The Comeback

A group of staff, including George, are gathered round the table. There's a bunch of food on the table. Most people have a small plate with a few salad leaves on it in front of them. George is picking shrimp off a platter, dipping them in some sort of sauce, and stuffing his face with them, about as fast as he can manage.

Everyone at the table starts laughing uproariously at Reilly's joke. George looks upset, and barely forces half a sick smile past his mouthful of seafood.

George drives along. He's fuming at Reilly's dig.

George and Jerry come along a corridor. They're carrying bags and paraphernalia indicating they've been playing tennis.

Jerry and George halt at a bench by the entrance to the pro shop. Jerry rummages in his bag, producing an old-fashioned wooden framed tennis racquet.

George heads on down the corridor. Jerry walks into the pro shop, carrying his gear. There are a few customers browsing. Milos (East European, tracksuit wearing, slicked back hair with pony tail) comes over to Jerry.

Jerry stands before the counter, holding the old-fashioned racquet. Milos reaches under the counter and pulls out a can of tennis balls.

Milos stops and stares disapprovingly at Jerry's racquet.

Jerry looks surprised.

Inside a typical small video rental store, Elaine stands before a rack marked 'Staff Picks'. Individual shelves are labelled 'Elizabeth', 'Gene', and 'Vincent', amongst others. Elaine is reading the back of a video box, when Kramer comes up behind her.

Kramer holds up a video for Elaine's inspection.

Elaine looks upon this as a negative.

Kramer takes his cassette toward the counter.

Kramer is talking seriously to Jerry, whilst holding a piece of paper.

Kramer hands the piece of paper to Jerry.

Jerry nods sympathetically. Kramer spots something on the table.

Kramer takes a few practice strokes with the racquet.

Kramer deposits the old wooden racquet in Jerry's trash. Jerry notices something about the piece of paper Kramer gave him.

Kramer swings the new racquet again, making ball-smashing sound effects.

Elaine sits up in bed, watching her video rental. She dabs a tear from her eye, and sniffs.

The phone rings. Elaine reaches over and picks up, not happy at being interrupted.

Elaine smiles excitedly.

Elaine and Jerry have been playing tennis at a different club from the one we saw earlier. They're packing away their stuff. At another court, behind them, a guy in baseball cap and dark glasses is playing truly awful tennis. He's missing the ball, falling over, flailing wildly with his racquet.

Elaine sticks out her tongue at Jerry.

A tennis ball bounces by Elaine, and she grabs it. The terrible player from the other court shouts over.

The ball Elaine tossed back eludes the player's grasp, misses his racquet and bounces away past him.

The terrible player continues to swing ineffectually at easy balls in the background.

A ball bounces past Elaine, and Jerry grabs it.

The awful player comes over to get the ball back. As he approaches, he removes his sunglasses and wipes his brow with his forearm.

The player catches the ball and raises his head, so we can see his face. It's Milos, the guy who sold Jerry his new racquet.

Milos looks guilty, and shouts across to his playing partner as he walks away from Jerry.)

Milos bounces the ball on the court and tries to hit it over the net. He fails, despite being no more than four feet from the net. Jerry looks down at his new racquet, thoughtfully.

Elaine and Jerry have just arrived from the tennis club, and are putting their stuff on the table. Elaine is removing her coat.

The door opens and Kramer enters, smartly dressed, with a suit and tie.

The door opens and George wanders in, looking pleased with himself.

Elaine laughs, loud and long, causing Jerry and Kramer to smile and laugh.

George smiles and looks expectant. The other three just stare at him, with varying levels of confusion in their expressions.

Elaine laughs, and Jerry smiles.

George walks out the door. The other three watch him go. Kramer walks over and looks out the door after George, then returns and spots Jerry's old racquet on a stool.

Jerry retrieves the racquet from the trash.

Kramer and Elaine sit before a desk, behind which sits Shellbach the lawyer, who has a large list in front of him, from which he's reading. Kramer looks nervous, while Elaine is tapping at a soda can, looking bored.

