Introduced to the universe in season eight’s “,” Tim DeKay’s Kevin is depicted as a perfect match for Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Elaine. They’re introduced through a mutual skepticism toward procreation, though those convictions aren’t as strong a connection as the couple’s shared impulsiveness. (Famous last words, from a discussion about Kevin’s spontaneous vasectomy: “Kevin, maybe I have a little doubt. I mean, nothing is 100 percent.” “This is!”) But it’s the follow-up episode, “,” that proves that Kevin’s true Seinfeld analogue is another boyfriend-turned-friend of Elaine’s: The show’s titular comedian. In characteristic fashion, Jerry lays it all out in a Superman analogy: Reliable, considerate Kevin is his bizarro, the “mirror image” supervillain who is Superman’s exact opposite. Since nothing is 100 percent, the logic doesn’t work out precisely—but it does coin a shorthand for a unique brand of TV doppelgänger: a double who isn’t the exact opposite of a regular character, but who provides a “grass is greener on the other side” perspective that temporarily threatens to displace their every-other-week counterpart. It turns out Seinfeld’s New York is full of these types of people, and Elaine eventually meets literate, door-locking, non-mooching alternates to George, Kramer, and Newman, too. Fittingly, they all hang out in a mirrored version of the show’s main apartment set, where a custom-made bizarro sculpture stands in for Jerry’s Superman statue.
