The Ex-Girlfriend

Infobox Television episode
Title=The Ex-Girlfriend
Series=Seinfeld


Caption=Jerry and Marlene
Season=2
Episode=6
Airdate=January 23, 1991
Production=201
Writer=Larry David
Jerry Seinfeld
Director=Tom Cherones
Episode list=List of "Seinfeld" episodes
Season list = Infobox Seinfeld season 2 episode list
Prev =
Next =

"The Ex-Girlfriend" is the sixth episode of "Seinfeld". The episode was the first episode for the show's second season. It aired on January 23, 1991.

Plot

Jerry begins seeing George's ex-girlfriend, Marlene, whom George finds altogether annoying. Jerry wants to break up with Marlene but can't because she has a "psychosexual hold" on him. Marlene then breaks up with Jerry after seeing his comedy act. George is angry over a huge chiropractor bill, which he argues that he shouldn't have to pay for.

Marlene's get-out-of-the-relationship speech at the end of the episode forms an ironic commencement to the first full season of the show. She describes it as "just so much fluff" and that it "didn't make it for me". The famed premise of "Seinfeld" is, of course, a "show about nothing" and parts of this episode keenly emphasise this premise. Also in this episode, Elaine recounts her issues with a past acquaintance who appears to have snubbed her, but this is merely discussed and never seen. Kramer's main business in the episode is to comment upon the quality of Jerry's cantaloupe. A discussion between George and Jerry in Monk's Cafe is terminated as George thinks he has swallowed a fly and panics. Further episode time and action is wasted on Jerry's wrong-number dialing. Throughout the episode, the main thread (Jerry's nascent relationship with Marlene and its ending) is supported by non-sequential events and conversations which are, in Marlene's words, "just so much fluff". Jerry's response is that he has "other stuff", as indeed he does, this being just the start of the series proper.