Kramer looks at Elaine, who gives a double thumbs-down.

Kramer looks to Elaine, who nods.

A grim-looking Jerry stalks into the pro shop and over to the counter to be met by a nervous and apologetic Milos.

Jerry looks happier. Milos walks away behind the scenes somewhere. Jerry looks round the store and exchanges smiles with a beautiful woman who's trying on a visor. After a few moments, Milos returns, looking rueful.

Jerry turns away and walks toward the door. As he passes the beautiful woman, he speaks.

The woman smiles at Jerry's flirtation. Jerry leaves, and Milos looks after him, worried.

Kramer and Elaine stand before the 'Staff Picks' rack again. Elaine picks a video off the 'Vincent' rack.

Elaine returns the 'Vincent' pick to the shelf and walks toward the counter with the Bernie's tape.

Elaine does a double-take at this.

Elaine sits up in bed, watching her video. She's not enjoying it.

The phone rings, and Elaine picks up, glad of the interruption.

There is a click as Vincent hangs up.

The table is ringed with employees again, and there is more food. George is stuffing his face with shrimp, just as before. There are a couple of empty seats. One more guy (Fred) enters, and moves to sit at the table.

Everyone at the table collapses into laughter at George's expense. Again, George do nothing but look upset at the turn of events.

Jerry is walking along the street, when he encounters the beautiful woman from the pro shop, who appears to have been waiting from him.

Patty strolls past Jerry, and indicates he should follow.

Jerry turns to follow Patty.

Kramer is playing the rest of The Other Side Of Darkness. The soundtrack can be heard from the TV.

Kramer enters the room, with a bowl of spaghetti. He sits on the couch to watch the movie, and lifts a big forkful into his mouth.

Kramer stops chewing and stares wide-eyed at the TV screen.

Kramer continues to stare at the screen, stunned by the outcome of the movie.

Jerry hands a drink to Patty as she stands by the kitchen counter.

Patty advances on Jerry, sexily. Jerry looks somewhat surprised.

Patty leans toward Jerry, as though to kiss him. Just as she's about to kiss, she breaks away.

Patty puts her face down on the couch, weeping. Jerry, puts his hands up in the air, in a gesture of total disbelief.

George sits on the couch, just making sure he's got Jerry's story straight. Jerry listens.

Jerry is getting some sort of candy bar out of a packet on the counter.

George wanders over into the kitchen.

George looks in the fridge.

George jerks out of the fridge, slamming the door.

George walks back into the living room and picks up a newspaper. The door opens and Kramer enters.

George stalks away into the bathroom, and slams the door behind him.

Kramer opens the door and exits hurriedly.

Elaine walks over the 'Vincent' rack, where she finds nothing but copies of a video called Betrayed.

Kramer enters the store and hurries over to Elaine.

The store manager comes over and squeezes past Elaine.

The manager removes the 'Vincent' label from the shelf and replaces it with another name.

The manager walks back to behind the counter.

Elaine looks sick at her error. Kramer smiles and raises his eyebrows.

A subdued Milos is behind the counter, before which stands Jerry.

Jerry and Elaine sit in a booth.

Jerry opens the envelope and shakes a small object out onto his palm.

George enters and strolls over to the booth.

George realises that everyone in the coffee shop is staring over at him, and has heard his shouts.

Elaine is again sitting up in bed, watching a video. (My guess is it's The Pain And The Yearning.) The soundtrack can be heard.

The phone rings and Elaine picks up.

Kramer drives along the street, very slowly. He's got traffic stacked up behind him and horns blare as cars manoeuvre around him. Kramer is hunched over the steering wheel, looking nervous.

Kramer stands expectantly in the office. A secretary enters.

Kramer looks anxious again.

Jerry and Milos are playing at the other tennis club. They are watched by a small number of people, including Patty. Milos delivers a weak underarm serve, and Jerry makes no effort to return it, merely wafting his racquet vaguely in the direction of the ball.

