Plot
Jerry is on a plane returning to New York when a drunk man, Gavin Polone (played by Joseph Maher), seated next to him falls sick and asks Jerry to take care of his dog while he is taken to the hospital. He promises to call Jerry and reclaim the dog when he comes to New York. The dog, Farfel (although it is frequently heard barking, the dog is never seen), irritates Jerry with its barking and making messes, and Jerry feels as though he does not dare leave his apartment, for fear of what Farfel might do. He resents the animal: "I like dogs. I'm not sure this is a dog."
Jerry, George and Elaine had a date to see the movie Prognosis Negative, but Jerry asks them to go without him.
George and Elaine realize they don't have much in common without Jerry around; they begin to have a good conversation only when they start making fun of Jerry.
Kramer attempts to break up with his girlfriend, Ellen (also unseen), in a melodramatic fashion—and later attempts to get back together in the same fashion. Kramer gets genuinely angry at Jerry and Elaine because, first, they encouraged the break-up, and then they applauded when Kramer fixed it up. This is an important scene for Kramer, who rarely is seen in a lasting relationship and is rarely seen more than a bit perturbed:
Jerry: Yeah, I really think you guys are good together.
Elaine: Yes, she understands you and she is not demanding.
Kramer: Do you think that I forgot what you two said about her?
Jerry: I was just trying to be supportive, you know. I knew you were upset.
Kramer: From now on when we pass each other in the hall, I don't know you, you don't know me.
Elaine: Oh, Kramer, we didn't mean it.
Jerry: Kramer? What did we say that's so bad?
Elaine: I believe I referred to her personality as a potential science exhibit.
Jerry: I said, "How come no one's killed her?" Probably shouldn't have said anything, everyone knows the first break-up never takes.
Jerry, tired of the dog, tries to contact the sick man, but finds out Gavin checked out of the hospital several days ago. Jerry decides to take the dog to the city pound. This upsets Elaine:
Elaine: Jerry, do you know what they do to dogs at the pound? They keep them there for a week and then if nobody claims them, they kill them.
Jerry: Really? How late are they open?
She persuades him to let her stay with the dog for one more day. Gavin finally calls while Elaine is there. Gavin reveals that he was diagnosed with Bell's Palsy, the reason he could not call earlier, and comes for the dog, to Jerry's relief.
Gavin, a true dog-lover, promises Jerry, "Pre-prediction. You'll be calling me to ask if you can come and visit him before the month is out." Jerry replies, "Prediction. I never see you or him again for the rest of my life."
Read more about this topic: The Dog (Seinfeld)
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“Jamess great gift, of course, was his ability to tell a plot in shimmering detail with such delicacy of treatment and such fine aloofnessthat is, reluctance to engage in any direct grappling with what, in the play or story, had actually taken placeMthat his listeners often did not, in the end, know what had, to put it in another way, gone on.”
—James Thurber (18941961)
“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. The king died and then the queen died is a story. The king died, and then the queen died of grief is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“The westward march has stopped, upon the final plains of the Pacific; and now the plot thickens ... with the change, the pause, the settlement, our people draw into closer groups, stand face to face, to know each other and be known.”
—Woodrow Wilson (18561924)