The Bookstore

Infobox Television episode
Title = The Bookstore
Series = Seinfeld


Caption = Jerry and Uncle Leo at the coffee shop. Uncle Leo explains to Jerry that senior citizens won't get caught stealing.
Season = 9
Episode = 173
Airdate = April 9, 1998
Production =
Writer = Spike Feresten & Darin Henry & Mark Jaffe
Director = Andy Ackerman
Guests = Jonathan Penner
Episode list = List of "Seinfeld" episodes
Season list = Infobox Seinfeld season 9 episode list
Prev =
Next =

"The Bookstore" is the 173rd episode of the NBC sitcom "Seinfeld". This was the 17th episode for the 9th and final season. It aired on April 9, 1998.

Plot

Kramer "hangs-out" more than usual at Jerry's place. At the beginning of the episode, Jerry leaves Kramer alone in his apartment. Kramer immediately jumps up and starts to make a smoothie and spills juice all over the counter, then uses Jerry's couch cushion to clean it up. Kramer is then seen riding Jerry's bike around his apartment, yelling down at people on the street, and doing a Jerry stand-up impersonation. Jerry and George are at a bookstore where George hopes to meet women and Jerry spots Uncle Leo shoplifting. George takes a large book into the bathroom with him. Elaine is at the annual Peterman party, where everyone is anxious to know if she is going to dance again and when the bookstore makes George buy the book that he took into the bathroom. Elaine didn't dance at the party instead she and a man named Zach got drunk and made out at their table. George suggests that she tell everyone that she and Zach are dating, that way she won't be known as the "office skank." Kramer and Newman plan to implement Kramer's idea for running a rickshaw service in the city. They are getting a rickshaw from Hong Kong, now they need to find someone to pull it. Jerry confronts Uncle Leo about the stolen book. Uncle Leo claims it is a right as a senior citizen. Elaine catches her man with another woman. Kramer and Newman attempt to interview potential rickshaw pullers from a collection of homeless men; however, their first candidate takes off with the rickshaw. George tries to return his book, but is told the book has been "flagged" as having been in the bathroom. Jerry rats out Uncle Leo at the bookstore.

Jerry talks with his parents about Uncle Leo's theft and finds out about his prior, the crime of passion of which his mother will not tell him the details. His parents also inform him of the senior approach; it is not stealing if you need it. Elaine plans to use the cheating angle to protect her reputation. Jerry tries to talk with Uncle Leo, but the only thing Uncle Leo tells him is that he never forgets when he's been betrayed. George discovers his book has been "flagged" in all the databases as a bathroom book. Elaine's plan goes awry when J. Peterman demands that she help Zach get off the "yam yam" by helping him to quit cold turkey. Jerry has a nightmare about Uncle Leo. Newman and Kramer discover where the rickshaw is and Kramer loses the contest to determine who will pull the other. George tries to donate his book to charity, but even they won't take the marked book. When Kramer gets tired pulling Newman in the rickshaw up a hill and lets it go, the results are disastrous as the rickshaw runs over Elaine's "boyfriend" Zach. George plans to steal a good copy of the book, so he can return it to get his money back. Just as Jerry finds out from the manager that the manager has been told that the store needs to make a good example out of a shoplifter, any shoplifter, as long as they catch him in the act. Jerry then points out that George is shoplifting, and he gets caught.

Trivia

* The thrift store clerk's name is Rebecca DeMornay, the same name as the real-life actress Rebecca De Mornay. The same character, as played by actress Sonya Eddy, also appears in "The Muffin Tops" as a homeless shelter employee.
* Zach was played by Jonathan Penner, who became a contestant on "" in 2006.
* Jerry's dream sequence of Uncle Leo doing chin-ups in prison is an homage to the movie "Cape Fear".
* 5150, the code the security officer calls in to bust Uncle Leo, is actual police code for an involuntary psychiatric hold in California.
* The scene with Newman rolling down the hill in the rickshaw was shot in Downtown Los Angeles. To achieve the wide shot of Newman's rickshaw rolling uncontrollably down the street, the crew hooked the rickshaw up to the back of a pickup truck and drove it down the hill, then digitally erased the truck in post-production.
* When Kramer says to one homeless rickshaw applicant named Rusty, "I once knew a horse named Rusty", he is referring to the horse that pulled the Hansom cab in The Rye.
* This episode is the first since Season 4 not to feature an additional scene during the ending credits.
* For ending credits, the additional scene on DVD features Peterman telling Elaine to care for her friend with Elaine saying "I'm the office skank."
* The thrift store is the Housing Works Thrift Shop located at 306 Columbus Ave, NY, NY.