Critical Reception
David Sims of The AV Club was "torn" in his review: "The Betrayal—which is played backward (down to cute meta jokes like having the Castle Rock logo be the first thing on screen)—is very much about its gimmick, and it wrings a lot of fun jokes from it, like Kramer's gigantic lollipop going from eaten to full, or Jerry saying 'bless you' to Elaine and a cut to 'three seconds earlier,' when she sneezes. The best meta joke of all comes right near the end, when we flash to two years prior and see a guest appearance by Susan, who implants the irritating catchphrase 'You can stuff your sorries in a sack, mister!' into George's head... Once you know the plot, everything feels a little less exciting... Still, one of Seinfeld's great strengths is its story craft, and The Betrayal is the ultimate example of that, since it's all about the craft." Cinematic Happenings Under Development called the episode "gimmicky" in a review of the Season 9 DVD: "We're also given the ability to watch The Betrayal in reverse, which turns it from a gimmick-based farce into a nearly likeable episode."
Paul Arras wrote, "The real fun of the episode are the jokes that show the effect before the cause, such as when George complains about a stomach ache and then the episode cuts backwards to him ordering clams casino at the coffee shop. Another fun example is when, after Jerry tells Elaine, "God bless you," the show cuts to Elaine sneezing. But the deeper effect of the reverse chronology is not too far from the reason Harold Pinter employed it... In this episode George, Jerry, and Elaine are particularly nasty. They all lie, cheat, and deceive throughout the story. Both Jerry and George get Elaine drunk to get information from her. Elaine goes to India to spite Sue Ellen. And the three end up (or start out, in the order of the episode) furious with each other. Behind the clever gimmick of The Betrayal is a particularly nasty story about fairly nasty characters, so perhaps its greatest triumph is the clever way it reveals the true nature of the show's characters."
Ryan Gilbey of The Guardian wrote, "By its final season, it was referencing Pinter in The Betrayal, which was structured entirely in reverse. Keep that in mind next time you're watching Two and a Half Men. It wasn't only audacity that set the show apart... Only Roseanne Barr, whose own sitcom was broadcast during the same period, publicly took against the highfalutin rival show: 'They think they're doing Samuel Beckett instead of a sitcom.'"
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