantage”
The final episode of season 11 saw all of Larry’s schemes come to a dramatic head. After failing to produce a five foot fence around his pool in the first episode, a burglar escaping Larry’s house falls into the pool to his death. This causes the brother of the burglar to blackmail Larry, using the five-foot fence law as solid ammunition. Of course, Larry embarks on his own series of misadventures to get the law overturned.
In the final episode, Larry sneaks into someone’s house to close out his plan of having the law overturned. When he is nearly caught, Larry flees and ironically falls into the pool of the property. David wrote and filmed two versions of this ending – one where Larry dies – and one where Larry lives to argue another day. Thankfully, David went with the latter option and has graced Curb Your Enthusiasm lovers with another season. But this leaves a valid question in the air as to whether will David kill off Larry in season 12.
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