Summary
Larry becomes a liberal hero quite by accident in “The Lawn Jockey”, and naturally manages to mess it all up within the space of one episode. Oh, and Leon once again gets the best gag.
Curb Your Enthusiasm usually has an overarching plot that threads through the standalone episode stories, and it’s usually less fun than whatever Larry David is obsessing over at any given moment. We’re only on Episode 2 of Season 12, but it seems like that macro story is emerging already – namely, whether Larry will embrace his new status as a liberal media darling or take the easy way out because it’s slightly more convenient.
Larry’s in the media because of delivering Auntie Rae a bottle of water in Episode 1, violating the Election Integrity Act. We know Larry did that because he had absolutely no idea what he was doing, but the media think he was making a deliberate and brave political statement. So, Larry finds himself as something of an unwitting activist, though he makes the most of the attention.
Before that, he finds himself a guest in jail, where he meets a typical Southern gent named Emmett who will pay the price for befriending Larry in due course. Larry’s ultimately sprung from jail early thanks to the efforts of a lawyer that Jeff has hired who has the misfortune of looking exactly like Larry’s barista nemesis Mocha Joe.
The Lawn Jockey
Jeff himself is in town with Susie and has rented them all an Airbnb so they can stay there through the legal proceedings. This seems like a good thing until the titular lawn jockey crops up. It’s out in the front yard being all racist, and while Larry suddenly has a fight-the-power reputation to maintain, Susie won’t let him get rid of it in case she loses her deposit.
Of course, Larry, with the help of Jeff and Leon, moves it anyway. Once again, Leon has the best line of the episode, furiously quipping, “Did you fist bump this mother*cker?” when he spots the lawn jockey, so he’s probably unmoved when the three of them accidentally smash him into three separate pieces. Susie is beside herself, though, and demands that they find a replacement – and also a gift for her since it’s her birthday the next day.
And It All Goes Wrong
Larry’s master plan for Susie’s birthday is to instruct Jeff to buy her two presents but only give her one. That way, if she finds the first gift insufficient, he can pull out the second as a backup. If she’s happy with just one gift, he can return the other and get his money back. It seems pretty foolproof, but while out shopping Larry annoys a store assistant by using the bathroom without buying anything.
And thus, we have everything we need for stuff to start going terribly wrong. So, Susie finds out about Jeff doubling up on the gifts, and also about Larry buying a white lawn jockey and painting it Black with Jeff’s hair dye (a gag that was introduced last week and pays off here.) Larry’s able to get a suitable lawn jockey from his jail buddy Emmett, exchanging it for an expensive jacket that the aggrieved shop assistant made him buy when Jeff returned Susie’s second gift, but he keeps it in the back of his car when they visit Auntie Rae’s barbecue, and everyone present, all of whom are part of the church congregation, see the lawn jockey squatting in the back of Larry’s car.
Having turned Georgia’s church community against him, Larry is stuck. He wants to just plead guilty on the advice of his lawyer – whom he eventually fires for being too reminiscent of Mocha Joe – and get out of Dodge, but now that he feels bad (or doesn’t want to risk the reputational damage) he has to plead “not guilty” instead.
As things stand at the end of the episode, Larry is still fighting the good fight, though admittedly not entirely by choice.
What did you think of Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 12, Episode 2? Let us know in the comments.
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