Highlights
- Seinfeld’s final episode had a plot hole involving the gang witnessing a crime but not reporting it.
- The Good Samaritan law portrayed in Seinfeld is not accurate and doesn’t apply to failing to report a crime.
- “The Finale” episode of Seinfeld is controversial for its moral lesson and lack of jokes.
Seinfeld revolutionized television. It defied the conventions of TV sitcoms, which typically revolved around families or work colleagues. Seinfeld centered on a titular New York comedian and his three gadabout friends whose bumbling antics are constantly entwined.
After six years as America’s most popular sitcom, Seinfeld announced that the ninth season would be the show’s last. As the weeks counted down to the final episode, fans and critics wondered how Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer would bow out to the world.
More than 70 million people tuned in for the final episode of Seinfeld, which aired on May 14, 1998, but many later realized there was one gaping plot hole in the finale.
Seinfeld And Gang Got Busted For Doing Nothing
In the final episode of Seinfeld, NBC phones Jerry with news that his sitcom idea (Jerry, conceived with George and piloted in Season 4) has now been approved by the network.
Before Jerry and George move to LA to begin work on their show, they take Elaine and Kramer on a private NBC jet to Paris for one last hurrah.
After Kramer jumps and causes turbulence, the plane makes an emergency landing in Latham, Massachusetts. During the layover, they witness a carjacking.
They don’t report the incident. Instead, Elaine makes fun of the victim’s weight while Kramer films the crime.
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For the gang, this is just another impersonal incident, the kind that happens each day in New York City.
But this time, they’re not in NYC; they’re in Massachusetts, where an arresting officer informs them that they’ve broken the state’s new Good Samaritan law, which requires witnesses to help people in danger.
“Why would we want to help somebody?” quips George, “That’s what nuns and Red Cross workers are for.”
The gang is put on trial, where District Attorney Hoyt summons numerous past “victims” of Jerry and crew (Babu Bhatt, the pool guy, the soup Nazi, Mr. Pitt, the virgin, the marble rye lady, Susan’s parents, Robin the waitress, etc.)
Jerry calls on attorney Jacki Chiles, whose grandiose defense is no match for Hoyt, who convinces jurors of the gang’s callousness.
Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer are found guilty of criminal indifference and sentenced to a year in prison.
Is The Good Samaritan Law From Seinfeld Real?
To this day, fans wonder if the Good Samaritan law portrayed in Seinfeld really exists and whether they’d be convicted for the “crime” in question.
In truth, Seinfeld didn’t give an accurate portrayal of the Good Samaritan law. While the Good Samaritan law does exist in certain states, including Massachusetts, it doesn’t apply to situations where a witness fails to report a crime.
Good Samaritan laws protect people from criminal negligence lawsuits in cases where one person injures another by accident during a rescue attempt. If person A is choking and person B cracks person A’s ribs while attempting the Heimlich maneuver, the Good Samaritan law would shield person B from any legal ramifications.
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Laws that do require witnesses to report crimes are known as Duty to Act laws. However, the Duty to Act law applies to situations of child and elder abuse in which adults with professional responsibilities (doctors, nurses, teachers, police) fail to act.
Few states have enacted the Duty to Act law, which doesn’t exist in Massachusetts. Even if it did, the state wouldn’t have a solid case against Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer, who didn’t have sufficient time to call 911 when the officer apprehended them.
Duty to Act laws don’t require witnesses to risk their own lives to stop a crime in progress. The fact that the carjacker was armed would’ve absolved Jerry’s gang of any wrongdoing.
If anything, the nearby officer would have been the negligent party. He was slow in his response to the situation and failed to pursue the perpetrator.
The Final Seinfeld Episode Still Sparks Debate And Controversy
“The Finale” remains the most debated Seinfeld episode. Some viewers considered its underlying premise (the gang goes to prison for their indifference to others) to be an unnecessary moral lesson from an otherwise fun and lighthearted series.
Others criticize the episode’s minimization of Seinfeld‘s supporting characters, like Newman and the Costanzas. Critics assert that while the onslaught of former guest stars provides amusing sight gags, they don’t compensate for the dearth of jokes in the script.
Seinfeld himself later conceded that the final episode didn’t feel like the show “because it wasn’t small, it was big… and we didn’t do big.”
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“The Finale” is not, however, the most controversial episode. That distinction goes to “The Puerto Rican Day,” the third-to-last Seinfeld episode that was later pulled from syndication due to a flag-burning scene that sparked protests from the Puerto Rican community.
When asked about the series, Jerry Seinfeld cites the Season 8 episode “The Pothole” as his favorite, particularly the scene in which Newman’s truck goes up in flames.
As for his own plot contributions, Seinfeld is most proud of how he wove the George and Kramer threads in “The Marine Biologist,” a Season 5 episode in which George pretends he’s a marine biologist to impress the “It” girl from high school while Kramer golfs on the beach.
When his (non-existent) skills are called upon, George saves a choking whale by reaching into its blowhole to extract a golf ball.
Source: NewsFinale
