With all the sacred cows Larry David's desecrated throughout the decade, you'd think he'd have gotten to a farce involving the wheelchair bound by now. But, alas, last night's episode was his first foray into the paraplegic, and it was worth the wait.

Larry met his two-wheeled conquest while listening to some classical music in a coffee shop. Her recognition of his whistled tune led to a conversation and eventual invitation to a private recital by the artist playing in his headphones.

Of course, this is Larry David, so a simple date at the recital wasn't going to work for him. There must be a pre-date, actually a series of pre-dates for Larry and Denise ('Denise Handicapped' as he calls her though BlackBerry storage) to strike up a rapport.

And strike it they do, until Larry's concern for his BlackBerry leads to his ignoring a near beachside drowning of Jeff's daughter - sending Susie into a fit of PDA-Destroying rage. Luckily for Larry, he spots another woman in Denise's neighborhood ('Wendy Wheelchair' as she will soon be called in his new BlackBerry) who shares a similar fondness for classical music as his former rolling bundle of love.

This all comes to a head at the recital when everyone meets and Larry's two-timing is eventually struck down by. . .Rosie O'Donnell.

In a rare straightforward episode for this season, Larry takes one basic plot - his developing relationship with 'Denise Handicapped' - and looks at it from all angles; fully exploring the way society treats the disabled.

And that's the beauty of this episode. The handicapped women are the most normal characters throughout the course of the show; it's the way everybody is thrown off-balance by their presence that the show finds its humor. The ease of Denise's getting a table at a restaurant, the way she's able to get an invitation re-extended to Larry after he horribly offends a pair of adoptive parents, and the new light through which everybody views Larry in the wake of his "Dating the disabled," are not the faults of those afflicted, but those who attempt to pacify those who they see as weak victims who are probably much stronger, especially with regards to self-esteem, than those who look upon them with some level of mock-caring.

'Denise Handicapped' (the name of the episode and Larry's new girlfriend) is a fine example of societal satire at its most biting and its most playful. The glee David takes in showing a world of supposedly normal people thrown into disarray by someone who has everything in common with them but the ability to walk is pitch-perfect: We're often far more offensive when we try not to offend, at our most harsh when we attempt to be the most gentle.

Image © Home Box Office

Sure, there was no 'Seinfeld' on this episode, aside from a passing mention of David's writing the reunion special, but when the commentary is this sharp we can do without the return of our favorite New Yorkers for another episode. Or two.

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Story by Andrew Payne

Starpulse contributing writer