Years earlier, Kramer managed to persuade Jerry to donate to a fake relief fund for an upcoming Krakatoa eruption. In the present day, Jerry is now being audited by the IRS as a result of the fraudulent fund. George gives Jerry's tax papers to his girlfriend Patrice, an accountant and former representative for the IRS, but he has trouble getting around her pretensions and showy pronunciation habits. At Monk's, George breaks up with Patrice, telling her that “It’s not you. It’s me.” After Patrice insists on the real reasons, George tells her the truth. Patrice promptly grabs her handbag and leaves. When Jerry finds out, he gets upset, as she took the tax papers with her. Meanwhile, Elaine gets tired of Kramer dating her roommate Tina. She complains about spaghetti sauce on the strainer, loud tribal music, and the make-out sessions. Later, after showing Jerry a windshield that he found on the side of the road, Kramer proposes to use it as a coffee table. When Elaine enters, she expresses her unhappiness that Kramer unknowingly walked into Elaine's bedroom and saw her naked. Upon learning that Patrice checked into a depression clinic, Jerry and George go to visit her. When George introduces her to Jerry, she recognizes him as "the Jerome with the tax problems." She reveals to them that after she left George, she got upset and threw out Jerry's tax papers. Unfortunately, Jerry never made copies of the many receipts that he had collected over the years. Elaine enters her apartment with dirty dishes piled high in the kitchen, loud tribal music playing, and Kramer dancing with only a towel wrapped around his waist. When Tina and Kramer ask Elaine if she is upset, she decides, after thinking about the problems George caused by telling the truth, to lie. She tells them they are a great couple. Kramer and Tina soon begin the African dance together but accidentally break the windshield coffee table as they move to the couch to make-out, severely injuring themselves and leading to Tina being admitted to the hospital. The episode ends with Jerry tracking down tax receipts, Kramer showing injuries from the glass coffee table, and Elaine needing to visit Tina at the hospital.
Reception
The 16.7 million viewers of the episode on its first airing fell well below the 21.7 million viewers of the season three premiere, The Note. Web reviews generally give the episode a relatively low ranking. Matt Singer on Screen Crush ranks it at 153 out of 169, commenting that Jerry’s storyline “feels like a waste.” Larry Fitzmaurice on Vulture rates it at 134 out of 169. The staff at Place to Be Nation give it ratings of 4 or 5 on a 1 to 10 scale. Collin Jacobson on DVD Movie Guide calls it a solid show but too reliant on Kramer’s “schtick.” The hosts of Seincast find it solid but forgettable. More positively, Tina is one of their favorite Kramer girlfriends.
The episode references the thrash crossover hit “Institutionalized” by Suicidal Tendencies. While waiting to see Patrice in the waiting area, George expresses to Jerry that he is nervous to talk to a "mental patient" to which Jerry replies, "My cousin Douglas was in a place like this, one time. He came over to my house for dinner, there was no soda, and he went berserk screaming, 'Where's the Pepsi?! Where's the Pepsi?!'."