Milos walks to the net to meet Jerry.

Patty blows Milos a kiss.

Milos strides away to continue the game, leaving Jerry looking rueful.

Elaine walks down a hallway, carrying a large grocery bag. She reads numbers off doors until she spots the one she wants. She gives a smile, flicks her hair a little, and knocks at the door.

The door cracks open a few inches, but it's completely dark inside, so the occupant can't be seen.

Elaine leans forward so her face is right into the open door.

A woman comes up behind Elaine.

The woman pushes the door wide open, revealing Vincent standing there. Vincent is a bespectacled, geeky, teen in a plaid shirt. He throws his hands up to cover his face.

Vincent darts away from the door into the apartment. Elaine is open-mouthed in surprise.

Vincent's mother grabs the top of the bag and begins to rummage through the contents.

Elaine smiles and nods, and pulls at a chain she has round her neck. Threaded onto the chain is the VCR button Vincent sent her.

Vincent's mother holds out her hand, and Elaine pulls the chain over her head and hands it over.

Elaine reaches into the grocery bag and extracts the bottle of vodka. She drops the rest of the bag on the floor, and strolls away, swinging the bottle like a club.

Jerry and Milos are still playing. Jerry is still throwing the game, and Milos is still milking it. Jerry puts an easy return straight into the court in front of himself.

Patty laughs too, with the few other spectators. Jerry looks angry at this constant derision.

Jerry delivers a fierce serve which beats Milos, and almost hits him in the face.

Huhuh. The baby got lucky on that one! Hahah.

Jerry walks back to deliver another serve. Kramer enters and looks around for someone. On another court, Shellbach is facing an automatic serving machine.

(Shellbach waves vaguely back to Kramer, who has begun to walk round the room

to get to him.

Meanwhile, Jerry returns a shot to Milos, with some venom. Milos stretches desperately to try and reach it, but loses his grip on his racquet. The racquet arcs across the hall, watched by Patty, and then spotted by Kramer.

The racquet plummets from the air and strikes the guy who is operating the automatic serving machine for Shellbach. The guy is knocked unconscious and, as he falls, he pushes against the machine, turning it to point at Kramer. Kramer stands transfixed, as it continues to launch balls at him. Several balls in rapid succession strike him in the head, until he slumps, unconscious, to the floor.

Aeroplane landing, with a caption 'AKRON, OHIO'.

A boardroom very much like that of the Yankees, but with a Firestone sign on the wall. Several people sit around the table, including Reilly, and George, who is filling his face from a large dish of shrimp.

George begins picking up shrimp one by one and stuffing them into his mouth.

George looks up, expectantly.

Everyone around the table laughs. Except for George, who looks triumphant. He swallows, and uses a napkin to clean his fingers.

Reilly and everyone else laughs even more than they did before. George looks angry and frustrated, even on the verge of tears for a second, then something occurs to him.

George looks round, smiling arrogantly, expecting laughter. But there is a deep, uncomfortable, silence. Reilly, looks stony-faced. McAdam stands and leans over to speak in George's ear.

George looks sick.

Kramer lies in bed, asleep. Jerry sits in a chair, reading a newspaper. There's a knock at the door and Elaine enters, carrying a VCR.

Jerry points to the wall beside Kramer's bed.

Elaine walks over and sees both sockets are full. She takes hold of one of the plugs and yanks it out of the socket with a grunt. The grunt wakes Kramer, who looks groggily around and sees Elaine standing holding the plug, as if she's just unplugged his life support. He stares, bug-eyed and shrieks in terror.

A plane landing, with the caption 'NEW YORK, NEW YORK'.

Once again, George drives along, frustrated and angry.

He tails off, as he can't think of anywhere to go. Then a look of enlightenment comes to George's face, as he thinks of something.

George looks gutted for a second, then a determined expression comes to his face. He swings the car round with a squeal of tires, and heads back towards the airport.