Season 2, Episode 6: The Statue

My Rating of this episode: 7/10 stars
IMDB Rating of this episode: 8.2/10 stars http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0697787/?ref_=ttep_ep6

This episode aired April 11, 1991. This episode is also out of order on the dvd's which has this as episode 10.

Jerry's storyline: Jerry has this guy "Ray" clean his apartment and Jerry spots George's statue later at Ray's apartment. 

Favorite Jerry part: Jerry has a good scene with Elaine at Ray's apartment. Lots of antics: talking with Elaine about how Ray stole his statue while being continually interrupted by Ray walking in and out of the room asking about how they prefer their tea, trying to call Kramer to have him see if the statue is at Jerry's place only to be interrupted and pretend to be talking to his mom reminding her how to make french toast, and finally when leaving he turns down Ray's offer for dinner by saying "I don't eat dinner, dinner's for suckers."

Jerry is also very funny about how good of a job he thinks Ray did in cleaning Jerry's apartment. "Elaine! He even windexed the little peephole!"

George's storyline: When going through an old box of Jerry's parents' things, Kramer finds an old statue that is identical to one George broke when he was ten.

Favorite George part: George re-telling how he broke the statue when he was a kid was pretty good. "They looked at me like I just smashed the ten commandments." 

George and Kramer both want the statue. They settle it "like men" by doing ink-a-dink. A brief argument ensues about whether being "it" at the end is good. George ends up winning. He later looks at the statue and says in disbelief, "I can't believe I won at ink-a-dink." Truly a sad commentary about a guy who never expects to win at anything. 

Kramer's storyline: Kramer acts like a crazy cop and barges in Ray's apartment to retrieve the stolen statue.  

Favorite Kramer part: Kramer is in Jerry's apartment and Jerry asks if he's ready to go out. Kramer bundles up the items he received from the box and just chucks it through Jerry's door, across the hall, and into Kramer's apartment.

Kramer has his best scene thus far in the series when he retrieves the statue very aggressively. His best line is, "Keep making love to that wall, pervert!" In the next scene, he gives the statue to George. George is very excited and tells Kramer he doesn't know how he will ever repay him. Kramer says, "Well, I'll think of something" and gives George a hard pat on the back, causing George to drop and break the statue.

Elaine's storyline:  Elaine is editing the book of the girl who is dating Ray, but argues with her and loses her chance to be an editor. 

Favorite Elaine part: Elaine is funny as the supporting character to Jerry in Ray's apartment and later has a nice scene arguing with Ray's girlfriend in an elevator about whether or not there are degrees of coincidence. 

Supporting characters in this episode: No recurring characters. Just Ray and his girlfriend. They both play their roles pretty well.   

Favorite character in this episode: Tough one, but I'll give Kramer his first nod. It's nice to see him become more Kramer-like, and no one else really stood out more than he does in this episode.

I watched the special features on the dvd years ago and remember Jerry and Julia Louis-Dreyfus discussing how one of the most oft-repeated lines amongst themselves throughout the entire series comes from this episode. It is spoken by Ray's girlfriend when she says in a funny accent: "There's Ray, late as usual." For some reason they thought it was funny and would say it all the time. Seinfeld is known for some sweet catchphrases, so it's funny that this unfunny line was the biggest catchphrase for Jerry and Julia. The episode is pretty good, but nothing special or super memorable. It was an easy 7 for me.

Season 2, Episode 5: The Apartment

My Rating of this episode: 8/10 stars
IMDB Rating of this episode: 8.1/10 stars http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0697650/?ref_=ttep_ep5

This episode aired April 4, 1991, almost two months after the previous episode. I'm not sure why there was a delay between episodes, maybe the Gulf War? Who knows. This episode is also out of order on the dvd's which has this as episode 8.

Jerry's storyline: Jerry helps Elaine get an apartment in his building and then realizes that she will be around all the time.  

Favorite Jerry part: Jerry does some funny speeches. Like when he leads up to sharing the news with Elaine that he found her an apartment and again before telling George that Elaine will no longer be able to take the place. 

George's storyline: George wears a wedding band to a party to see if it will help him have women interested in him.

Favorite George part: There is this funny little part where George and Jerry have a conversation outside the coffee shop right after George had just walked out. Jerry claims to be a bigger idiot than George for having told Elaine about the apartment in his building, and George argues that no one is a bigger idiot than him. Jerry then asks George to go back in the coffee shop and George thinks it's embarrassing to go back in, claiming people just saw him in there. He then motions to this lady who had been looking at him through the window as if to explain away why he is coming back in.

Another funny part is when Jerry tells George he may want to leave the room so Jerry could be a phony as he pretends to be disappointed telling Elaine she can no longer get the apartment. George declines. Elaine enters singing "Good morning, good morning!" and says how great it is to be alive. George hesitates and then just gets up and walks out of the room.

After Jerry fails to take the opportunity Elaine gives him to tell her he doesn't want her to take the apartment and when George's plan to wear the wedding ring predictably backfires at the party, they again argue about who is the biggest idiot. George says, "So please, a little respect, for I am Costanza, 'Lord of the Idiots.'" A lady then shouts to the marathoners: "You're all winners!" George famously quips, "But suddenly a new contender has emerged." It's the best line of the episode.

Kramer's storyline: Kramer awkwardly gets Jerry to loan Elaine $5,000 so that she can still get the apartment. He gets Jerry out of it by finding someone in the music business to take the place for $10,000. These people end up being super loud.

Favorite Kramer part: When Elaine mentions there will be a party for the New York marathon, Kramer says, "Oh man! I keep forgetting to enter that!" and pulls out a licorice from his pocket and snaps off a bite.

Kramer is also very funny in the scene where he cluelessly gets Jerry to give Elaine that large loan. He pretty much forces Jerry's hand. When Jerry confronts him afterward, he says, "What, you didn't want her in the building? Then what did you loan her the $5,000 for?"

Elaine's storyline: Elaine is going to move into Jerry's building and is very excited about it.  

Favorite Elaine part: When Elaine very happily exclaims "She died!" when informed by Jerry that he got Elaine an apartment in his building because the old lady who lived there died.

Supporting characters in this episode: The landlord and the Spanish speaking partner are in like three scenes.  

Favorite character in this episode: This is a tough one. No one really stands out. This was Elaine's strongest episode to date and Kramer is also better. George takes this one though, largely based on his killer line about a new contender emerging.

This episode has Elaine's first "Get out!" shove when she does it to Jerry after being told about the cheap rent for the apartment. Jerry also does it to Kramer when Kramer tells Jerry he found someone else to take the place. This is a pretty good episode. I waffled between giving it a 7 or an 8, but it secured the 8 with the George line.