Review: Curb Your Enthusiasm season 9 episode 8 sees return of Krazee-Eyez Killa, Monena, 'big vagina' nurse and more

Curb Your Enthusiasm season 9 is in the home straight now and with antepenultimate episode "Never Wait for Seconds!" we started to get a sense of how the overarching plot lines will wrap up.

The fatwa that has been hanging over Larry's head all season but was all but called off this week after he helped a Muslim man as only Larry can, by fiercely defending the rules of social etiquette as he sees them, in this case standing by the man's right to return to a buffet for seconds without re-queuing.

In a series of callbacks - fun after the show has been away for so long - the rescuee set about finding more evidence of Larry's benevolent character, turning to past seasons' favourites like Monena the carpooling prostitute, the almost-kamikaze pilot's son, the nurse with the alleged "big vagina", the wheelchair-bound woman Larry once dated, Crazy-Eyes Killa, Rachel from the ski lift episode and Michael J. Fox.

Hilariously either misunderstanding their stories or siding with Larry's warped sense of right and wrong, the man took his findings to what was essentially a fatwa appeal committee where Larry was assured he would be cleared. The final episode this season, titled simply 'Fatwa!', suggests Larry is going to ruin his exoneration for himself, however.

Elsewhere in the episode, Larry became indebted to a handyman after his tip was refused, made nice with Funkhouser's girlfriend over episode 6's tap water debacle, bungled in getting date Bridget's son into boarding school in order to sleep with her and condemned the liberal application of ketchup.

The funniest scene by far was the school admissions one, Larry saying he could only ensure nine happy months of relationship with the boy's mother followed by years of misery (exactly what the waspy school was looking for) and bemoaning the amount of "checking in" texts involved in a relationship.

Bridget (Lauren Graham) also coined the very LA "go-home argument" and the fatwa council were given the episode's punchline, allowing Larry to go ahead with his Fatwa! musical so long as he landed the very-hot-right-now Lin Manuel Miranda to star.

Next week, 'The Shucker'.

Curb Your Enthusiasm airs Sunday nights on HBO in the US, and Monday nights on Sky Atlantic and through NOWTV in the UK.