It also validated the popular theory that the finale would reflect or at least reference the polarizing final episode of “Seinfeld,” which David wrote. With its trial setting, callbacks to earlier episodes and cameos from memorable past guest stars, the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” finale mirrored the basic premise of the “Seinfeld” one, with a few key tweaks, and Jerry Seinfeld played a key role.

In the “Seinfeld” finale, the main characters were put on trial for violating a good Samaritan law by failing to help a person in need. In the “Curb” finale, Larry is on trial for being a good Samaritan; the voting line incident had made him a folk hero to voting rights advocates. But in the world of the show, the words “hero” and “Larry David” couldn’t remain closely linked for long — it causes too much cognitive dissonance.

This is a man who can rarely get through a single day without insulting or infuriating someone. All season long, even as he accepted accolades for helping Auntie Rae, Larry continued to make new enemies, getting under the skin of country club waitresses, masseuses, lawyers, rabbis and even Bruce Springsteen.

Before the trial begins in the finale, Larry irritates a flight attendant by failing to turn off his phone. He also has a road rage incident with a woman (Allison Janney) who turns out to be the old girlfriend of his pal Richard Lewis, and he annoys his ex-wife, Cheryl (Cheryl Hines), by announcing to everyone that she doesn’t like Mexican food. Larry even manages to betray sweet Auntie Rae, when he and his manager, Jeff (Jeff Garlin), trick her into revealing her restaurant’s top-secret salad dressing recipe.

All of this sets the scene for the courtroom drama, in which the judge (Dean Norris) allows the prosecuting lawyer (Greg Kinnear) to establish Larry’s character and motivations by bringing out a parade of the aggrieved from past “Curb” episodes. The coffee shop proprietor Mocha Joe (Saverio Guerra), whom Larry tried to put out of business by opening a “spite store,” gets his say. So does Alexander Vindman, the former Army colonel best known as a key witness in former President Donald J. Trump’s first impeachment trial. (He once overheard Larry possibly trying to bribe a city councilwoman.) Even Springsteen appears, via video, to castigate Larry for giving him Covid. Larry’s lawyer (Sanaa Lathan) watches helplessly as her defense crumbles.