One Seinfeld Fan Theory Makes The Controversial Finale So Much Darker

As far as maligned series finales go, few sitcoms can match up to “Seinfeld.” After nine critically acclaimed seasons, the hit NBC show ended with the gang tossed into prison for an entire year. That may sound bleak, but it gets worse: Even before the downer conclusion, the finale is basically an hour straight of the show trashing its main four characters. Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer are all terrible people, the finale argues, and frankly we should all feel bad for liking them. 

The finale has plenty of defenders, myself included. We can appreciate how the show suddenly pulls us out of the gang’s perspective, showing us how they come across from the outside looking in. Still, the finale’s detractors outweigh its fans, so much so that creator Larry David essentially apologized for it with his “Curb Your Enthusiasm” ending. There, Larry also got sent to prison, except this time he was bailed out on a technicality. 

In fact, some fans seem to hate the “Seinfeld” finale so much that they’ve created elaborate fan theories to explain it away. The most popular theory, as covered by u/Bfitzyc on the r/FanTheories subreddit in a 2019 post, is that the gang technically never went to jail at all. Remember how their plane nearly crashed at the start of the episode, spurring the chain of events that sent them to prison? Well, this user proposes that the plane never course corrected — it crashed, the gang died, and the rest of the finale is them being judged and sentenced to eternal damnation. (Or perhaps just a year of damnation.)

The Reddit user points out that the nosedive on the plane doesn’t quite match up to what starts it, which is Kramer tripping into the cockpit. “A lovable [doofus] bumping the controls and causing a nosedive would, for an experienced pilot, be fixable in seconds, especially with a smaller private jet. However, this nosedive lasts over a full minute before the plane is suddenly righted up,” Bfitzyc wrote. 

They pointed out that everything about the gang’s trial over breaking the Good Samaritan law was nonsensical; not only is it extremely unlikely they’d be arrested in the first place due to this technicality, but the idea that they’d get an entire year in prison is absurd. As they elaborate:

“No way anybody would get actual jail time in real life in the United States for laughing at a fat man being mugged, no matter how mean or apathetic it is. This suggests that jail is the metaphor for some kind of cosmic punishment. I personally lean towards purgatory (something you’re stuck in, but can eventually get out of on certain conditions) since the judge does provide the group with a limited one year sentence. To throw a theory inside theory out there, perhaps after the group is released following their one year sentence, they get another chance to prove themselves worthy or fail and receive more punishment.”

Another point in this theory’s favor: Many Jails (at least in America) don’t put women in the same cells as the men. Elaine sharing a cell with the gang only makes sense if they’ve been far removed from the laws of regular society. It’s also true that the format of the trial — with the gang forced to answer for their many misdeeds over the years, regardless of how trivial — is pretty similar to a lot of popular theories about the afterlife. A lot of religions speculate that the first day of death is one giant trial deciding if you go up or down. 

Bfitzyc posits that the gang may be trapped in “some kind of psychological torture loop” as part of their cosmic punishment. Much like the characters from Jean-Paul Sartre’s famous play “No Exit,” the “Seinfeld” main cast will unwittingly serve as their own tormenters. 

Spoilers for “The Good Place” below.

On the surface, this fate might not seem that bad for the “Seinfeld” gang — they’re friends, right? — but there’s a big difference between hanging out with someone of your own free will and being stuck with them. The gang’s storylines may intersect constantly, but in a typical episode, they’re usually each off doing their own thing. To put them trapped in the same place together for a full year, though? Their easygoing camaraderie might fall apart quickly.

It’s also worth noting that the time the gang has spent together so far in the show has already been enough to make them more miserable. For Elaine especially, her increasingly insular friend group has gradually transformed her from a well-adjusted, emotionally stable person in season 1 to a vindictive, volatile menace by season 9. As one video essayist speculated last year, Elaine was already in a bit of a self-induced torture chamber before the season 9 finale, and it’s had a clear negative effect on her mental health. This does not bode well for her year of prison/purgatory ahead. 

It’s not clear if u/Bfitzyc had watched “The Good Place” before posting the theory, but his idea for what really happened in the “Seinfeld” finale feels similar to that later show’s main premise. The 2017 NBC sitcom is basically about a demon who posits that the best way to torture sinners is not through the traditional physical methods. Instead, he decides to pick four “bad” people, with personalities uniquely designed to drive each other crazy, and force them to interact with no knowledge that they’re in hell. 

None of the writers involved in “The Good Place” have cited the “Seinfeld” finale as their inspiration, but it’s possible that deep down in their subconscious it was Larry David, not Jean-Paul Sartre, who unwittingly planted the idea. And although “The Good Place” was a sentimental, optimistic show at heart, “Seinfeld” was a cynical beast. The gang in “The Good Place” might’ve eventually become good friends and better people, but I have zero faith that spending a year in the afterlife together will do anything to improve the “Seinfeld” gang’s moral centers. 

As some redditors pointed out in the comments, one problem with Bfitzyc’s theory is that Larry David’s later show, “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” would go on to base its seventh season around a reunion special for “Seinfeld.” In Larry’s script for the episode, the gang are back in New York living their regular lives. There’s no hint of anything cosmic going on here. It seems like their year in prison was nothing more than an unpleasant temporary thing, and everything went back to normal as soon as they got out. 

The obvious counter to this complaint, however, is that it’s not clear how much of “Curb” should be considered “Seinfeld” canon. All the actors involved may be playing themselves, sure, but they’re still fictionalized versions of themselves. Their experience and understanding of the “Seinfeld” finale may not reflect how the real cast and crew view it. 

Some might also say that the “Curb” series finale, which once again treats the “Seinfeld” finale as a straightforward story of the gang being sent to prison, is another point against the “they’re all dead” theory. However, I’d argue the opposite: Larry being thrown into the exact same situation as the “Seinfeld” gang implies yet another round of cosmic judgment is at play here. Perhaps Larry died on his flight to Georgia, and season 12 was one big trial to see if he goes to hell or not. Larry’s happy ending implies that he was good enough to avoid the painful purgatory the poor “Seinfeld” cast were sentenced to. 

Then again, if the season 5 “Curb” finale was anything to go on — that’s the episode where he gets kicked out of heaven for being annoying — it’s likely that Larry avoiding hell/purgatory has nothing to do with him being a better person. Odds are, the devil simply doesn’t want to listen to him for an entire year.