In this episode, George's girlfriend stubbornly refuses to accept his breaking up with her, Elaine dates a man who won't tell her his phone number or where he works, and Jerry develops an adversarial relationship with his neighbor Phil after he fails to recognize Phil when he asks to be let into their apartment building.
Elaine's new boyfriend Glenn puzzles and intrigues her because he won't tell her his phone number or where he works.
However, the woman Glenn ran from knocks at the door and introduces herself as his welfare caseworker; the squalid apartment is his home.
Giving up on Jerry's apartment, Kramer hides his key at Phil's, in his parrot's food dish.
George asks what's in the strongbox and opens it up, making Kramer realize he forgot to lock it, so their attempted grave robbery was purposeless.
The table read for the episode took place on January 17, 1998, at which time it was still under its original title, "The Buzzer".
[2] Scenes which were filmed but deleted before broadcast due to time constraints include Jerry returning to his apartment to find Kramer has trashed it in search of a good hiding place for his strongbox key.
Club writes that this is one of many episodes which contribute to a "decline of Elaine" story arc: "Everything about Elaine's behavior here is beautifully awful: She doesn't care if [Glenn is] married, but is eager to dump him once she realizes he's broke, and sets about bribing him into a breakup by outfitting his apartment so she won't feel so bad when she dumps him.
[5]Vulture Ranked the episode the 12th worst in the series, criticizing the dead parrot subplot as too dark even by the standards of Seinfeld.