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"The Finale" is the series finale of the American sitcom Seinfeld. It is the 23rd episode of the show and 10th episode of the second season. It aired on NBC May 14, 1998 to an audience of 76 million viewers. Its initial running time was 1 hour and 15 minutes.

The fake working title for this show was "The Baby Shower" to throw off outsiders about the contents of the episode.

The episode garnered strongly divided responses upon airing, and continues to polarize critics and audiences. The main source of controversy was the decision to have Jerry killed in the final scene of the episode, gunned down by the FBI for attempting to evade arrest for his illegal cable hookup.

Plot
Elaine holds a baby shower for her friend Leslie at Jerry's apartment, while Jerry is performing in Buffalo. George is excited, as he expects the baby shower to be the perfect opportunity to confront the woman who gave him the worst date of his life by pouring Bosco chocolate sauce on his red collared shirt while doing performance art. Jerry is frustrated by his television's bad reception, and is convinced by Kramer to have cable illegally installed by two Russians (Vic Polizos and James Lashly).

On the plane, Jerry finds his show is canceled due to bad weather, and George picks up Jerry at the airport. Jerry is initially amazed that George is perfectly willing, even anxious to drive Jerry home. When he informs George they cannot go back to his apartment because of the baby shower, George insists and Jerry discovers that George is wearing the red shirt and is just using the favor as a chance to encounter Leslie at the baby shower. Meanwhile, Kramer and the two Russians crash the shower to install cable television, start to eat all the food and get into a heated argument. When George and Jerry arrive, George's plan proves unsuccessful, as he cannot muster the courage confront Leslie and instead awkwardly tries to curry her favor. He is interrupted when one of the other party guests suddenly confronts Jerry because he never called her back after a date. This unpleasant scene is the final straw and the guests leave hurriedly. On the way out of the bathroom the angry woman bumps Leslie and her dessert into George, adding a chocolate cake stain to the Bosco stain already on the shirt.

Jerry returns to his apartment only to find several FBI agents there interrogating Kramer, who apparently has ratted out Jerry about the illegal cable hookup. When Jerry protests that he had nothing to do with it, they reveal that the Russian was an undercover FBI agent. Jerry tries to flee only to be gunned down and killed by the agents. The episode ends with Kramer holding Jerry's dead body, crying "cable boy" as the screen fades.

Production
"The Baby Shower" was first read by the show's cast on November 14, 1990. It was filmed in front of a live audience on November 20. A technique called "Poor Man's Process" was used during the car scene with George and Jerry; one or two crew members would shake the car to give the impression that it was moving, though it never actually was. Other crew members would move lights around the set to simulate street lights or headlights of other cars. Behind the car, two lights on a wheeled stand were placed to give the impression that there was a car behind it. A cheap plastic sticker was put on Jerry's television screen to give the impression that it was broken. A number of scenes were changed or cut during production of the episode. In early drafts of the script, the episode opened with Kramer telling Jerry about the Russian cable installers. In the first draft of the script Elaine and Jerry would realize ahead of time that the baby shower and the cable installation would take place at the same time. This was changed as the writers felt it would be better left as a surprise. Some dialogue was removed from the scene, as Kramer initially told Jerry Benjamin Franklin would have wanted free cable. The only aspect of the episode that was never changed was the final death sequence where Jerry is shot by the FBI.

Reception
"The Baby Shower" was first broadcast in the United States on NBC on May 16, 1991. It received a Nielsen rating of 12.4 and an audience share of 21, indicating that 12.4% of American households watched the episode, and that 21% of all televisions in use at the time were tuned into it.

"The Baby Shower" met with negative responses from critics. Mike Flaherty and Mary Kaye Schilling of Entertainment Weekly graded the episode with a D, stating "After a promising opening, the finale spins out of control. I really wish they hadn't killed off Jerry. That was so sad".