SPOILER ALERT: This post contains information and punchlines from Episode 2 of HBO Max’s Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America.
The second episode of HBO Max’s Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America has quite a few surprise guests, including Jerry Seinfeld, Jimmy Kimmel, Rita Wilson and Larry Wilmore, but none land with quite the punch and poignance of a late-in-the-episode Rob Reiner.
The punch comes with a pithy, two-word direct-to-camera summing up of everything Donald Trump has wrought.
Reiner’s final role, taped just days before his death on December 14, has the actor/director in full George Washington costume as the First President gives a speech to a gathering of colonists, including one particularly loudmouthed complainer played by, of course, Larry David.
As Reiner’s Washington announces that he will not seek a third term in office and, indeed, that Congress should pass a constitutional amendment to prohibit just such power-grabbing, David’s colonialist starts shouting a series of what-ifs that ring quite true (and very 21st Century).
“Well, what if there’s some asshole in office, some narcissistic prick who doesn’t follow the Constitution?” asks David.
And what if “the Supreme Court is a bunch of yes men and Congress is a bunch of pussies who care more about party than country?”
“I can’t even fathom the existence of such men,” Reiner’s Washington responds.
David continues, asking about a hypothetical future president who use the presidency “to enrich himself and his family. He could send troops into American cities to terrorize and even kill American citizens, all to distract from the fact that he’s friends with a pedophile!” Why, he “could even cheat at golf!”
Reiner suggests the country ensure peaceful transfers of power to prevent ongoing abuses of power, and David, not to be assuaged, mentions that some future president might even go after anyone who dares criticize or make jokes about him, to which a fellow colonialist – played by Jimmy Kimmel – says, “Are you suggesting that the president would taketh the time to challenge anyone who dare make fun of him? As if he were a big baby?”
As the crowd devolves into an brawling mob, with one side lambasting the hypothetical future president and the other side defending him as duly elected, Reiner’s Washington surveys the chaotic scene. “Citizens! I implore you! I beseech you! This is madness! Citizens!”
Then, breaking the fourth wall, Reiner looks directly into the camera and says, “We’re fucked.”
A card reading “In Memoriam Rob Reiner” then appears as the episode, written by David and Jeff Schaffer and directed by Schaffer, ends.
