Curb Your Enthusiasm Recap: The Hero

Ever find yourself wondering how LD has been hooking up with all these good-looking broads this season? Well, today we finally got our answer. Like any other man, he lies withholds the truth.

Sitting next to an attractive blonde on his plane ride to NY (finally!), Larry is given the thumbs up by the Greens to game the broad. He bungles it spectacularly — promising “to do better next time”. Which he does, in typical Larry David fashion. After heading to the bathroom in coach, Larry trips over his own shoelaces and falls on top of a belligerent air rager. Larry is instantly recognized as a hero and, well, he doesn’t correct them. Would you?

Of course, everyone’s got their own definition of a hero and for Jeff it means grabbing your lunch off the line while your eavesdropping waiter is too busy schmoozing with comedian extraordinaire, Ricky Gervais.

This is where the episode mines most of its comedy, as it pits the ultra-sensitive to social rules Larry David against the charming but completely oblivious to accepted behavior Ricky Gervais. To watch these two assholes go at it, it’s simply poetry. The improvised banter, the talking over one another, and the truly outrageous behavior these two partake in, it’s priceless.

Gervais’s behavior puts you firmly within LD’s camp. Which is good, since I’m not exactly the biggest Gervais fan and, thus, have no problem rooting for the bald guy. Go Team David!

Now, what would a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode be without Larry finding himself at the center of all the hate? A friend’s wife cursing him out in a British accent for asking how often Chris Parnell boinks her? Susie Green arguing with Larry throughout Gervais’s mostly terrible-sounding drama play because they both want the aisle seat? The attractive blonde leaving Larry once he’s been exposed as the clumsy degenerate that he is? Yeah, that sounds more like it.

So when the ruse is finally up and it looks like Gervais has won, Larry pulls out the trump card. He really does become the hero that everyone never thought he’d be in a hilarious last scene on the New York City subway. It’s great, but I can’t help but wonder how long it’s been since Larry David’s ridden the MTA.

Shit ain’t that bad, bro.

Pretty… pretty good episode, although I’ll miss The Funkhouser and the parade of banging broads Richard Lewis likes to date. But hey, at least we know everyone’s favorite uninvited house guest will be making an appearance in the Big Apple. Can’t #@$%in’ wait.