Fixed! I took the seat apart this weekend and found the gearing in the motor was jammed. It appears only to jam when the seat is fully reclined, so I'll have to make sure my passenger doesn't fully recline the seat.
I'm posting what I find in case someone with the same issue might find this useful. This forum has been extremely useful for me so I need to contribute!
This recline motor was a huge pain to get to, it's located vertically in the upper portion of the seat. I had to remove the seat and take the whole seat apart, and figure out the wiring to this particular motor that powers the recline function. I did confirm that the switches on the power seat simply switch 12 volt polarity for each direction of the motor rotation. So, for example, the seat control switch has 12 V and ground coming in, and the recline/extend controlled from the switch is Grey/yellow (+12V on retract) and Purple/white (+12V on extend). These wires connect to a connection under the seat and change to Grey/black and purple/orange, respectively, and connect to the motor. I connected these to a 12 volt battery while out of the vehicle to troubleshoot. There are smaller gauge wires connecting to the motor as well that do not have a connection or function.
I hope this helps someone in the future that comes across this issue. At 188k miles, these little annoyances seem to become more frequent!