Summary
Larry attempts to foil a potentially deadly surprise party while making new friends, developing revolutionary cups, and fighting off Nazi dogs
This recap of Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 10, Episode 6, contains spoilers. You can check out our thoughts on the previous episode by clicking these words.
Larry David’s spite store is getting nearer and nearer to completion and is increasingly revealing itself to be a terrible idea — which of course we already knew. But it’s still fun watching Larry and Freddy Funkhouser (Vince Vaughn) squat over the futuristic ladies’ toilets while hanging from their built-in handrail. When Mocha Joe’s (Saverio Guerra) mother Mocha Jane (Peggy Miley) tells Larry in the parking lot that they’re going to take him down, it’s hard not to believe her, splash-free bathrooms and all. Larry’s latest idea for the defecation-free space is a cup that keeps coffee warm — not a thermos, you understand, but an actual cup, for which he’d need an inventor. Luckily, Freddy has a guy.
Susie (Susie Essman) arrives to declare the spite store underwhelming and also to introduce the main plot of Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 10, Episode 6. She’s throwing Jeff (Jeff Garlin) a surprise party for his birthday, which given his weak heart Larry thinks is a bad idea and a potential medical risk. Of course, being Larry, he spends the rest of the episode interfering in a variety of ill-advised and hilarious ways, beginning with a visit to the doctor’s office.
Dr. Holzer (Greg Germann) has decided to start going by the nickname “Rusty”, which he has given himself and adorned his business card with and which Larry obviously despises, along with the new artwork in the waiting room and the pretty receptionist who assumes he’s hitting on her when he strikes up a conversation. Asking Holzer about the medical implications of a surprise party, Larry’s told that it wouldn’t be safe unless a medical professional was present to see Chris Martin of Coldplay perform at Scopa — and of course to make sure Jeff doesn’t go into cardiac arrest from the shock. It sounds like a job for Rusty.
On the way out of the doctor’s office, Larry gets stuck behind Wally (Fred Armisen), a handicapped man who walks with a frame, and speeds past him so he can use the bathroom first. Wally is a bit annoyed when Larry emerges, and since his complaints about his improper corridor etiquette don’t really take, he offers to take Wally out for coffee sometime.
Of course, Susie doesn’t want Holzer at the party because he and his wife are “aggressively boring” and he’s clearly exaggerating the medical dangers so he can blag an invite to an exclusive party, so Larry has to come up with a more subtle plan. Less subtle is the fact he decides Susie is trying to kill her husband.
Freddy’s guy with the cups is Boris (Alan Tudyk), a German inventor with a dog called Adolf who responds to the Nazi salute and calls of “Heil Hitler”. But he is nonetheless able to devise a prototype that will keep coffee warm indefinitely, which Larry tests out with Freddy and Leon (JB Smoove). Leon wants to get in touch with Boris about his various ideas for inventions, including Pussy Tea — all the taste of pussy with none of the commitment. Larry lets them both know about Susie’s bad intentions.
Larry returns to the doctors in Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 10, Episode 6, to implement the next phase of his plan (and to argue with the receptionist again). He recommends that Holzer calls Jeff and asks him out to dinner at Scopa on the same date the party is being held — he’s terrified of Susie, as is everyone, but he agrees.
Out with Wally, Larry spots Susie and has his new friend follow her to a travel agent. Thoroughly excited by Wally’s disabled parking permit, he sends him in to eavesdrop on Susie, who is planning to go to the Bahamas despite the fact that Jeff hates the Caribbean. Since Wally is going away, Larry talks him into borrowing his disabled parking permit, which he and Leon immediately go out with so that they can antagonize people. At the arcade, Leon wins a Star of David car freshener which they hang alongside the permit, and when they return to Boris to pick up the cups, Adolf leaps into the car and eats both. Larry promises to get a dishearted Wally a new one.
While golfing, Larry notices that Jeff is out of breath from simply walking, and learns that he has lost his phone and that Susie is being unusually nice to him. More suspicious than ever, he enlists Wally to ruin the surprise by waiting outside Scopa and warning Jeff on his way in. But since he can’t park in the handicapped space anymore, he’s forced to leave the car miles away and rush on-foot with his frame — he doesn’t make it in time.
Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 10, Episode 6 doesn’t spend long at the party, unfortunately, but there’s just enough time for Larry to annoy Chris Martin, who tells Holzer he doesn’t look like a Rusty. When Jeff comes in, everyone — on Susie’s orders — makes as much noise as possible. And… he’s absolutely fine. The same can’t be said, though, of Dr. Holzer, who is spotted by Susie and immediately berated. Naturally, he has a heart attack.
