a Memento to 'The Betrayal' (The Backwards Episode) thread

[Maestro]

*
Episode 164 - The Betrayal
pc: 908, season 9, episode 8
Broadcast date: November 20, 1997

Before Memento, there was The Betrayal.
I think they gave the backwards idea a pretty good seinfeld treatment. The episode even opened with that 'Castle Rock' productions screen that is at the very end of most episodes, it had some good tie ins and even went back to Jer moving in to his apartment, meeting Kramer and the epic telling him of "We're neighbors. What's mine is yours." There was Kramer's [obvious] growing lolly pop gag and a bunch of good stuff.

The Sein is generally smart comedy, but you need to pay even greater attention to detail in this one, some times the punch line comes many scenes after the set up.
Seems I'm always saying this, but The Betrayal makes my top 10 list. It's really thick and a must see.

Andy Ackerman won the Director's Guild of America Award for this episode.

Did you like it?
Dislike it?
Just another epi?
Think it sux?
Think Maestro should stick to his clip shows ;) ?

Does anyone have any literary knowledge??? Wasn't this backwards thing done by Shakespeare???

Did you like Memento?;)

Discuss:

[TheDrake]

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) has a backwards play I think but this is a modern comedy troupe that pusts on a show.

[Maestro]

ya, they do like all 37 plays in "X" minutes.....
I saw something about that.

Any comments on the epi Drake? I meant to put in a poll, but I blew it & those are genrally lame any-hoo.

[Elaine Benes]

OMG I loved Memento!

[sinatrastar]

I am confused, what is memento? I guess I am out of it, Im assuming that is not Sein related. As to the episode, it is great. It most certainly requires more than 1 viewing to take it all in. Susan came back to life!!!!! And the first Kramer!!!! Both geat ideas. Top 10, probably, maybe we need to come up with a board top 10 Maestro, survivor type elimination after agreeing on a top 25 or so?

[Brian Damage]

It's a movie that is played out backwards just like The Betrayal.

[sinatrastar]

Ok, now Im getting it.

[KnightFalls]

It was a bizarre story line, but I liked it. Top 25% maybe.

[Maestro]

Elaine, so the backwards thing didn't do it for ya?

Talk to me after you watch a couple of times, your opinion may change.

It was a significant episode that has a place in the sein show annals. I found it pretty clever and it stayed seinfeld like.

Didn't you even like the very end, when J is moving to 5A?
I like how the ep started with the Castle Rock logo that is usually shown rigfht at the end.

[Elaine Benes]

I'm not saying I hated it, I just think it would've been better in my opinion if it went forwards not backwards.

[Maestro]

A lot of the little gags would not have been gags played forward, citing Kramer's growing sucker as the obvious example.

& I grinned at J & Nina:
"And they call it the World Wide Web. You can e-mail anyone!"
"What are you a scientist?"
"..........what the hell is email???"

Some of the amount of time listed before was funy, like Elaine's schnapps shots, how it was like seconds between to her next swills :)

It was if nothing else, different than your basic ep.
I'm trying to think of others that were way different than the norm. I guess it would be the few with no shots in 5A or maybe on different location; The Finales maybe, & the clip shows don't really count.

[sinatrastar]

Maybe the one in Florida with no Kramer or George.
Puerto Rico also was a little odd.

[Maestro]

Exactly... neither of those had any 5A scenes

(PR day had one quick shot, end of ep w NO ONE in the apt.)

...as I take us OT.... I guess I shouldn't derail the Betrayal discussion thread...

[Maestro]

[ELEVEN YEARS EARLIER]

K: Oh, hey, how you doing?

J: Oh, hi. I... I'm Jerry Seinfeld. I'm movin' in. I saw your name on the buzzer - You must be Kessler.

K: Uh, no. Actually, it's Kramer.

J: Oh.

K: Uh, you need any help, or..?

J: No, thanks. But I ordered a pizza. You want some of it?

K: Ah, no, no, no. I-I couldn't impose.

J: Why not? We're neighbors. What's mine is yours. (J's epic mistake!)

K: ...Ohh ....really?

[Brian Damage]

:lol: that was great.

[sinatrastar]

I remember the first time I saw this, I loved it. It was also great to see Susan again. When watching it in syndication there is no flow to the episodes since you dont see the whole show in order, you catch episodes here and there out of order so seeing Susan in the episode is like 'so what'. But after she died off in the series and they showed her again it was great. Also that ending (beginning) scene quoted by Maestro above put the whole show into perspective, it worked well. :)

[Maestro]

Looks like it's on tonight TBS (1830 hours Pac coast).

Make sure you catch the last scene, the "11 years earlier" one.

[sinatrastar]

Sounds like its worth a check - Ive never seen it.

[Maestro]

Originally posted by sinatrastar
- Ive never seen it.
Based on your 2nd post back, I assume you mean you just haven't seen that last scene.

[sinatrastar]

I thought you were saying that Memento was on tonight, the movie. Now I see you were talking about the Seinepisode. I have seen that entire episode ;)

[sinatrastar]

This epi was on today. Anyone know why Elaine went to go see Pinter's parents?

[Maestro]

I've wondered the same :nod: ...

I guess [maybe] she went to the Ranawats to try to find out if "Pintor" was her "Peter" before she went to the wedding.

They seemed to use it to tie in the dreadfullnes of India thing & also the George not using the bathroom thing.

ZUBIN: "If I had to go to India, I wouldn't go to the bathroom the entire trip."

[sinatrastar]

I thought that was Usha.

I looked at the script to see if something was edited out, other than the fruit loops scene I didn't see anything. That is a tough script to read thru with the ass-backwardsness.

I thought what you thought, but she never asks them and it would seem like a very odd way to find out if that was her old boyfriend, especially since the parents didn't even seem to know her.

[Brian Damage]

Now you got me wondering. Maybe she was looking for a way to get Pinter's parents to go. Maybe Sue Ellen sent her?