Seinfeld: The Pool Guy | Episode 118 Recap Podcast

Listen to the Podcast: Seinfeld Post Show Recap: The Pool Guy Rob Cesternino and Akiva Wienerkur never let their world’s collide, ensuring to bring you a Seinfeld podcast each and every week.  This time they discuss “The Pool Guy”, which first aired November 16, 1995 as part of season seven, and was written by David Mandel. News – There was a small bit of news in the Seinfeld universe this week.  Akiva brought up how there are some Seinfeld “spec” scripts floating around out there, and one was sent to Akiva, where the plot was about 9-11. Akiva thought it was a bit racy, so he didn’t talk too much about it. Jerry’s Story – Jerry reluctantly makes friends with the pool guy named Ramon at his new health club.  When Ramon is fired from the job, he inserts himself into Jerry’s life, leading to Jerry having to tell Ramon he has enough friends.  When Ramon is rehired by the club, he harasses Jerry at every opportunity, even poking Jerry with the pool skimmer.  Jerry yanks on the skimmer, causing Ramon to fall into the pool and get knocked out when Newman cannon balls onto him.  Neither Jerry nor Newman will give Ramon mouth to mouth resuscitation, so they both have their membership revoked. Elaine’s Story – Elaine is looking for someone to go to an old clothes exhibit when Jerry suggests she ask Susan.  When the two hit it off, Susan soon becomes part of the gang, even taking George’s spot at Monk’s, leading him to have to eat alone at Reggie’s.  The friendship comes to an end when Susan gets annoyed by Elaine and Jerry talking throughout a movie, leading her to realize all these four do is sit around and talk. George’s Story – George is incensed when Elaine starts to hang out with Susan, feeling like his “worlds are colliding”.  When Susan starts using some of their phrases and eventually takes his seat at Monk’s, he gets Jerry to understand his plight.  Fortunately for him, the gang’s antics turn Susan off, and balance restores to his worlds. Kramer’s Story – Kramer gets a new phone number, which happens to be one number off the movie phone line.  He spends much of the episode fielding calls, eventually starting to help the callers figure out where their movie is playing.  The episode ends with the real voice of Movie Phone banging on Kramer’s door, wanting Kramer to stop stealing his business. Grades and Rankings – Akiva was generally up on the performances this episode.  He thought Kramer, Elaine and George all deserved an A.  Jerry on the other hand received a D-, as both he and Rob felt the pool guy storyline was really weak.  Because of the weak Jerry plot, this potential top ten episode falls way down the list to number 63.  Rob thought it was a bit low. Emails – Johnny De Silveira noted that this episode won a WGA award for writing.  He also wondered why Jerry wouldn’t have given up his seat to George at the coffee shop when he noticed he was so upset over Susan being there.  Lindsay asked where the lifeguard was at this health club of Jerry’s.  Rob and Akiva agreed that this made for a bad club.  Liz wondered why George was planning to never have his soon to be wife interact with his best friends, feeling that independence is for single people.  Rob and Akiva disagreed, noting that it remains important well after being married.  She also noted that mouth to mouth is no longer a method of resuscitation, and that it is solely done with chest compressions now. Hunter asked if the moral of the episode is to not make new friends, to which Rob and Akiva noted that Jerry has been preaching this since the early episodes.  Roger weighed in on his thoughts of who would win in a fight between all the core four.  He thought Kramer would beat George and Jerry because he’s shadier a...