Seinfeld: The Series Rewatch - "The Shoes" (S4, E17)

JT's comments below originally ran as part of Place to Be Nation's "Seinfeld: The PTBN Series Rewatch" project.

seinshoes

Best Character

Interesting episode here and while I enjoy George and Jerry's scheming act quite a bit, I have to go with Elaine. I really enjoyed how frustrated and maniacal she got about the shoe gossip. And the dress. The dress was pretty great too. All of it.

Best Storyline

I'll go with Kramer and his flip flopping of allegiance to Jerry. At first, he was a true warrior, a real friend, when he snubbed Gail. A day later and he got weak in the knees and planted one on Chef Hellcat and he caved. Watching him totally disregard how he snubbed her earlier, not even mentioning it, when he tells Jerry about the liplock. He was on point the rest of the episode too when helping to orchestrate the jig.

Ethical Dilemma of the Week

Should Russell have pulled the plug on the pilot just because George took a look at his daughters breasts? Sigh. I guess she IS fifteen, so probably. But just when you want to applied him for being ethical and putting class and family over business, as soon as he gets a glance at Elaine's boobs he caves and reverses course. What is your agenda, Russell?

Relationship Scale (Scale 1-10)

Kramer and Gail really had something special going on. You know, with the cooking and all. Jerry didn't seem to care much, so they cleared that hurdle without much resistance. Now they can celebrate with bowls of pasta primavera and some sweet, hip Botticelli shoes. Relationship Grade: Erotic Cooking/10

What Worked

I enjoyed getting back into the script writing stuff; George pissed off about his therapist not liking the script was believable and his reaction was great, including the freak out at the end; Kramer giving in to kissing Gail and turning on Jerry like a backstabber, but what can you do; Kramer also has turned into a gossip; Elaine confronting Gail was ballsy and fun, her sneezing on Russell's pasta primavera was not; The whole scene in Russell's apartment was great, between the script, the vomiting and the cleavage, it had it all; George's face when staring at the cleavage was phenomenal; The scheme to get back at Russell had good intentions, especially George's dig about Elaine's cleavage; Elaine in the black dress, hache mache!

What Didn't Work

Gail Cunningham sucks; How did Kramer know Gail's shoe size? Seemed odd

Key Character Debuts

Gail Cunningham

Iconic Moments, Running Themes & Memorable Quotes

- "You know what I did? I snubbed her." - Kramer "What do you mean, you snubbed her?" - Jerry "I walked right by her - bffffft - never said a word." - Kramer "Right by her?" - Jerry "Right by her!" - Kramer "What you do say about a guy like this, huh! You are some great friend, I tell ya, snubbed her! Not that I condone it. I've never condoned snubbing in my administration. Your loyalty is beyond question." - Jerry "Yeah. Well, you know, she was lucky I was in a good mood - coulda been a lot worse." - Kramer
- Elaine buys Botticelli's shoes
- "Ooh, so...I understand you're buying new shoes now at Botticelli's." - Kramer "What? Who told you that?" - Elaine "Gail Cunningham." - Kramer "I don't understand, why is this woman talking about my shoes? Why are my shoes a topic of conversation?" - Elaine "Well, you know, we were just talking, and she mentioned how you're buying your shoes now at Botticelli's." - Kramer
- "My cousin worked for Bouchard's. They used to use the bouilla-base for a toilet." - George "What are you saying?" - Russell "Well, you didn't hear it from me, but needless to say, if you go in there - stick with the consumee." - George
- "Get a good look, Costanza?" - Russell
- "You're supposed to just take a peek after a poke. You were like you just put a quarter into one of those big metal things on top of the Empire State Building." - Jerry "It's cleavage. I couldn't look away. What am I, waiting to win an Oscar here? This is all I have in my life." - George "Looking at cleavage is like looking at the sun, you don't stare at it. It's too risky. You get a sense of it and then you look away." - Jerry "All right. So, he caught me in a cleavage peek, so big deal. Who wouldn't look at his daughter's cleavage? She's got nice cleavage." - George "That's why I poked." - Jerry "That's why I peeked." - George
- "Right in the kitchen. Disgraceful." - Kramer
- "You don't consider age in the face of cleavage. This occurs on a molecular level, you can't control it! We're like some kind of weird fish where the eyes operate independently of the head." - Jerry
- "What do you mean, Gail? You don't think I can attract attention? You don't think I can put asses in the seats?" - Elaine
- "Elaine, this pilot...it doesn't matter to me, it's not me I'm concerned about...it's my mother. I've been over to the hospital to see her..." - George "Oh yeah, because she caught you jer -" - Elaine "Nevermind!" - George
- "Pasta primavera! Back on the horse." - George

Oddities & Fun Facts

- Denise Richards portrayed Molly Dalrymple

Overall Grade (Scale 1-10)

This is an episode that is hurt by the overall quality of the season and show. It was a really good sitcom episode, but it was a bit too sitcomy at times and just fell short of the standard the series had set in season four. There was some really funny parts and I enjoyed getting back to the pilot storyline, but I felt like things never quite kicked into that next gear. Lots of good cleavage though. Lots of it. Final Grade: 6/10

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