Seinfeld: The Pothole | Episode 150 Recap Podcast

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Rob Cesternino and Akiva Wienerkur continue their journey to watch every Seinfeld episode as they discuss Season 8, Episode 16, “The Pothole.”

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Rob Cesternino and Akiva Wienerkur rented their jackhammers and are ready to bring you a new Seinfeld Post Show Recap. This time, they discussed “The Pothole”, which first aired February 20, 1997 as part of season eight. The episode was written by Steve O’Donnell and Dan O’Keefe.

Jerry’s Storyline – Jerry is dating a new woman named Jenna, and accidentally knocks her toothbrush in the toilet bowl.  He can’t stop her from using it before throwing it out, so he tries a number of techniques to fully clean her mouth so he can kiss her again.  When none of them work, he finally admits what he did, so Jenna in turn puts “something” of his in his toilet.  After Jerry throws nearly everything in his apartment out, Jenna reveals she put the toilet brush in the bowl.  Just when Jerry starts to get over it all, Jenna’s toilet explodes all over her from George bursting the water main, causing Jerry to tell her to have a nice life. Grade: Akiva – A-, Rob – B+

George’s Storyline – George gets a new keychain with a talking Phil Rizzuto on it that says his catch phrase “Holy Cow”.  He discovers soon after that he’s lost the keys jumping over a pothole out on the street.  The pothole has been paved over though.  Kramer ends up connecting George with some construction workers he met, but they won’t do the work for him, only lending him the jackhammer.  The episode ends with George accidentally hitting a waterline, sending water shooting up into the sky. Grade: Akiva – B+, Rob – B+

Elaine’s Storyline – Elaine is obsessed with this new flounder dish at a local Chinese Food place, but they don’t deliver to her area.  She tries giving the address across the street that is in the delivery zone, but the delivery man refuses to give her the meal.  Next, when trying to convince someone in that building to let her order from their apartment, she discovers a janitor’s closet she can use.  The idea works, but a tenant in the building thinks Elaine is the janitor, and forces her to remove a bunch of debris from the building’s basement. Grade: Akiva – B, Rob – B

Kramer’s storyline – Kramer accidentally runs over a sewing machine while driving down the highway, prompting him to adopt the stretch so he can personally tend to it.  He takes the job seriously, even cleaning the traffic signs in Jerry’s apartment.  While out sprucing up the area, Kramer gets the idea to remove two of the lanes for a wider more luxurious drive.  When this fails miserably, Kramer must then use paint thinner to get it back to four lanes.  The paint thinner ends up spilling all over the road, and Newman catches his truck on fire when the sparks from a sewing machine he’s dragging hits the puddle.  Grade: Akiva – A-, Rob – B

Episode Ranking – 62

Emails – Johnny De Silveira noted that the director won the Emmy for this episode.  Colin the pizza delivery guy shared a story about a student trying something similar to Elaine for a delivery, but he figured it out and stopped it.  Craig wondered why Jerry would sleep in his car, noting it would be difficult to put bedding or pillows in the toilet.  Lindsay asked how they would feel about someone using their toothbrush.